In conjunction with the world celebration of the International Day of Refugees, the Palestinians will have entered their 72nd year in the Diaspora and take refuge in all parts of the land, far from their homeland from which they were displaced, as a result of the Israeli occupation.
The Palestinians share their stories, stories, and sufferings with the world, on this occasion, which falls on the 20th of June every year, in order to confirm their right to their homeland and to prepare for return. "On World Refugee Day, we remember our tragedy as Palestinians after the occupier forced us to leave our cities and villages," said Palestinian writer and researcher Ahmed Al-Hajj. We also remember "how complicit the international community was in contributing to the establishment of the occupying power, headed by Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and later France, all of whom were supportive of the establishment of a functional entity state, to divide this east and the Arab world and to separate a dear part of this world from its inhabitants." Commenting on the world’s celebration of International Refugee Day, Hajj says, during his conversation with Quds Press: “The United Nations and the international community, which initiated the announcement of the International Day of Refugees, must bear the responsibility, return their accounts to what is in the service of justice, and move in contradiction to what We are accustomed to it, by following up on the decisions they issued, especially Resolution 194 and the subsequent decisions that affirm the refugees ’right to return, and perhaps not that Israel is listed under the seventh item and exerting international pressures that are too weak to bear. Al-Hajj condemned, "the international silence on the practices of the occupation authorities, especially as we are witnessing today a project to annex parts of the West Bank, which would not have happened if the international community had been solid since the beginning when the Zionist gangs abandoned the Palestinians from their villages." Regarding the attention that the Palestinian issue received, politically and popularly, Al-Hajj assured that "the Arab society, despite the calamities and societal rifts that occur in it, but as a society still to this day, is sympathetic to us and considers the Palestinian issue its issue, and they adopt the refugee issue as well." The Palestinian writer described the refugee situation as "a continuous tragedy resulting from several considerations: firstly, as a result of displacement and alienation, and secondly, as a result of the denial of civil and social rights, such as Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq." And he added, "The world must support the Palestinian cause, because it is a cause of right and justice, and it is a compass for the international community. Does it support justice and walk in the logic of justice or the logic of dominance and strength." And he went on to say: "The refugee issue threatens the stability of the world, and so that the Arab and Islamic nation and the world´s free people do not feel the injustice practiced, this international community must be a supporter of the oppressed and the weak, including the Palestinian refugees." In turn, the Palestinian Foundation for Human Rights (witness) indicated, in a statement reached by Quds Press, that "the reality of the Palestinian refugees is beyond description, as the Palestinian refugee lives in camps that are not habitable in high numbers, and the Palestinian suffers from high rates of unemployment, poverty and difficulty in movement." She added: "In Lebanon, there is the highest percentage of refugees living in extreme poverty, as they account for 73 percent of the refugee community, and they are registered under the SHC program." The Palestinian Foundation recommended, "The necessity of obligating the occupying power to return the Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties, and that UNRWA redouble its efforts to secure the needs of the Palestinian refugees." It also recommends (witness), that "UNRWA´s budget is linked to the budget of the United Nations and not depend on the budget of voluntary states, and that it works to improve the conditions of Palestinian refugees in a manner that preserves their human dignity in the host countries." June 20 of each year marks International Refugee Day, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2001, and is devoted to publicizing the issue of refugees, highlighting their suffering and needs, and discussing ways to support and assist them in light of the increasing crises and refugee numbers. The total number of Palestinian refugees who left their cities and villages in 1948 was about 5.6 million, according to the latest UNRWA census in 2019.
