APAN’s work, and the work of our community rest upon five key guiding principles. These principles enjoy a wide consensus among the Palestinian people and must guide our work as advocates, campaigners or allies.
1. The Palestinian cause: one people, one land, one struggle.
As a settler colonial project, the Zionist movement and the State of Israel have attempted division, fragmentation, isolation and societal collapse as a tool of
domination and control over the indigenous population in Palestine. This is not limited to those that remain within “Israel” but those in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the millions who were ethnically cleansed from their lands in 1948.
To counter these attempts and challenge the Israeli myth of ‘land without a people, for a people without a land’, that came to justify the colonisation of Palestine and subsequent ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, we must ensure that our work rejects these fragmentations and divisions, and endeavour to be inclusive of all Palestinian people in Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem, historic Palestine, refugee camps as well as diaspora, in our advocacy.
All 14 million Palestinians, regardless of their geographical location have the right to self-determination on their ancestral land.
We recognise the unique experiences of dispossession, displacement or
discrimination and affirm that the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation and self determination is a shared and unifying struggle against the same colonising force.
2. The right to seek liberation.
As a colonised people, the Palestinians have a legitimate and inalienable right to pursue basic human rights such as freedom, security, safety and a peaceful future.
This right is not contingent upon perceived “acceptability”.
The asymmetric power structures of colonisation and apartheid create long-term, insidious harm which gravely threaten the peace and security of all.
Accordingly, we unconditionally accept and support Palestinians’ right to seek
liberation, a right enshrined by various international laws (Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions; the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 37/43 and 38/17) for people living under colonial, apartheid and racist regimes.
We support the Palestinian people’s rights to demand an end to the illegal Israeli occupation, an end to the illegal and inhumane siege on Gaza, and an end to the apartheid regime across all of historic Palestine.
3. The right of return.
The right of return of every Palestinian, wherever they may be, is inalienable.
The right of return is an internationally recognised principle stating that Palestinian refugees from both the 1948 Nakba and 1967 six-day war, as well as all their descendants (more than 6 million Palestinians) have the right to return to the lands in which they were ethnically cleansed from, and to reclaim property that they (or their forebears) were forcibly expelled from. If they choose not to return, they should be compensated. This right has been recognised by the United Nations multiple times (Resolution 1/94 in 1948; Resolution 32/36 in 1974; Resolution 31/20 in 1976; UN Security Council Resolution 237)
We unequivocally support and echo calls for the right to return to be enforced at the national and international level.
4. Al Quds: Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital city.
Jerusalem holds a significant cultural, religious and historical value for all of the Palestinian people.
It has thousands of years worth of history, culture and connection to Islam,
Christianity as well as Judaism – all of which are religions and cultures that the
Palestinian people have cherished and sought to protect and preserve over the years. For Muslims, Jerusalem is the third holiest place on earth and the first ‘Qibla’ – the direction in which Muslims first prayed. For Palestinian Christians, Jerusalem is associated with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Since 1967, Israel has had a clear and deliberate policy to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians of Jerusalem, destroying Arabic features, as well as holy sites (Muslim and Christian) and restricting access of Palestinian worshipers in the city.
Israel passed a series of administrative and legislative laws that would legalise taking over Palestinian properties and forcefully evicting Palestinians from their homes.
Apartheid in Jerusalem is also carried out by withholding and limiting building permits, infrastructure in Palestinian neighbourhoods, and under-funding municipal services such as roads, sewage and water.
We recognise Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, as a significant component of Palestinian self-determination and the rights of Palestinians to live freely and equally.
5. The right to self-determination.
Self-determination is a collective right for the Palestinian people, recognised in multiple United Nations Resolutions (General Assembly Resolution 37/43, 32/46 and 45/130)
True self-determination relies upon the achievement of each of the other principles being honoured. All Palestinians, across all of historic Palestine, must be granted the means and ability to decide and direct their own political, cultural and administrative futures.
We must wholeheartedly commit ourselves to supporting and achieving self-
determination for all Palestinians.