DaysofPal— Marking World Refugee Day, observed annually on June 20, the 302 Organization for the Defense of Refugee Rights has reaffirmed the right of approximately eight million Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, highlighting the enduring nature of their displacement.
In a statement issued on the occasion, the organization described the Palestinian refugee crisis as the longest-running case of displacement in modern history, spanning more than 78 years.
The crisis began with the mass expulsion of Palestinians before and after the 1948 Nakba.
According to the organization, around 935,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced during the events of 1948.
Today, that number has grown to over eight million refugees worldwide, including more than six million registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The group accused the Israeli occupation of continuing to deny Palestinian refugees their right of return, as outlined in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.
It argued that this denial persists amid international inaction and the double standards within the United Nations system.
The statement also noted that UNRWA was established in 1949 as part of the framework linked to Resolution 194 and the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, with the mandate to provide education, healthcare, and relief services to refugees until their return.
In this context, the organization called on donor countries to ensure sustained funding for UNRWA, stressing that such support represents a political, legal, and moral obligation rather than a form of charity.
Continued funding, it said, is essential for maintaining services across the agency’s five areas of operation, including 58 official refugee camps and hundreds of Palestinian communities.
The organization further urged the United Nations to uphold the political, legal, and humanitarian principles upon which UNRWA was founded, to end the selective application of international standards, and to pressure the Israeli occupation to both cease actions targeting the agency and implement the right of return.
Concluding its statement, the organization emphasized that World Refugee Day should serve as an opportunity to renew international commitment to the rights of Palestinian refugees, foremost among them the right of return, and to acknowledge the global community’s responsibility for their continued suffering since 1948.
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