Seven Oaks Magazine.

Reem Alnuweiri is a Palestinian refugee and well known social justice activist. She works with the Vancouver Palestine Community Centre, and will be joining a coalition of groups in putting on a one day ‘Refugee Camp’ on February 5 to bring attention to the struggles of refugees worldwide.

Alnuweiri recently took the time to respond by email to Seven Oaks about the continuing struggles of Palestinian refugees.

1-The Bush and Sharon regimes have been trying to strike the issue of right of return from any potential negotiations. Is the refugee situation still central to the Palestinian national question?

The Palestinian Right of Return has been and will remain the core issue of the Palestinian struggle. The Diaspora Appeal issued on January 26 of this year has described it as, "[a] prerequisite for full Palestinian self-determination, freedom, and liberty. The Right of Return is the dream of two-thirds of the Palestinian people, and we strongly reject all initiatives, agreements, and understandings, whether formal or informal, that compromise this right or attempt to liquidate it under the pretext of a 'just solution to the refugee problem. '"

Palestinians are the largest single group of refugees in the world, one in three refugees worldwide is Palestinian. It is estimated that there are about 6.5 million Palestinian refugees worldwide.

There’s an estimated 200 000 refugees living in North America.

4-Have changes to Canada’s immigration policy adversely affected Palestinian refugees living in Canada?

I strongly recommend reviewing the document put together by the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees (http://refugees.resist.ca/document/reason4rejection.html).

The Canadian immigration policy has been biased, ignorant and reflects systematic discrimination against Palestinian refugee claimants. We find the Canadian government directly contributing to the oppression of Palestinians by abstaining on resolutions against the apartheid wall, rejecting the renewal of the UN commission that tracks international law violations committed by the Israeli government, and working on "resettling the Palestinian refugees" against their will in Lebanon and neighbouring Arab countries.

5-How has the right of return for Palestinian refugees related to the broader movement against the war and occupation of Iraq?

The right of return movement is solidly based on progressive thinking, and it has been part of the movement against war and occupation. It has also maintained itself as an anti-imperialist movement in North America and worldwide. The Palestinian activists in the right of return movement are themselves co-founders and key activists in the anti-war movement, and have been in the forefront in the struggle against the US occupation of Iraq. It is very tough to separate the right of return movement from the anti-imperialist and anti-war movement.

6-Much was made of the Iraqi diaspora’s participation in the recent elections. Did refugees have the right to vote in the January 9 election in Palestine?

The tragedy of that vote is that two thirds of the people, the Palestinian people, were not given the chance to decide their own fate. For us Palestinians in the Diaspora, in exile, we are still refugees and we do not want to be anywhere else but in Palestine. We live each day counting down to our return. Sadly, many of us watched the elections from our living rooms, with our voices silenced.

7-What is being planned to drive home the reality of Palestinian refugees at this weekend's Canadian Refugee Camp?

Our slogans will be very clear: The Demand for the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, for the right to dignity and immediate cessation of deportation for Palestinian refugees, and to end all institutional racism embedded in the refugee claims process.

For more information on the 'Canadian Refugee Camp' to be held Saturday, February 5, check out the homepage of the immigrant and refugee rights group No One Is Illegal.