In a world that normalizes ethnic cleansing, we choose to normalize return.
Today, as Gaza descends deeper into destruction—with mass starvation, forced displacement, and discussions of permanently
confining its people into a so-called “concentration zone”—Zochrot launches #NormalizeReturn – The Time Is Now to assert a clear truth:
Palestinian refugees do not need relocation, management, or humanitarian charity.
They need the internationally recognized Right of Return—and the freedom to reclaim home.
For decades, return has been sidelined as “unrealistic” or “naive,” while apartheid, mass displacement, and siege have been treated as normal—even “reasonable.”
But what is truly unrealistic is imagining a future without justice.
If ethnic cleansing can be discussed openly as a “solution,” then return must be asserted—as urgent, necessary, and just.

Let us be clear:
When we say “normalize return,” we don’t mean it’s new or unnatural. Return is already normal—it is the legal, historical, and moral baseline. We say “normalize” because what has been falsely normalized—dispossession, apartheid, genocide—must be uprooted.
Return is not the exception—it is the norm that was violently interrupted.

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Why Now?

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation illegal. The UN General Assembly followed by endorsing the ICJ ruling and setting a 12-month deadline for Israel to end its presence in the occupied Palestinian territories—by September 18, 2025.

But instead of advancing justice, powerful states are using this moment to push top-down frameworks that entrench apartheid and erase refugee rights. On July 28, France and Saudi Arabia co-hosted a UN conference promoting a recycled two-state “solution”—one that sidelines Resolution 194 and normalizes permanent displacement under the illusion of peace.

As this deadline approaches, our campaign calls on the UN and global actors to go further:
not just to end occupation, but to fullfill the UN’s own Resolution 194 by upholding the Right of Return. Dismantling colonial structures without restoring refugee rights will only entrench injustice.

Return must be central to any future. And Gaza makes this clearer than ever.

Gaza is home to a majority of Palestinian refugees, already displaced multiple times. Now, Israeli and international officials openly propose permanently confining its population—those who have already fled massacre—into a zone of exile.
Meanwhile, refugee camps in the West Bank have been repeatedly destroyed, their residents displaced again. And UNRWA, the only institution upholding refugee status, is under political assault—defunded, delegitimized, and banned.

This is not a humanitarian emergency alone.
It is a coordinated political project of erasure: erasing refugeehood, blocking return, and entrenching apartheid.

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Campaign Goals

This campaign is a political intervention. We aim to:

1. Expose the Ongoing Nakba

• Reframe Gaza and refugee displacement as part of a single, continuous process of ethnic cleansing since 1948.

• Reveal how global discourse obscures Zionist violence and erases Palestinian agency.

2. Reject Imposed “Solutions”

• Challenge frameworks that exclude return and impose “pragmatic” alternatives that normalize injustice, such as the two states solution.

• Advocate for political solutions rooted in decolonization, reparation, and refugee rights and agency. 

3. Reframe the Discourse

• Shift from humanitarian “management” to justice-centered political action.

• Normalize return as the most realistic, legal, and just solution—not the most radical.

4. Mobilize for Return

• Build a Return Working Group for political education, advocacy, and organizing.

• Push for a UN General Assembly resolution that reaffirms Resolution 194 and upholds return as a political obligation—especially ahead of the September 2025 deadline.

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This Is Not Symbolic

This is a sustained effort to place Return at the center of global political discourse and action—
not just as a right to be affirmed, but as a reality to be organized for.

As governments negotiate over Palestinians’ heads, we are building something different:
A global, grassroots political movement to assert return as the only just and achievable future.

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Take Action

For too long, the world has normalized ethnic cleansing—not just through silence, but through international frameworks that render Palestinian return “impossible” and displacement “inevitable.”

We reject this logic. We choose to normalize return—not because it is new, but because it is right.

• Use #NormalizeReturn in your posts, content, and conversations.

• Share the campaign and help make return not only visible—but legitimate, urgent, and central.

• Join Our Twitter Storm!
  Take part in our coordinated Twitter storm on August 8th, from 8 PM to 11 PM Palestine time to amplify #NormalizeReturn globally. Your tweets can help shift the conversation, challenge settler-colonial narratives, and put the Right of Return at the center of the struggle for justice.

• Ensure your organization’s work, demands, and educational efforts explicitly center the Right of Return. Make return a visible, integral part of your political vision, advocacy, and discourse—challenging frameworks that sideline or erase this fundamental right.

• Join the Return Working Group to help build the tools and strategies we need. Stay tuned for the official launch and application details coming soon!

Return is not only possible.
It is the only path to justice, freedom, and real safety—for Palestinians and for all.

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