Al Majdal 
No. 1 (March 1999) 

BADIL’s new quarterly bulletin for the promotion of a just solution to Palestinian residency and refugee issues. 

BADIL Resource Center 
6 April 1999 
For Immediate Release 

Bulletin Al Majdal comes to replace our old bulletin ARTICLE 74, the last issue of which (no. 26) was published in December 1998.  

Our new bulletin is named after the Palestinian city of Majdal Jad. Al-Majdal is an Aramaic word meaning fortress. The town was known as Majdal Jad during the Canaanite period related to the god of luck. The majority of the 11,000 inhabitants of Majdal Jad were evicted by Zionist forces in the war of 1948. More than 1,500 residents remained steadfast until 1950, when they were finally evicted by a combination of Israeli military force and bureaucratic measures reminicent of the current Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing applied against the Palestinian inhabitants of the eastern areas of occupied Jerusalem. 

Al Majdal will serve as a platform of communication between Palestinian refugees and all those – internationals and Israelis – who, based on the painful lessions of the Oslo process, have taken up the challenge of working for Palestinian refugee rights and a just peace in the Middle East. 

Issue No. 1 (March 1999) includes the following: 

• Call for the Establishment of Palestinian Land Commission (Salman Abu Sitta);
• New Palestinian & International Inititative for Palestinian Refugee Rights - background materials and suggestions for action towards:
• Empowering Palestinian refugee initiatives and NGOs;
• Lobbying for UNRWA funding;
• Advocacy for the Palestinian Right to Restitution (including BADIL petition);
• Update: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon;
• Our Visitors – Poem from Palestinian Refugee Children in Lebanon;
• Call for Mobilization towards the Israeli High Court Decision on ID Card Confiscation on 22 April 1999: Campaign to End ID Card Confiscation/Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem;
• Jerusalem ID Card Confiscation: Data for 1996 – 1998;
• Update: Palestinian Residency Rights under the PA;
• Editorial: Why Al Majdal?

Al Majdal No. 1 will be distributed to all our subscribers to our previous bulletin ARTICLE 74. New subscribers please contact us at: info@badil.org or tel/fax. 02-2747346. (Annual subscription fee/Al Majdal: US $20 or equivalent in your local currency).

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