BADIL

Highlights of the 2003 Nakba Memorial Events in Palestine

Other than last year when all efforts at public organizing for the annual Nakba memorial in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories were paralyzed by Israel’s massive April-May military re-conquest, the 55th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba in May 2003 was characterized by active grass-roots organizing in defiance of the ongoing Israeli military presence in Palestinian refugee camps, towns and villages.In the absence of official memorials in the occupied West Bank – a result of the destruction of the Palestinian Authority’s infrastructure – the 2003 Nakba commemorations were almost entirely carried by Palestinian community organizations on both sides of the ‘Green Line.’ A growing number of Jewish-Israeli participants at Palestinian memorial events, and creative efforts by some Jewish-Israeli initiatives to find new and compassionate ways of remembering the Palestinian Nakba at the sidelines of Israel’s independence celebrations, gave additional significance and depth to this year’s Nakba commemorations and the demand for recognition and implementation of Palestinian refugees’ right of return.

 Update on Bedouin in the Naqab

 On 2 April the ILA sprayed crops belonging to the villages of Umm Batin, east of Omer; al-Mekiman, south of Laqiyya; A’ojan, west of Laqiyya; A’araqeeb, south of Rahat; and Sa’wa and Umm Heran, both east of Hura. The total amount of land sprayed with toxic chemicals was 2,000 dunums. 
 A plan to remove the Beoduin from their lands was inserted into the government’s “Emergency Economic Plan.” Some 56 million NIS are budgeted for the implementation of a transfer program called “The Removal of the Intruders Law.” The program will create a military and judicial system to expedite the transfer of 70,000 Bedouins from ‘unrecognized villages’ into 7 ‘legal’ settlements. According to the Mossawa Center, some 12.5 million NIS will go to the Green Patrol (an environmental paramilitary group), 15.5 million NIS for the creation of a new police unit, and part of the 27 million to the ILA will go towards airplanes most likely to monitor Bedouin development and agriculture. (Mossawa Center, 4 April 2003)

 The Sabra and Shatila Case in Belgium: A Guide for the Perplexed

Is the war crimes case against Ariel Sharon, Amos Yaron, and other Israelis and Lebanese still being pursued in Belgium’s courts?(¹) Or have dramatic legal decisions coupled with blunt political pressures rendered the case lodged by 23 survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre an interesting though failed attempt at obtaining international justice?  If the Belgian Supreme Court found in favor of the plaintiffs’ motion on 12 February 2003 to overturn a lower court’s ruling halting the case, why did world news headlines proclaim the following day that “the case against Ariel Sharon has been thrown out by Belgium’s highest court”?(²) If investigations have already been launched by Belgium’s judiciary to determine how and why more than one thousand innocent Palestinian and Lebanese civilians met such gruesome deaths 21 years ago, why did Ariel Sharon’s government return its ambassador to Belgium with an official statement expressing Israel’s satisfaction that the Belgian authorities had finally halted a “cynical attempt” to politicize and exploit its courts? And why did Sharon and Yaron, a few weeks later, withdraw from all judicial proceedings after two years of legal battles?

UNRWA Launches Micro-Finance and Micro-enterprise Programs in Syria - Implications for Durable Solutions

On 1 June 2003, UNRWA launched its Micro-Finance and Microenterprise Programme in Syria. The program will begin in Yarmouk camp, an unofficial camp in Syria and home to the largest concentration (112,500) of Palestinian refugees in Syria. Eligible Palestinian and Syrian recipients will receive millions of dollars in loans for thousands of small businesses.

The program targets Palestinian refugees and the urban
poor in Syria, and is expected to issue 1,500 loans during its first year of operations, 3,320 in the second year, and by the third year outreach should achieve a sustainable level of 3,360 loans, valued at some US$ 4 million annually. The loan aims to improve the quality of life of small
business owners and microentrepreneurs, sustain jobs, decrease unemployment, reduce poverty, empower women and open up new income-generating opportunities.

 Resources on Refugees

New BADIL Publications
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Palestinians 2002. This new publication by BADIL provides basic historical and current information on Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons. The Survey includes 6 chapters covering the historical circumstances of Palestinian displacement, population, legal status, socio-economic profile, international protection and assistance, and durable solutions. The Survey will be published annually by BADIL Resource Center. Available in English and Arabic. [ADD PAGE NUMBERS] For orders contact, هذا البريد الإلكتروني محمي من المتطفلين و برامج التطفل، تحتاج إلى تفعيل جافا سكريبت لتتمكن من مشاهدته