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al majdalIssue No. 42 (Autumn 2009) quarterly magazine of BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights Nakba Education on the Path of Return al-Majdal (Autumn 2009) 1 BADIL takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian al-Majdal is a quarterly magazine of refugee issue through research, advocacy, and support BADIL Resource Center that aims to raise of community participation in the search for durable solutions. public awareness and support for a just solution to Palestinian residency and refugee issues. BADIL was established in 1998 to support the development of a popular refugee lobby for Palestinian refugee and internally displaced rights and is registered as a non-profit Electronic copies are available online at: organization with the Palestinian Authority. www.badil.org/al-Majdal/al-Madjal.htm Annual Subscription: 25€ (4 issues) Published by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine Tel/Fax: 972-2-274-7346 Email: [email protected] Web: www.badil.org ISSN 1726-7277 Editor Hazem Jamjoum Editorial Team Reem Mazzawi, Mohammad Jaradat, Nidal al-Azza, Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Toufic Haddad Layout & Design Atallah Salem, Badil Wael al-Azzeh, al-Ayyam Advisory Board Abdelfattah Abu Srour (Palestine) Diana Buttu (Palestine) Acknowledgments Jalal Al Husseini (Switzerland) Arjan El Fassed (Netherlands) Badil thanks Marcy Newman, Dahna Abu Rahmeh, Fouad Muoghrabi, and Ali Issa for their help in putting Randa Farah (Canada) together this issue of al-Majdal. Usama Halabi (Palestine) Jeff Handmaker (Netherlands) Front Cover: Photo by Rich Wiles Zaha Hassan (United States) Salem Hawash (Palestine) Production and Printing: al-Ayyam Isabelle Humphries (United Kingdom) BADIL welcomes comments, criticism, and suggestions Scott Leckie (Australia) for al-Majdal. Please send all correspondence to the editor at [email protected]. Karine Mac Allister (Quebec) Terry Rempel (Canada) The views expressed by independent writers in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Shahira Samy (Egypt) BADIL Resource Center. Joseph Schechla (Egypt) 2 al-Majdal (Issue No. 42) Contents Editorial They Can Take Everything but our Minds ..............................................................................................................2 Commentary The Gaza Strip: “Never Again!” – Again by Reem Mazzawi ....................................................................................................................................................4 Readings from the Fateh Political Program by Jamal al-Shati ....................................................................................................................................................7 Main Feature: Nakba Education Palestine History Project: Teaching a Collective Narrative by Rami Salameh...................................................................................................................................................10 A New Generation of Returnees: Challenges in Memory Projects with Refugee Youth in Lebanon by Moa’taz al-Dajani.............................................................................................................................................13 Palestinian History and Identity in the Israeli School System by Sa’id Barghouti ................................................................................................................................................16 The Art of Resistance: Education through Grassroots Arts and Culture in Bethlehem’s Refugee Camps by Rich Wiles .........................................................................................................................................................21 Palestinian Political Education in Israeli Prisons by Khaled al-Azraq ...............................................................................................................................................28 Hearing Obama: How to Introduce an Authentic History of Contemporary Palestine Into the American High School by Dan Walsh ........................................................................................................................................................30 Teaching Culture and Resistance, from Brooklyn to Palestine by Palestine Education Project ............................................................................................................................35 Reflections on the Badil “Palestinian Refugees under International Law” Course by Nidal Azza ........................................................................................................................................................39 How do we say Nakba in Hebrew? Reflections on teaching Jews in Israel about the Nakba by Amaya Galili ....................................................................................................................................................42 Reviews Child Authors Reflect on WritingFlying Home by Lajee Center Youth ............................................................................................................................................46 Book Review: Flying Home by Toufic Haddad ....................................................................................................................................................48 The Pursuit of Happiness by Adina Hoffman ...................................................................................................................................................50 Book Review: My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness by Hatim Kanaaneh ................................................................................................................................................52 Why I Wrote Coexistence to Conquest by Victor Kattan ......................................................................................................................................................55 Book Review: From Coexistence to Conquest by Yasmine Gado ....................................................................................................................................................57 Documents Recurring Dispossession and Displacement of 1948 Palestinian Refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Badil Submission ....................................................................................................................................................61 Badil’s Survey of Palestinian Refugees and IDPs 2008 Summary of Findings .............................................................................................................................................63 Palestinian Officials in Geneva: Sacrificing the Rights of Palestinians at theAltar of False Promises Badil Statement ......................................................................................................................................................66 Justice Delayed is Justice Denied Joint Statement .......................................................................................................................................................67 Badil Launches Fourth Annual Al-Awda Award Badil Statement .......................................................................................................................................................68 BDS Campaign Update.........................................................................................................................................69 Editorial They Can Take Everything but Our Minds Children in Aida refugee camp researching and preparing an exhibit on refugee rights. Photo: Rich Wiles n the last issue of al-Majdal, we explored legal avenues for holding accountable Israeli perpetrators and those complicit in violations of international law. All the pending cases discussed in that issue have since been dismissed, whether through Ilegislative intervention (as with the Daraj case in Spain), or findings that the cases were not justiciable or the plaintiff did not have standing (as with the al-Haq case in the U.K. and the Bil’in case in Canada). Once again, Palestinian victims were denied effective remedies because challenging Israeli impunity was judged to be too politically sensitive for the courtrooms of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. In the same period, however, Israeli impunity was challenged by another judge who delivered his team’s assessment of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel and Hamas during Israel’s military offensive against the occupied Gaza Strip between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009. At the end of September, the U.N. “Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict” headed by Judge Richard Goldstone submitted the Mission’s meticulously researched report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, including a set of practical recommendations aimed to ensure that Israeli perpetrators will be held to account for the first time. The “Goldstone Report” is assessed in Reem Mazzawi’s commentary for this issue of al-Majdal. While the Goldstone Report and its recommendations were ultimately adopted by the Human Rights Council, it is important to note that the Council had initially decided to defer the vote on it to its next session in the spring of 2010. Such a course of action would have stripped the report of much of its value in securing redress for the Palestinian victims. The news that came out of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva was that the official Palestinian delegation played