BADIL

Speeding up the Slow Return to Gaza

Israel has approved the return of another 35 Palestinian refugees from Canada Camp in Egypt to the Tel as-Sultan quarter of the Gaza Strip. Some 6,000 Palestinian refugees were stranded in Egypt with the signing of Camp David Accords and the establishment of an international border between Egypt and Israel. About 4,500 Palestinians (496 households) from Rafah Camp were transferred to the Sinai when Israel began widening roads in the camp in the 1970s under the pretext of security. The remaining 2,000 are members of the Malalha Bedouins, originally from the Beer Sheba area. Israel has refused to allow this group to return.

Israel Hosts Albanian Refugees on Palestinian Refugee Lands

(based on BADIL Press Release 16/4/99)

Since NATO bombs began raining down upon Yugoslavia, Palestinian refugees have stared incredulously at CNN correspondents drumming up sympathy on the half-hour for the ethnic Albanians from Kosova who have been driven from their homes. While clearly empathetic for the Albanian refugees' plight, where has the West's compassion been for the last 50 years, they exclaim, since the founders of the State of Israel oversaw the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of over 500 of their towns and villages?

by Abdel Qadir Yasin

It was only the heavy sound of gunfire that broke the silence, which blanketed the quarantined refugee camp. The Egyptian police guarding the camp took cover by diving into the water of the Suez Canal, which bordered the camp on both its northern and western sides. The eastern and southern ends of the camp were hemmed in by the sand of Sinai desert. As soon as the policemen hit the water, a loud shout came from the camp calling for the downfall of king Farouq. It wasn't long before news of the incident reached Cairo and the social figures of the Palestinian community, mostly from Jaffa1, trotted to 'Abdeen Palace in order to record their names in a book of honor and apologize for the actions of the Palestinians held under quarantine.

How Do You Imagine Palestine?

1. Palestine, the land:
Very, very very beautiful.
Very green
Covered by flowers and trees.
It is full with fresh water.
There are so many yards and playgrounds.
No alleys
No garbage
Streets are clean
No Syrians
No Lebanese
There is a sea of chocolate in Palestine.

In the spring of this year, the Campaign for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights, helped facilitate email correspondence between refugee children from Deheishe camp in the West Bank and Shatila camp in Lebanon as part of the Campaign's efforts to empower the refugee community by rebuilding ties between refugees in various places of exile. The letters below express some of the common sentiments among refugees, adults and children alike, to return to their homes and lands in Palestine.