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“[How
come] Jews not born in the land have the right to return while
Palestinians who were born there and have the keys to their homes
don’t have the right to return?” Weiss asked.
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By
Sara Khorshid, IOL Staff
LONDON,
June 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Activists, intellectuals, and
interested lay people from all over the world reiterated the legacy of
the Palestinians’ right of return in a conference hosted by the
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
Entitled
“Towards a New Liberation Theology: Reflections on Palestine” and
organized by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, the
conference – which kicked off Sunday, June 12 -- included speakers
from both faith and non-faith backgrounds.
Neturei
Karta spokesperson Rabbi Yisroel Weiss, Reverend Stephen Sizer, Father
Joe McVeigh, Dr. Ilan Pappe from Haifa University, Imam Muhammed Al-Asi
from Washington, and Rima Fakhry from Hizbollah’s political council
were among the speakers. Also Archmadrite Attallah Hanna and Israeli
lawyer Leah Tsemel sent messages to the conference attendees over the
phone from Occupied Jerusalem.
Zionism
Not Jewish
Remarkable
was the presence of a number of Neturei Karta members in their long
black coats, black hats, and ringlets. Neturei
Karta is a group of orthodox Jews fiercely critical of
Zionism and the state of Israel.
Zionists
are “heretics” who “transform[ed] the concept of Judaism into a
nationality, something that is void of godliness,” said Rabbi
Yisroel Weiss in his speech, which was widely hailed by the conference
attendees.
“The
land is forbidden to us… it belongs to the people of Palestine. It
belongs to the indigenous people, the Arab people,” he asserted.
Both
Rabbi Weiss and UK-based Rabbi Ahron Cohen, who also spoke at the
conference, asserted that Zionism’s principles are not Jewish.
“The whole concept of taking over a land is strange to the Jewish
belief,” Weiss said.
He
added that Neturei Karta campaigns for the Palestinians’ right to
return to their homeland, and he criticized the Zionist claim to a
"right to return to Palestine".
“[How
come] Jews not born in the land have the right to return while
Palestinians who were born there and have the keys to their homes [in
Palestine] don’t have the right to return?” Weiss asked.
Commenting
on the Zionists’ anti-Semitism accusations directed at the group
from their critics, Weiss said that they (critics) “count on the
Jewish people’s ignorance, on the non-Jewish people’s ignorance”
in order to achieve their goals and implement their political agenda.
“Don’t fear the allegations of anti-Semitism. Don’t try to
confuse the subject with religions. It has nothing to do with
religions.”
“Ethnic
Cleansing”
On
the other hand, another Jewish speaker delivered a speech but from a
rather secularist perspective. Professor Ilan Pappe from Haifa
University in Israel criticized his country’s denial of the
Palestinians’ right of return.
“The
right to return is an admission by Israel of expelling Palestinians
from their homeland,” he said, explaining Israel’s position.
“They need to continue as a state … with a denial of what Israel
has done in 1948,” which he labelled “ethnic cleansing.”
Pappe
stated that Israel should not only acknowledge the fact that they have
expelled Palestinians but should also take responsibility for what
they did and grant Palestinians their right to return.
He
added that Israel aims at securing “ethnic supremacy” by
maintaining a “solid Jewish majority in Palestine.”
Pappe’s
presence in the conference resulted, however, in the absence of two
Palestinian speakers. As university professors in Palestinian
universities, they apologized for their absence and explained that
they hold on to the Palestinian academics’ position of boycotting
Israeli universities.
Last
month, the third Convention for Palestinians in Europe has strongly
defended the inalienable right of millions of Palestinian refugees to
return to their homeland.
The
final statement of the Convention
held in Austria, a copy of which was sent to IOL May 8,
urged all Palestinian organizations championing the right of return to
act in unison to make the dream of millions of Palestinians come true.
Form
of Resistance
The
conference’s speakers, meanwhile, disagreed over the form of
resistance the Palestinians should adopt in their quest for
liberation.
Whereas
Imam Muhammad Al-Asi, elected Imam of the Islamic Center in
Washington, noted that peace negotiations have failed so far in
leading to the liberation of Palestine, and that justice is a
condition for peace, Father Joe McVeigh from Ireland, who was been
active in his opposition to British involvement in Irish affairs, and
Reverend Stephen
Sizer, author of a book on Christian
Zionism, stressed the importance of peaceful means of
resistance to occupation.
