Experts on Palestinian Jaber Suleiman paigning for refugee rights large urban Jewish settlement of Gilo had been Nakba Specialist in Palestinian and return constructed in its vicinity. Israeli municipal au- Resources for 60 Refugees & IDPs politics and refugee studies Al-awda.org (US) or al- thorities have asked Ein Juweiza residents, who Location: Saida, Lebanon awda.org.uk (UK) comprise about half of Wallajeh, to sign a docu- Phone: +961(0)3-856607 Journalists The following English-speaking citizenship law Association for the De- ment recognizing that their homes are in eastern Email: [email protected]. contacts have been selected Location: Jerusalem fense of the Rights of the Jerusalem, and that they, holders of West Bank on Palestinian Refugees lb from a long list of experts Phone: +972(0)505- Internally Displaced IDs, are residing illegally in Jerusalem. and Internally Displaced Persons in the Palestinian refugee 525959 Civil Society Organization problem. Don’t hesitate to Negotiations Support Unit Email: usamahalabi@hot- of the PLO for IDPs in Israel In the meantime, Israeli soldiers commonly ar- contact Badil (Email: medi- mail.com Location: Ramallah Tel: +972(0)4600-1765; rest and fine Wallajeh residents in their homes [email protected], Phone: Badil Resource Center for Phone: +972(0)2-2963741 Fax: +972(0)4646-8241; for entering Jerusalem without the proper Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights +972(0)2-2747346) for Isabelle Humphries [email protected] papers. references who speak other Researcher, specialist on -Xavier Abueid Coalition Against Israeli languages. Our staff is also Palestinian internal dis- Public relations, Nakba 60 In 2004, Israeli city officials announced a new placement in Israel Apartheid (CAIA) well-prepared to answer your Email: xabueid@nsu-pal. plan to construct Giv’at Yael, a settlement questions on refugee law, Location: Cambridge, UK Global civil society coalition org planned to house more than 55,000 Jewish politics and advocacy. Phone: +44(0)7792- raising awareness of Israel’s 497835 -Ziyad Clot Apartheid-like policies and residents, on the lands of Wallajeh and nearby Hussein Abu Husein Email: isabellebh@hotmail. Refugee portfolio campaigning for boycott, Palestinian communities. This settlement will divestment and sanctions Advocate, expert on Pales- co.uk Email: [email protected] complete the ring of settlements forming a phys- tinian land rights and war www.caiaweb.org ical barrier between Palestinians in the southern crimes claims Mustafa Khawaja United Nations Office for National Committee for West Bank and the city of Jerusalem. Plans for Location: Umm al-Fahm Expert in statistics and the Coordination of Hu- the Commemoration of the controversial construction are frozen until Phone: +972(0)54- demography, including dis- manitarian Affairs (OCHA) Nakba-60 in Palestine 2009. 5428860 placement in the OPT Phone: +972(0)2-5829962 Coordinating body for Na- Email: abuhusein@gmail. Location: Ramallah Email: [email protected] kba commemoration Seemingly sounding the final death knell for Website: www.ochaopt.org com Phone: +972(0)599- Tel: +972(0)599-255584; Wallajeh, the Wall (a series of cement walls, 365699 United Nations Relief and [email protected] fences and guard towers that Israel is construct- Salman Abu Sitta Email: khawajam@gmail. Works Agency for Pales- Research authority on the com Palestineremembered.com ing in the West Bank) will entirely encircle the origins of the Palestinian tine Refugees in the Near Dedicated to gathering oral village’s houses, leaving only one exit. Built refugee problem Illan Pappe East (UNRWA) histories, maps and photos mostly on land in the occupied West Bank, the Location: Kuwait Historian, focus on the Sami Mshasha, spokesper- of refugee villages in Israel Wall was declared illegal in the advisory opin- son (HQ) and Acting Deputy Phone: +96-2444650 Nakba and Israeli transfer ion by the International Court of Justice, which Email: [email protected] policies Director of UNRWA Opera- US Campaign to End The called for a halt to construction and reparations. or [email protected] Location: Exeter, U.K. tions/West Bank Israeli Occupation Advocating US policy Email: pappe@poli.haifa. Phone: +972(0)2-5890408 change on Palestine to As early as 2003, UN Special Rapporteur John Susan Akram ac.il or pappe@mailing. Email: s.mshasha@unrwa. respect international law- Dugard warned that the Wall and its associated International law expert hevra.haifa.co.il org with an emphasis on Pales- www.endtheoccupation.org regime were likely to “lead to a new generation of refugees or internally displaced persons”. tinian refugees Rosemary Sayigh Related Zochrot Location: Boston, USA Anthropologist, focus on Israeli organization work- A 2006 pilot study by Badil found that 54% of Email: [email protected] refugees in Lebanon and Organizations ing to raise awareness of involuntary residence changes made by Jerusa- outside historic Palestine the Nakba and Palestinian lem Palestinians had occurred since 2002, and Usama Halabi Location: Beirut, Lebanon & Resources Advocate, expert on Pal- refugee rights among Jew- 17.3% of surveyed Palestinians who changed Email: rsayigh@cyberia. ish Israelis estinian land and housing Al-Awda – Palestine Right their previous place of residence did so