Re: [R-G] "Tikkun Community Reaffirms Its Commitment to UFPJ"

[Juan Fajardo <fajardos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Macdonald Stainsby  wrote:

> > The following letter was sent to the Forward:
> >
> > Tikkun Community Reaffirms Its Commitment to UFPJ
> >
> > The Tikkun Community would like to clarify its position in regard to
> > the alleged schism in UFPJ headlined in the September 5th article
> > (Peace Front Faces Schism Over 'Right Of Return').  We have long
> > espoused the principle that any solution leading to peace in the
> > Middle East must provide for the viability of both the Israeli and
> > Palestinian states.  That principle includes the terms of any right of
> > return agreement that will eventually be worked out.
>
>
> What exactly is there to work out?


Well, for example, return to where precisely:  Back to the Palestinian
territories, or back to areas within the state of Israel?

Or, who can return?  Do those born abroad have the right of "return"?
If so, for how many generations?    Is that right automatic, or are
there conditions --proof of former residence, exit in or after 1947,
renunciation of other citizenship?  What of the status of the "refugees"
and "stateless" Palestinians in surrounding countries -- will they be
forced back or allowed to remain in their present homes?

Most of these details will have to be worked out by the Palestinians
themselves, but if the establishment of a Palestinian state presumes
that there will be a recognition by the Palestinian authority of an
Israeli state, then on some of those details the Israelis will have to
be given a say.

Yes, of course, we take the Palestinian right of return as a given, but
like any right it is bounded by social and practical limits in its
actual exercise.

All that, of course, is quite apart from the question of whether
Palestine can absorb all those people coming back, or will they, like
the Salvadorans, have to win the right to return for refugees only to
have to basically beg them not to excersise it as the economy a) could
not cover an influx of people, and b) could not do without the money
those people sent from abroad every month.

- juan



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