• by IPS Correspondents (ramallah, west bank)
• Friday, December 23, 1994
• Inter Press Service

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dic 23 (IPS) - Palestinian-Americans, sent back to their 'homeland' by their parents, believe they have a key role to play in the future development of the fledging Palestinian state.

"We had neglected our homeland during our struggle for our livelihood in the United States," said Walid Al-Asmar, a Palestinian American, pharmacy owner and vice president of the Palestinian American Society based in Jerusalem.

"However," he said, "We have been thinking of returning to our homeland when our children grew up.

He added: "...we realised that our return for the sake of our children's future is imperative," said Asmar who said that the majority of Palestinian Americans think about returning before their children reach the ages of 10 or 11 years old.

Asmar is among several thousand Palestinian-Americans who have returned to learn about Palestinian culture.

Asmar, originally from a village near Nablus called Turmosayah, spent nearly 27 years in New Jersey, New York working as a pharmacist before deciding to return to Palestine.

The Palestinian American Society was established two years ago at Asmar's initiative, to establish an organisation to serve the Palestinian American community and to be a link between the returnees and their friends and relatives in the United States.

The Society's statement of purpose clearly states: "Believing in our role and our essential entity and our being as an indivisible part of the Palestinian people, a number of Palestinian Americans convened and discussed the course of events. They were convinced of the necessity of forming a society to achieve their aims and goals..."

According to the organisation's by-laws, the Society does not have any political affiliation. At the same time Asmar says the Society's purpose is to promote democracy, equality and freedom to defend the Palestinians' right to freedom and self-determination and to highlight their right to return to their homeland.

"We are dual ambassadors for our homeland -- Palestine -- and our country -- United States," says article two of the Society's by-law.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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