BADIL
The Ongoing Nakba

BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights is an independent, human rights non-profit organization committed to protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Our vision, mission, programs, and relationships are defined by our Palestinian identity and the principles of international humanitarian and human rights law. We seek to advance the individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people on this basis.

 

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Historical Background

British Mandate (1922-1947)

 

In November 1917 the British cabinet issued the Balfour Declaration: a one-page letter that granted explicit recognition of, and support for, the idea of establishing a Jewish “national home” in Palestine through immigration and colonization.

 

From the beginning of the mandate to the end of 1947 when the United Nations recommended the country be partitioned into two states, an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Palestinians – nearly one-tenth of the Palestinian Arab population – were expelled, denationalized, or forced to leave their homes. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were internally displaced as a result of Zionist colonization, the eviction of tenant farmers, and punitive home demolitions by the British administration.

 

The Nakba (1947-1949)

 

The recommendation from the United Nations (U.N.) to partition the country triggered armed conflict between local Palestinians and Jewish-Zionist colonists. This fostered an environment in which the Zionist movement could induce massive Palestinian displacement so as to create the Jewish state. The greatest outflow of refugees was in April and early May 1948. Zionist forces used violence to forcibly remove Palestinians from their homes and encourage flight. The unilateral declaration of the establishment of Israel on May 14th, 1948 coincided with the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine and the collapse of the U.N. partition plan. Between 750,000 and 900,000 Palestinians (between 55 and 66 percent of the total Palestinian population) were forcibly displaced by early 1949.

 

Ultimately, 85 percent of the indigenous Palestinian population was displaced. Most refugees fled to what became the West Bank and Gaza Strip (22 percent of Mandate Palestine) or to neighboring Arab countries.

 

The 1967 War

 

In the 1967 War, Israel launched an attack against Egypt, Jordan and Syria¹. Israel planned to control and colonize the remainder of Mandate Palestine. By the time the 1967 War came to an end, Israel had occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai. More than one-third (400,000 to 450,000) of the Palestinian population of the occupied Palestinian territory were displaced during the war. Half of them were refugees of 1948 and displaced for a second time, while 240,000 were displaced for the first time².

 

The Ongoing Nakba

 

Alongside the two main periods of historical forced displacement, the ongoing displacement of Palestinians continues to this day through the implementation of multiple policies of forcible transfer and displacement. These policies create an increasingly coercive environment that leaves Palestinians with no option but to leave their homes and communities. A multitude of discriminatory practices are employed by Israel to control all aspects of Palestinian life and ultimately change the demographic composition of Mandate Palestine. BADIL has identified nine main interrelated Israeli policies enclosing many triggers and means, which constitute the pillars of a strategy aimed at forcibly displacing the Palestinian population in and beyond historical Mandate Palestine.

 

1. Denial of Residency

 

One of Israel’s strategies to silently transfer Palestinians is through revocation of residency, and denial or hindrance of child registration, family unification or change of residence. Since the right to residency status is a condition for accessing a multitude of other rights, many people who hold no status under Israeli law are not eligible for health services, cannot enroll in schools, open bank accounts, work legally, own property, obtain a driving license or travel documents. In Jerusalem alone, more than 14,000 Palestinians lost their residency status and right to live in East Jerusalem since 1967³.

 

2. Permit Regime

 

Israel installed a regime in which permits regulate and interfere with various facets of life of the occupied civilian populace, such as travel, work, and transporting goods and assets. The permit regime exceeds a mere restriction on the freedom of movement and, instead, commonly results in the complete denial of access to land, work or health facilities. Palestinians are only allowed to build with a building permit issued by the Israeli authorities. Between 2008 and 2012, 97.7 percent of building permit applications in Area C submitted by Palestinians were rejected by the Israeli authorities⁴.

