I see now that much of the debate on Israeli-Palestinian conflict revolving around the territories occupied in 1967, with not much mention of the 1948 displaced Palestinians, on whose homes currently stands the state of Israel.
For that I ask two questions: Is there a specific text for the Palestinian right of return defining it and defining its terms and objectives? My other question is, which Palestinians are targeted by this right of return? Are they just the Palestinians deported after 1967 or does it also include those who are the product of many generations growing outside Palestine since 1948?
Answer
More than two thirds of the Palestinian people were uprooted and deported out of their country by the pre-Israel Zionist organizations, mainly those extreme groups which committed several massacres in April, May, June, July 1948, aiming at uprooting the Palestininas and the destruction of their homes, villages and towns. They were dispossesed, displaced and ordered under the force of guns to leave to neighboring countries.
This was done under the orders of Ben Goriun, the leader of the Jewish Agency, and the first PM of Israel after May 15th, 1948.
You may read literature of the new historians in Israel, which confirms these facts. Therefore, about 4.5 Palestinian refugees now live in neighboring countries and the diaspora in U.S., Latin America, Canda, etc.
According to plan Dalet, Ben Goriun gave orders to destroy all their houses and villages in order not to allow them to return. The Israeli propaganda contended that these refugees left due to the call of Arab governments. This proved to be erroneous and misleading.
Israel brought hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants from many parts of the world to replace these Palestinians, and to carry arms to fight for decades to come. At that time the Palestians were lonely unarmed, while the Israeli Zionist organizations got financial, material aid, and weaponary from many states such as England, Eastern Europe, and others.
After the 1967 invasion, some 200,000-250,000 new refugees were intimidated and forced to leave their homeland to the diaspora. These two influxes of exodus made the Palestinian refugee issue one of the most complicated refugee problems in the 20th century.
Henceforth, these refugees who were deported by force and deprived of their homes and properties have the full right to come back to their homes. It is very cruel, unjust, and inhuman to leave such population scattered in the diaspora, stateless and homeless, while hundreds of thousands who never had any relation with Palestine take on their homes, plantation, factories, and homeland.
According to international law they have the right to come back to their home country. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." Article 12 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights stipulates that "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country."
International Humanitarian Law, with its both sources: Customery and Conventional, stipulates that all those refugees who are displaced during war should immediately be returned to their homes (article 49 of the Geneva 4th Convention). Local laws of nationality, almost in all states, stipulate that a state must admit its national to enter the country.
Furthermore, the General Assembly issued resolution 194 in December 1948, which resolved that the refugees wishing to return to their homes should be permitted to do so, and the Security Council in many similar cases of refugees in Namibia, South Africa, Bosnia and Hertcogovina, Abkhazia, and Kosovo issued resolutions asking for the immediate return of the refugees. It can't be that we exclude the Palestinian refugees from such rules and custormary practices of states, and let them live in diaspora without the intervention of the rules of international law and humanity.
Name
Mizuhu
- Japan
Profession
Question
Of the obvious illegality of the Israeli process of existence, where has the Palestinian right of return scored so far on international courts?
Answer
Besides what was explained in the previous question, I add that the right of return of the Palestinian refugees was never so strongly advocated and hardly worked for as in this period.
In regards to suing Israel in international courts, it is very hard for the PLO or any representative of the Palestinian people to do that since this is a prerogative of state members of the UN charter and who litigate before the IC. However, Palestinians scored many successes in the UN in regards to the right to return. The General Assembly, from 1969 until the present, issued more than 30 resolutions re-iterating this right and insisting that Palestinian refugees are entitled to their homeland.
Name
Rania
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Throughout your studies on civilian conditions in times of war, would you classify a Jewish settler as “civilian”?
Answer
Settling in an occupied territory is strictly prohibited by customary and conventional rules of international law.
