Wednesday, May 21, 2008

World Peace Council affirms solidarity with Palestinians after 60 years of Al Nakba

In a statement received by the National and International Relations Department in the Palestine Liberation Organization, the World Peace Council expressed its solidarity on the occasion of the 60th Al Nakba, Catastrophe.

The World Peace Council, with headquarters in Athens and branch offices world-wide, affirmed its full solidarity with the "Palestinian people's right to return to the soil from which they were displaced by the war machine and Israeli massacres in 1948."

United Nations Resolution 194, the Right of Return, is a collective and individual right, while the Geneva Conventions also guarantee the right of return.

The Council also called for an independent state to be established on the boundaries of 4 June 1967.

A statement by the World Peace Council read that the Palestinian people have faced since that time the "consequences of old colonial rule and imperialist geo-political strategy in the region, and the brutal Israeli occupation regime (particularly after 1967) which has lasted to this day, the expansion of Israeli settlements and building of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank, the continuing siege on the Gaza Strip that was imposed with the aim of dividing the Palestinian territories geographically and politically."

The World Peace Council added that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and lands in the year 1948 due to the Israeli massacres and terrorism against them, while thousands lost their lives in those years.
The statement pointed out that the successive Israeli governments did not respect the absolute right of Palestinians to establish their own state, despite all the concessions made by the Palestine Liberation Organization in order to achieve peace and progress in the negotiations.

The Council blamed the U.S. administration, which endorses and supports Israel, and "justifies the crimes committed against the Palestinian people, at a time when the European Union stands silent about the barbaric acts of aggression of Israel."

The Council demanded in the statement an end to Israeli escalation in Gaza, "especially lifting of the blockade, and stopping settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories as illegal settlements must be dismantled, the demolition of the Apartheid Wall immediately."

The World Peace Council saluted the Palestinian people's struggle against the oppression of Israel, stressing that the only solution lies in the establishment of a just an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital and resolving the refugee issue based on the decision of the United Nations General Assembly 194, and the release of Palestinian and Arab political prisoners from Israeli prisons.

The international organization stressed its commitment to stand by the Palestinian people and the PLO in the struggle for freedom and independence.

[ Source: Palestinian News Network ]

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