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ARTICLES

Building Future Palestine Competition

Salman Abu Sitta, 23 Sep, 2024

Building Future PalestineOn 13 Sept 2024, the awards were announced in London for the 8th year Competition for the reconstruction of destroyed...

The Right of Return to Free Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, 15 May, 2024

The Right of Return to Free Palestine76 years later, Palestinian return to the homes and lands we were expelled from in 1948 is feasible and, of course,...

The right to return is sacred to us

Salman Abu Sitta, 15 May, 2024

FROM: MIDDLE EAST , JW SUPPLEMENT FROM MAY 15, 2024“The right to return is sacred to us”About the historic Nakba and October 7th. A conversation with...

I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7

Salman Abu Sitta, 4 January, 2023

I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7 Nothing can hide the determination and courage of those young people who...

The barbarians are back

Salman Abu Sitta, October, 2023

The barbarians are backAlmost one thousand years ago, Pope Urban II exhorted European kings to wage a Crusaders war on the Holy Land. This past week has...

Zionism is an Ashkenazi thing

Salman Abu Sitta, July, 2023

‘Zionism is an Ashkenazi thing’: how Zionism engineered the expulsion of Iraq’s Arab JewsIn "Three Worlds: Memoir of an Arab Jew," Avi Shlaim declares...

Executions and mass graves in Tantura

Researcher-in-Charge Shourideh C. Molavi, May, 2023

This investigation is accompanied by a comprehensive report, which supports an ongoing legal initiative by Adalah.On the night of 22-23 May 1948, one...

Mit Gewalt enteignet und aus Palästina vertrieben – der persönliche Rückblick eines Betroffenen

Salman Abu Sitta , May, 2023

Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, 85, hat vor 75 Jahren die Vertreibung der Palästinenser aus Palästina selbst miterlebt. (Foto Karin Leukefeld)Mit Gewalt enteignet...

Refuting the Eu’s Der Leyen

Salman Abu Sitta, May, 2023

Refuting the Eu’s Der LeyenSalman Abu SittaTuesday 16 May 2023 Salman Abu Sitta pens an open letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von...

Anatomy of A Massacre - Ed Dawayima, Hebron District

Salman Abu Sitta and Daleen Saah, April, 2023

Anatomy of A Massacre - Ed Dawayima, Hebron District  

Britannia Park - Burial and Treachery

Salman Abu Sitta, Autumn, 2022

Transactions of the Jewish National Fund volume 3 autumn 2022Britannia Park – Burial and TreacherySalman Abu-SittaThis paper demonstrates the treachery...

The Zionist archaeology that erases the Palestinians of Burayr

mondoweiss.net, September 03, 2022

The Zionist archaeology that erases the Palestinians of BurayrDr. Salman Abu Sitta excoriates the authors of an archaeological survey that covers up the...

Britannia Park – Burial and Treachery

Salman Abu Sitta, Automnu, 2022

Britannia Park – Burial and Treachery   Salman Abu-SittaThis paper demonstrates the treachery of the Jewish National Fund, in particular the UK branch...

Israel is the ugliest ever face of brutal colonialism

Salman Abu Sitta, May 18, 2022

Israel is the ugliest ever face of brutal colonialismIsraeli army soldiers, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on May 17, 2022 [JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP...

INAUGURATING THE PALESTINE LAND STUDIES CENTER AT AUB

AUB, February 22, 2022

INAUGURATING THE PALESTINE LAND STUDIES CENTER AT AUB – BRINGING KNOWLEDGE TO THE REGION    AUB recently celebrated what President Fadlo R. Khuri...

Return? to Gaza

mondoweiss.net, JANUARY 28, 2022

Return? to GazaIn November 2021, Salman Abu Sitta returned to the Gaza Strip after five decades of forced absence. What he found surprised and inspired...

