The Right to Return

"The right to return is like the sun" ... "We have returned, and the return is praiseworthy" ... this is the situation of the people who returned to their homes in Gaza and its northern areas after fleeing under the planes' missiles, tank shelling, and the rain of fire, at the start of the genocide war that the Zionist occupation army waged on Gaza and its inhabitants of children, women, and men, targeting its infrastructure, hospitals, universities, schools, and mosques, aiming to destroy the features of life by uprooting people and trees and demolishing buildings.

Hope and Rebuilding

It is a long-awaited return, and despite the destruction and pain caused by the fascist Zionist war machine, the hope for return and rebuilding life was stronger than any challenges.

Will and Determination

It is a magnificent and deeply moving scene for thousands of families and citizens who lined up on Salah al-Din and Al-Rasheed streets, waiting to cross into their cities and villages on foot, racing against the wind and time to reach their homes. It highlights the immense pain and joy experienced by Palestinians in this event where emotions are intertwined, mingling tears with joy, ululations, and takbirs. It reflects complex experiences filled with contradictory feelings and demonstrates the Palestinians’ attachment to their land and their undying hope despite ongoing challenges.

Indomitable Will to Live

The return of Palestinians and their crossing into their neighborhoods is not just a return to a place with walls or even rubble and ruins, but rather an announcement of an indomitable will to live. Every corner of these neighborhoods carries stories of steadfastness and heroism, testifying to a long suffering interwoven with a determination to cling to the land and dignity—a resolve whose features are evident in the faces of those returning, sending a clear message that Palestinians do not break; instead, they reconstruct what war and suffering have destroyed, breathing life back into every stone and corner.

A Majestic Scene

What a majestic scene it is, with hundreds of thousands gathering in the open air along Salah al-Din and Al-Rasheed streets, despite the pain, cold, and suffering, as if the land itself is embracing its people after a long absence. This massive gathering north of Nuseirat reflects the unity of Palestinians in the face of challenges and their insistence on returning and regaining life amid all hardships. Salah al-Din Street, with its historical depth and authenticity, and Al-Rasheed Street extending along the Gaza coast, become witnesses to this historic event, where a new chapter of steadfastness and return is being written.

Stories of Return

In this report, "Al-Mujtama" recounts the stories and tales of return, which embody the suffering of the past and the determination for the future, as people navigate their way through the rubble, hopeful for a new beginning despite the harsh reality.

Personal Testimonies

Ibrahim Mohammad, a young man who fled with his family—some of whom were martyred from northern Gaza at the beginning of the war to escape the shelling, killing, and destruction—took refuge in the area of Muwasi Khan Younis. He and his family lived a difficult life filled with misery and hardship in a tent lacking the most basic elements of human life. He stated to "Al-Mujtama": "I fled from Jabalia camp at the beginning of the war in October under the threat of shelling and random killings, along with my family, without being able to carry our belongings or clothes or anything to take with us, as time was not on our side, and the shelling did not give us any respite; we were thinking only of saving our lives."

He continued: "And here we are today, after the announcement of the ceasefire and the permission to return, realizing our dream of returning to our homes despite their destruction and the obliteration of the features of life within them. We will live on the ruins of our houses and will set up our tents there to remain rooted in them, and we will rebuild and restore them, and they will return even more beautiful and better than they were."

A Return to Identity

It is an unmatched feeling to return to your hometown after a long absence, to breathe the air of the land that carried your childhood memories, and to see the places that witnessed your first moments in life. This reunion with family and neighbors revitalizes the human spirit, as if one has regained a lost part of themselves. The return is not merely a return to the land; it is a return to identity, belonging, and psychological security that cannot be compensated.

Expressions of Hope and Resilience

In statements that carry all the meanings of hope, resilience, and challenge despite pain, loss, and suffering, citizen Ahmad Al-Othmani, who was displaced from his city of Gaza with his family to the south, expressed his joy at the end of the war and the ceasefire, and the return to his city and the scent of its land, saying to "Al-Mujtama": "Today we return to our land, not only to reclaim our homes but to affirm that we are here to stay. No force can uproot us from this place. It is a day of great march after the suffering of displacement, tents, torment, and bombardment. We return today to the ruins of our demolished homes to build a tent of resilience and challenge above them, to draw a picture of dignity, honor, and great victory, and to create from their ruins the enduring hope that beats even in the darkest moments."

Children's Innocence and Joy

For her part, the girl Tala Al-Masri expressed to "Al-Mujtama" her happiness and joy at returning to her home in northern Gaza, where she will meet some family members who were separated by displacement, considering that this day is one of the happiest days of her life, making her forget all the pain and suffering that she endured during the displacement that lasted more than a whole year. She said with the innocence of childhood: "I will play again with those who remain alive among my friends, and I will gather with them even on the rubble of the houses, hoping to return to my normal life and studies once again."

