[news] Palestinian refugees struggle to return: Musa Al-Hindi visits Vancouver

[givara gaza]

Palestinian refugees struggle to return: Musa Al-Hindi visits Vancouver

by Derrick O’Keefe

"International law also says that Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return, if they choose to. The physical space and resources are there, what’s absent is the political will on the part of the international community," Musa Al-Hindi, July 29, 2004. 

Community organisations and solidarity activists played host in late July to Palestinian refugee and Omaha, Nebraska-based activist Musa Al-Hindi, who addressed two public meetings while visiting Vancouver, B.C.

On Thursday, July 29, the Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG) held a forum featuring Al-Hindi at Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre campus. Itrath Syed, a PSG member and a New Democratic Party candidate in the recent federal election, chaired the event and introduced Al-Hindi, a member of Al-Awda, the Palestine right to return coalition.

The presentation sketched the history of the refugee issue in the context of the Palestinian national liberation movement past and present. Born in Lebanon in 1965, he is one of over five million refugees descended from the hundreds of thousands that were dispossessed during the Nakba of 1948 and during Israel’s subsequent wars of expansion. Al-Hindi linked his social activism to the "existential" struggle of the Palestinian people of which he is part, saying, "some may be accused of speaking on behalf of refugees, of Palestinians, but you can’t accuse me of this; this is my struggle." 

In an interview following the forum, the speaker described the genesis of the Al-Awda coalition in North America, lamenting the lack of focus on refugee issues today:

"There was a one day conference [in 2000], and the second day was a meeting of activists, who said ‘we need to go beyond just a conference. We need to have a movement, an organization and a coalition around the issue of right of return, as a central issue.’ If you study political and social movements, it is rare that the resources, the skills and the timing of the launching of the movement are all present at the same time. And with Al-Awda, they were. In 2000, there were conferences everywhere, the whole talk was around final status and right of return; it was in the air. It was not like today, where the issue is buried." 

Musa al-Hindi’s presentation was an incisive look at the plight of Palestinian refugees, and an inspirational report on their resilient movement to achieve justice. One self-described Zionist in the audience asked about the refugees accepting compensation instead of return and was flatly rebuked, as al-Hindi noted that under United Nations resolution 194 and international law Palestinians in the diaspora are entitled to compensation and return. 

The following evening, Friday, July 30, al-Hindi was a keynote speaker at a successful fund-raising dinner for the Palestine Community Centre in Vancouver attended by over 100 people. The centre is less than a year-old, but has already become a hub for the local community as well as for grassroots activist organizations in the city, providing services such as English and Arabic language instruction and citizenship exam preparation. 



North America’s Al-Awda movement has a number of campaigns planned over the coming year to disseminate the plight and struggle of Palestinian refugees, and to be part of a movement that can effectively fight against Israel’s apartheid policies. The Al-Awda conference is slated for Spring 2005, and will likely be held in California, so that, as Musa Al-Hindi noted, "it’s easier for you guys [in western Canada] to drive there."

 

For more information:

Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, www.al-awda.org/ 

Palestine Solidarity Group (Vancouver), www.palsolidaritygrp.org/ 

Palestine Community Centre (Vancouver), www.palestinecommunitycentre.org/ 

 
 





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