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Right of Return is The Heart of The Conflict
by Khalid
Amayreh
Yasser Arafat’s reluctance
to submit an outright rejection of the so-called “Clinton proposal” is
a cause for concern among Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, as well as all
free men and women who value justice and truth.
Some people, and they are not
many, may opt to give Arafat the benefit of the doubt by arguing that it
is politically unwise to give a categorical “NO” to the lopsided
proposals on the ground that such a manifestly negative answer would leave
the ball in the Palestinian court.
Others–who have eyes that
see not and ear that hear not nor do they understand–press and pressure
the aging Palestinian leader to rush to accept the scandalous proposals.
Those capitulators seem to have no idea what the proposals are all about,
namely the liquidation of the absolute and inalienable right of the
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were
expelled at gunpoint when the evil entity known as Israel was misbegotten
in 1948.
But there is more to
Arafat’s prevarication and verbal juggling. Arafat, according to some
aides, is not really eager to reject the proposals, sensing, rather
falsely, that he would not receive a better offer in the foreseeable
future.
Thus, the aides contend, the
PA Chairman would only want to see if “modifications here and there”
can be made to enable him to sell the “big and final conspiracy” to
the still-bleeding Palestinians, who have lost over 350 young martyrs
since the outbreak of the Aqsa Intifada for the sake of genuine freedom
and true liberation from the shackles of Zionist colonialism.
In other words, Arafat’s
objections, if indeed he has real objections, are not necessarily to the
conspicuous absence of the right of return from the Clinton proposals, but
rather to the too-blunt wording which unequivocally negate the right of
return.
This means that the
Palestinian leader is only interested in making the proposed liquidation
of the right of return look somewhat nebulous and hazy so that he could
tell the Palestinian masses that “Look! I haven’t given up on the
right of return; I’m not a traitor!”
But the Palestinian people are
not blind, and they certainly do not suffer from any kind of myopia,
political or otherwise. For them, the right of return is as clear as the
sun; it can’t be made foggy or hazy or nebulous, as it is enshrined in
United Nations resolution 194, which grants the refugees the right to
repatriation and (not/or) restitution.
We should remember that the
Palestinian plight originated long before the loss of Jerusalem and the
seizure of the Aqsa Mosque, when the invading Zionist gangs terrorized,
massacred and eventually drove away, often at gunpoint, the bulk of the
Palestinian population from their towns, villages, hamlets and farms to
make room for Zionist Jews.
In other words, the
Palestinian plight did not begin with the seizure of al-Masjidul Aqsa and
what came later to be known as the “occupied territories.” The problem
started with the Nakba, the catastrophe, which saw the uprooting and
expulsion of a defenseless people, whose only crime was their weakness.
More to the point, everybody
around the world, including the Zionists themselves, recognize the
expulsion of the Palestinians as a fact.
Let it be known to all and
sundry that neither Arafat nor any Arab leader has any right whatsoever to
sign away this paramount right.
Let it be known to all that
the refugees, their children and grandchildren, and grand-grandchildren
will never ever accept a disgrace as such as long they are alive.
The refugees will tear up any
agreements as such to shreds…because they are the ones who are most
directly and personally concerned in this game of political bargaining.
True, the conspirators may
still be able to strike a deal, but striking a deal is one thing and
selling it to the people of Palestine, especially to the estimated four
and a half million refugees, is an entirely different story.
In short, the treacherous
agreements will be rejected, and the conspirators will either be killed or
just dumped away.
And a last word to the
Zionists. Don’t you ever think that Arafat is our “Mukhtar” whom you
can easily beguile and cajole into signing away the refugees’ rights. Of
course, you may get him eventually to put his signature on a cheap
document.
But be rest-assured that the
Palestinian people are not folks of cattle that can be herded by Arafat or
any other leader. We are a nation of proud men and women who won’t give
in or give up until we recover our rights in full.
If you opt to have an easy
peace agreement with Arafat, that agreement will most certainly die with
him when he dies. But if you truly desire to have real peace with us, the
people of Palestine, then you will have to deliver the goods back to the
rightful proprietor.
We have waited for over 52
years, and we are not tired yet.
We can still wait for as long
as it takes to recover what is rightfully ours! Remember, history in this
part of the world is measured not by years and decades but by centuries
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Arabic
Media Internet Network (AMIN)
by the same author:
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