because net.lb www.zochrot.org or rights; Israeli land and to Return Coalition of the Wall. Grassroots coalition cam- www.nakbainhebrew.org to refugee camps in Jordan, where they number Case Studies in Displacement 12,500 today. After the 1948 war until 1967, the lands of Wal- ►Kafr Bir’im - 1948 continued to promise the villagers that they lajeh were divided between Israeli and Jorda- would be allowed to return. nian control. Initially living in caves or makeshift On 29 October, 1948, Israel began a new mili- housing, some of the people of Wallajeh eventu- tary campaign code-named ‘Hiram’ intended “We used to keep Contacts ally rebuilt homes in the village in areas under to occupy Arab villages in the Upper Galilee. the keys to our Jordanian control. According to estimates of the Zionist forces, Father Elias Chacour, native homes in our there were 50,000 to 60,000 Palestinians in this of Kafr Bir’im and archbishop pockets,” said But in 1967 – after Israel occupied the West area before the operation – and only 12,000 to of the Melkite Church in the Ibrahim Issa, Bank, including Wallajeh and nearby Bethle- 15,000 remaining afterwards. Galilee, Phone: +972(0)4- whose family had hem – Wallajeh’s residents began to realize that 9866848 (Mar Elias Educa- moved to nearby they may never be allowed to officially return. The 1,050 villagers of Kafr Bir’im were among tional Institutions) Jish. “My mother It became very difficult for residents of the new those forced out of their homes, two weeks after would send me to Wallajeh to obtain building permits. Homes built the Zionist occupation of the village. Officer Committee for the Uprooted our home in Kafr after 1967 without permits were subject to Israeli Emmanuel Friedman told the villagers on 13 of Kafar Birem, Haifa, Israel, Bir’im to bring Phone: +972(0)4- 8665276, demolition proceedings. November that they were “in danger” and must the necessary The Israeli settlement of Har Gilo overlooks old Wallajeh in Email: [email protected] leave. He told them that their evacuation was supplies – you the Ein Jweizeh area, which is now off-limits to most Wallajeh Further, in a bizarre temporary, only to last two weeks, and asked for residents. Cover image: Return march to the Jerusalem village know, the farmer’s of Lifta, May 2006. Photos by Anne Paq Contacts twist, Israeli govern- the keys to their homes. house is like a ment surveyors an- Wallajeh Committee grocery. Our chickens remained in Kafr Bir’im for whose ruins remain visible. Today, more than nexing areas of the Most of the villagers took refuge in nearby caves via Badil, Email: me- about a month, and we fed them regularly.” 2,000 displaced inhabitants of Kafr Bir’im live in occupied West Bank and fields rather than moving across the border [email protected], Israel. Hundreds of others live in a Beirut refu- to Jerusalem unwit- to Lebanon as they had been instructed. When Three months after the villagers were moved Phone: +972(0)2- gee camp and in southern Lebanon. The villag- tingly included the Ein the two-week period was over, Israeli officials out, Israeli patrols arrested 65 people working in 2747346 ers have waged a protracted legal and political Juweiza neighborhood the area, despite their valid permits, and deport- The displaced families of Kafr Bir’im return to the village to cel- battle to return to their land, taking their case to of Wallajeh within the ed them into the West Bank, which was under ebrate Easter in 2005 as a way of maintaining their connection the Israeli Supreme Court, which in a January new city borders. The to the land. Photo by Zaha Hassan/Badil Jordanian control. 1952 decision recognized their right to return move was not made Then, in June 1949, a group of Israeli settlers to their village with the permission of the mili- public until 1981, when the Jerusalem municipal- occupied homes in Kafr Bir’im, heralding the tary governor. This permission has never been ity was ‘correctly’ placed in charge of demolish- establishment of Kibbutz Bar’am. Village lead- granted. ing ‘illegally-built’ Wallajeh homes. ers wrote to Israeli Prime Minister David Ben For over 14 years, these residents with West Gurion, but were told, “it is not currently possible ►Wallajeh - Ongoing Displacement Bank identity cards had no idea that they were to permit the return of the people of Kafr Bir’im to living in the city of Jerusalem. The municipality their village.” Finally, in 1953, the Israeli air force Few communities illustrate as well as the village of Wallajeh the myriad ways that Israel has used had provided no new schools, utilities or serv- bombed the village, destroying it entirely, save its ices to the growing population. church and school. to pressure Palestinians to leave their land. On 21 October 1948, nearly all of the homes of Meanwhile, Wallajeh’s land was coveted. Its In 1965, the site was converted into an Israeli springs, fields and olive trees had been eaten national park, nature reserve and tourist center Wallajeh (then sitting on a vast 17,704 dunums or 4,426 acres) were demolished by the Israeli up by the Biblical Zoo and the Jewish settlement marking an ancient Jewish village, with no of Har Gilo, and Teddy Kolleck stadium and the mention of the later Palestinian Christian village army. Most of the residents were forced to flee