Palestinian Authority kids taught: Refugee camps are “a waiting station” until refugees flood the “original homeland” – Israel
- PA message to children: "The refugee camp is the waiting station"
- Abbas: "One day I will return, the right of return is a sacred right…Palestine is ours"
- Abbas: "Our people in Lebanon is a temporary guest until its return to its homeland Palestine"
- PA: "Right of return is firm and not subject to a statute of limitations, according to UN Resolution No. 194"
The Palestinian Authority's goal to destroy Israel and turn it into "Palestine" hasn't changed. At every opportunity, the PA invokes the "right of return" for all Palestinian "refugees." PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently stated that "the right of return is a sacred right," that "Palestine is ours," and that "the one who needs to leave is the occupation" - in other words, Israel:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "The return [of the Palestinian refugees] – don't forget the return, don't forget the return. Not for me; I'm a refugee and all are refugees. I want to go, why not, this is my land. One day I will return, the right of return is a sacred right…Palestine is ours and Jerusalem is ours, and we will wait, Allah willing. A short period, not a long one; not 20 years, much less. Rest assured the [Palestinian] state will return. We remain on our land, and we will not leave. The one who needs to leave is the occupation."
[Official PA TV, April 23, 2025]
Young Palestinian scouts were taught that same message for "Nakba Day" – the day of the "catastrophe" of the establishment of Israel. They marched with a sign proclaiming that "the refugee camp is the waiting station":
Text on sign: "The refugee camp is the waiting station
(The following are cities and towns in Israel -Ed.)
Acre
Jaffa
Tzipori
Khirbet Al-Loz (see note below -Ed.)"
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, May 14, 2025]
Speaking on "Nakba Day," Abbas stressed that he views the Palestinian refugees'"right of return" as a "permanent and non-negotiable right"[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2025].
The PA claims that UN Resolution 194 grants a "right to return" not only to the 750,000 Arabs who left Israel during the war in 1948, but also to their 6-7 million descendants worldwide, even though the resolution itself makes no mention of refugee status being passed down in perpetuity. Abbas has specifically mentioned that "1.5 million refugees" in Gaza alone should be allowed to flood Israel.
Photos from Nakba Day events in Tulkarem show scouts marching with keys symbolizing the right of return for refugees to their "homes" in Israel and girls with drawings, many of them featuring the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as "Palestine," and large keys symbolizing the "right of return":
The PA message to Palestinian children is that Israel has no right to exist, that all of Israel will become "Palestine," and that all 6-7 million refugees will "return." This is exemplified in the text on the sign held by the girl below. It marks 77 years since the "Nakba," negating Israel's entire existence:
Text on sign: "77 years since the Nakba – on Nakba Day we will not forget the right of return. Our roots are deeper than the occupation (i.e., Israel)"
[Tulkarem Directorate of Education, Facebook page, May 18, 2025]
A girl holds a drawing of a woman embracing the PA map of "Palestine" and a large key symbolizing the "right of return":
Text on drawing: "Do not be sad, O Palestine, victory is coming. O Jerusalem, peace will hover over you again"
[Tulkarem Directorate of Education, Facebook page, May 18, 2025]
Tulkarem Directorate of Education emphasized that the events above were designed by educators to "instill values" and "emphasize the right of return":
"The scout groups and guidance teams of the Tulkarem Directorate of Education marked the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba through national activities and awareness activities that were organized in the directorate's schools, with the participation of students, teachers, and the local community…
The directorate emphasized that these activities are part of the efforts to instill values of belonging and national awareness among the students to emphasize the [Palestinian refugees'] right of return and reject all forms of expulsion and occupation."
[Tulkarem Directorate of Education, Facebook page, May 18, 2025]
In Nablus, Abbas' Fatah partnered with schools and the PA Police for Nakba Day events, and here too children were taught that "return" is certain, posing with symbolic keys:
Text on key: "Return is a right and the will of a people"
Text on keys: "We remain as long as the hyssop trees and olive trees remain
Returning and staying
We will return"
Text on drawing: "Returning"
Posted text: "A national day to improve resolve at the Fadwa Touqan School
The Fatah Movement Nablus Branch's Sbeih Abu Al-Saud sub-branch, in partnership with the [PA] Nablus Police represented by Deputy [Police] Commissioner Lana Mokhlalati, organized a national day to strengthen resolve in our blessed land on the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel)."
[Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, Facebook page, May 14, 2025]
In Hebron as well, educators promoted the key as a symbol of return, which appears below on the PA map of "Palestine" that includes all of Israel wrapped in a keffiyeh pattern, signifying Israel's destruction:
Girls at the event held posters with pictures of Palestinian refugees:
Text on poster (right):"The right of return is a sacred right"
Text posted by the South Hebron Directorate of Education stressed that the purpose of the event, which was attended by educators, official figures, and representatives of institutions including Director-General of the South Hebron Directorate of Education was "to preserve the memory of the Nakba in the hearts of the students, and to strengthen their sense of affiliation to their homeland and the right to return to the Palestinian land." [South Hebron Directorate of Education, Facebook page, May 19, 2025]
A filler on official PA TV also focused on the key of the refugee that "has not yet rusted":
Text: "In the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), a foreign minority attacked a national majority, expelled it from its land, and erased its cultural status... and documents of ownership whose owners are still waiting for the day of return that will constitute testimony to a right and a home...
The key has not yet rusted... Their [Israeli] Independence Day is our Nakba Day"
[Official PA TV, May 14, 2025]
Numerous additional statements by the PA, its officials, and its media support this vision. In the following example, a PA TV reporter announces that refugee camps in the West Bank are merely "waiting stations" until the return of the "refugees" to "the occupied Interior" - one of the Palestinian terms for Israel, negating its right to exist:
Official PA TV reporter in Nour Shams refugee camp: "These houses contain and preserve within them the dreams, hard work, and many memories of the resident. In other words, the Palestinian refugee views the refugee camp as a waiting station until his return to his original place of residenceand his original homeland within the occupied Interior (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel)."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, May 7, 2025]
According to Abbas, the same holds true for Palestinians residing in refugeecamps in Lebanon. Abbas announced two weeks ago that:
"Our people in Lebanon is a temporary guest until its return to its homeland Palestine."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 22, 2025]
Following a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Abbas and Aoun jointly stressed:
"Their adherence to the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their lands from which they were uprooted, and this is according to UN Resolution 194 (see note below -Ed.). They also emphasized their opposition to all the plans for [permanently] settling [Palestinian refugees in Lebanon] and uprooting [Palestinians from their land]."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 22, 2025]
PA leaders constantly invoke UN Resolution 194, claiming that "no statute of limitations applies" to it:
"Fatah clarified that our people will not give up its right to return and compensation, based on international [UN] Resolution Number 194 that was issued in 1948 ."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 16, 2025]
"The Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO)…emphasized that the [Palestinian refugees'] right of return and compensation is firm and is not subject to a statute of limitations, according to UN Resolution No. 194 of 1947. It also emphasized that the refugees' cause will remain the heart of the conflict."
[WAFA, official PA news agency, May 14, 2025]
Posted text: "[Tulkarem District] Deputy Governor Faisal Salameh... emphasized that no statute of limitations applies to the right of return, and noted that the occupation's (i.e., Israel's) crimes and targeting of our refugee camps cannot affect the right of return and the Palestinian people's right to its land."
[PA Tulkarem Governorate, Facebook page, May 11, 2025]
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed numerous statements by PA leaders concerning the Palestinian "right of return," their wish to flood Israel with refugees, as well as their goal to ship Jews in Israel "back to Europe" or even send them to America.