RNA - "Given the failure of reconciliation attempts in the past few decades, stressing the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their fathers' lands and homes as a natural and non-negotiable right and holding a referendum among the real residents of the historical land of Palestine to decide their own fate to free their lands from the Zionists' occupation constitute the only solution to liberate Palestine," the permanent secretariat of the International Conference to Support Palestine's Intifada said in a statement on Monday.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran condemns any crimes by the fake Zionist regime against the inalienable rights of the Palestinians and calls on all Muslims to break their silence and shout for the freedom of Palestine so that the entire world will hear their voice," it added.
The statement was issued as Palestinians began marking the 69th anniversary of the Nakbah Day when their land was confiscated leading to the establishment of the illegal Israeli entity.
The term "Nakbah" ("catastrophe" in Arabic) is a reminder of two fundamental events in Palestinian history, the establishment of Israeli entity in 1948 and the subsequent expulsion of over 800,000 Palestinians from their ancestral homeland.
Nakba symbolizes the tragedy that befell Palestinians in 1948, and the ensuing suffering Palestinians have had to endure under the apartheid regime’s decades-long occupation.
Nakbah dates back to 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte's ambitious colonialist plans included notions of establishing a Jewish entity in Palestine.
In 1897, the World Zionist Organization held its first conference in Basel, Switzerland, at which Theodor Herzl, billed as the "founder of modern Zionism", laid out the principles on which a Jewish state would be built.
The idea was echoed by Britain in 1840 and was later facilitated by the British Mandate of Palestine (1922-1948), which gave the Jewish Agency a free hand to seize Palestinian land and begin massive Jewish immigration into the region.
847/940