AIN HELWEH, Lebanon, April 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Gaza Strip and elsewhere expressed their rage Friday, April 16, at U.S. President George W. Bush's Middle East policy U-turn, which could deny them any chance of ever returning to their former homes.

The refugees, however, insisted their right of return was “a sacred one”, adding “Bush can say whatever he likes”.

At Ain Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon, some 1,500 angry Palestinian refugees demonstrated Friday, slamming Bush's total support of Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon’s policies, which could deny them any chance of ever returning home, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Ain Helweh, in the suburbs of Sidon, is the largest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Bush U-turn policy enraged the Palestinians (AFP)

Some 3,000 Palestinians gathered at the Beit Lahiya refugee camp just to the north of Gaza City in a protest organized by the Islamic Jihad faction, while thousands more took part in a Hamas-organized demonstration in the nearby Jabalya refugee camp after Friday prayers, AFP reported.

Chanting anti-Bush slogans such as "Down With Bush, Down with Sharon", the crowds also set ablaze models of Sharon and British premier Tony Blair, a close ally of Bush.

"Bush's statement is a declaration of war against our people and a sign of his ever growing support for the Israeli enemy," said Nafez Azzam, a senior leader of Jihad in Gaza.

"As long as the occupation continues, the resistance will continue," he told reporters.

Abdullah Shami, another senior Jihad figure who addressed the crowds, said Bush was "trying to impose a new reality on our land".

"But we say to him: by our hand and our resistance we will destroy this plan."

For the Palestinian residents of Gaza's poverty-stricken Shati refugee camp, Bush can say what he likes. No one can take away their "sacred" right to return to the homes the fled when Israel was created more than half a century ago.

"The right to return is a sacred right. Nobody can change it," said 60-year-old Haj Suheil who was still a schoolboy when his family had to flee their home in Yabna in what is now southern Israel in 1948, reported AFP.

"Nobody has the right to sell off our right of return to the place where we (were) born and from where we (were) chased by the occupiers."

Israel sees the renunciation of the Palestinians’ right to return as vital to prevent a potential influx of Arabs which could upset the Jewish character of its state.

But like many Palestinian refugee families, Suheil still keeps alive the dream of a return to the home for which he still holds the keys.

"I still have the key to our house in Yabna and I will always look after it. I have asked my children to look after them after I die as one day we will return to Yabna, in spite of the occupation."

Palestinian refugees hold on to “their right of return”

Abelkarim Al-Ribai, 39, lives with his two elderly parents and 10 children in a modest house in the north of the camp which is home to some 78,000 people.

Although he has never set foot inside his parents former residence in Jaffa, close to Tel Aviv, he still regards it as the family's rightful home.

"We retain our hope of returning to Jaffa, me and my parents, and of dying there," he told AFP.

"My father, who is now 75, still possesses the documents of ownership for three plots of land and a flat in the Al-Manchiyeh neighborhood in Jaffa."

At the entrance of the camp, dozens of refugees form a daily queue outside the offices of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees to receive basic rations.

More than 85 percent of Gaza's population survives on less than two dollars a day, and that figure is even higher in the refugee camps.

Few appeared Thursday to be unduly concerned by Bush's declarations.

"We know that Bush is just like Sharon. We have no confidence in any Arab leaders either. Only the resistance can enable us to return to our villages," said 62-year-old Um Mohammed who originates from Al-Majdal in present-day southern Israel.

The refugee camps throughout the Palestinian territories have become regarded as stronghold of armed resistance groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Um Mohammed, wearing a dress in the red, green, black and white colors of the Palestinian flag, said her life had been a "tragedy" ever since she was forced to flee her home in 1948.

"The Israelis chased us out of our houses and today they are killing us in Gaza where we are forced to live as prisoners," said the Um Mohammed, who lives in Shati with her 21 children and grandchildren.

Some 900,000 refugees live in eight camps in Gaza, while there are an estimated 3.7 million refugees scattered around the occupied territories and the Arab world.

Walid Al-Awad, the secretary general of the commission for refugees in the Palestinian parliament told AFP that a "mass popular campaign" would be launched in the aftermath of Bush's comments "to reject the (American) position which seeks to nullify our sacred right to return."