Palestinian politicians and intellectuals agreed unanimously to adhere to the Palestinian refugees' right of return during a workshop held in Gaza on Saturday to mark World Refugee Day.

During the workshop, which was organized by the Gaza-based Palestinian corporation for refugees, the participants reiterated the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homeland and rejected any attempts of resettling.

Palestinian refugees, not only in the Palestinian territories, but in the entire world, were so much concerned about their right of return since Israeli hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks about the Palestinian refugees on June 14.

In an address laying out his policies on the Middle East peace process, Netanyahu said Israel will never accept the return of Palestinian refugees to the Jewish state' s territories, but to their demilitarized Palestinian state.

Ramzi Rabah, a Palestinian expert on the refugee affairs, said during the workshop that Netanyahu "had turned the table and executed any hope for any political solution to the Palestinian refugees problem."

He said Netanyahu "has not only closed the file of the refugees, but also threatened to expel 1.5 million Palestinians (Israeli Arabs) out of Israel after declaring that he wanted the Palestinians to recognize a pure Jewish state."

A report issued by the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics Center (PBSC) on Saturday to mark the World Refugee Day said that by the end of 2008, the number of Palestinian refugees all-over the world had reached 4.7 million.

The PBSC said a real humanitarian tragedy plagued the Palestinian people "when thousands of them were expelled, by force, from their towns and villages, which were seized by Israel."

Talal Oukal, a Palestinian political analyst at al-Azhar University in Gaza, called on the Palestinian factions to hold an urgent Palestinian and Arab summit to respond to the Israeli denial of the refugees' return.

"Israel and the United States will fail to find one single Palestinian that would make a concession over this legitimate right (of return)," Oukal told the attendants of the workshop.

He said "we shouldn't look at what the U.S. administration or the European Union are going to do to the refugees. Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas should do all their best to end the current political rift between Gaza and the West Bank."

The Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007 after overrunning the Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah-dominated security forces. Since then, Fatah holds sway in the West Bank. The two factions are pressed by Egypt to sign a unity agreement in July to end their internal fissure.

According to the latest figures of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), the Palestinian refugees are currently living in 58 refugee camps in the Palestinian territories and several Arab countries.

"There are 12 refugee camps in Lebanon, 10 in Jordan, nine in Syria, 19 in the West Bank and eight in the Gaza Strip, which are supervised by UNRWA," said the international relief organization.

Khaled el-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement leader, told Xinhua that the issue of the Palestinian refugees "mustn't be subject to the feelings and emotions of this faction's mood or that one, adding that "we should find practical methods to pressure on Fatah and Hamas to unite."

"As long as our feud, split and rift remain, it will be so easy for Israel to implement its plans. What we need is to be united and face all these challenges that aim at depriving us of enjoying our legitimate rights," he said.

The participants in the workshop concluded that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has to sever negotiations with Israel "until it shows complete commitment to halting settlement activities and to the international resolutions, including the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homeland."

They also called on the Palestinians to be united to end the current rift and to challenge Israel until the Palestinians achieve their national goals, "mainly the refugees' right of return according to the UN resolution No. 194 and establishment of a Palestinian state."

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2009)