|
| SUBSCRIBE TO ADL'S ONLINE NEWSLETTERS
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
U.S. Anti-Israel Activity
|
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Ideology
|
Posted: August 14, 2007
Al-Awda was established in April 2000 in response to the ongoing peace negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, to advocate for the “right” of Palestinian refugees to return “to their homes and lands of origin” that existed prior to the founding of Israel.
Al-Awda advocates for the establishment of a Palestinian state over all the territory west of the Jordan River, including Israel. It explicitly states that all “Palestinian Arab people…are indigenous to Palestine” and “are entitled to live anywhere in Palestine which encompasses present-day ‘Israel,’ the West Bank and Gaza Strip.” Its unwillingness to accept Israel’s existence is exemplified by a slogan “Palestine Will Be Free From the River to the Sea,” which is frequently heard at Al-Awda events and is sold by Al-Awda on t-shirts. Furthermore, Al-Awda supports compensating all Palestinian refugees for what its claims are “damages inflicted on their property and lives.”
Al-Awda considers its advocacy on behalf of Palestinians as being at the center of a global revolutionary struggle against Zionism, which it views as inherently racist. According to Al-Awda’s Points of Unity, a document defining the group’s beliefs and objectives, “the ‘Israeli’ definition of Jewish nationals [is] part of the racism and discrimination inherent in Zionist ideology which underlies the policies and laws of the settler state of ‘Israel.’”
Al-Awda seeks to isolate Israel and punish it economically through several boycott and divestment campaigns, including Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG), which promotes divestment from Israel and the boycotting of Israeli products and leisure tourism. The BIG campaign, launched in April 2002, was co-founded by Mazin Qumsiyeh, Al-Awda’s then-media coordinator. Al-Awda’s involvement in the campaign to stop Caterpillar, Inc. from selling equipment to Israel is another example of its effort to force companies to stop doing business with Israel (Caterpillar is often targeted by groups like Al-Awda because its machinery is used by the Israeli military in the Palestinian territories).
Al-Awda has also played a prominent role in the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM), an umbrella organization of anti-Israel groups that promotes divestment from Israel. The PSM’s fourth annual conference, held at Duke University in October 2004, was organized in part by Al-Awda Wisconsin representative Fayyad Sbaihat, who was also one of the conference’s national contacts. During the event, Mazin Qumsiyeh called Zionism “a disease” and claimed that the violence in the Middle East started with “the idea that the land belongs to the Jewish people.”
During the second PSM conference, held in 2002 at the University of Michigan, Al-Awda representatives sold T-shirts inscribed with its slogan, “Intifada! Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” which is indicative of the group’s unwillingness accept the existence of the Israel.
|
|
|
|
|
