Thousands of Palestinians from across Europe attended the 15th Palestinians in Europe Conference held in the Dutch city of Rotterdam under the Slogan “100 Years On a Victorious Nation and Unbreakable Determination.”
The conference coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in which the British government pledged its support for a Jewish national home in Palestine at the expense of the Palestinian indigenous population.
The conference addressed a number of issues including the socio-political situation in Palestine the role played by the Palestinians overseas and the Palestinians’ right of return to their motherland.
A statement issued at the end of the Rotterdam conference acclaimed the commitment of the Palestinian community across the European continent to its right of return to Palestine which is an irrevocable indivisible unchangeable and irreversible individual and collective right.
The statement harked back to the tragic fallouts of the Balfour Declaration on the Palestinian people over the past 100 years and called on the United Kingdom to make an official apology for the pledge which represents a flagrant violation of international law and of the principles of fairness and justice.
The speakers also said they believe that all standpoints regarding any project or initiative aiming to work out the Palestinian cause should take into consideration Palestinians’ right to return to Palestine to self-determination and to emancipation from the Israeli occupation adding that the Palestinians shall never give up their inalienable rights nor forfeit a single inch of their expropriated land.
The statement strongly condemned the blatant Israeli violations against Occupied Jerusalem—the capital and beating heart of the future sovereign Palestinian State—and against the Palestinian people homes and institutions in the city.
The statement denounced the swift pace of Israel’s settlement expansion on Palestinian land through recourse to a legal cover and the establishment of buffer zones to dismember Palestinian communities and fence them off within a chain of illegal settlement units and apartheid walls.
The statement denounced the tightened decade-long blockade imposed on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip dubbing it a multi-layered crime that contravenes international law and the humanitarian and moral standards.
The conferees hailed the Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails pledging to forever speak up for their cause nationwide and overseas until they restore their freedom.
The Rotterdam conference called on all parties to treat the refugees and displaced people from such conflict zones as war-torn Syria humanely and to neutralize Palestinian refugee camps from armed conflicts.
The conference stressed the need to further integrate the Palestinian abroad within the European community and boost the positive role played by the Palestinians overseas.
It further called on the European communities and institutions advocating the protection of national identities and minority groups to smooth the integration of Palestinian refugees into the European communities and to host workshops to that very end.
The conference pushed for isolating Israel and ceasing all ties with such a colonizing entity in response to the crimes it continues to perpetrate against the Palestinian people.
