New campaign highlights right of return by collecting Palestinians’ signatures

A campaign aiming to collect the signatures of as many Palestinian refugees as possible from all over the world has been launched by the London-based Palestinian Return Centre in cooperation with national and international Palestinian partners.

The initiative “Return is my right and my decision” began last month in Beirut, Lebanon, and seeks to collect the largest number of signatures through a platform on its website for a petition rejecting the US endeavours to negate Palestinians’ refugee status and the internationally-recognised right of return.

Volunteers from the campaign toured Al Nasr refugee camp last week in the Jordanian capital Amman in an attempt to garner signatures expressing their non-negotiable commitment and right of return to their homeland, Palestine.

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The Right of Return is a universally recognised right in international refugee law, human rights law, the law of nationality and the law of state responsibility.

The right is formulated in several modern treaties and conventions, most notably in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention. The Geneva Conventions, it has been argued, have passed into customary international law and that the right of return is binding on non-signatories to the conventions.

Yahya Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Saud, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of Palestine in the Jordanian House of Representatives, said: “The campaign aimed to collect one million signatures of Palestinian refugees residing on the land of the Hashemite Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in order to place the United Nations in front of its responsibilities towards them, and to confirm that this right does not fall with time, and the Palestinians will not give it up.”

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According to Teller Report, the Speaker of the King’s Council, Faisal Al-Fayez, said during the campaign launch that all Palestinian refugees must return to their homeland and be compensated, and that the Kingdom of Jordan announced its eternal solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The international campaign – also launched in Jordan and Turkey – denounces Donald Trump’s “peace plan” that is heavily weighted in Israel’s favour.

The so-called “Peace Plan” presented by Trump and his administration as the ultimate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been overwhelmingly rejected by Palestinians and their leadership, as it was a deal that was negotiated only between Israel and America.