Anatomy of A Massacre - Burayr, Gaza District

Salman Abu Sitta and Daleen Saah, September, 2021

Anatomy of A Massacre - Burayr, Gaza district  

Anatomy of A Massacre - Abu Shusha, Ramle district

Salman Abu Sitta and Daleen Saah, September, 2020

Anatomy of A Massacre - Abu Shusha, Ramle District  

Massacres as a weapon of ethnic cleansing during the Nakba

Salman Abu Sitta , June 12, 2020

Massacres as a weapon of ethnic cleansing during the NakbaFrom April 1st to May 14, 1948 -- before Israel was declared, before the British left, and...

When the denial bubble bursts: an Israeli kibbutz faces the Nakba

Salman Abu Sitta , September 5, 2019

  What happens when a people are confined to a bubble where the “truth” has one book to read, to follow and obey, then suddenly the bubble bursts and...

The Salvation of the Century

Salman Abu Sitta, June, 2019

 In an unexpected move, the Arab governments, headed by those with close ties to the US, announced a new plan: The Salvation of The Century to end the...

Gaza Strip: The Lessons of History

Salman Abu Sitta, 2016

Gaza is Palestine. The Gaza Strip is a symbol of Palestine's geography and history. It has the distinction that it has never willingly raised a flag...

Being Palestinian

Salman Abu Sitta, 2016

I discovered I am ‘Palestinian’ the first time I stepped out of Palestine. Not because I lacked identity but because I did not need to prove that to my...

Kafr Qasem Massacre

Salman Abu Sitta, 2016

HISTORICAL CONTEXTDr. Salman Abu Sitta provides this historical perspective placing the Kafr Qasem massacre within the context of the brutal process of...

Che Guevara in Gaza: Palestine becomes a Global Cause

Salman Abu Sitta, August, 2015

Che Guevara’s visit to Gaza in 1959 was the first sign of transforming the Zionist colonization of Palestine from a regional conflict to a global...

The Jewish National Fund as a Colonization Tool

Salman Abu Sitta, July 20, 2015

The Jewish National Fund–JNF (or Keren Kayemet LeYisrael–KKL) is a unique colonization tool. The adjective "unique" is usually associated with positive...

Palestine 2030 – A View in the Future

Salman Abu Sitta, Founder and President, Palestine Land Society, May 2015

How does Palestine look like in 2030?This is a big question in which speculation can run wild. A simple proof of this is the history of Palestine in the...

Could cantonizing Palestine bring peace?

Salman Abu Sitta, January 28, 2015

An interesting plan for dividing Israel into provinces was published a few months ago by Haaretz. It suggested a remedy for the fragmentation of Israeli...

The ICRC and the Detention of Palestinian Civilians in Israel’s 1948 POW/Labor Camps

Salman Abu Sitta and Terry Rempel, October, 2014

The internment of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Israeli-run prisoner of war camps is a relatively little known episode in the 1948 war. This...

Filling the Gap: Restoring the Palestinian Narrative

Salman Abu Sitta, September 30, 2014

For over six decades the Israeli narrative about al Nakba events dominated the Western media and Western minds. It was a well woven tale of religious...

Communication to 38th World Heritage Committee on the nomination of Battir as a world heritage site in danger

June 3, 2014

We, the undersigned, representing the University of Virginia School of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic; Boston University School of Law Human...

The Destruction of Palestine: The Original Sin

Salman Abu Sitta, June, 2014

The destruction of Palestine was the inevitable result of the most ill-conceived and destructive settler-colonial European project in the history of...

The Moral Right of the Refugees to Return

Uri Avnery, May 16, 2014

Years ago I was invited to a UN conference on the Palestinian refugees in Paris. I was to open the debate as an Israeli, after the Palestinian...

When Falsehoods Triumph

Ramzy Baroud, November 14, 2013

In an initially pointless exercise that lasted nearly an hour, I flipped between two Palestinian television channels, Al Aqsa TV of Hamas in Gaza and...

The Last of the Semites

Speech of Joseph A. Massad, May 10-12, 2013

Joseph Massad is Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African...

The Challenges of the Right of Return’s Implementation

Salman Abu Sitta, March 22, 2013

The study of post-Zionism, i.e. life in Israel particularly without Zionism, is not a theoretical subject. It should be carried in the context of...