 

3. Land Confiscation and Denial of Use

 

In addition to the actual confiscation of land, Israel employs different means to restrict or completely deny the use and access of land. Today, Israel occupies the entire surface of the occupied Palestinian territory (some 6,220 km²)⁵ and has confiscated or de facto annexed more than 3,456 km² (61 percent) of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) for the exclusive benefit of Jewish colonizers⁶. In addition to land confiscation, numerous laws and policies in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel restrict Palestinian landowners’ access to and use of their land⁷.

 

4. Discriminatory Zoning and Planning

 

In order to contain and restrict the growing Palestinian population, Israel applies discriminatory zoning and planning policies. As a result, thousands of Palestinian families live in overcrowded and unsafe conditions because they are prevented from using their own land or accessing public land. Through a discriminatory and unjustifiable modification to the planning laws that were in place prior to the 1967 occupation, which is in itself a violation of International humanitarian law, Palestinians are prevented from participating in planning processes and in the development of successive Master Plans.

 

5. Segregation

 

The Israeli segregation policy exceeds geographic separation; it targets the unity and national identity of the Palestinian people. This policy of categorization and isolation goes beyond the aim of separating Palestinians from Jewish-Israeli citizens; it divides Palestinians into geopolitical categories subjected to a hierarchical system of rights.

 

6. Denial of Access to Natural Resources and Services

 

Israel seeks to unlawfully control over and exploit the natural resources of the occupied Palestinian territory through military, administrative and political mechanisms. Mandate Palestine is a territory rich in natural resources such as water, natural gas, fish stocks and mineral deposits, most of which are now outside the reach of Palestinian people. For example, Israel prohibits Palestinian use of wells and establishes colonies in the occupied Palestinian territory with privileged access to fresh water⁸.

 

7. Denial of Refugee Right to Reparation (Return, Properties Restitution and Compensation)

U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194, passed on 11 December 1948, resolves that the refugees should be allowed to return to their homes at the earliest practicable date and that compensation should be paid to those choosing not to return and for loss or damage of property. However, since 1948, Palestinian refugees are denied their right to return and citizenship, and thus Israel’s illegally and militarily enforced policy constitutes a violation of Palestinian individual and collective rights.

 

8. Suppression of Resistance

 

This policy includes systematic and mass military attacks/wars, invasions, unlawful killing, collective punishment, house demolition, closure, blockade, incarceration, torture and the suppression of the freedom of expression and assembly, as well as criminalizing acts of civil opposition or disobedience. This policy of suppression and criminalizing of resistance affects Palestinian communities and individuals and creates an unstable environment of fear and collective punishment.

 

9. Non-State Actors

 

This policy is carried out by colonizers, parastatal bodies and organizations, or colonial private actors. It is supported either in the form of direct involvement or complicity by official Israeli bodies or highly-ranked officers. It can be seen in a wide range of illegal actions such as colonizer attacks, harassment of Palestinian properties, and privatization of Palestinian lands. For example, the Israel Land Administration Law of 2009 allows the privatization of lands (initially belonging to Palestinian refugees and Internally Displaced Persons) ‘owned’ by the State of Israel, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Development Authority within both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, authorizing the sale of settlement units and areas confiscated for colony (settlement) construction from Palestinians to private Jewish owners⁹.

For more, see BADIL’s “Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: 2013-15” at https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Survey2013-2015-en.pdf

¹ Finkelstein, Norman, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, 2nd ed. (London: Verso, 2003); Sandy Tolan, “Rethinking Israel’s David-and-Goliath Past,” Salon, June 4, 2007, http://www.salon.com/2007/06/04/six_day_war/.

² Lex Takkenberg, The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford : New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 17.

³ B’Tselem, “Statistics on Revocation of Residency in East Jerusalem” (B’Tselem- The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, August 7, 2013), http://www.btselem.org/jerusalem/revocation_statistics.

