Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2000, pages 47-48

Northeast News

Boston Conference Examines Palestinian Right of Return

By David P. Johnson Jr.

More than 600 people packed the Boston University Law School auditorium April 8 for a comprehensive look at the political, economic and social plight of the more than four million Palestinian refugees. Israel’s refusal to allow the refugees to return home contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and U.N. Resolution 194.

The conference, “The Right of Return: Palestinian Refugees and Prospects for a Durable Peace,” began with a dramatic keynote address by noted Palestinian author Dr. Edward Said, who delivered withering attacks on Israel and the Palestinian leadership.

“The core issue [of the peace process] is the plight of Palestinians, displaced by naked ethnic cleansing,” practiced in 1948, 1967 and 1982, Said told the jammed and sweltering hall.

“The Palestinians have endured decades of dispossession and raw agonies rarely endured by other peoples, and these agonies have either been ignored or denied and even more poignantly, the perpetrators of these tragedies are celebrated for political and social achievements that make no mention at all of where those achievements actually begin—in the destruction of Palestinian society,” he said.

However, Said did not spare the Palestinian Authority from his ire, charging it as interested solely in retaining its own power. “It is only interested in maintaining its hold on the Bantustans of the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.

Said charged that one million Palestinians depend economically on the Authority, including between 140,000 and 150,000 employees and their families. This makes local challenges to its control difficult. Therefore, he predicted, “A new leadership will almost certainly emerge from the Palestinian diaspora, which regards the Palestinian Authority as illegitimate.”

Said also deplored what he called “the scandalously poor treatment of the refugees” by other Arab countries. He said Jordan has been the only country to welcome the refugees.

According to information supplied by the conference, there are 1.5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, of whom 278,000 live in 10 camps. Another nearly one million refugees live in camps in Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.

Four panels occupied the rest of the day with discussions of the political positions of those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; restitution; social conditions and the future.

Mona Fawaz of the MIT Arab Student Organization chaired “Critical Analyses of Israeli, American, European and PLO Positions.” Each speaker addressed one group’s position.

“In the months leading up to the war in 1948, Israel prepared its ethnic cleansing program, a plan that included mass expulsions, sporadic massacres, a campaign of terror and intimidation, and finally the confiscation of land and assets,” said Dr. Ilan Pappe, director, International Relations Division, Haifa University in Israel, who spoke on that nation’s stance on refugees.

Having created the problem, Israel resolved to ignore it, he said. “There was no refugee problem on the agenda as far as various Israeli governments were concerned…There was only the Palestinian terror. Israel quite successfully kept refugees out of the discussion.”

Although the issue is now being discussed, “The Oslo accord is no different than earlier ones,” Pappe stated. “It has an almost scornful attitude toward refugees.”

MIT professor Dr. Noam Chomsky pointed out that the United States is truly the decisive player in the region, usually determining what happens.

“The U.S. has sought to marginalize” the issue of Palestinian refugees, Chomsky said, adding that pro-Third World groups at the United Nations are either pushed aside or destroyed by the U.S. and its allies. “There is a veto if the vote is 150 to one and the one is the U.S.,” he explained. “There is usually a veto and it is a veto from history.”

Chomsky said it is worth mentioning that another U.S. client state in the region, Turkey, is also allowed to violate human rights with impunity. He charged that Turkey is currently conducting “some of the worst ethnic cleansing of the 1990s. Kurds do not have the right of resistance because they stand in the way of U.S. policy.”

He said the current situation is “a major victory for U.S. rejectionism.”

Palestinians run their own affairs in name only, Chomsky asserted, just as blacks ran the allegedly independent nation of Transekei when South Africa was under apartheid.

“The Gulf war made it clear the U.S. is going to run this part of the world by force,” he said. “The New World Order means what we say goes and if you don’t like it, you better get out of the way.”

Later Chomsky said, “International law does not apply to the United States, but we use it to gild our position.” He urged the audience to become more politically active, noting that since the U.S. is so powerful, changing its politics can change things elsewhere.

Discussing the role of Europe, Dr. Alain Gresh, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, said, “The term ‘Right of Return’ is never used in the European Community.” While in the 1980s Europe favored Palestinian self-determination, the EU has since taken a back seat to the U.S. “Everyone sees it [EU] as an economic giant and a political dwarf,” Gresh said. “The U.S., Israel, the Arab states and the Palestinians do not take Europe seriously.”

He said it is often difficult to coordinate policy among the 15 EU members. France, however, recognizes the rights of Palestinian refugees under U.N. Resolution 194.

Dr. Jaber Sleiman, co-founder of A’idoun, discussed the PLO position on the right of return. Stating that the hope of going home again remains strong in every Palestinian, Sleiman reviewed the PLO’s history on the issue.

