Right to return for Palestinians is inalienable
Dear Editor:
The right to return home is an inalienable right and is simply stated in Article 13, Section 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has a right to leave his county and return to his country.
This universal right does not apply to everyone except Palestinians. And while Human Rights Watch chides Syria for refusing Palestinans stranded at its border entry, what if these refugees managed to make their way to the border of the homeland from which they were ethnically cleansed? Would HRW be calling upon Israel to abide by international law so that people born in Yaffo (Jaffa) could return to Yaffo, so that people born in Haifa could return to Haifa, so that people born in Akka (Acre) could return to to Akka?
Israel shot Palestinians trying to return to their towns and villages as "infiltrators," poisoned their wells, burned their crops, and demolished their homes to ensure that the inhabitants of 675 depopulated Palestinian villages and towns wouldn't return. Well intentioned human rights workers who ignore Israel's refusal to implement right of return are aiding and abetting ethnic cleansing, and ethnic cleansing is a war crime.
[See] Dr. Salman Abu Sitta's The Geography of Occupation.
Nancy Harb Almendras
Wiesbaden Germany
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