Veteran campaigner calls for end of suffering of all refugees, including the Palestinians

The Head of the Popular International Committee to Support Gaza has called for to end to the suffering of all refugees around the world, including the Palestinians whose situation is generally regarded to be the oldest and longest crisis in the world. Dr Essam Yousef made his comments on the occasion of World Refugee Day, an annual commemoration approved by the UN General Assembly in 2000.

The veteran campaigner said in a press statement that wars and political instability around the world, and in the Arab region in particular, continue to force millions of people to flee for their safety. The majority of the refugees then suffer as a result of their host countries’ concerns about their growing numbers. As a result, many are deprived of even basic human rights.

The conflicts in the Arab world, explained Yousef, are fuelled by international agendas. Refugees suffer from the consequent unimaginable mass destruction, as well as discrimination based on political, ethnic, religious and other difference.

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“The Zionist occupation and its creators from the colonial countries,” he pointed out, “seek to dominate the Arab world politically and economically. They are responsible for the strife and conspiracies that are being plotted in the Arab countries, and have ignited wars resulting in the suffering of Arab and Palestinian refugees and increased violations of their human rights.”

The humanitarian activist called on the Palestinian people to unite in order to challenge the Israeli occupation, determine their own fate, claim their rights to their occupied land and sanctuaries, and ensure the return of refugees to their homes from which they were displaced. All refugees, including the Palestinians, have a legitimate right to return to their home. Israel has denied the Palestinians of this right for more than 70 years of occupation.

Yousef also called on the Arab countries to remain vigilant, united and cooperative with each other, and to reunite families of displaced people and refugees. The objective, he added, should be to confront the conspiracies against their existence and sovereignty, and perpetuate the principles of brotherhood and solidarity.