The Right of Return Alert - YWCA of Palestine

66 Years and Still Waiting
Remembering Al Nakba of 1948
Resisting Ongoing Nakba Today

The fabric of Palestinian lives was ripped apart between 1947-1949 when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and lands. War, genocide, military rule, and terror has existed ever since. UNWRA has registered now over 4.8 million refugees. Many more are unregistered and living now in other countries and many others are internally displaced within Israel or Palestine as the ongoing destruction of villages, homes, and lives continues under settler colonization. During the nine months of the peace negotiations this past year 13,851 new housing units were designated including the construction of a whole new settlement. The collapse of the "Peace process" that began with the Oslo Accords includes 20 years of ongoing settlement colonization and the building of the "Separation barrier" or Wall.

The fabric is ripped but it is also being mended through creative acts of nonviolent resistance like the over 15,000 Palestinians and their supporters who marched to the destroyed village of Lubya to reclaim it. The YWCA of Palestine through its new advocacy project The Fabric of Our Lives under our Rights of Women for Peace, Security and Dignity is honoring its women elders and their stories of dispossession and courage. We believe that the Right of Return is also a sacred right and that there can be no peace without it. It is a basic right derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in all international and regional covenants. It has no statute of limitation and cannot be extinguished by a peace treaty or the establishment of a state. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 resolves that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or
authorities responsible." The YWCA Movement affirmed this right.

We call on you to join us in our work for Peace with Justice by supporting refugee rights including the Right of Return. Here is how you can act:

• Attend our upcoming international conference titled "Women's Freedom, Peace, and Dignity in Palestine UNSCR 1325 for Accountability" to be held from 26 September to 1 October 2014 in Bethlehem, Palestine.
  
  
• Call on your governments to implement the UN resolutions that recognize right of return, and right for sovereignty and freedom for Palestinians including prisoner release.
  
  
• Support morally responsible investment and corporate responsibility by joining the BDS global movement.
  
  
• Support Palestinian economic justice by purchasing one or more dolls from the Fabric of Our Lives project. Visit the following websites to learn more on how you can order your doll at: www.ywca-palestine.org or www.ucc.org