Ten years have passed since the launch of the “National Campaign for the Retrieval of Palestinian and Arab War Victims’ Remains and the Disclosure of the Fate of Those Missing”. Ten years of organized struggle to retrieve the bodies of our brethren and to uncover the fate of those missing, as to close the wounds that remain open for their families and loved one. Ten years have passed, with many more mothers and fathers passing away without realizing this desire to put the remains of their children to rest and have spot to mourn for them.
Over the course of these 10 years, many bodies were retrieved, but still we hope to retrieve those remaining. Dignified burial is a right for the families, and for the Palestinian society at large. Ad thus, we reject Israel’s attempts to turn the matter of retrieving the remains into a bargaining chip in negotiations. As the retrieval of human remains and bodies is a non-negotiable human right.
Dear mothers, fathers, wives, sons, brothers, and sisters of those whose remains are held in Israeli custody and the “Israeli cemetery of numbers”,
First: We renew our vow to our loved ones and their families, that our battle will continue until we bury them in dignity in their homelands among their families.
Second: The National Campaign for the Retrieval of Palestinian and Arab War Victims’ Remains and the Disclosure of the Fate of Those Missing is the umbrella under which all actions collectively work to this same end across all the governorates, under which officials and people are united. And it will remain a united framework that transcends sectarianism and regionalism and all factors of division.
Third: Our legal and political battle with the Israeli occupation will not cease until occupation does. We will continue to make the cost of withholding the bodies and remains high on a political and moral level. The practices of Netanyahu's racist government and the discriminatory statements by his ministers and their warning to transfer more bodies from refrigerators to the “Israeli cemetery of numbers” will only increase our determination to stand by the victims’ families and complete our legal and popular struggle for retrieving our loved ones and bury them in dignity.
Fourth: We ask all national parties at the political and national levels, the national and legislative councils, ministers and secretary-general, trade unions, civil society organizations, municipalities, students, and activists to continue supporting the efforts of the families by championing their plight case and stand with them in forms of struggle.
Fifth: We call upon all those o aforementioned above to raise petitions, statements, position papers to demand international bodies, parliaments and foreign ministers of all countries, to pressure the occupying power to free Palestinian detainees, alive or dead, and to stop there illegal and immoral practices.
Sixth: we at the National Campaign for the Retrieval of Palestinian and Arab War Victims’ Remains and the Disclosure of the Fate of Those Missing will continue to organize public events across all the governorates towards reinforcing our legal efforts waged again the Israeli occupation. And we vow, accompanied by our lawyers at the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, to continue the legal battle waged in achieving our goals of retrieving the last body from Israeli morgues and cemeteries.
Finally, we stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who are working tirelessly, despite their bleeding and open wounds, despite attempts to distract them and destroy their morale. From them we learn the meaning of patience, the meaning of a mothers’ decades-long suffering, the meaning of waiting for your loved one to come home, even if in a coffin under the cover of darkness, even if completely frozen, even if your prevented from having extended family stand beside you.
Major Sector
