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In a 27 August statement from its coordinating committee, the US Palestinian Communities Network (USPCN) wrote:
We call on all Palestinian and Arab community associations, societies and committees, student organizations, solidarity campaigns, to reject fully and unequivocally the Statehood initiative as a distraction that unjustifiably and irresponsibly endangers Palestinian rights and institutions.
Endangering Palestinian rights
Like the BNC, the USPCN statement emphasizes that fundamental Palestinian rights, not statehood remain the core of Palestinian efforts:
As has been recently revealed, this initiative in no way protects nor advances our inalienable, and internationally recognized, rightsfundamental of which are our right to return to the homes and properties from which we were forcibly expelled, our right to self-determination, and our right to resist the settler colonial regime that has occupied our land for more than 63 years.
The Palestinian people, wherever they are, hold these rights. They are non-negotiable. No one can barter them away for false promises of peace and stability. The cynical irony of turning a UN resolution enshrining our right to return under international law (UNGA Res. 194) into a rhetorical ploy should give anyone pause. That it is being advanced at a time when the PA does not even have the political mandate of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through Palestinian Legislative Council elections must also give us pause.
USPCN also urged Palestinians and allies to attend a 15 September rally at the United Nations in New York For Palestine and the Right of Return.
Palestinian Americans "unequivocally reject" PA's UN statehood bid | The Electronic Intifada
We call on all Palestinian and Arab community associations, societies and committees, student organizations, solidarity campaigns, to reject fully and unequivocally the Statehood initiative as a distraction that unjustifiably and irresponsibly endangers Palestinian rights and institutions.
Endangering Palestinian rights
Like the BNC, the USPCN statement emphasizes that fundamental Palestinian rights, not statehood remain the core of Palestinian efforts:
As has been recently revealed, this initiative in no way protects nor advances our inalienable, and internationally recognized, rightsfundamental of which are our right to return to the homes and properties from which we were forcibly expelled, our right to self-determination, and our right to resist the settler colonial regime that has occupied our land for more than 63 years.
The Palestinian people, wherever they are, hold these rights. They are non-negotiable. No one can barter them away for false promises of peace and stability. The cynical irony of turning a UN resolution enshrining our right to return under international law (UNGA Res. 194) into a rhetorical ploy should give anyone pause. That it is being advanced at a time when the PA does not even have the political mandate of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza through Palestinian Legislative Council elections must also give us pause.
USPCN also urged Palestinians and allies to attend a 15 September rally at the United Nations in New York For Palestine and the Right of Return.
Palestinian Americans "unequivocally reject" PA's UN statehood bid | The Electronic Intifada
