al majdalmajdIssue No. 30-31a (Summer- Fall 2006)l a quarquarterlyterly magazinemagazine of BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights Palestinian IDPs Internally DisplacedDisplaced PPersonsersons Summer 2006 BADIL takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian refugee issue through research, advocacy, and support al-Majdal is a quarterly magazine of of community participation in the search for durable solutions. BADIL Resource Center that aims to raise public awareness and support for a just solution BADIL was established in 1998 to support the development of a popular refugee lobby for Palestinian refugee and internally to Palestinian residency and refugee issues. displaced rights and is registered as a non-profit organization with the Palestinian Authority. Electronic copies are available online at: www.badil.org/al-Majdal/al-Madjal.htm Annual Subscription: US$ 20 (4 issues) Published by BADIL Resource 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 Karine Mac Allister Editorial Team Terry Rempel, Nihad Boqai’, Muhammad Jaradat, Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Noura Khoury, Isabelle Humphries Layout & Design Wael al-Azzeh, al-Ayyam Advisory Board Salem Abu Hawash (Palestine) Salman Abu Sitta (Kuwait) Abdel Fattah Abu Srour (Palestine) Susan Akram (USA) Mahmoud al-Ali (Lebanon) Aisling Byrne (UK) Cover photo: Jahalin Bedouin facing displacement and Marwan Dalal (Palestine) living near the Jewish colonies of Qedar and Ma’ale Randa Farah (Jordan) Adumim, August 2006. © Anne Paq. Arjan al-Fassed (Netherlands) Production and Printing: al-Ayyam Jalal al-Husseini (Switzerland) Mahmoud Issa (Denmark) BADIL welcomes comments, criticism, and suggestions for al-Majdal. Please send all correspondence to the editor Mustafa al-Khawaja (Palestine) at [email protected]. Scott Leckie (Switzerland) The views expressed by independent writers in this Ahmad al-Jamal (Syria) publication do not necessarily reflect the views of BADIL John Quigley (USA) Resource Center. Rosemary Sayigh (Lebanon) Content Editorial A Few Words on the “New Order” ....................................................................................................................... 2 Commentary Palestine after Israel’s “Convergence” - which never happened By Ingrid Jaradat Gassner .................................................................................................................................... 5 Palestinian IDPs International Mechanism to Respond to Situations of Internal Displacement Applicability to the Palestinian Case By Karine Mac Allister ......................................................................................................................................... 9 30 Days in Paradise! The Role of Palestinian Refugees in Assisting Displaced Lebanese during the Last Israeli War on Lebanon By Mahmoud Zeidan ........................................................................................................................................... 15 Forced Displacement as a Result of the Wall and its Associated Regime By Badil Staff ...................................................................................................................................................... 20 How has Israel dealt with the Internally Displaced? By Dr. Hillel Cohen ............................................................................................................................................. 25 Resisting Displacement, The Examples of Al-Aqaba and Yanoun By Anne Paq ........................................................................................................................................................ 30 Al-Mujaydil Church: The Possibilities of Community Action By Isabelle Humphries ........................................................................................................................................ 36 1948 Internally Displaced Persons Palestinians are an Integral Part of the Palestinian People and must be Included Equally in all Future Solutions By Amir Makhoul ................................................................................................................................................ 40 General Articles 2006 Palestinian Economy: De-development and Dependency By Susan Goedeken ............................................................................................................................................. 45 Israel: No-Show Yet Again at its Review Before the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination By Zaha Hassan .................................................................................................................................................. 49 Caged in, Locked Out By Noura Khouri ................................................................................................................................................. 53 Colombia, Palestine: Civilians Pay the Price By Elodie Guego ................................................................................................................................................. 59 Documents Boycott-Divestment-Sanction (BDS) Campaign Update ................................................................................... 63 Petition for U.S. Jewish Solidarity with Muslim and Arab Peoples of the Middle East .................................... 67 Editorial A Few Words on the “New Order” A sign in French states “It is your democracy!” in Qleileh village, southern Lebanon. August 2006. © Mahmoud Ziedan. as it as a slip of the tongue - a ‘new order’? A new order allegedly bringing democracy, human rights and the rule of law to the Middle East. But how, and Wat what price? By ‘reshaping’ and ‘re-ordering’, a vision of self-determination is imposed upon the people of the region. A vision vested in the interest of the superpowers. A vision that calls for appeasement, alignment and acquiescence, not the expression of a people’s rights. It is this same vision that has undermined the capacity of the international community to intervene in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). Israel’s failure to subdue the people of Lebanon and Palestine, in addition to the debacle of the United States and its coalition in Iraq, sends a clear message to the advocates of this ‘new order’: it is a failure. The people of the region have refused to submit.(1) The Security Council of the United Nations has failed; failed to stop Israel’s war on Lebanon; failed, also, to implement all relevant UN resolutions to the conflict in the region. “When it suits Israel and the United States, United Nations resolutions such as 242 and 338 on Palestine or 638 on releasing hostages can be ignored for years. But other resolutions acquire a Biblical patina and instant compliance is required of them.”(2) Needless to say, all resolutions are intertwined and that in order to achieve ‘a just and lasting peace’ and respect for international law, they must be implemented in a comprehensive manner. This, it should be noted, is also what the people of the Middle East, including Palestinians, and the people of Lebanon and Iraq, want. 2 Summer 2006 Editorial The debates within the Security Council over whether there should be an immediate cessation of hostilities exposed the partisanship, and further, the collusion of the Western states with “it is pointless ...to Israel’s war on Lebanon. The United States’ reluctance to call for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ appeal to the Quartet to strive for the and its preference for a “sustainable ceasefire”(3) revealed not only its power over the Council restoration of human and support of Israel, but also its desire to achieve something more than a ceasefire, i.e., a rights, as neither ‘new order’. Indeed, Condoleeza Rice said that for a UN Security Council resolution to pass, respect for human (4) “both an urgent ceasefire and a lasting settlement” were necessary. While both are needed, a rights nor respect for lasting settlement cannot be achieved in a few days, and certainly not while the people of the the rule of law features region are under attack, and without considering all relevant UN resolutions. In other terms, prominently on the there is no quick fix. agenda of this body....” The willingness of the United States and some European states to wait until the time for a ‘sustainable cease-fire’ is ripe, i.e. that people are weakened to accept whatever is presented to them, has again undermined respect for international law and the credibility of the United Nations in the region. Even the UN Secretary-General came out after Israel’s massacre of the Lebanese village of Qana to express “dismay that my earlier calls for immediate cessation of hostilities were not heeded” stating that “the authority and standing of this Council are at stake” and that “people have noticed its failure to act firmly and quickly.” In the strongest terms possible, the Secretary-General of the United Nations said, “for the sake of the people of the region and of this Organization, I urge you to act, and act now.”(5) The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, John Dugard, wrote, “the image and reputation of the United Nations has, sadly, suffered in the occupied Palestinian territories” and demanded “real action on the part of the Organization.”(6) But as the Quartet “turns to punitive measures designed to compel Hamas to