Refugees

UNISPAL
The United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL) is a searchable database of texts of current and historical United Nations material concerning the question of Palestine and other issues related to the Middle East situation and the search for peace. last checked: 4Feb2007

SHAML (Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre)
Shaml is an independent non-governmental organization dedicated researching issues related to Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian Diaspora. It was established in 1994 by a group of concerned academics and human rights activists who felt the need to examine issues pertaining to Palestinian refugees in a comparative perspective; encompassing relevant experiences in other parts of the world. last checked: 4Feb2007

BADIL
Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. A Palestinian community-based organization that aims to provide a resource pool of alternative, critical and progressive information and analysis on the question of Palestinian refugees in the quest to achieve a just and lasting solution for exiled Palestinians based on the right of return. last checked: 4Feb2007

Forced Migration Review
Thrice yearly academic journal on refugees published by Oxford University. Complete contents of back issues since 1998 are available online in Adobe PDF format in English, Arabic and Spanish. Each issue has a theme. last checked: 4Feb2007

Al-Awda
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition is a broad-based non-partisan global democratic association of thousands of grassroots activists and organizational representatives concerned for the Palestinian Refugees Right of Return. last checked: 4Feb2007

Palestinian Refugee Research Net
Non-partisan project devoted to the dissemination of ideas and scholarly information, in an effort to foster scholarly collaboration, policy research, and innovative thinking on the Palestinian refugee issue. PRRN is maintained by the Inter-University Consortium for Arab Studies (Montreal), with the support of the Arts Computing Network, McGill University, the International Development Research Centre and the Canadian International Development Agency. last checked: 4Feb2007

Electronic Intifada - Refugees

FOFOGNET Mailing List
FOFOGNET is an international email list devoted to the Palestinian refugee issue. Its more than three hundred subscribers include researchers, NGOs and policy-makers across the Middle East, Europe and North America. Researchers, policymakers and NGOs interested in becoming FOFOGNET subscribers should send an email message (and brief self-description) to list moderator, Rex Brynen, at info@prrn.org. last checked: 4Feb2007

The first part of the book consists of a diary which Hamzeh wrote between October 4th and December 4th 2000, telling the story of the second Intifada. Facing the tanks and armed guards of one of the best equipped armies in the world, the Palestinians have nothing. The anguish and terror that Muna and her friends face on daily basis is tangible. Who will be the next to die? Whose house will be the next to burn down? The second part of the book provides the background to these current events. It describes what life has been like for Dheisheh's refugees since 1990. "Refugees in Our Own Land" is a rare insider's look into the hearts and minds of Palestinian refugees.

With major contributions from a range of international experts, including Edward W. Said, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Ilan Pappe and Alain Grosh, this volume examines the Palestinians' right of return. Chapters cover the historical roots of the Palestinian refugee question; the rights of the refugees under international law; the special case of Lebanon; Israeli perceptions of the refugee question; the practical feasibility of the return; the role of the United States and the European Community and the Refugee Question; the value of the refugee property; the principles of compensation; and a program for an Independent Rights Campaign.

Records of Dispossession - Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict No issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict has proven more intractable than the status of the Palestinian refugees. This work focuses on the controversial question of the property left behind by the refugees during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Beyond discussing the extent of the refugees' losses and detailing the methods by which Israel expropriated this property, the book also notes the ways that the property question has affected, and in turn been affected by, the wider Arab-Israeli conflict over the decades. It shows how the property question influenced Arab-Israeli diplomacy and discusses the implications of the fact that the question remains unresolved despite numerous diplomatic efforts.

Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 by Nur Masalha

Rt. Hon. Lord Gilmore, The Guardian [London] wrote, "Almost entirely based on declassified Israeli archival materials, Dr. Masalha's sober and carefully researched account shows conclusively that 'transfer' - a euphemism for expulsion - was from the start an integral part of Zionism....(an) impressive and timely book....quietly devastating research.."

The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited by Benny Morris

In this first full-length study of the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, the author traces the stages of the 1947-9 exodus against the backdrop of the first Arab-Israeli war and analyzes the varied causes of the flight. The Jewish and Arab decision-making involved, on national and local levels, military and political, is described and explained, as is the crystallization of Israel's decision to bar a refugee repatriation. Morris examines the subsequent fate of the abandoned Arab villages, lands, and urban neighborhoods, and looks at the international context of the war and the exodus. Benny Morris was born and educated in Israel and received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He is diplomatic correspondent for The Jerusalem Post.

The conflict over Palestine has produced one of the most tragic and compelling refugee crises of the post-WWII era. In the Palestinian-Israeli Declaration of Principles, signed in Washington, DC, in 1993, the fate of the 3.4 million Palestinian refugees was identified as one of the outstanding issues to be addressed in subsequent negotiations. This book ponders the status of Palestinian refugees in international law by focusing on the position of Palestinians in both the Arab world and the Western countries. It contains a thorough, useful analysis of various areas of international law--including refugee law, laws relating to stateless persons, humanitarian law, and human rights law--and shows the relevance of each to the provision of worldwide protection for Palestinian refugees.

About the lives of several adolescents in a Palestinian children’s dance troupe from Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank who use their performance to express the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people. Documentary, 29 minutes, 2002.

Al Nakba tackles the tragic events surrounding the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem and examines how and why 750,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees by the end of the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Arab and Israeli eyewitnesses, together with Professor Benny Morris of Ben-Gurion University, describe what happened rather than what successive generations of Israeli and Arab propagandists have said happened. Filmmakers Benny Brunner and Alexandra Jansse interviewed Palestinians and Israelis from various backgrounds including Azmi Bishara, an Arab-Israeli philosopher and member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), Shaban Muhmoud, a Palestinian refugee, and Itzhak Pundak, a retired Israeli colonel and diplomat. Documentary, 1998, 56 minutes.

Set during the current Intifada, this documentary follows four Palestinian families living in Dheisheh Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. They talk about their past and discuss the future with humor, sorrow, frustration and hope. "until when..." paints an intimate in-depth portrait of Palestinian lives today. Documentary, 76 minutes, 2004.

This program from the City Life series is set in Lebanon, where (according to the UN) there are three hundred seventy-five thousand Palestinian refugees. Palestinians are unwanted in Israel, but in war-torn, sectarian Lebanon, among fellow Arabs, they hardly fare better, and most live in poverty. Barred from working, they also have limited access to medical care and higher education. Many have been in Lebanon for over fifty years. Documentary, 27 minutes, 2002.