On the 56th anniversary of “NAKBA”, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said Saturday that no power in the entire world has the right to make concessions on the right to return of the Palestinian refugees.

Arafat repeatedly called on the Palestinian people to be steadfast in their struggle against the Israeli occupation as well as to cling to their superb national unity which could deter the Israeli aggression.

President Arafat said, in a speech broadcast live on Palestine television, “We have proved that the Nakba, which caused harm to millions of Palestinian refugees, is not a fate that we cannot resist. It is possible to fight for this homeland and the holy places, and return to them, believing in the justice of our cause.”

“Acts of sacrifice, determination and revolution have sent a message to the world that Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian nation and it has no other, and it will not accept an alternative to its homeland,” said Arafat.

In addition, Arafat said that the Israeli government could not exonerate itself from its moral, political and international responsibility as well as its decisions concerning the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) which befell the Palestinian people.

“The right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes is a sacred and inalienable right that is internationally protected and endorsed, stating that this right is heroically defended by the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli occupation, colonization and against the Apartheid Wall of Annexation and expansion, and in defense of our Christian and Islamic sanctuaries.

President Arafat concluded that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land is doomed to failure.

Throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Palestinians marked Saturday, May 15, 2004, as the 56th anniversary of Nakba, which coincides with Israel’s founding, standing with heads bowed as sirens wailed from minarets at noon.

Thousands then marched through the streets carrying banners with the names of Palestinian towns and villages now either razed or renamed in Israel.

(With thanks to IMRA for noting this site)
 www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_05/082.html

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