The Geographic and Demographic Imperatives of the Palestinian Refugees’ Return

Salman Abu Sitta, 2013

Diplomats, politicians and activists alike have long laboured under the assumption that a two-state solution is the only path to peace between the...

Ariel Sharon: Legacy of death

Salman Abu Sitta, 2013

Sharon, feted in death by Western colonial powers, was a killer whose distinction among all of Zionism’s criminals was simply being brazen about his...

The Confederation: We don’t need new catastrophes

Salman Abu Sitta, December 23, 2012

News has been swirling that important members of Fatah in Ramallah have been instructed to prepare for a new confederation between the ‘new state of...

The Invisible People: A Letter to President Obama from the father of a Palestinian Child

Salman Abu Sitta, November, 2012

Dear President Obama, I saw you when you visited Sderot in July 2008 as a presidential candidate, wearing an “I love Sderot” T-shirt and heard you...

The Palestinian History Weapon

Yazan Al-Saadi, Al Akbar, August 5, 2012

Palestinians walk outside the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during the third Friday prayers of Islam's holy month of...

Senator Kirk's Strange Obsession: The Scheme to Define Away Palestinian Refugees

Salman Abu Sitta, June 29-July 01, 2012

In May 2012, Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) made an outstanding discovery, which had escaped scores of politicians, diplomats and experts for six decades. He...

The Challenges for the Right of Return

Salman Abu Sitta, July, 2012

To predict that Zionism will vanish or be totally discredited is probably difficult to imagine now, but in reality it is inevitable. The reasons for the...

UNRWA Registration Discrepancy

Salman Abu Sitta, April, 2012

The inclusion of a new term, “Registered Persons”, removing the word “refugee” from about one third of a million records, is a revival of old, albeit...

The PLO is to "liberate" not to legalize partition

Salman Abu Sitta, July 10, 2011

The new leadership will be well-versed in the history and geography of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people, and will be prepared to...

It's Time For Those Who Hold The Keys To Their Homes To Rise Up

Salman Abu Sitta, February 13, 2011

The issue is not that documents giving details of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were leaked by Al Jazeera and the Guardian...

Al-Araqib: All of Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, January, 2011

In the past few months, we have heard the news about the destruction of Al-Araqib village in the district of Beer Sheba in the Naqab by hundreds of...

The Right of Return Is Inevitable

Salman Abu Sitta, December, 2010

In the Middle Ages, they burned books on science and astronomy. In the 19th century, colonial powers promoted the super-race theory. In 1948, the...

Towards A Palestinian Political Agenda

Salman Abu Sitta, July 16-20, 2010

The deteriorating situation of the Palestinian cause is no secret to anyone, including Palestinians themselves and the Arab world. There is, therefore...

Hasbara or Za’bara

Salman Abu Sitta, April 16, 2010

To maintain a façade of moral code, you do not kill a friend, you kill an enemy. You do not rob another man’s house, you recover your long-forgotten...

The Planned Land Swap: A Legal, Geographic And Political Transgression

Salman Abu Sitta, January 27, 2010

Newspaper columns are currently busy with commentaries on Arab, Israeli and US diplomatic moves suggesting new initiatives in the peace process, which...

Return of Refugees Is Inevitable

Salman Abu Sitta, May-August, 2009

One of the most important lessons we have learned from the 60-year Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that the essence of the struggle has not changed: it...

Ghawarina/Jidra in Acre Bay

Salman Abu Sitta, February 13, 2008

The Associates Press, in its report quoted by the Herald Tribune and Ha'aretz on February 11, 2008, said that Qiryat Yam sued Google Earth "for slander"...

Badil 10-Year Anniversary

Salman Abu Sitta, January 10, 2008

In the fall of 1998, I was having coffee with colleagues in Birzeit’s international conference on “Palestine Landscape” when a young woman and a young...

Reversing Dispossession The Role of Geography in Documenting Violation of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Salman Abu Sitta, 2008

In wars, the victor frequently conquers a foreign territory, claims it as his own and produces maps to serve as the legitimate birth certificate of this...

