The Palestinian Return centre held a workshop titled, “Palestinian refugees between Oslo and State of Palestine” in partnership with Wajib Organization for Right of Return in Syria and Thabit association for right of Return in Lebanon. The workshops discussed the issue of Palestinian refugees in light of the upcoming vote at the United Nations this September.

A legal and political review has been carried out by a number of experts and writers.  The event commenced with the Palestinian National Anthem then opened by PRC General Director, Majed al Zeer, who slammed the Palestinian authority the responsibility of the negative impacts of Oslo accord on the Palestinian cause. He also referred to the PA’s monopoly of Palestinian decision on behalf of Palestinians.

Al zeer pointed out that the bid of the statehood put many exclamation marks on the right of Return and PLO’s future as a legal and sole representative of the Palestinian people. The first session of the workshop was chaired by Tariq Hamoud, General Director of Wajib Organization for right of return and included Dr. Mohamed Al majzob who presented a critical view of the bid. He spoke on the legal aspects emphasizing that the bid is a concession on many rights of the Palestinian people. He added also that no Palestinian party has the sole representation to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people when it comes to such a bid, but all people should have their voiced heard.

Dr. Anis Qasim, spoke about Oslo accord from a legal perspective and examined its effects on Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return. Dr. Shafiq al Masri criticized the bid and its effect on the rights of Palestinian Refugees.The second session was chaired by Ali Huwadi, head of Thabit Organization for Right of Return and discussed the political ramifications of Oslo for the past 18 years.

Dr. Jawad al Hamad spoke during the session about the Right of Return and its importance for the Palestinian people. He significantly added that Right of Return was ignored in many accords like Oslo, Camp David, Why River and Wadi Araba accords.

Dr. Muhsin Salih, general director of Al Zaytona studies centre spoke about Oslo accord and how it has minimized the conflict from the entire cause of 1948 to the conflict on Gaza and West Bank.At the third session, Dr. Jabir Suleiman discussed the statehood and its effects on the Right of Return.  He made a clear distinction between the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state at the UN and a membership at the UN.

 He added that PA should have worked on other sensitive cases not symbolic ones like the issue of settlement and Jerusalem and Right of Return.