Al-Majda BADIL Quartely Magazine

al-Majda BADIL Quartely Magazine

Editor: Terry Rempel
Editorial Team: Terry Rempel, Nihad Boqai', Mohammad Jaradat, Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, Karine Mac Allister
ISSN 1726-7277
Language: English
Size: A4

In 1999 BADIL replaced its old quarterly newsletter, ARTICLE 74 which provided information and updates on Palestinian residency and refugee rights between 1991 and 1998, with a new magazine named al majdal. Over a period of several years, ARTICLE 74 had gradually developed from a small newsletter focused on the hardships - caused by the 1967 Israeli occupation - of Palestinian families who wish to live united in their homeland, into a modest magazine covering a much larger variety of issues, related to the ongoing struggle of the exiled Palestinian people for the restitution of their rights in Palestine (right of return to their homes, recovery of lost property, compensation for physical and psychological damage caused by their forceful eviction since 1948). The critical re-examination of Palestinian history, and the search for new ways and means to raise Palestinian refugee rights in the post-Oslo era became the pressing agenda of the Palestinian people which began to express itself in our small, English language magazine. By 1999 the frame of reference suggested by its old name (ARTICLE 74/Protocol of 1977 Additional to the Geneva Convention, concerning facilitation of family reunification) was no longer up-to-date.

The new magazine, al majdal, is named after one of the depopulated Palestinian cities in the south of Palestine now known as the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Unlike many others towns and villages in Palestine, not all of the people of al-Majdal Jad, as it was known, had fled or were evicted from their town during the war of 1948. More than a 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 in the eastern areas of occupied Jerusalem. Thus, Palestinians of al-Majdal Jad were turned into refugees, most of them finding shelter in the nearby Gaza Strip. Like other Palestinian refugees, they have not disappeared. They have remained close to their homes and lands. Of old age now, they, their children and grandchildren have built a new, temporary existence and identity as refugees. For the past 50 years, they have built new hopes and dreams based on the international recognition of their right of return, and struggled for the day when they would live as free citizens in al-Majdal/Ashkelon.

al majdal serves as a platform of communication between Palestinian refugees and all those - internationals and Israelis - who, based on the painful lesson of the Oslo process, have taken up the challenge of working for Palestinian refugee rights and a just peace in the Middle East. al majdal reports about and promotes initiatives aimed at achieving the Palestinian right of return and restitution of lost property, as well as Palestinian national rights in Jerusalem, based on the principle of broad involvement of the Palestinian community and cooperation between those in Palestine and the diaspora.

About the meaning of al-Majdal

al-Majdal is an Aramaic word meaning fortress. The town was known as Majdal Jad during the Canaanite period to the god of luck. Located in the south of Palestine, al- Majdal had become a thriving Palestinian city with some 11,496 residents on the eve of the 1948 war. Al- Majdal lands consisted of 43,680 dunums producing a wide variety of crops, including oranges, grapes, olives and vegetables. The city itself was built on 1,346 dunums. During Operation Yoav (also known as 10 Plagues) in the fall of 1948, al- Majdal suffered heavy air and sea attacks by Israel which hoped to secure control over the south of Palestine and force out the predominant Palestinian population. By November 1948, more than three quarters of the city's residents of the city's residents, frightened and without protection, had fled to the Gaza Strip. Within a month, Israel had approved the settlement of 3,000 Jews in Palestinian homes in al- Majdal. In late 1949 plans surfaced to expel the remaining Palestinians living in the city along with additional homes for new Jewish immigrants. Using a combination of military force and bureaucratic measures not unlike those used today against the Palestinian population in Jerusalem, the remaining Palestinians were driven out of the city by early 1951. Palestinian refugees from al- Majdal now number over 71,000 persons of whom 52,000 are registered with UNRWA. Like millions of other Palestinian refugees, many of whom live close to their original homes and lands, they are still denied the right to return. Al- Majdal, BADIL's quarterly magazine reports about and promotes initiatives aimed at achieving the Palestinian right of return and restitution of lost property as well as Palestinian national rights in Jerusalem.