An Open Letter to Mahmoud Abbas - President of the Palestinian National Authority

The "Hamilton Declaration" was passed by 18 Palestinian Canadian community associations in Canada (Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa, Halifax, Vancouver, London Ontario, Hamilton, Branford, Montreal, Al-Awda, Resistance Art).

We the Palestinian Canadian community assembly at the Palestinian National Voice Preparatory Conference in Hamilton, Canada, issue this letter out of profound concern regarding the present state of the Palestinian national struggle and the November 2007 "peace" conference to be hosted by the United States in Annapolis, Maryland.

While Palestinians still suffer from the disaster of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian National Authority has now agreed to attend another round of flawed negotiations. This time it does so under the pressure of North American and European nations that have actively collaborated with Israel to divide the Palestinian people and inflict collective punishment and other war crimes against them. Even now Israel is being allowed to deny the Palestinians the basic necessities for a functioning society through a humiliating siege against the Palestinian people in response to the exercise of Palestinian democracy and the adherence to its results.

It is our belief that the purpose of the Annapolis round of negotiations is to extract further critical concessions from the Palestinians while further delaying final status agreements. In particular, we believe that Israel will attempt to redefine the conflict with the Palestinians as being only about ending the occupation of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, or parts thereof. Such a redefinition leads the Palestinians into the trap of the "two-state" formula which subverts our legitimate rights under international law. We stress that the central issue in the Palestinian conflict with Israel has always been the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their land and property caused by the Zionist ethnic cleansing of 1948 and the Israeli denial to Palestinians of the basic human right to return and to live in peace and security as equal citizens on their land.

We further specifically caution you against any recognition of Israel as a
"Jewish" state. Such a recognition would give Israel the façade of moral
and legal legitimacy while critically compromising the full implementation
of the inalienable Palestinian right of return. In addition, it would
contradict the struggle by Palestinian citizens of Israel to maintain
their identity and gain equal rights as citizens. We point out that
Israel was established through United Nations General Assembly Resolution
181 (Partition Resolution) which does not envisage or consent to the
establishment of states on a religious or ethnic basis. In addition, we
underscore that Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations on
the basis of its having recognized the full right of return of the
Palestinian people on the basis of United Nations General Assembly
Resolution 194 (Right of Return Resolution).

Today it is more apparent than ever that the only basis on which peace can
be brought to the historic land of Palestine is through the establishment
of a unified secular democratic state in which all citizens are equal and
share the same rights and responsibilities regardless of a citizen's
religion.

Palestinians can only be properly represented through a delegation
representing the united Palestinian people. Accordingly, it is essential
that the internal dispute between Ramallah and Gaza be resolved before
Palestinians participate in any negotiations with the Israelis. In
addition, the ultimate decision on what Palestinians can accept can only
be determined by a fully elected and democratically effective Palestinian
National Council (PNC) representing all of the world's 10 million
Palestinians. Palestinians who are denied the right to participate in
elections to the PNC cannot be regarded as having consented to any
agreement made in their name. The re-activation of the PNC as a fully
elected and democratically effective body would also have the effect of
re-energizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as a legitimate
instrument of the Palestinian people.

We stress that any attempt to establish peace and security in the land of
Palestine can only be successful if it is firmly based on natural justice
and the principles of international law. We reconfirm that the right of
the Palestinian people to return to their homes and property and to
receive full compensation for all damage done to their property as well as
for all other losses associated with the violation of their rights by
Zionist forces is both an inalienable individual and collective right.
Any Palestinian leadership that suggests that the inalienable Palestinian
right of return can be negotiated away abrogates any legitimacy it may
have had to speak in the name of the Palestinian people.

Palestine House
3195 Erindale station Rd
Mississauga, Ont
L5C 1Y5
www.palestinehouse.com