Palestinian demonstration in Lebanon against the Geneva peace document
Lebanon-Palestine, Politics, 12/4/2003

Hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon demonstrated yesterday in protest of the Geneva peace document which was launched on Monday in Switzerland by Palestinian and Israeli sides. This was in response to the call made by the Palestinian groups which take Damascus as a headquarters, and for fear that the document talks of giving up the Palestinian "right of return."

Hundreds of students demonstrated in the streets of al-Baddawi camp for the Palestinian refugees near Tripoli, and burnt tires at the entrance of the camp while raising the Palestinian flags and chanting slogan "we want to return back to Palestine."

A banner at the entrance of the camp read "Geneva's initiative is a treason and our people do not recognize those who launch it." A statement issued by the "Palestinian resistance leadership" said "we deliberately refuse what is called the Geneva document and consider it a national tragedy." The statement added that Geneva agreement "abandons the UN resolution 194 which guarantees the 'right of return' for five million Palestinians, and exempts Israel from its historical, legal, and moral responsibility of the crime of occupying Palestine."

The Geneva peace initiative, which was drafted by Palestinian and Israeli figures aims to give important reciprocated concessions between the two sides. Israel has to withdraw from most of the lands of the West Bank and Gaza, and sovereignty over Jerusalem will be shared with the Palestinian state, while the Palestinians give up the 'right of return' for almost 3.8 million Palestinian refugees.

On Monday, leaders of the Palestinian groups which take Damascus as a headquarters held a meeting at al-Saeqa headquarters in the refugee camp in Mar Elias in Beirut, and called for a people's move against the initiative, while the Hamas Islamic resistance movement and the People's Front For the Liberation of Palestine organized two separate sit-in in the two past days in Ein al-Helweh and al-Bous refugee camps.

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