Article 20 of the Rome Charter of the International Criminal Court (ICC) stipulates that transferring civilian population into an occupied territory is a grave breach of the Geneva Convention. The same is the stipulation of article 85 of the first international protocol of 1977, annexed to the 4 Geneva Convention.
Therefore, Israel is in a clear violation of International Humanitarian Law, even its wrong doing amounts to a crime of war.
Any how, there has never been any clear stipulation to whether or not a civilian settler could be targeted. But according to the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people and the rules of contemporary international law, Palestinian freedom fighters have the full right to defend their country and liberate it from occupation by all means, in accordance to the UN Charter.
Since most of settlers are holding arms, and shooting Palestinian civilians usurbing their land and killing their children and destroying their property, it is natural to say that these Palestinian fighters are acting in self defense.
Name
Nomad
-
Profession
Question
I have been receiving many remarks questioning the actual existence of Palestinians as an entity prior to the establishment of the state of Israel. Many would argue that there was no “Palestinian” people in the land in the nationalistic sense, only Arabs scattered here and there. People have been saying to me then how can they claim a right to the land? What can I say to them?
Answer
In 1922 Palestine was put under the mandate of the United Kingdom. In accordance with article 22 of the League of Nations, Palestine was accorded the classification A out of ABC, which means a very developed territory and needs the preparation of the Mandatory power for independence.
Thus Palestine was considered a territory eligible to be promoted into an independent state. It constituted an embryo of a state with more than 90% of its population, Palestinian Arabs, living in the country for thousands of years, and having all the components of a people.
How could it be that a handfull of immigrants from different races, nationalities, and cultures which have nothing in common except religion, constitute a nation while the indigenous and homogeneic people, who had a good standing of living and culture, as the League of Nations resolution of 1922 admitted, do not make a nation?
The force and vicious propaganda that Arabs in Palestine were bedouin emigrants from Higaz was a Zionist lie in order to hide the truth about those people and to facilitate and justify the invasion and settlement of the country.
Name
Janet M.
-
Profession
student
Question
From the perspective of an observer, it seems that if the Palestinian refugees are given the right of return, this will make a two-state solution impossible. Please comment.
Answer
Palestinian refrgees have the legal, moral and humanitarian right to regain their lost possessions and properties. However, I do not expect all refugees to go back to their homes in the green line, but their right should be declared openly, and Israel should admit its wrongdoing and responsibility for what happened to them.
If there is respect for each party's rights and if confidnece is regained between the two parties, negotiations built on good faith could lead to a compromised solution.
Name
Abu Salma
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Given all the current events and the atrocities inflicted upon Palestinians and the massacres done to them, is there any hope that the deportees can return back home from their Diaspora? Cite evidences, please.
Answer
At present, with USA and some other big powers supporting Israel, and taking into consideration the weakness of Arabs and the balance of power tilting towards israel, I do not foresee any possibility at present or in the near future of refugees returning home. In Israel there is consensus on this issue, becuase it will negate the Zionist dream and ideology.
However, it is very important to have the right of return admitted by Israel and the international community, even if theoretically. This may facilitate their return in the future when time comes.
Name
Hashem
-
Profession
Question
How is the Palestinian right of return different from the Jewish Law of Return? I would say that Palestinians should embark on a campaign under a banner as strong as Israel’ Law of Return, that is in terms of the strength and humane implication of such a campaign. Why don’t Palestinians all over the world who live outside their homeland engage in such a campaign?
Answer
Israel's law of return was designed for the purpose of negating Palestinian refugees' right of return. If a Jew has the right of return after 2000 years, it is a priori that Palestinian refugees, who still see their properties and remember the taste of the figs and oranges they planted, to have similar rights.
These refugees are still holding the keys of their houses and have very high expectations that they will return back to those homes someday. They are entitled to their houses and property much more than any immigrant from Lithuania or Estonia.
Notwithstanding, some Palestinians will prefer to stay where they are or to return only to live under a Palestinian state.