A Young Man's Resolve

In his talk to "Al-Mujtama," young Mahmoud Al-Salhi, who was displaced with his family from the Maghraqah area adjacent to Netzarim—destroyed entirely by the occupation during the expansion of the buffer zone in Netzarim—considered displacement to be the hardest thing a person can experience in life. It is one of the most brutal experiences for the soul because it is not just a relocation from one place to another; it is an uprooting from the roots of memories and identity, the loss of a sense of security and stability, and leaving behind homes that hold dreams and hopes, and moving to a reality filled with challenges and difficulties.

However, at the same time, he expressed his happiness at the end of the war, the cessation of killing and genocide, the shedding of blood, and the return to the ruins of his home to build his tent there, breathing the air of his land and city despite the immense destruction that has befallen it. He said: "Despite the destruction and rubble, we will remain stronger. The occupation will not be able to destroy our spirits as it has destroyed our homes, nor to take away our love for this land because it is not just a place; it is a story of resilience, a title of dignity we refuse to have taken from us. And because we believe that this pain is the path to victory, among the ruins we will plant flowers and draw the future."

 On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which was issued on November 2, 1917, and resulted in a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians, I went to read the letter of the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to the Zionist Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community.

While reading the letter, I found out that the Balfour Declaration is itself strong proof that Palestine is the land of Palestinians and that some conspirators stole it. The use of the word “Palestine” in the following letter from James Balfour to the British Zionist Rothschild (Balfour Declaration) testifies for the theft that took place a century and seven years ago, testifies that such pledge was issued by He (Arthur Balfour) who does not own, for he (Rothschild) who does not deserve the land of the Natives (Palestinians). In other words, the Balfour Declaration promised Jews a land where the natives (the Palestinians) made up more than 90 percent of the population.

It was one of three controversial wartime British promises; the British promised the Jews a national home in Palestine, at the same time, they promised the Arabs independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 1915 Hussein-McMahon correspondence; and in a separate treaty known as 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, they promised the French, that the majority of Palestine would be under international administration, while the rest of the region would be split between the two colonial powers after the war.

That Declaration turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality when Britain publicly promised to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” there.

The British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour, on November 2, 1917, made the following pledge in a public letter to a known British Zionist, Lord Walter Rothschild:

"Balfour Declaration 1917"

November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur James Balfour"

That declaration was made during World War I (1914-1918) and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

The main goal of the British Mandate in Palestine was to pave the way for the establishment of a Jewish “national home”, where Jews constituted less than 10 percent of the population at the time.

It is important to note that France was also involved and declared its support for establishing a national home for the Jews before the issuing of the Balfour Declaration.

A May 1917 letter from a French diplomat called Jules Cambon, to Nahum Sokolow, a Polish Zionist, expressed the sympathetic views of the French government towards “Jewish colonisation in Palestine”.

Also, Germany played a significant role in the establishment of the Jewish state on the Palestinian Lands. The hidden relations between the government of Adolf Hitler and German Zionists go back to 1923. From the first years of the Nazi regime, Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (1920 -1945) shared the goal of many Zionists to encourage the Jews to embrace Zionism and immigrate to Palestine.

Hitler and his Nazi Party cooperated with Zionists to get rid of German Jews by encouraging them to move to Palestine.

In 1933, The Nazi regime signed with the Zionist German Jews the Haavara Agreement or "transfer agreement" on 25 August 1933. That agreement was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews from Germany to Palestine over the following six years. The agreement allowed the Jews to move with their assets to Palestine.

Despite many Western powers working against Palestine, the Balfour Declaration has been a subject of debate for many decades. Some argue that many in the British government at the time were Zionists themselves, others say the declaration was issued to get rid of the Jews who were hated in Europe, discriminated against, and seen as inferiors. So giving Palestine to the Jews was a solution to the “Jewish problem”.

It could be said that many Western powers worked against Palestine. They aimed at getting rid of the European Jews at the expense of Palestinians, at a time when Palestinians were in the depths of sleep, as Khalil Sakakini, a Jerusalemite Christian Palestinian writer, described Palestine in the immediate aftermath of the war as follows: “A nation which has long been in the depths of sleep only awakes if events rudely shake it, and only arises little by little … This was the situation of Palestine, which for many centuries has been in the deepest sleep, until it was shaken by the great war, shocked by the Zionist movement, and violated by the illegal policy [of the British], and it awoke, little by little.”