Donna Neville, a professor at New York University and director of the American Center for Education Research (PARCEO), said accusations of anti-Semitism against Palestinian rights defenders aim to impede the pursuit of justice for a people who have been denied their rights for a long time.
Neville, who is a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Voice for Peace organization, which is active in the United States and calls for justice for the Palestinians and a boycott of Israel, believed that the accountability of a nation-state for its violations of human rights and international law can not be promised in any way. No way of racial discrimination or anti-Semitism.
In an article on the Mondoweiss website, Neville recalled that the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution 73 years ago stipulating the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and lands from which they were expelled.
Right of Return
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 11 December 1948 states that "(Palestinian) refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be allowed as soon as possible."
She said that despite Israel's continuous efforts to prevent the implementation of UN Resolution 194, the Palestinians continue to demand their right to return to their homes.
The right of return is one of the three main demands of the global movement to boycott Israel known as “BDS” (BDS), which calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, the withdrawal of foreign investments from the occupying country and the imposition of sanctions on it, a call from Palestinian civil society to hold Israel accountable and make it respect the basic principles human rights and international law.
The movement also calls for ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, dismantling the wall, achieving full equality for the Palestinians living inside Israel, and enhancing the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
Neville said that the founders of the State of Israel had no doubts regarding their intentions to allow the displaced Palestinians who were expelled from their lands to return after the end of the war. The Israeli government announced on June 16, 1948 that the Palestinian refugees would not be allowed to return to their homes.
The American Jewish Academy stressed the Palestinians' right to return to the land from which they were expelled and of which they are the original inhabitants.
She said that Israel's admission to the United Nations in May 1949 was coupled with its commitment to implement United Nations Resolution 194 regarding allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their lands.
She recalled that the right of indigenous peoples to return to their homes from which they were expelled by an occupying power is one of the inalienable principles of international law.