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Action Alert: Support the Right of Return & Oppose All Colonial Occupations
by Jonas
Tuesday, May. 11, 2004 at 1:11 PM
joeskillet@yahoo.com
Pittsburgh, Now is the time to add you or your organization's name to the thousands who support the right of return and say no to occupation!
Action Alert: Support the Right of Return & Oppose All Colonial Occupations
May 10, 2004 Bulletin Update:
(For Bulletin subscription and frequency details, please see end of this Bulletin)
As the world stands shocked and dismayed about the brutal crimes of the US-British occupying forces in Iraq, more than 1,500 organizations, coalitions, intellectuals, grassroots activists and community leaders joined as signatories in an “International Response” (attached below) to President Bush’s neo-Balfour Declaration on Palestine, which he issued in support of the policies of Ariel Sharon on April 14, 2004, at the White House.
A running list of signatories is available on: http://www.ror-congress.org.
To ENDORSE the “International Response”, please write to: responsetobush@yahoo.com
Recognizing the inextricable link between the plight of the Palestinian and the Iraqi people, both suffering under the brutality of colonial occupations carried out by two prongs of a joint historic alliance, we echo the sentiments of great many signatories who have written that today it is of vital necessity to support fundamental and core principles of justice – namely, ending all colonial occupations and supporting self-determination including the inalienable right of people to return to their homes and homeland.
Although we are gratified and deeply thankful for the overwhelming support, we nonetheless know that much more is still needed, and we are counting on you!
We are asking you to actively solicit support from your family and friends for this campaign as much as you can during the next 5 days. On May 15, the anniversary of the 1948 Palestinian Catastrophe (“Nakba”), we will present this “International Response” to all members of the United Nations General Assembly and other relevant parties. We must build and convey a solid response and a clear consensus.
On June 5th, we also must take a unified stand against colonial occupations!
In the United States, we are asking all community members, organizations and activists to support the June 5 nationally coordinated by-coastal rallies, called for by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, to be held simultaneously in Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in opposition to all occupations and in support of the Right of Return. For more information or to endorse, we encourage you to visit: http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org. This is an important stand that we must take together to oppose the brutality of occupations and to call for justice that is long overdue.
These are difficult and painful days requiring a unified stance on matters of existential nature – it is an historic burden placed on our shoulders that we must not abrogate.
Every step we take together is a step closer to the realization of justice for dispossessed and brutalized peoples. Please join us -- Your support truly counts!
To support the “International Response”, please write to: responsetobush@yahoo.com
To see the list of signatories and endorsing organizations, visit: http://www.ror-congress.org
International Response
to the Bush Declaration on the Palestinian Right to Return
In response to the most recent declaration given by President of the United States, George W. Bush, to Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, on April 14, 2004, at the White House, we, the undersigned affirm the full individual and collective inalienable Right to Return of the Palestinian Arab People to their homes, property and land of origin. We assert in no uncertain terms that such a fundamental right is inviolable as it is based on the unbreakable natural belonging of a people to their property and place of origin, as enshrined in international law. Accordingly, we hold that the Palestinian Right to Return is an indispensable obligatory prerequisite for the achievement of any justice and peace.
We consider any attempt to weaken, lessen, or alter such a right in any form through any proclamations or agreements between any parties to be counter to the human, political, civil, and national collective right of the Palestinian Arab People. Hence, such an attempt, along with its implications and ramifications, are null and void in total, regardless of the passage of time and the entities entering into such agreements or issuing such proclamations.
On November 2, 1917, Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration that promised Palestine to a European settler colonial movement, amounting to the inevitable dispossession and exile of the Palestinian people. Today, at a time when another Deir Yassin massacre is carried out in Fallujah in an attempt to cement the US occupation of Iraq, the Bush Administration is simultaneously attempting to complete the Balfour project of 1917 by nullifying the Palestinian Right to Return, and by giving an international cover to the creation of a truncated and walled collection of Bantustans that would normalize and legitimize the process of ethnic cleansing.
Recognizing this existential and imminent danger, we stand against this new Balfour Declaration, and reaffirm our unwavering position that the Palestinian Right to Return is an inextricable anchor and prerequisite to full Palestinian self-determination, freedom, and liberty.
(This public declaration will be submitted to all members of the UN General Assembly and other relevant parties on May 15, 2004. For endorsement, please write to: responsetobush@yahoo.com)
- List of more than 1,500 signatories and organizational endorsements:
We apologize, but due to the length of signatories, only organizations were listed in this Bulletin. For a full running list of activists, intellectuals, writers, journalists, and community leaders, please visit: http://www.ror-congress.org
It's only a matter of time...
by Jonas
Tuesday, May. 11, 2004 at 1:11 PM
joeskillet@yahoo.com
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