PRC holds a workshop titled

PRC holds a workshop titled

LONDON, The London based Palestinian Return Centre is to hold on Friday a workshop during which Professor Salman Abu Sitta will be launching “The Atlas of Palestine 1917-1966” in which he uses documents to “prove rights and to correct wrongs.”

Professor Abu Sitta will redraw the contours of Israeli landscape by documenting the erasure of Palestinian history and the ongoing Nakba.

He will map the history of Palestinian Exile. The presentation will provide a historical and forensic analysis of the mechanism of expulsion, which began in 1947 and continues even today. It will also provide graphic illustrations of the policy of expulsion which he has documented in his new atlas. The atlas contains names and descriptions of Palestinian villages that have been destroyed. It also provides names, description and location of Palestinian villages which Israel does not recognize, some of which have recently been under attack to force their residents to move elsewhere.

Many Thousands of Palestinians still carry deeds to their lands and properties. The towns and villages from which they were expelled have been erased from Israeli Maps. Israeli maps also fail to document existing villages that have existed long before any Israeli settlements. Unrecognised villages are denied any basic services from the government.

Professor Abu Sitta is founder and President of Palestine Land Society (London),  author of : “The Atlas of Palestine 1948”, 2005, “The Return Journey”, 2007 and “From Refugees to Citizens at Home”, 2001 and “The Atlas of Palestine 1917-1966”, 2010 and General Coordinator of the Right of Return Congress.

Chairman of PRC Majed al-Zeer stressed that the launching of this Atlas is important in terms of time and place as Britain bears special historical responsibility for creating the Palestinian problem and the resulting suffering of the Palestinian people during a period which is covered by this distinctive academic work.

As to the timing; al-Zeer said that this work comes to reinforce the Palestinian inalienable rights at a time when there are frantic attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue through an unjust “peace process”.