A sacred right

Salman Abu Sitta, March 29, 2007

Why should I, a Jew from north London, be permitted to take up Israeli citizenship, when that right is denied to a Palestinian who languishes in a...

Reversing Ethnic Cleansing: The Right to Return Home

Salman Abu Sitta, June 6, 2006

In the spring of 1948, some Jewish mukhtars (headmen) of Jewish colonies in Palestinian went over to the Arab Palestinian mukhtars in the nearby...

Justice: The Illusive Goal in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Salman Abu Sitta, March, 2006

The ravages of two world wars in the twentieth century laid the foundation to a new world order in intent, if not in fact. It has been realized that war...

The Origins of Sharon’s Legacy

Salman Abu Sitta, February 1, 2006

Israel's policy towards the Palestinians was not only forged out of the experiences of European Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany, but it also...

Manifesto of all people of good conscience

Salman Abu Sitta, November, 2005

We, citizens of the world,celebrating the human pursuit of freedom and independence, adhering fully to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

In Praise of Al Nakba

Salman Abu Sitta, September 22-28, 2005

New exoduses could mean new beginnings. Tracing the Palestinians' path from being refugees to determining their own fate, Salman Abu Sitta* celebrates...

Atlas of Palestine 1948: Reconstructing Palestine

June 7, 2005

On the eve of declaring statehood on 14 May 1948, Zionist forces expelled half of the population of what became Israel before the state was created and...

A Response To Meron Benvenisti

Salman Abu Sitta, January 13, 2005

Response to Meron Benvenisti’s article, “The panicky longing for recognition”I admired most writings of Meron Benvenisti, especially when he talks...

Map and Grab

Dov Gavish, 2005

Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917 promised to establish in Palestine a ‘national home’ for the Jews contrary to the self-determination rights of...

Racism Repackaged

Salman Abu Sitta, January 1-7, 2004

The Geneva Accord was long ago scripted by Israeli Military Intelligence, writes Salman Abu Sitta*. The orchestrated media blitz, replete with approving...

The Palestinian Right of Return: The Unfulfilled Human Right

Salman Abu Sitta, 2004

The ravages of two world wars in the twentieth century laid the foundation to a new world order in intent, if not in fact. It has been realized that war...

Beer Sheba: The Forgotten Half of Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, June, 2003

The Beer Sheba (Bir Saba') district is the least understood and most mispresented part of Palestine in terms of the number of refugees and related land...

Traces of Poison–Israel's Dark History Revealed

Salman Abu Sitta, February 27-March 5, 2003

 Israel, not Iraq, holds that distinction of being the first country in the region to use weapons of mass destruction with genocidal intent. Salman Abu...

Catastrophe Without End

Salman Abu Sitta, May 16-22, 2002

From the 1948 Nakbah to events in the occupied territories today, Israel's aims and supporting myths have been remarkably similar, writes Salman Abu...

PRC Conference Affirms Palestinian Right of Return

Palestine Return Centre, London, April, 2002

By all standards the PRC conference on “the Israeli Law of Return and its Impact on the Conflict in Palestine” was an overwhelming success. The event...

The Right of Return Is Alive And Well

Salman Abu Sitta, January 19, 2002

Two complementary words have become an integral part of the Palestinian narrative for the last 53 years. Al Nakba and the right of return. They...

The Implementation of The Right of Return

Salman Abu Sitta, 2001

One of the most important lessons we have learned from the fifty-three-year Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that the essence of the struggle is the...

An End To Exile

Salman Abu Sitta, March 9-5, 2000

The initial euphoria of great expectations associated with the peace process in September 1993 has quickly subsided. With hindsight, there was no reason...

The Line of 1967-1949

Salman Abu Sitta, October 10, 1999

Frederic Hof has written a timely and well-researched essay on the dividing line between Syria and Israel since 1948. This is particularly useful. The...

Restitution and Compensation

Salman Abu Sitta, July 31, 1999

There has never been more universal and sustained consensus of the international community than that accorded to the rights of the Palestinian Refugees....