In regards to the campaign you refer to, I would like to assure you that in the last decade there were more than half a dozen centers and institutes specialized in waging a campaign for that end. Namely, I would like to refer to a center for refugees in Monterial, Canada, called "Fofognet," and is directed by Prof. Rex Brynen.
Other such specialized centers are: Al-Awdah, London, Badil, Bethlehem. These centers are very active and have very important campaigns in the same direction.
Name
Marvin
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Israel’s many myths of existence are slowly coming to an end. It fed, almost commercially, on the Holocaust and won a lot of money and sympathy, and continues to do so. Yet the entire world is watching it commit the same crimes, systematically, on Palestinians. It blew the trumpets of the Jewish “Law of Return” and created a population of dispossessed and displaced people, now seeking their own right return. Can’t anyone see that? I find it funny. Saddeningly funny.
Answer
I agree with you, and I think that internatinal public opinion is slowly, but confidently, regaining its memory and knowledge of what happened in Palestine, any how, the British government held a lot of responsibility in the Palestinian tragedy.
Name
MM
-
Profession
Question
Right of return? Where to? Another “Ground Zero”? A Palestinian has the right ok, but where does he return to? There are no homes anymore, in fact, there are no loved ones anymore. Perhaps he should live on as a stranger in a strangers’ land. Forever reminding the world of the blood Israel used to grow flowers on its house terraces.
Answer
I have to assure you that Palestinian refugees are still dreaming of their homeland and their properties. I can't imagine any other people who yearn for their lost homeland and beloved villages and houses as these refugees. The hope is still alive, and it will move on to the new generations until this hope comes true.
Name
Suleyman Al Ayman
- United States
Profession
Government Student
Question
Aslamu Alaykum Shaykh
Please you HAVE to answer my question because I am very much disturbed by it for a long time...no one has answered my question yet...I did ask here on islamonline.net before but you people said that I asked this question before and failed to give me response...it is totally unfair because that was a false statement...no other Imaam gave me answer either so please for the sake of Allah who you will meet on the day of judgement...answer my question.
My question is based on "Shirk"
1. We say "Ya Allah" to Allah SWT because HE is present everywhere...we say "YA" to anyone who is present at the moment or atleast alive i guess...like i would say Ya Shaykh answer me...correct me if i am wrong. I heard many muslims saying "Ya Muhammad ur rasool lalla" and/or they speak of him by saying "Ya Muhammad"....I have seen on the walls of a couple of mosques written "Ya Allah" on one said and "Ya Muhammad" on the other....my question is...is this not shirk...I mean true that our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is beloved of Allah (SWT) but he no longer is alive...he has gone to heavens...he does not reside on earth anymore...not among us...so by saying "Ya" to a dead person...are we not doing shirk?
2. This question is a little confusing but please for the Sake of only Allah...help me before I die without knowing the answer....Allah Ta'lah has said that ask no one for anything but Allah....he gives everything and i mean everything...no one has authority to make Allah give something (Nauzbillah)...so the question is...for example...when I finish my Salaats and i pray to Allah for let's say forgiveness...i would say something like this: "Please Ya Allah forgive me for all the sins I have done...IF NOT FOR ME THEN FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH) FOR HE WAS SENT TO EARTH AS MERCY UPON ALL HUMANS." In this prayer I am telling Allah that I am a sinful person so you might not listen to me but still listen to my prayers for the SAKE OF YOUR PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH)...in other words..am giving reference to Allah of someone..be that an ordinary person or a Prophet..but still am involving another person between me and my Allah by giving their reference...is that shirk?
I could simplay say "Ya Allah forgive me since you are the most merciful" something like that...please reply me as quickly as possible.
JazkAllah Kher
Shukran
Walaykum Salaam
May Allah help our brothers in Falesteen, Kashmir, Chenya, Afghanistan, India and everywhere else and May Allah strenghten our IMAANS
Answer
Dear reader
Thank you very much for your question. However, I refer you to the Fatwa section, they will be able to answer your question more accurately.
