Press Releases

BADIL Resource Center
09 December 2003
For Immediate Release

They are "present absentees" from "unrecognized villages".  They are "long-term residents" of the "seam zone".  They are "resident aliens" and some of them have recently been "assigned residence" in the Gaza Strip.   

Israeli law, both civil and military, use these expressions and many others to refer to Palestinians living in the Israeli occupied territories or as internally displaced persons within Israel.

A university student is "assigned residence" in a dormitory room but now, according to an Israeli High Court ruling, this term refers to the deportation of a Palestinian from West Bank to Gaza.  Twelve West Bankers have recently been given "assigned residence" in the Gaza Strip.  Such unlawful transfer of residents by an occupying power is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention. 

A "long-term resident" is a person who has lived in one place for a lengthy period of time.  To the Israeli Defense Forces, according to a recent military order, it means someone living in the area between the new "security wall" and the border ("green line") of West Bank and Israel, now called the "seam zone".  These Palestinians need special permits to live on, visit or farm lands their families have owned for generations, another breach of international law.

For additional information on Palestinian refugees and BADIL, please see www.badil.org for Physical Protection for Refugee Populated Areas (Bulletin No. 6) and The Permit Maze (Bulletin No. 12) which enumerates the numbers and kinds of permits Palestinian refugees in the Israeli occupied territories need for every aspect of their lives.

Also on BADIL's web site is a three-part analysis of recent peace agreements in various parts of the world to focus attention on best practice, past experience, rule of law and community participation in reaching and implementing peace plans (Bulletins No. 13-15).