PRESS RELEASE

Contact: info@pac-usa.org Tel 281 827 5934
From: Palestinian American Council www.pac-usa.org

We are a diverse group of citizens and organizations who support applying human rights for all people. We are immensely and painfully aware that the establishment of Israel in 1948 led to the largest and most persistent refugee catastrophe (NAKBA) in the modern human history.

This fifteenth of May marks the sixty third anniversary of the Palestinian NAKBA; when indigenous Palestinians were forcefully uprooted and displaced from their own homes and lands in a systematic ethnic cleansing carried out by the organized Zionist terrorist armed militias.

In 1948 more than 800,000 Palestinians out of the 1.4 million population at the time; living in 1,300 Palestinian towns and villages were driven out of their homes and lands. Israel controlled 774 towns and villages and destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages during the NAKBA. The atrocities of Israeli forces also included more than 70 heinous massacres during NAKBA resulted in the killing of 15,000 Palestinians.

Currently, three quarters of the Palestinian population are displaced. One out of every 3 refugees in the world is Palestinian. Today, 63 years later, more than 7 million Palestinians are waiting to return home.

Those of us who are Jewish say, “Not in our name!”
As US taxpayers we say, “Not with our money!” The 15 million dollars PER DAY that the US government gives to Israel does not reflect our desires or our priorities.
As people who care about equality, justice, and human rights, we say, "Not on our watch!"

Israel must comply with international law, and recognize the undisputable and inevitable Palestinian refugees’ right of return according to UN Resolution 194.

Today, we declare that Palestinian NAKBA cannot be forgotten, overlooked, or compromised, that Palestinian history cannot be erased, that Palestinian voices cannot be silenced!

The Israeli occupation to the Palestinian land is the root cause of all instabilities and insecurities in the Middle East, and the world. The Palestinian refugees’ right of return is the core of the Middle East conflict.

We call on President Obama to:

* Reject and consider null and void any and all unilateral Israeli actions that impact the demography and geography of the occupied Palestinian and Arab land; including but not limited to building settlements and separation walls.
* Withstand all lobbyists’ pressures; instead, pursue the US interests in having a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in the Middle East.
* Play the role of the honest broker in the Middle East conflict, and use the US leverage to have Israel comply with international law which entails the withdrawal from all Arab occupied land in 1967 including East Jerusalem.
* Guaranteeing the Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homes and land and compensation, according to UN Resolution 194.
* Follow the rest of the International community, and recognize the independent Palestinian State that Palestinians determined to declare at the UN in September, 2011.