The Phased Return of the Palestinian Refugees

Salman Abu Sitta, June, 1999

Half a century has passed since the dispossession and expulsion of the Palestinians from their homes in 1948. This event shaped the history of the area...

A Call to Establish “Palestine Land Commission”

Salman Abu Sitta, November 11, 1998

Excerpts in “Reclaiming the Right of Return”, in Badil publication, al Majdal, issue 1, March 1999. Excerpts from a research report by Salman Abu Sitta...

The Mountain To Climb

Salman Abu Sitta, November 5, 1998

Who says Oslo is dead? The final status negotiations are well underway. Although it is only a dry-run for the real thing, carried out by a group of...

The Great Israel Land Grab

Salman Abu Sitta, March 2, 1998

For the first time, Israel has embarked on a plan to sell the land of the 1948 Palestinian refugees (92% of Israel) to Jewish individuals. Clearly this...

Documenting The Catastrophe

Ahram Weekly, Cairo, January 1-7, 1998

The Palestinian yearning to return has been represented as a quixotic gesture, an impossible dream, in the face of Israel's efforts to obliterate the...

The Feasibility of the Right of Return

Salman Abu Sitta, June, 1997

The conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world is the consequence of the creation of the Israeli state, its conquest of Palestine in...

SPEECHES

Against Genocide: Mapping the Future of Palestine, One Archive at a Time

Dr Salman Abu Sitta, 04 - June - 2024

Title: Against Genocide: Mapping the Future of Palestine, One Archive at a Time Metatag Title: Mapping the Future of Palestine, One Document at a...

Why is Zionism the Enemy of Truth? It Waged 12 Wars against it

Dr Salman Abu Sitta, 17 -April - 2024

 Why is Zionism the Enemy of Truth? It Waged 12 Wars against it.Dr Salman Abu Sitta     17 -April - 2024    My contribution to the webinar...

The Right of Return to Free Palestine

Dr Salman Abu Sitta, To be delivered at Palestina Kongress,Berlin., 12 -April - 2024

 The Right of Return to Free Palestine​ Dr Salman Abu SittaTo be delivered at Palestina Kongress, Berlin.     12 -April - 2024   This speech was...

RETURN PLAN 2023

Dr Salman Abu Sitta, Delivered at Palestine Writes PalFest, Philadelphia, 23 -Sept 2023

RETURN PLAN 2023 Dr Salman Abu SittaDelivered at Palestine Writes PalFest,    Philadelphia, 23 -Sept 2023   Thanks to Palestine Writes and the...

A Palestinian Address to Balfour: In honor of truth, memory, and justice

Salman Abu Sitta, 08 November 2022

A Palestinian Address to Balfour: In honor of truth, memory, and justiceOn November 8, 2022 Dr. Salman Abu Sitta spoke at the University of Edinburgh to...

Inauguration of the PLSC in AUB

Salman Abu Sitta, 25 January 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen I was waiting for this day for at least three years, the day when we get together to inaugurate Palestine Land Studies Center...

“Never Give Up”: On the Inevitability of a Free Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, 11 June 2021

At the age of 10, Salman Abu Sitta and his family were forced out of their ancestral home in Bi'r as-Saba' at the start of the Nakba in 1948. That year...

Eleven Wars against Palestinians: How Palestinians are coping with their Elimination

Salman Abu Sitta, 23 February 2021

Thank you, Dr Dina Matar for inviting me. Thanks are due also to Dr Gilbert Achcar. I am not a stranger to SOAS. I have many friends, past and present...

Restoring Palestine: 2000 Years of Mapping

Salman Abu Sitta, November 16, 2020

"Thank you, Prof HowaydaWe are fortunate to have you as the founding Director of PLSC. I hope under your directorship, PLSC will be the hub of dynamic,...

From Balfour to Boris: A Century of Death and Destruction

Salman Abu Sitta, November 2, 2020

Yes indeed from Balfour to Boris From Balfour, the anti-semite who formulated the Aliens Act in 1905 to prevent European Jews from coming to England...