⁴ Civil Administration’s response to B’Tselem. Quoted in B’Tselem, 2013. “Acting the Landlord: Israel’s Policy in Area C, the West Bank,” June 2013, http://www.btselem.org/download/201306_area_c_report_eng.pdf.

⁵ Trocaire, “Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Israel: Facts & Figures,” n.d., http://www.trocaire.org/whatwedo/opt-israel.

⁶ Poica – Eye on Palestine, “The Palestinian Dilemma of Building in Area C,” December 21, 2012, http://www.poica.org/details. php?Article=4712.

⁷ B’Tselem, “Access Denied Israeli Measures to Deny Palestinians Access to Land around Settlements” (Jerusalem: B’Tselem- The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, September 2008), 7, http://www.btselem.org/publications/ summaries/200809_access_denied

⁸ OCHA, “How Dispossession Happens,” Special Focus (East Jerusalem: OCHA occupied Palestinian territory, March 2012), 14, http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_springs_report_march_2012_english.pdf.

⁹ Adalah, “New Discriminatory Laws and Bills in Israel” (Haifa, October 2012), http://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/Public/files/English/Legal_Advocacy/Discriminatory_Laws/Discriminatory-Laws-in-Israel-October-2012-Update.pdf.

“Case Study #7: Arij Abaeid | Nabi Samuel | Transferred in 2012”

Nabi Samuel village lies within the West Bank, but after the construction of the Wall, Israel has [de facto] annexed it. Everything Israel is doing is meant to cause displacement of Palestinian residents because Nabi Samuel is a very strategic area. Israel considers this area to be a nature reserve, or at least this is what it hopes for. There were announcements in newspapers saying that Nabi Samuel is an official Israeli Nature Reserve and it has no Palestinian residents.

My family’s house in Nabi Samuel was demolished in the mid-nineties as, we were told we had no building permit for an addition to the property.

After the demolition, we had to move to al-Jeeb (a nearby village) and after five years we then returned to Nabi Samuel. In 2012, my husband and I had to move from Nabi Samuel because we were not allowed to build a house for ourselves in the area – not even one room so that we can stay among our family. So, we left and moved to al-Jeeb. The same thing happened to [my friend] Meriam. Al-Jeeb is the closest village to Nabi Samuel which is why most people from Nabi Samuel move there.

Here, in Nabi Samuel, I feel comfortable. I go wherever I want. I know everybody, and everybody knows me. I feel comfortable to wear what I want, and I go out during the day or at night without feeling scared. But there, in al-Jeeb, I have no family, and I feel like a stranger. I don’t feel comfortable. I have to come to Nabi Samuel on a daily basis so that I can see my family.

People leave Nabi Samuel to look for a better living environment. There hasn’t been any intention to make things better in Nabi Samuel; therefore, people basically have no choice but to leave. This community is very limited and cannot be developed in terms of space, facilities, homes and all of the basic necessities one should have.

There is a very high unemployment rate here. And if someone wants to work in Jerusalem, you basically can’t, because you are not allowed to work without a permit, and in addition to that, in the event one was able to obtain a permit, going there is expensive because there are no [affordable] transportation methods available, on top of the fact that the wages are low.

There is lack of access to education, no grocery shops, no permits to build and extend houses, and there are checkpoints surrounding this area. Whenever you plan to get something new, or purchase food or get a service (shared taxi), you need to coordinate with the Israelis and get it sorted.

Although I have everything available in al-Jeeb, and it’s easier there, I would rather live here in Nabi Samuel. Even if I had to live in a tent, I’d live here and nowhere else. When I come here, I don’t come here only for my family. I come here to visit my hometown. I miss this place, and I miss every little part of it. I come here and ask my friends to come along with me and we start walking around just because we love it. I adore this place. I really do.

We experience a lot of closures and blockades. Sometimes the army will close down the checkpoint and not allow anyone to pass because of false alarms regarding security concerns. For instance, I experienced this last week. They suspected an unusual movement near the checkpoint, and the next thing I knew, I was stuck. A 20 minute distance can take up to 2 or 4 hours.

