On World Refugee Day, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas recalls the continued suffering of more than seven million Palestinian refugees at home and in the diaspora, due to the occupation that continues to practice its terrorism and criminality against our Palestinian land, people, and holy sites, in a desperate attempt to break the will of our steadfast Palestinian people and to obscure the role of Palestinian refugees in defending their identity and national rights, at the forefront of which is liberation and return.

On World Refugee Day, as we salute all the refugees of our Palestinian people in all their places, value their active role in our national liberation project and their sacrifices in preserving their national identity, we affirm the following:

First: The Zionist occupation of our land and its perpetration of the displacement, discrimination, and racial segregation crimes against our Palestinian people for more than seven decades is the reason for the continuation of the tragedy and suffering of millions of Palestinian refugees, at home and in the diaspora. The only solution to our refugee issue is the removal of the occupation from our land.

Second: The right of return for refugees is an individual and collective right, sanctioned by international laws and charters and UN resolutions, and no one has the right to retreat from it, neglect it, bargain over it, or give it up. We renew our rejection of all solutions that seek to overthrow the refugee issue and end the right of return.

Third: We reaffirm the right of Palestinian refugees to political participation and representation in our national institutions, and the need to activate their role in our struggle project until liberation and return.

Fourth: We refuse to transfer the services or delegate the powers of UNRWA to any other party.  We stress the need for this agency to assume its responsibility in providing services, health care, education, and others until the refugees return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced.

Fifth: We affirm our rejection of resettlement. We call on the host countries and all human rights and humanitarian institutions to stand with the Palestinian refugees, to provide them with full human and social rights, and the requirements of a decent life until liberation and return.

Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas
Monday: 20 June 2022