The Survey of Western Palestine Revisited: The Visible and The Hidden

S. Abu Sitta: At SOAS University of London, Bloomsbury, February 28, 2020

The Survey of Western Palestine Revisited:The Visible and The HiddenTwo lectures: The first lecture was given at Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), on 26...

The Right of Return: The Only Key To Peace

S. Abu Sitta: The Edward Said Memorial Lecture in the University of South Australia City West Campus., Adelaide, Australia, 05 October 2019

I would like to express my thanks to AFOPA (names) for extending an invitation to me to give this lecture. It is a pleasure to be here in Australia...

Return Plan

Presentation at Palestine-Israel: Future Scenario, Brown University, Watson Institute for International and public affairs, Providence, RI, 13 April 2018

Any conflict resolution rests on two pillars: truth and justice. Truth is necessary to understand the nature of the conflict. Wars are waged because...

Al Ahram: Balfour’s legacy; The destruction of Palestine

One hundred years after the Balfour Declaration of November 1917, it is incumbent on Britain to make amends for its shameful record in Palestine, writes Salman Abu Sitta, 28 March 2017

Palestinian loss of land since 1946The last hundred years have witnessed the world’s longest war against a people – a hundred years of the Palestinian...

Balfour’s legacy: The destruction of Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta addressed the UK's House of Lords on 28 March 2017 to expose the Balfour Declaration and its disastrous consequences on the Palestinians. , 28 March 2017

Palestinian woman holds a key, symbolising the right to her home from 1948, during the 68th anniversary of the 'Nakba' in Ramallah, West BankLadies and...

Honouring South American Ambassadors for their countries’ support of Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, December 6, 2014

We are gathered here to honour several South American countries for their unwavering support for justice and the rule of international law in Palestine...

Hundred Years of Palestinian Struggle: Lessons for Charting the Future of Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, November 8-9, 2014

A hundred years is a long time for a people to fight for their own sheer survival in their homeland. Palestinians are doing it. And they have no sign of...

Zochrot inauguration of new application: iNakba, delivered by Skype

Salman Abu Sitta, May 5, 2014

In July 1949, Israel signed the last of Armistice Agreements with Syria. By then, Israel occupied 78% of Palestine, 50% over the partition plan...

Reversing Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, April 6-10, 2014

Many of you are here in this country, especially those who came after 1948, 1967 or 1990, because you are refugees, you lost your homes, property...

Oslo Hoax exposed in Tokyo Japan

Salman Abu Sitta, October 22, 2013

While in Kyoto and Osaka the audience was mainly activists, in Tokyo University the participants were university professors, students and diplomats...

After the Oslo Failure: The Struggle to Return Home Continues

Salman Abu Sitta, October 13, 2013

This is my first visit to Japan. Japan is distinguished in the Middle East as a very important country, which has a good and peaceful record in our...

Re-Constructing Palestine: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, October 10, 2014

Thank you for inviting me to Japan. This is my first trip to Japan and I am pleased to meet the people here. They are universally known as organized...

Why the Gulf needs Palestine?

Salman Abu Sitta, September 24, 2013

Thanks to Farah Naqib and Noura Kassem for their diligent efforts to start Kuwait Palestine Series and I am grateful for making me the first speaker...

After the failure of Oslo: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, September 12, 2013

It took 20 years for the world to realize that Oslo was a big hoax, or in the words of a Harvard professor, “a brilliant deception”. But its several...

Re-Constructing Palestine: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, April, 2013

This conference is the second after the first historic conference about the Right of Return held in this university in April 2000. I acknowledge and...

Remapping of Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, October 19, 2011

Here in Vienna, in a cafe down the street a man was sitting there, sipping coffee and telling his people that in 50 years he is going to build a state...

Veteran Palestinian academic describes 'land swap' as a farce

Salman Abu Sitta, June 1, 2011

Palestinian academic, Salman Abu Sitta, has dismissed the US-Israeli 'land swap' proposal as a farce and camouflage for ethnic cleansing. In an...

Mechanics of Expulsion: The Perpetual Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, January 15, 2011

If you are thinking of writing your memoirs for future generations, you might just as well tell them that you lived in an era unprecedented in Palestine...

