PA Refugee Affairs Director: We will never allow Palestinian refugee problem to be solved until they receive full rights in their original homes
Headline: “Al-Agha warns…”
“PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakaria Al-Agha warned of a deliberate political blow to the Palestinian cause, including the cause of the refugees.
Media outlets reported on the plan of the so-called National Salvation Front in Syria for an arrangement with Israel. [This plan] includes abolishing the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and turning them into residential areas…
Al-Agha said that the National Salvation Front in Syria, which we know does not represent the opinions of our Syrian brothers, has no right to seek to appease the occupation government at the expense of the Palestinian cause, the first and foremost cause of the Arabs. [He added that] the Palestinian refugee camps will remain a symbol of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian refugees, their being uprooted, their suffering, and their sacrifice, until they attain their full rights through their return to the homes from which they were uprooted, and this is according to the resolutions of the international institutions, and particularly UN General Assembly Resolution 194 from 1948.”
UN resolution 194 (Chapter 11, Dec. 11, 1948) states that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Palestinian leaders argue this means that all Arabs who left Israel during the war (hundreds of thousands) and their descendants (a few million) have a "right of return" to Israel. Israel argues that the resolution only calls for a limited return and only under certain conditions, especially focusing on the words "wishing to return... and live at peace with their neighbors."
“PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the Department for Refugee Affairs Zakaria Al-Agha warned of a deliberate political blow to the Palestinian cause, including the cause of the refugees.
Media outlets reported on the plan of the so-called National Salvation Front in Syria for an arrangement with Israel. [This plan] includes abolishing the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and turning them into residential areas…
Al-Agha said that the National Salvation Front in Syria, which we know does not represent the opinions of our Syrian brothers, has no right to seek to appease the occupation government at the expense of the Palestinian cause, the first and foremost cause of the Arabs. [He added that] the Palestinian refugee camps will remain a symbol of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinian refugees, their being uprooted, their suffering, and their sacrifice, until they attain their full rights through their return to the homes from which they were uprooted, and this is according to the resolutions of the international institutions, and particularly UN General Assembly Resolution 194 from 1948.”
UN resolution 194 (Chapter 11, Dec. 11, 1948) states that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." Palestinian leaders argue this means that all Arabs who left Israel during the war (hundreds of thousands) and their descendants (a few million) have a "right of return" to Israel. Israel argues that the resolution only calls for a limited return and only under certain conditions, especially focusing on the words "wishing to return... and live at peace with their neighbors."