JERUSALEM — The following statement was issued on October 2 by the Union of Youth Activities Centers — Palestine, in response to the Israeli military's brutal attacks on Palestinians protesting against their repression in the occupied territories. It has been slightly abridged.
Since the unjust League of Nations resolution that established the British mandate in Palestine in the 1920s; since the acceptance by the international community of the Balfour Declaration which formed the basis of the mandate and obliged Britain to facilitate Jewish migration and settlement on our Palestinian land through imperial military and financial power; since that time, our people have been struggling day by day.
Our national history is full of so many revolutions and uprisings — intifadas — to defend the land and the holy sites, and to defend Palestinian existence and the right to self-determination.
The first Jerusalem intifada took place in April 1920 in response to the Paris peace conference, where a plan was announced to carve up the defeated German and Ottoman empires after the first world war. In 1929, the Buraq uprising came in response to Jewish racist behaviour, followed by the revolution and general strike of 1936 against British connivance with Zionist plans. And then came the war of 1948, resulting in the establishment of the state of Israel on 78% of the land of historical Palestine.
In 1965, a modern revolution demanded the return of our people in exile; in 1987 the intifada set the foundations for our independent state, which requires the continuation of our national struggle. Our struggle will continue until we achieve our national rights.
The negotiations have ended with more partitions of the homeland through settlement expansion; the denial of sovereignty over our borders, water, underground resources, and the airspace; the prisoners remain in Israeli jails; and refugees and displaced Palestinians remain in exile. The obstinacy of the occupation has been compounded by military power and superpower protection that denies Palestinians their legitimate rights.
Since the last Camp David negotiations, Israel has continued its deceptive manoeuvres on the final status issues. It has tried to say that the final status negotiations are only about the walls of Jerusalem and the holy sites, especially al-Aqsa mosque and the alleged Soliman's Temple, and that the other final status issues have already been agreed upon.
[Israeli opposition leader Ariel] Sharon's visit to the al-Aqsa mosque, accompanied by well-armed militia, expressing the position of both the Israeli government and opposition, attempted to explode Palestinian priorities at the negotiation table and deny the historical facts and priorities: the land and the original inhabitants who are scattered in exile.
Israel is trying to deceive — through political and psychological smoke and mirrors tactics and now through the massacres being committed by Israel troops against unarmed civilians using live ammunition, missiles, helicopters and tanks — and confuse the international community, and the Arab and Palestinian public.
Israel aims to exhaust our people's power in order to impose its agenda at the negotiation table and to hide our people's right of return. It wants us to reach the last phase of the negotiations exhausted, raising the white flag, forgetting and making forgotten the fact that the conflict is not only about Jerusalem and its ties to the alleged temple.
A political and economic analysis of Israel's role in the midst of the Arab world shows how much its role is connected to imperialist aims and policies. The religious aspect is a secondary component of the conflict.
We in the Union of Youth Activities Centers in the refugee camps in Palestine consider Jerusalem to be one of the treasures of religion, history and civilisation, and an inseparable part of the occupied Palestinian areas according to international legitimacy and law.
We warn against the persistent arrogant mentality of Israel and its criminal behaviour against our people. The battle over Jerusalem and the right of return [of Palestinian refugees] is the real battle. The Palestinian people promise to continue battling to achieve their national rights, headed by the right of return, the state and Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine.
[From the BADIL Resource Center, a source of progressive information and analysis on the question of Palestinian refugees. PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine, phone/fax +2 2747346, e-mail info@badil.org, web site http://www.badil.org.]