Mapping Palestine: For its Survival or its Destruction?

Salman Abu Sitta, November, 2010-May, 2011

You must have read in history books the story of the king who conquered faraway lands, brought back riches and immortalized his deeds by carving them on...

A Word Of Greetings To The Eighth International Al-Awda Convention

Salman Abu Sitta, April 30-May 2, 2010

As you know, after the announcement of the Oslo hoax in 1993, all of us were shocked at the degradation of the most fundamental Palestinian Right: the...

Palestine: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, January 14, 2010

Today you are witnessing one more day in the longest war in history waged against a people, the Palestinians. It is now 92 years since the last western...

UNRWA: The Unsung Hero

Salman Abu Sitta, December 16, 2009

The Palestine Question has a peculiar characteristic: It is like a constantly-running play, much longer than the “mouse-trap”, only more tragic. The...

Prospects For Peace In Palestine

Salman Abu Sitta, June 6, 2008

Rounding off this year’s Silver Anniversary Convention was a panel entitled "Prospects For Peace In Palestine”, featuring Palestinian intellectual...

Al Nakba Still Goes On

Salman Abu Sitta, May 27, 2008

The recent history of Palestine is full of tragedies, sad anniversaries, contradictions, conspiracies, and stories of stoic resistance. This is the 40th...

Sixty Years Of Resilience: Sixth International Al-Awda Convention

Salman Abu Sitta, May 16-18, 2008

Palestinian history is full of anniversaries of sad events kept alive by the resilience of people who refuse to submit and kneel. This year, it is the...

Reflections on Al Nakba

Salman Abu Sitta, May 15, 2008

The recent history of Palestine is full of tragedies, sad anniversaries, contradictions, conspiracies, and stories of stoic resistance. This history is...

Map and Grab: The Foreign Quest for Palestinian Land

Salman Abu Sitta, May 14, 2008

As Napoleon crossed Sinai on his way to Palestine to build his “Orient Empire” in the winter of 1799, a young officer by the name of Jacotin was leading...

Palestinian Refugees Waiting For Justice

Salman Abu Sitta, April 29-30, 2008

Yes, this is the longest running unresolved refugee problem in the world. It is also the most important. Hardly any event in the Middle in the last...

A Message To The Preparatory Meeting For The Palestinian Popular Conference

Salman Abu Sitta, November 11, 2006

Greetings from your compatriots across the Atlantic. We support your initiative which is echoed by Palestinians all over the world. As always, but...

Reversing Ethnic Cleansing

Salman Abu Sitta, November, 2006

Today you are witnessing the political and frequently the physical genocide of a people. You are witnessing this hideous crime on your TV screens. You...

Back To Roots: Al-Awda’s 4th International Convention

Salman Abu Sitta, July 14-16, 2006

I have just landed after a 10 hours flight from London, crossing an 8 hours time zone. I had plenty of time to reflect on our situation. Today, terrible...

BALFOUR’S ODYSSEY From Betrayal to Expulsion and Quest for Return

Salman Abu Sitta, November 12-13, 2005

In my day dreams, I often imagine sitting among the audience in a huge court-room, watching Balfour in the dock, hearing a recital of a long list of...

The Key To Peace: The Return of the Refugees

Salman Abu Sitta, May, 2005

Millions of people around the world have seen the 40-minute slow, savage, deliberate murder of a 12-year boy, huddled behind his distraught father, who...

Justice Is The Only Road To Peace

Salman Abu Sitta, November 27, 2004

What you see on your television screens from Palestine everyday and what you heard from other speakers today is not news but page after page of current...

Debate Between Salman Abu Sitta and Michael Lerner of Tikkun on The Right of Return

Salman Abu Sitta, February 12, 2003

Would you be interested in participating in a roundtable discussion on the telephone or writing a piece for us on "the right of return"? Please let me...

The Right Of Return: Sacred, Legal, Possible. The Palestinian Refugees

Salman Abu Sitta, November, 1999

It is often said that history repeats itself. I believe it does not. It simply accumulates unfinished business, piles up debts and stacks up fortunes...