DOHA, October 21 (IslamOnline.net) - IslamOnline.net has launched a new service with an eye on setting up a data base for Palestinian refugees, hoping to highlight their cause on the international level, encourage correspondence among them, and support their inalienable right of return.

The new service opens a window for Palestinian refugees around the world to register their names and all personal data, in addition to that of their family members.

They can also put down the stories of their forced expulsion from their homeland.

Egyptian thinker and writer Prof. Dr. Abdel Wahab El-Messairy hailed the new service, considering it "a highly useful creative idea to link Palestinian refugees in Diaspora."

"The issue of Palestinian refugees is of special importance in the Arab-Israeli conflict. At most times, it is even considered the core of the conflict. No settlement could ever be reached unless addressing this cause."

Zeinat Abu Shaweesh, a Palestinian researcher and editor of IOL Palestine Page, said the idea of the new service stemmed from the continuous sufferings of Palestinian refugees day in and day out.

She added the service includes a number of web pages; one is a registration form for refugees to put down their data and ways of communicating with them while another features the available data on refugees and how to contact them. It also has a search engine to look for certain names to correspond with.

"This service is the first online home where Palestinian refugees in the four corners of the globe can meet and get to know one another. We hope it will help them stick together till they return to their homeland," Zeinat added.

Thousands of Palestinian families were forced to evacuate their homes after 1948 and 1967 wars

Further stressing the need for such a service, El-Messairy said it would help second and third refugee generations - born away from their homeland Palestine - to be aware of the gravity of their losses and to stick to their right of return.

"The United Nations has issued 150 resolutions giving Palestinians who were expelled from their land by the Israelis the right to return home. But Israel never abided by any of them," said El-Messairy, author of Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism.

"Years go by without any progress on the issue of refugees. The best we can do now is to work on keeping their cause alive in the minds and hearts of all. This is what the IOL new service does and that's why it is worth interest and praise," he added.

Palestinian writer and historian Abdul Qader Yassin also put in a good word for the new service, considering it a "positive response to the dire requirements of the Palestinian refugees' cause.

"It also makes a good base for a great job that may benefit all institutions struggling for refugees to return home and for all other inalienable Palestinian rights."

The 1948 and 1967 wars have resulted in the expulsion of thousands of Palestinian families from their land.

They were forced to leave after some horrible massacres perpetrated by Israeli gangs and army.