Ethnic cleansing must never be allowed to win

By Khalid Amayreh

"......The right of return remains the heart and soul of the Palestinian question, despite the passage of 60 years since ethnic East European Ashkenazi supremacists massacred and terrorized the bulk of the native Palestinians to flee for their lives.

Today, Israel, in concert with its guardian ally, the United States, continues to reject the concept of repatriation of the Palestinian refugees to their former homes and villages in what is now Israel.

To rationalize this essentially racist discourse, Israeli and Zionist apologists present four main arguments, which are as unethical as they are mendacious......

The rule of international law is very clear on this. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948, states in its Article 13 that, “Everyone has the right to leave any country including his own and to return his country.”....

Besides, Israel has no more right to be racist, e.g. exclusively Jewish, than Apartheid South Africa had the right to be exclusively or predominantly white.

Indeed, the absurdity of this argument becomes especially relevant when we remember that maintaining Israel’s Jewish identity is only a euphemism for having the right to discriminate against non-Jews by denying them their human and civil rights.....

In brief, the right of return for Palestinian refugees is a sacred right that should never ever be compromised or dealt with lightly. Nor should it be subject to controversy and dispute just as the rightful owner’s right to recover his or her stolen property from a thief is not subject to dispute and controversy. More to the point, the passage of sixty years must never be allowed to erode or undermine that right.....

Finally, it is imperative to point out that those Palestinian “leaders” who from time to time make stupid remarks suggesting “flexibility” on the right of return are actually indulging in the moral equivalent of national treason, knowingly or unknowingly.

After all, who gave them the right to speak on behalf of the refugees who are scattered all over the globe?

If they want to appease their Zionist bankrollers, let them do it at their own expense, not at the refugees’ expense....."