|
|
|
Conference on Palestinian Right Of Return To Be Held
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) – Just as millions of Palestinians fear that the Palestine Liberation Organization will give up the right of refugees to return to their land after being displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948 and its expansion in 1967, a number of Palestinian academics have organized a conference to be held today in Boston, Massachusetts.
The “Right of Return Conference” will be attended by over 500 intellectuals and activists concerned that the “final-status” talks between the PLO and Israel, due to conclude this year, will fail to solve the major issues in a way satisfactory to Arabs and Muslims: Jerusalem, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the return of the refugees.
Millions of Palestinian refugees have lived in miserable camps for the past 52 years on the hopes and promises of their leadership that they should not leave because Israel would be forced to allow them to return “soon.” The “soon” has never come, and now seems to have turned into “never.”
The problem is that any “peace” treaty to be signed between the PLO and Israel would be rejected by a large part of the people, and thus not lead to a durable peace.
The conference will be attended by major thinkers and writers like Columbia University Professor Edward Said, MIT Professor Naom Chomsky, The Independent reporter Robert Fisk, Le Monde Diplomatique editor Alain Gresh, among others.
The one-day conference, which will be held in the Boston University School of Law, will be organized by the Trans-Arab Research Institute (TARI). The institute is headed by political science professor Naseer Aruri.
|