He said the PLO’s 1973 plan on the right of return “was the first time this issue was discussed separately from other issues.” By the late 1980s, the PLO had stopped advocating the overthrow of Israel and began urging a separate Palestinian state instead. “The PLO was transformed from a national liberation movement to a national independence movement,” Sleiman said.

While the peace talks have dragged on, he pointed out that Israel has increased its control. “It is one of the ironies of history that the racist regime in South Africa was dismantled while Israel is increasing its authority and creating more apartheid.”

Preaching to the Converted

Speaking on the position of the Arab governments on the right of return, British journalist Dr. Robert Fisk of The Independent newspaper challenged the audience to do more and asked whether such conferences did any good.

“I ask myself whether conferences such as this accomplish what they’re supposed to,” Fisk said to enthusiastic applause. Taking aim at the political efforts of Arab Americans, he said, “It’s not a very brave lobby, the Arab-American lobby,” adding that the established groups are out of touch with reality.

Asking why an obvious majority of those in the room were of Arab origin, Fisk said, “The one group of people who could have some influence on your concerns, Americans who are not of your community, are not here.”

Fisk also complained that Arab groups are all too often poorly organized. He said that he frequently traveled thousands of miles to speak before a group only to arrive at the airport unwelcomed and have to find his way to his destination on his own. He said Jewish groups do not make the same mistakes.

In addition, Fisk sharply criticized Arab governments for failing to discuss the right of return. He said Lebanon is the only place where the issue is debated.

“The right of return has been transformed to the right to leave,” he said. “Those who would most like their absence are now their biggest allies because of that antagonism.”

He also predicted war in south Lebanon this summer.

While Fisk’s remarks drew loud and frequent applause, John Farah, a lawyer from Ottawa, Canada, told him he was being unfair to Arab activists and ought to be more positive. Fisk replied that everyone at the conference was being too positive, when the Palestinian situation is actually quite grim in many cases.

Later, Farah admitted he did agree with Fisk that Arabs need to be more aggressive in presenting their cause, and that more non-Arabs should be recruited to attend such gatherings. He said the situation lies in cultural roots. Arabs tend toward reticence and avoid the appearance of pushing themselves or their ideas on others, Farah said.

“They [Arabs] don’t want to impose,” he said. They are reluctant to take advantage of their neighbors’ time. “We need to go more in the direction of ‘Can you help? It’s a just cause.’”

Organizers of the conference explained that the forum drew a large percentage of Arabs because it was also intended to serve as a networking workshop for activists. Retired Simmons College sociology professor Dr. Elaine Hagopian said Palestinian activists from all over North America were invited “so they have a chance to talk.” She estimated 70 percent of the Arabs attending were Palestinian, making them a probable majority of all participants.

The panel on the Right of Return and Restitution was chaired by Leila Farsakh of ADC. Susan Akram, associate professor at Boston University Law School, said the Palestinians have been denied all protections afforded other refugee populations because of the misinterpretation of international law.

Economist Dr. Atif Kubursi of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, urged Palestinians to pursue restitution from Israel in the same manner that Jews have sought money from Germany and Austria. He estimated Palestinian property losses are $146 billion, lost income $300 billion and psychological losses $281 billion.

Dr. Norman G. Finkelstein, history professor at Hunter College, CUNY, quoted Stuart Eizenstat, under-secretary of the Treasury, who told the Swiss that an important part of willingness to face the past is to pay compensation.

Researcher Dr. Salman Abu-Sitta told the crowd that two-thirds of the eight million Palestinians are refugees, the largest and oldest refugee population on earth. “The plans for resettling are nothing more than ethnic cleansing plans and are probably punishable under international law,” he charged.

The third panel, “Palestinian Refugee Voices and Social Conditions,” was chaired by Dima Reda, of ADC Massachusetts. Speakers were Nahla Ghandour of the Kanafani Children’s Center, Mar Elias Camp, Lebanon; Khawla D.A. Qaraqe, Women Counseling Center in Bethlehem; freelance journalist Lamis Andoni; and attorney Wadie Said.

The final program on “Refugee Rights, Looking to the Future” was chaired by ADC Massachusetts member Merrie Najimy. Speakers were Ali Abunimah, Arab-American Action Network; Jennifer Bing-Canar, American Friends Service Committee; Dr. Zahi Damuni, ADC, Central Pennsylvania Chapter; Sam Husseini, Council for Palestinian Restitution and Repatriation, Washington, DC; and Arjan El Fassed, Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation, The Netherlands.

The conference was sponsored by TARI, the Trans-Arab Research Institute, in cooperation with the Boston University Arab Students Association.

Hagopian said that she and another TARI member, Dr. Nancy Murray, director of the Bill of Rights Education Program for the Massachusetts ACLU, organized much of the event themselves, working long hours for the past six months. They raised about $30,000 to help bring the speakers to Boston.

David P. Johnson Jr. is a Boston-based freelance writer specializing in international affairs.