London, 10 June 2020
“My Return” international campaign continues to garner widespread support across several world countries, with signatures on the petition demanding Palestinians’ right of return to their homeland reaching up to 250,000.
Despite the lockdown measures implemented nationally and internationally as part of the anti-coronavirus fight, the campaign continues to exert a pull on human rights advocates and online platforms. The petition has been signed by Palestinian refugees from 181 countries.
The initiative has also received letters of encouragement and appreciation by over 90 renowned diplomats, journalists, and academics from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
The campaign is officially adopted and backed up by the Jordanian, Lebanese, and Turkish parliaments.
“My Return” initiative is an international campaign launched by the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) in partnership with Palestinian and international human rights partners and NGOs in order to amass the largest possible number of signatures showing Palestinians’ unyielding commitment to their right of return to their homeland—a right guaranteed by International Law and relevant UN resolutions.
The endeavor officially saw the day in Jordan, before it was launched in Lebanon and Turkey.
The campaign comes at a time when efforts have been intensified by Israel and its allies, most notably the US, to negate Palestinians’ refugee status and, as a result, rescind their right of return to their homeland and delegitimize any institution providing assistance to the refugees, such as UNRWA.
The right of return refers to the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland from which they have been expelled since 1948. It implies both first-generation refugees and their descendants, regardless of their place of birth or residence and their political, social, and economic condition.