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On Naksa Anniversary: Elders Die and Youths Further Adhere to Return Right

On Naksa Anniversary: Elders Die and Youths Further Adhere to Return Right
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Alintiqad Exclusive

Sidon - By Amine Shoumar


The Palestinian refugees of the Diaspora camps in southern Lebanon have altered "the June-6 Naksa (the Setback) Anniversary into a day of unity, consolidation, and return to Palestine. Thus, the Palestinian refugee camps responded to the Palestinian parties' and forces' call for the general strike. The camps included Mieh Mieh Camp in eastern Sidon (Seida), Ein al-Helwe Camp (of the biggest area and number of refugees in Lebanon), in addition to the following camps: El-borghlieh, Shabriha, El-Buss, Jal al-bahr, Rashidieh, and Burj al-Shemali in Sur (Tyr).

On Naksa Anniversary: Elders Die and Youths Further Adhere to Return Right


Therefore, most of the shops, institutions, grocery markets, and UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) clinics closed, and the heavy activity of the camps began to slack off until the roads were empty. Besides, many Palestinians remained home to keep up with the incidents of this Day reported by local and satellite channels. The refugees posted flags and signs, iterating their right to return to their homeland (Palestine) and confirming that "only power retrieves what power has seized." A series of public meetings, gatherings, sit-ins, and symposiums was held, too, in order to reiterate the adherence to the return right as it is both an individual and a public right guaranteed by all international conventions and as this right can't be abolished by making further concessions.

The Palestinian crowds confirmed that there would be no regional stability unless the Palestinian people's requests were achieved, whereby the right to return to the Palestinian homeland and properties ranks on top of these requests. Through the Palestinian people's moves today, several messages were sent. The first one, sent to the international community and the United Nations International Organization, said it was time to put a firm end to the "Israeli" tyranny and to work seriously on applying the resolutions relative to the Palestinian cause, especially the Resolution 194 that guarantees the return right to the homeland, from which the Palestinians were dislodged in 1948. Also, the message conveyed that it was time for the Amnesty International to handle its ethical and political responsibility as regards the Palestinian cause and to quit its double policy and perfect bias to the "Israeli" enemy.

As for the second message, which was for the different parties of the Lebanese political leadership, it conveyed that the Palestinian refugees firmly refused to be settled on any Lebanese or other land as well as to be dislodged. Besides, the message said that the only choice of the Palestinian people was the return right to their homes and properties in Palestine - whatever the cost was. The message added that they were fully ready to sacrifice their lives in order to make their way back to Palestine; thus, the Palestinians' cause wasn't a security cause; it must rather be treated as an excellently political one.

Furthermore, the third message addressed the Arabic Nation and called it to reconsider its stances on "Israel" and the relation with it, for there would be no regional stability as long as "Israel" occupied even a few inches of the Arabic lands, also as long as "Israel" refused the Palestinians' right to have a state of perfect sovereignty with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as capital, and as long as "Israel" refused to acknowledge the Palestinian refugees' right to return to Palestine in accordance with the Resolution 194.

With respect to the fourth message, it addressed the Zionist enemy, saying that it was of no use but illusion for the enemy to bet that time would change the return right into history, whereby the "May-15 Uprising" occurred this year to confirm that "as the elders die, the youths further adhere to the return right." Moreover, the message conveyed that the incidents of the "Return March" - starting with Maroun al-Ras through the Syrian Majdal Shams, reaching the West Bank, Gaza, and the lands of 1948 - represented a unique move of foreshadowing a new stage.
For instance, at Ein al-Hilweh Camp, the fighter "Abu al-Feda al-Khatib" lowered the Palestinian flag at his headquarters entrance to commemorate the Naksa Anniversary, which took place in June in 1967. Then he stood steadily facing a giant picture of the gone Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat, the former President of the Palestinian National Authority [PNA]), making a military salutation and iterating briefly, "We keep our vow that we will free Palestine, build a state with the honorable al-Quds as capital, and return to Palestine.

Actually, "Abu al-Feda" had been planning to head towards the Lebanese borders to participate in the public protests countering the "Israeli" occupants with the words "We're returning." However, the decision of the security and political Lebanese authorities prevented him from achieving his aim, whereby the Lebanese Army had made the decision to prohibit the entrance of any Palestinian to the regions below the Litany River. He stressed that "it's a long struggle, and we shall never despair."
As for the seventy-four-year-old "Haj Abu Saleh al-Ali" from Akka (Acre), he said that the defeat that coerced the people to leave their land was upon the lack of perfect awareness and upon receiving orders from certain commands that caused the loss of Palestine."
Furthermore, the eighty-year-old "Haj Abu Khalil Dahshah" from al-Ras al-Ahmar Village said, "I wish we had adhered to the Palestinian land rather than leaving it, for we had been living in paradise."
The seventy-year-old "Om Khaled Ashayeb" from Akka (Acre) spoke out, "We shall keep our vow. No people have tolerated what we have tolerated or tasted the bitterness of dislodgement, refuge, and being away from homeland as we've done."

As for the eighty-year-old "Haj Sa'id al-Yusuf", he sighed before he bitterly retold how the Jews encompassed his village, Taytabah, with a barrage and entered it to mess it up and demolish it. Also, he reiterated that it was illusory for the Zionists to think that time would put an end to the Palestinians' bond with their land and country, for Palestine - enduring the martyrs' blood, the detainees' tortures, and the wounded people's pains - lived deep in their hearts and minds. Such fact would continue to wound the Palestinians' hearts until their land was free and independent.
Furthermore, in Rashidieh Camp, a man was wounded as the "Palestinian Military Kifah (Struggle)" members shot fire in an attempt to prevent a group of excited and angry youths from setting rubber tires on fire at the entrance of the Camp, close to a Lebanese-Army checkpoint. Yet, some Palestinian youths carried out a sit-in in Burj el-Shemali Camp in Sur (Tyr), shouting out loud in advocacy for their return to Palestine.

This occurred while the Lebanese Army executed firm security procedures and deployed soldiers intensively along the borders in the region below the Litany River. The Army declared a general alert in accordance with "Measure 3" and dispatched its patrols - along with the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon) patrols - alongside the Lebanese border including Fatima Gate (the Good Fence Crossing), Adaisseh, Marjeyoun, and Maroun al-Ras. Prior to that, the Army had intensified its security and military procedures in the outskirts of Mieh Mieh Camp, Ein al-Hilweh, and Rashidieh Camps and had set firm checkpoints on many roads in Sidon City. Besides, the Army deployed its soldiers widely along the coastal way starting with Sidon through Sur until An-Naqurah, also starting with Az-Zahrani through Kfar Tebnit Delta. The Army accurately checked the identities of the pedestrians entering the region below Litani River and prohibited any Palestinian from entering it without having a prior pronouncement.


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