Forced Secondary Displacement
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al majdalIssue No. 44 (Summer - Autumn 2010) a quarterly magazine of Only if the rights to return, restitution and BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights compensation are implemented, can we be sure that stateless Palestinian refugees will find the protection they are entitled to, as victims of colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, as stateless refugees, and as human beings. Forced Secondary Displacement Palestinian refugees in Arab host countries BADIL takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian Get your Subscription to al- About the meaning of al-Majdal refugee issue through research, advocacy, and support of Majdal Today! community participation in the search for durable solutions. al-Majdal is a quarterly magazine of al-Majdal is an Aramaic word meaning BADIL Resource Center that aims to raise fortress. The town was known as Majdal BADIL was established in 1998 to support the development of a popular refugee lobby for Palestinian refugee and internally public awareness and support for a just solution Al-Majdal is Badil's Jad during the Canaanite period for the god displaced rights and is registered as a non-profit organization to Palestinian residency and refugee issues. quarterly magazine, and of luck. Located in the south of Palestine, with the Palestinian Authority. an excellent source of al-Majdal was a thriving Palestinian city Electronic copies are available online at: information on key issues with some 11,496 residents on the eve of www.badil.org/al-Majdal/al-Madjal.htm relating to the cause of the 1948 Nakba. Majdalawis produced a Palestine in general, and wide variety of crops including oranges, Palestinian refugee rights € grapes, olives and vegetables. Palestinian Annual Subscription: 25 (4 issues) in particular. residents of the town owned 43,680 Published by dunums of land. The town itself was built BADIL Resource Resource Center for Credit Card holders on 1,346 dunums. Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights can order al-Majdal, The town of al-Majdal suffered heavy Head of Board: Ahamad Muhaisen and all other Badil publications by air and sea attacks during the latter half visiting: of the 1948 war in Palestine. Israeli PO Box 728 http://www.badil.org/ military operations (Operation Yoav, Bethlehem, Palestine publications also known as “10 Plagues”) aimed Tel/Fax: 972-2-274-7346 to secure control over the south of Email: [email protected] Palestine and force out the predominant Web: www.badil.org Help spread the word, ask Palestinian population. By November your library to subscribe 1948, more than three-quarters of the to al-Majdal ISSN 1726-7277 city’s residents had fled to the Gaza Strip. Israel subsequently approved Editor the resettlement of 3,000 Jews in Hazem Jamjoum Palestinian refugee homes in the town. In late 1949 Israel began to drive out the Editorial Team remaining Palestinian population using Ingrid Jaradat-Gassner, Muhammad Jaradat, a combination of military force and Nidal Azza, Akram Salhab administrative measures. The process was completed by 1951. Israel continues Layout & Design to employ similar measures in the 1967 Ena’am Al Khateeb, al-Ayyam occupied West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Advisory Board Abdelfattah Abu Srour (Palestine) Palestinian refugees from al-Majdal now number over 71,000 persons, and Israel Jalal Al Husseini (Switzerland) has Hebraized the name of their town Arjan El Fassed (Netherlands) as “Ashkelon.” Like millions of other Front Cover photo: View of al-Tanaf camp on the Syrian- Randa Farah (Canada) Palestinian refugees, Majdalawis are not Iraqi border, November 2008. (©Gloria Nafziger) Usama Halabi (Palestine) allowed to return to their homes of origin. Back cover photo: al-Tanaf refugee camp, on the Syrian- Jeff Handmaker (Netherlands) Israel opposes the return of the refugees Iraqi border, 14 August 2009 (Courtesy of Flickr Images) Zaha Hassan (United States) due to their ethnic, national and religious Salem Hawash (Palestine) Production and Printing: al-Ayyam origins. al-Majdal, BADIL’s quarterly Isabelle Humphries (Palestine) magazine, reports about and promotes BADIL welcomes comments, criticism, and suggestions for Scott Leckie (Australia) al-Majdal. Please send all correspondence to the editor at initiatives aimed at achieving durable [email protected]. Terry Rempel (Canada) solutions for Palestinian refugees and Shahira Samy (Egypt) displaced persons based on international The views expressed by independent writers in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of BADIL Joseph Schechla (Egypt) law and relevant resolutions of the Resource Center. www.badil.org/al-majdal United Nations. Contents Editorial How Many Times Displaced? .............................................................................................................2 Commentary The Palestinian Civil Society Campaign for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Marks 5 Years Michael Deas & Hind Awwad ................................................................................................................5 Special Feature: Poetry and Prose on 62 Years of Nakba - Untitled- by Nizar Wattad ..............................................................................................................9 - 2010 and Waiting by Rafeef Ziadah ..........................................................................................10 - for the Intifada by Harsha Walia ..................................................................................................11 - Haunted Cornfields and Olive Groves by Zainab Amadahy .........................................................12 - Aisha by Soha al-Jurf...................................................................................................................13 - (d)earth by Junie Désil .................................................................................................................14 - History Books by Luke Haralampou ...........................................................................................15 - sedo’s sister by Dalia Marina ......................................................................................................16 - We by Ghayath Almadhoun .......................................................................................................16 - Baghdad by Ahmed Habib ............................................................................................................17 Feature: Secondary Displacement From the BADIL Refugee Survey 2008-2009 Secondary Forced Displacement in Host Countries: An Overview .................................................18 Overview of Palestinian Forced Displacement in and from Lebanon 1948-1990 by Mahmoud El Ali .............................................................................................................................22 The Ongoing Nakba in Lebanon: The Case of Nahr el-Bared Refugee Camp by Marcy Newman ..............................................................................................................................29 Palestinian Forced Displacement from Kuwait: The Overdue Accounting by Toufic Haddad ............................................................................................................................................ 35 Reviews A Comprehensive Reference Work on Restitution Law by Gail Boling ................................................................................................................................................. 43 Another Palestinian Life by Hatim Kanaaneh ..........................................................................................................................................49 Challenging History: Why the Oppressed Must Tell Their Own Stories by Ramzy Baroud ............................................................................................................................................ 52 Documents BADIL's Statement on the Occasion of World Refugee Day and Release of: "Rights in Principle – Rights in Practice" .........................................................................................54 Badil’s 2010 Europe Speaking Tour Comes to a Close: Over 45 Meetings and Events held in Eight Countries over Three Months ......................................................................................56 Peace Talks in the Shadow of Demolitions .......................................................................................57 BDS Campaign Update October 2009 - June 2010 ............................................................................................................................... 58 Summer - Autumn 2010 1 Editorial How Many Times Displaced? Destruction in Nar el Bared refugee camp after the assault by Lebanese forces against Fatah al Islam militants. During the fighting most of the camp's residents were forced to flee in what many of them described as a "Second Nakba" (Matthew Castel/ JustImages.org) he central aspect of Palestine’s Ongoing Nakba since 1948 is the forcible displacement of the indigenous Palestinian people from their homeland and the denial of their return by Israel. TAccording to Badil’s 2008 Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, only one third of the Palestinian people are persons who have never been forced to leave their homes, while almost seventy percent are refugees or internally displaced persons, victims of the forced displacement induced by Israel’s ongoing policy of population transfer (ethnic