BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

Demonstration, London, 9 June 2007 © Enough Occupation Campaign.
Politics and the Question of Palestinian Refugees and IDPs
between Jews and Palestinians; Israel’s recognition of its responsibility for the Nakba; acknowledgement of the
status and rights of Palestinians as an indigenous people and national minority; and respect for the right to social,
religious, cultural and national ties with the rest of the Palestinian people. 84 Similar proposals are being informally
debated among civil society organizations and networks in the OPT and Israel. The Israeli organization Zochrot,
for example, believes that any solution to the conflict “must include equal rights for all the peoples of this land,
including the right of Palestinians to return to their homes.” 85
5.4.3 International Human Rights Organizations
Human rights organizations continue to remind the parties to the conflict and states of their obligations under
international law. In 2005, for instance, Human Rights Watch noted in a letter to US President George W. Bush that
despite international condemnation, “the international community, including the United States, has failed to hold
Israel accountable to its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention to cease Israeli settlement activity.” 86
In 2006, Amnesty International reaffirmed that “the right to return to one’s own country is based in international
law and is the most obvious way to redress the situation of those who are in exile.” 87 In a statement to the Quartet,
it also noted that:
[t]he history of the conflict and the repeated failure of previous peace initiatives, in which human rights
were subordinated to political considerations, stand as compelling evidence that such an approach will
bring neither durable peace nor security and, indeed, may further exacerbate the divisions and hamper
the search for peace. A durable resolution, one which guarantees peace and security to both Israelis
and Palestinians, can only be achieved if key problems which have been left to fester are addressed in
a constructive manner, on the basis of respect for human rights and international law. 88
The organization also recommended that the Quartet “not continue to subordinate fundamental human rights
to political considerations, and … put in place concrete mechanisms to ensure that all parties comply with their
obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law.” 89
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