Global Policy Forum

By Lia Syed*

On Dec 11, 1948, the United Nations adopted Resolution 194, which read: "That the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours 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 or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible."

Resolution 194 has been reaffirmed more than 25 times and confirmed more than 130 times over the past 55 years. The number of refugees at the time numbered more than 750,000, or about 60 percent of the population of historic Palestine. Only 12 days earlier, in Resolution 181, the United Nations adopted a definition of Israel's borders in the form of a ‘Partition Resolution' that assigned approximately 53 percent of the land mass of historic Palestine exclusively to the then 5.6 percent of the resident population adhering to the Jewish religion.

At practically the same moment, the world community was declaring that Israel could exist and enjoy recognition under the condition that it comply with international law. In Israel's case, there would be no legalising ‘after the fact' of acts of conquest or what the Zionists liked to call "recognition of new facts on the ground".

Seven months after adopting Resolutions 181 and 194, on May 11, 1949, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 273. This admitted Israel to a seat in the assembly on condition that it implements Resolution 194 and abides by the boundaries set out in Resolution 181. One has to realise that these boundaries and the development of ‘land distribution' of what was Palestine under different ‘Peace Plans' since Resolution 181 until today goes as follows:

· UN Partition Plan to the Palestinians: 47 percent of the 100 percent

· Oslo Agreement to the Palestinians: 22 percent of the 100 percent

· Former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer to the Palestinians: 80 percent of 22 percent

Under Sharon's ‘Peace Plan' to the Palestinians in 2000, as well as the ‘Road Map' of 2002, the Palestinians were offered 42 percent of 80 percent of 22 percent of 100 percent of the land, calculated to be 7.4 percent of the initial 100 percent of land, on condition that:

1. Palestinians stop resistance to the occupation,

2. Refugees give up their right of return to their ancestral homes,

3. Palestinians agree to only elect officials acceptable to Bush and Sharon,

4. Palestinians do not object to the ‘wall' that Sharon is building,

5. Palestinians agree not to claim Jerusalem as their capital.

According to statistics from the Palestinian National Information Centre of the State Information Service, lands annexed and forcibly seized by the Israeli occupying forces since May 29, 2002 amounts to 165,951 dunums (165,951,000 square metres) of Palestinian land, mostly arable and very fertile, for the sake of constructing the apartheid wall. In addition, 61,857 dunums were bulldozed and 971,346 trees were uprooted in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. From the above data alone can be seen that the struggle for Palestine is not least a struggle for land.

Today, the so-called ‘Geneva Accord' seems to be an effort by certain parties to support the unacceptable conditions and demands of the stillborn ‘road map' by reiterating – among other things – the relinquishing of the right of return. The ‘accord' represents yet one more attempt to finish off the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Article 17 of the draft Geneva Accord includes a final clause providing for a "UN Security Council-UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the agreement and superceding previous UN resolutions".

This means that Israel will no longer be under the obligation of fulfilling the terms of Resolutions 181, 194 or 273. With this, the sinister character of the real aim of this ‘accord' is revealed: which is to whitewash Israel's long list of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a brutal occupier in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as excuse and reduce an equally long and sordid record of the US, Canada, Britain, France, and others involved in instigating and supporting these activities.

Dec 11, the 55th anniversary of the UN adoption of Resolution 194, is a day on which all right-thinking people shall declare that another world is possible: Palestine is possible, and the Palestinians can prevail by upholding the right of return as both a collective and individual right. For the Palestinian people, this remains today part and parcel of exercising their right of self-determination. It is something that cannot be hijacked by any other agenda, and it is not for sale.

*The author is affiliated with the Malaysian Sociological Research Institute.

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