Edward Said & The Question of Palestine | Southbank Centre, November 20, 2024
The Liberation of Palestine entails changing the regime that rules it today and doing away with Zionism, the racist political ideology that governs all of Historic Palestine. We seek to establish in its place a just system that does not award citizenship based on hereditary religion or discriminate based on race or creed.
Rather, citizenship will be granted to the people of the land, to those born there, or those who have a parent, grandparent or documented ancestor born in the lands of Historic Palestine. This would mean the return of the Palestinian refugees to their cities, villages and the homes from which they have been displaced since 1948 the result of this will be a Palestinian state in which all its citizens are equal before the law, a system of transitional justice will be established whereby stolen lands will be returned to their owners or their heirs. Once they return, anyone harmed by forced absence will be granted reparations. Loss and degradation of property. Will be compensated. All those implicated in crimes of ethnic cleansing or genocide, whether they were giving orders or following them, will be brought to justice regardless of their religion or ethnic background.
With this declaration, we strive for a system of justice for all that ends bloodshed and the principle of equality that holds accountable each person for the crimes they have committed, without regard to the passage of time. This ensures that people will not be punished on the basis of religion or lineage or for what their parents did before them. What we strive for is neither amnesty for the criminal nor punishment for the innocent. We do not seek revenge or to collectively punish, but to replace an oppressive system with a just one to replace racism, with equality.
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