Al Awda, the Palestine Right of Return Movement affirms that the Palestinian Arab people, regardless of their religious affiliation, are indigenous to Palestine. Therefore, they are entitled to live anywhere in Palestine which encompasses present-day “Israel”, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Al-Awda regards the Israeli definition of Jewish nationals, granting exclusive rights to citizenship and land to any Jew from anywhere in the world, as part of the racism and discrimination inherent in Zionist ideology, which underlies the policies and laws of the colonial occupation state of Israel.
Al-Awda unequivocally supports the fundamental, inalienable, historical, legal, individual and collective rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their original towns, villages and lands anywhere in Palestine from which they were expelled. Al-Awda also unequivocally supports the rights of all Palestinian refugees to compensation for damages inflicted on their property and lives, and to restitution of all destroyed and confiscated property. All Palestinians are entitled to the rights to self-determination, to political, economic and civil equality, and to live in a single democratic state for all its citizens in all of Palestine. The Palestinian national identity encompasses more than 5.5 million people living in exile, more than 2.5 million living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and more than 1.2 million living within the areas of Palestine controlled by the Israeli occupation since 1948.
Al-Awda firmly stands against the continued displacement of Palestinians, the construction of illegal Jewish-only colonies in the form of residential settlements, the racist confiscation of land and the demolition of homes since 1948. Al-Awda firmly stands against the collective punishment of Palestinians, and all violations of Palestinian civil, economic, political, national and human rights. Al-Awda abhors and condemns the use of massacres and abuse of civilians to further the expansion of Israel to the detriment of Palestinian society.
Al-Awda supports the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and views it as a struggle against all forms of colonialism. This struggle is inseparable from the universal and labor struggles for social, economic and national equality, development, justice and freedom against an imposed global new world order. Al-Awda upholds all of the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. Al-Awda also upholds the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (Pub. L. 99-440) and the American Convention on Human Rights.
Al-Awda respects, recognizes, and supports the central role of Palestinian women in the struggle for national liberation and the right to return. This includes the leadership of Palestinian women in the right to return movement.
Al-Awda will work to educate the public about Israeli injustices the US government subsidizes with billions of dollars annually. Until the dismantlement of the exclusionary and racist character of Israel, and until all Palestinians are granted the right to return and achieve equality, Al-Awda is united in working for and demanding:
- An end to all US political, military and economic aid to Israel
- The divestment of all public and private entities from all Israeli corporations and American corporations with subsidiaries operating within Israel
- An end to the investment of Labor Union members’ pension funds in Israel
- The boycott of all Israeli products
- The right to return for all Palestinian refugees to their original towns, villages and lands with compensation for damages inflicted on their property and lives
- The right for all Palestinian refugees to full restitution of all confiscated and destroyed property
- The formation of an independent, democratic state for all its citizens in all of Palestine
