The General Delegation of the PLO to the US commemorates the 64th anniversary of Al Nakba, a national day of grief and sorrow for our people. In 1948, a whole nation was uprooted from its ancestral land, and thousands became refugees overnight marking the start of the Palestinian saga.
For years, the Israelis have systematically destroyed our villages and erased them from the face of the earth, renamed streets to change their identities, and rewrote history to deny our connection to our historic land of Palestine. But, Israel has miserably failed to erase our memories and our attachment to the land of our forefathers.
We embarked on a path to end the conflict in 1988 when we accepted to exercise our right to self-determination on merely 22% of our native homeland. Despite the historical compromise we made then for the sake of peace, our people and land is still under a brutal Israeli military occupation. Israel is more defiant than ever, blatantly refusing to respect international law and to end its human rights violations against the Palestinian people.
“The struggle that began on the day of Al Nakba continues until today,” said?Ambassador Areikat. Millions of Palestinians are still scattered throughout the world without a homeland to return to. Other millions are living under dire conditions in refugee camps, and the rest are suffering from an intolerable military occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories. “Without the Palestinian people having their freedom, and their independent and sovereign state, there will be no peace, security and stability in the region,” Ambassador Areikat added.
On this day, the General Delegation of the PLO to the US reaffirms its commitment to the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine and the Diaspora. It is also an occasion to reiterate our commitment to a just, honorable, and lasting peace based on a two-state solution and a just and agreed resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem based on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.?It is an occasion to reaffirm our resolve, resilience, and perseverance to achieve the objectives of our people.
