Press Releases

al-Majdal, issue no. 3/September 1999
English language quarterly for the Promotion of Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights

In this issue of al majdal we examine the positions and concerns of Palestinian refugees with the restarting of the final status negotiations. al majdal also asks the PLO Department for Refugee Affairs about the Palestinian negotiation strategy in the final status talks. Based on a recent field visit, we also look at the issue of Palestinian refugees inside Israel, commonly known as the internally displaced. After more than fifty years as citizens of Israel, internally displaced Palestinians continue to struggle for the right to return to their lands and homes. With the advent of the final status talks, the internally displaced are calling for a unified Palestinian position to implement the right of return and restitution for Palestinian refugee properties taken over by the Israeli government for the exclusive use of the Jewish community in Israel. al majdal also takes a look at continuing policies of ethnic cleansing and eviction in the Jerusalem area. Since the last issue of the magazine, new plans have come to light for the conversion of the existing Bethlehem/Jerusalem checkpoint into an Erez (Gaza) style checkpoint. al majdal examines the plan and the implications of the new checkpoint. Finally, we bring to you another set of refugee voices from children in Lebanon writing about their experiences as refugees and an oral history account of eviction from Majdal Jad.

The September 1999 issue of al-Majdal contains:

• Political Statement of the Union of Youth Activity Centers in the West Bank and Gaza Refugee Camps on the Final Status Negotiations;
• Position and Strategy of the Palestinian Negotiating Team: Interview with Daoud Barakat (PLO Department for Refugee Affairs);
• Opinion Polls: The Refugee Issue;
• Profile: Internally Displaced Palestinians and Unrecognized Communities Inside Israel;
• Interview with Wakim Wakim: National Committee for the Internally Displaced;
• Struggle for the Return of Refugees and Against the Privatization of Refugee Property (Ameer Makhoul);
• Refugee Campaign Update;
• Report: Ottawa Workshop on Compensation;
• Voices from Shatila and Oral History from Majdal Jad;
• Jerusalem ID Card Confiscation: Update;
• New Jerusalem-Bethlehem Checkpoint;
• Palestinian Residency in the PA Areas in the Seventh Year of Partial Self-Rule.

For more information contact: BADIL Resource Center, PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine; tel/fax, 277-2086 or 274-7346; email, [email protected].