Al-Awda launches campaign

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition in the US, has launched a campaign on behalf of Palestinians trapped in Iraq. They have produced a factsheet, photos from al-Tanaf camp on the Iraq/Syria border, and an action alert calling on people to:

1. Contact the US Department of State to demand that the American occupation forces in Iraq put an end to anti-Palestinian attacks. According to the Geneva Conventions, the US is obliged and expected to protect all civilians in areas it is occupying by force.
2. Write and call the Syrian embassy in Washington, D.C. to ask that the stranded Palestinians on Syria's borders be admitted into Syria without delay.
3. Write and call the Jordanian embassy in Washington, D.C. and ask that the Palestinian refugees stranded in Al-Ruweished camp be admitted into Jordan without any further delay:
4. Write and call the Iraqi "embassy" in Washington, D.C. and demand an immediate end to the persecution of Palestinian refugees in Iraq.
5. Write and call United Nations offices in New York and demand that:

• The United Nations agencies do their utmost to ensure that the Palestinian population in Iraq is protected in the interim.
• That UNRWA and UNHCR provide the refugees stranded at the Iraqi-Syrian and Iraqi-Jordanian border with shelter, basic and medical needs until their situation is resolved.
• UNRWA and UNHCR help Syria and Jordan as needed, to admit the stranded Palestinians.
• Demand that The United Nations act to ensure implementation of the inalienable natural, legal, individual and collective rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land of origin in Palestine per United Nations Resolution 194. This resolution has been affirmed more than 130 times by the United Nations General Assembly since 1948 with the imposition of the state of Israel, and the expulsion and dispossession of the refugees.