|| OLE BLU UP FR Meh Rat r COS | VV | RO LR 1A | MAI La a ee a nT Oe

stllian populations is illegal

aN8S one of t i :
délte he crimes com

Ns Conference was deli-
gh"airman of the PHRC. Fol-
mf Speech:

vf the issues of

* | peace and
odttimately than they are in
Hen the state of Israel and

a l
mible manifestation of this

d@ Israeli occupation of the
iH810ns of Palestine. But it
‘2 OCCupation that the

~atians have been violated

] F be seen as merely the
°n of Palestinian human
ee lives of the Palesti-

uth century. The history

Pens the past 60 years has,

fOntinuing denial of their:

| le and live in peace in

efty of Palestinian rights to
ale East peace, our work
p< So that the continuing
riOuld be arrested and the
nlsed. :
1@Mpaign to undo the his-
aut we do seek to create
j#St where the legitimate
#ans can be realized —
te-ise their right to exist as
pile.

gt the difficulties we face.
4 in the U.S. about the
gS and in some quarters
en a discussion of their
e& insensitivity and even
1 S handling of the situa-

¥ Point to the U.S.-USSR .

T 1977. We, like many
nie declaration’s éxpres-
jte Tights of the Palesti-

nians.’’ But no sooner was the ink dry on that declara-

- tion than the U.S. unilaterally began to define away

“legitimate rights’’ — so that by the present day there

-areno longer any substantive Palestinian rights being

recognized by the U.S. administration or Congress.
The rights of the Palestinians have been totally denied
by the state of Israel.

As long as the entire Palestinian homeland is oc-
cupied.and the Palestinian people are brutalized by a
military administration, and as long as they, the op-
pressed people of the region, are denied even their
most elementary rights — then there can be no real
peace discussion, no reconciliation. It is the Palesti-
nians who need protection, security and international
guarantees. It is they who need the support of those
who are concerned with peace and human rights.

Thus in order to change public opinion in the U.S.
to recognize the nature of the occupation of Palesti-
nian lands, and the danger of a new war erupting, as

long as that occupation continues, our Palestine ~

Human Rights Campaign says that Palestinian
human rights must be recognized in the U.S. They
must be addressed first, for they are the fundamental
key to build peace with justice in the Middle East.
In both the continuing denial of Palestinian rights,
and the resultant maintenance of tension in the Mid-
dle East,.we in the U.S. bear a special responsibility.
World public opinion has already demonstrated that it
recognizes Palestinian rights and the need to include
these rights in any peace formula. In UN votes récog-

nizing the rights of the Palestinians, the U.S. stands

virtually alone in its opposition. And it is the U.S.
military aid which sustains Israel’s intransigence and
thereby maintains the occupation and the state of war
in the Middle East.

Therefore, we recognize that. if we are-able to
change U.S. policy vis a vis the Palestinians, we can
help to remove one major stumbling block to peace.

Our campaign, therefore, seeks to change U.S.
public opinion, to mobilize pressure to change U.S.
policy. Thus our national conference is specifically
designed to outline the campaigns that we must carry
out nationally in-order to build this new U.S. consen-

_sus that supports Palestinian rights — so that we can

help to build a real U.S. peace movement that recog-

hizes the central issues at stake in establishing a Mid-

dle East peace. -

WE SHALL REMAIN

lt is a thousand times easier

For you
To pass an elephant through the needle’s
eye

To catch fried fish in the milky way

To plow the sea

To teach the alligator speech

A thousand times easier

Than smothering with your oppression
The spark of an idea.

Here we shall remain

A wall on your chests.

We wash dishes

And serve drinks to the masters.
We mop the floors in the dark kitchens
To extract a piece of bread

From your blue teeth

For the little ones.

Here we shall remain

A wall on your chests
We starve,-

Go naked,

Sing songs

And fill the streets

With demonstrations
And the jails with pride.

— Toufiq Zayyad, Palestinian poet and mayor of Nazareth

Jack Madvo

George Nehmeh

Jabal Joffeh, a squatters’ colony in Amman, East Jordan.

George Nehmeh

Inside a refugee hut, Khan Younis camp, Gaza Strip

This young man’s family moves into the courtyard to give him a few quiet hours.

They live in

Living in the Sbeineh emergency camp, Syria

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 8, 1978—Page 5