Press Releases

BADIL Launches its Campaign on Forced Population Transfer in the OPT

9 October 2012, Bethlehem, Occupied Palestinian Territory. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights launched a new campaign that aims to empower Palestinians and raise their awareness about Forced Population Transfer in the OPT.

The campaign aims to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian inhabitants of Area C, East Jerusalem and Seam Zones in the West Bank and the Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip in the face of the continuing Israeli policies and practices aiming at expelling them, through various mechanisms in a clear violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law (HRL). The campaign is not designed to respond to the victims' humanitarian needs; it is human rights-based and coupled with a knowledge and long-term view that the power to change the reality on the ground is in the hands of a few.

To achieve this, BADIL will train a select number of youth, students and academics, members of community based organizations (CBOs) and popular committees, refugees, local activists, civil society leaders and individuals who are endangered from forced displacement. At the end of the training, the beneficiaries would collect accurate information on forced population transfer (FPT) and the de-development implications of the occupation, allowing effective and professional advocacy that leverages the capacities of multiple actors in line with the Humanitarian Country Team Advocacy Strategy holding Israeli and international duty-bearers accountable Forced Population Transfer.

Data collection and dissemination will take a number of forms:

  1. The development of an online Information Hub (interactive website), aiming to collect all existing data on FPT from relevant stakeholders and upload/present this on the interactive website, making it available to all stakeholders;
  2. The production of a topic-specific handbooks on forced population transfer, including a listing of all relevant existing laws, policies and practices, comparisons between Israeli laws and practices/international laws as well as standards, relevant cases aimed at practitioners, lawyers, and Palestinian communities;
  3. Expanding the coalition working on forced population transfer to include local stakeholders and strengthen the advocacy on forced population transfer done by international partners, sister agencies, relevant clusters, networks, local organizations, and popular committees and human rights defenders through a specific advocacy campaign targeting international duty-bearers.