Our young men also experience a lot of harassments, whether on the bus, or in the streets. For no reason, soldiers force them to strip and search their belongings and humiliate them at the checkpoints on a daily basis. If someone forgets his or her ID card on any day, they are forbidden to enter or cross the checkpoint, even though the soldiers can access our personal information and have a copy of our identification cards available in their system and computers. It is just a way to humiliate people. Once, I forgot my ID card, but the soldier knew and recognized me. He took me to the investigation room and pulled up all my personal information from the system. But, when my brother forgot his ID card, the soldiers held him in custody until the next day.

Living here is terrifying and unsafe. When clashes occur in Jerusalem, Israeli settlers come to Nabi Samuel and start getting in the way of residents here. It is easy if a settler wants to harm Nabi Samuel residents, as we have no security services or authority in this area. During this latest Intifada, a very famous Israeli rabbi was killed, and we were told through media and other resources that Israeli settlers were on their way to Nabi Samuel. A lot of Palestinians went and gathered rocks to prevent these settlers from attacking their houses and families. This violence has a huge impact on the children. For instance, when that incident happened, they brought together all the children of Nabi Samuel to my aunt’s house – since it is the oldest house with the biggest doors – to keep them safe. There was a lot of screaming. Mothers couldn’t leave their children alone, but at the same time, they were extremely worried for their husbands out there, so they wanted to go along with them.

People here feel pressure, fear, and feel unsafe. You never know when you might be attacked by a settler or even get your house demolished. This topic is very sensitive, because it deals with the entire population of Nabi Samuel. When you ask someone from here what they dream of, their answer would be to extend their houses, and build new rooms to satisfy their needs.

 

We stay because it is our land. If we leave, it would be easy for the Israelis to steal it. Staying here is an expression for us that we exist.

 

Excerpt originally published by BADIL at http://www.badil.org/phocadownloadpap/badil-new/publications/research/in-focus/FT-Coercive-Environments.pdf. Edited for publication purposes.  

 

Find the address to your country’s permanent mission at the United Nations (addresses can be found at https://visit.un.org/sites/visit.un.org/files/Missions_Contacts_0.pdf) and send a physical copy of the U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194, which calls for the Right of Return and compensation for Palestinian refugees. You can also send a digital copy to their email address. Write to the mission asking them why the U.N. continues to fail the Palestinian refugees and ask the mission to take stronger measures to support them and their return in accordance with international law.

 

Resolution 194 is found at https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/C758572B78D1CD0085256BCF0077E51A.

 

Share the message you sent on social media, tagging your country’s U.N. mission if possible. Include a link to this page of the Kumi Now website along with the hashtags #OngoingNakba, #KumiNow, and #Kumi30.

“Death Sentence” by Sulafa Hijjawi

 

At night, orders came to the soldiers

to destroy our lovely village, Zeita.

Zeita! Bride of trees,

of blooming tulips,

spark of the winds!

 

The soldiers came in the dark

while the sons of the village

the trees and fields and flowerbuds

clung to Zeita

hugging her for shelter…

 

“Orders demand that all of you depart

Zeita will be destroyed before the night ends.”

 

But we held tight, chanting:

Zeita is the land, the heart of the land,

and we her people are its branches.

 

That’s how people fall—

a few moments of resistance,

so Zeita remains an eternal embrace across the nights

In moments she was rubble,

Not a single bread oven remained.

Men and stones

Were pasted and powdered by enemy tractors,

Scattered forever in the gift of the impossible.

 

Now in the evenings

in the song of our wind,

Zeita arises, igniting its scarlet spark

upon the plains

And by morning

Zeita returns to the fields

as tulips do.

 

Night is morning in Zeita,

Night is morning.

By Sulafa Hijjawi, a Palestinian poet, translator, and researcher from Nablus. As published in Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi and translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye