After the reconciliation agreement, and as the refugees community prepares for commemorating the 63rd anniversary of al-Nakba (Catastrophe), all the Palestinian factions seem to be on one track.

After the reconciliation agreement, and as the refugees community prepares for commemorating the 63rd anniversary of al-Nakba (Catastrophe), all the Palestinian factions seem to be on one track.

Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Fatah all gathered in the Lebanese capital to organize the Return to Palestine March, which expected to take place Sunday in the border village of Maroun al-Ras.

Palestinian groups’ representatives were present in the meeting, exchanging points of views and proposing solutions for the obstacles their rallies could face.

The overall atmosphere was full of enthusiasm. Many Palestinians, whether in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, or Syria, who had vowed not to visit their host country’s borders with Palestine, because of their inability to bear seeing their land without being able to set foot on its ground, will break that pledge on Sunday.

The Palestinian activist, Yasser Ali

Participants confirmed that mass groups are to march towards all the occupied country’s fenced borders, to tell the Zionist entity and the International Community supporting it, that the Palestinian identity will always exist and the Palestinians will soon return to their beloved homeland.

In the meeting, general coordinator of the “Return to Palestine March” of Lebanon, Yasser Ali, assured that “this year’s project differs from previous ones: “Today we are united to organize one common commemoration event.”

In an interview with Al Manar website, Ali pointed out that “Egypt’s revolution had a major role in the Palestinian agreement. The Egyptian youth was able to unite the controversial Egyptian groups in one square, until we started seeing a Christian citizen assisting his Muslim fellow in pouring for him the water ablution.”

The Palestinian activist clarified that the March’s idea emerged in February when news on Hosni Mubarak’s oust started circulating.

“The idea started with a Facebook page under the name of The Third Intifada, and the Israeli stupidity contributed to its activation when Israelis filed a complaint to the Facebook administration against the page that gathered 250,000 members and caused its closure. In response, hundreds of pages started spreading under the same name,” Ali added.

The rally’s general coordinator told Al Manar that “we are sure that Sunday’s rally will be a step towards a persistent Intifada (uprising). 15th of May is a new beginning.

He further assured that the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are confident they will “return” even after a while, citing the statistic conducted by the march’s organizing committee which revealed that 89% of the Palestinians believe that their return is inevitable.

Ali highlighted the diversity of ages in all the Right of Return events. He referred to an old saying that “older ones die and younger ones forget”, stressing that the Palestinian case differs as “the Israelis are stuck in the conflict, because the Palestinians are never to forget their right.”

The meeting touched as well on Palestine’s history in three scenes; the first was the horrifying exodus of 1948, the second is the reverse exodus of 2011, when Palestinians march towards their seized lands along with their sons and grandsons, and the third should be the scene of liberation, the inevitable scene of liberation..


Interviewed by Eslam al-Rihani & Israa al-Fas;
Translated by Sara Taha.