BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

Politics and the Question of Palestinian Refugees and IDPs
dle East Peace Process” in Rex Brynen and Roula El-Rifa (eds), Palestinian Refugees: Challenges of Repatriation and Development,
International Development Research Center, e-book (ISBN 978-1-55250-231-0), 2007.
67 See Karma Nabulsi, “Palestinians Register: Laying Foundations and Setting Directions,” Report of the Civitas Project, University
of Oxford, August 2006, p. 9.
68 The Council concluded that Israeli activities “reduce the possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem, threaten
to make any solution based on the co-existence of two viable states physically impossible, and are contrary to international law.”
European Council conclusions on Middle East Peace Process, 2691st External Relations Council meeting, Brussels, 21 November
2005, para. 7.
69 Declaration on the Middle East Peace Process, 16879/06, European Council, Brussels, 15 December 2006.
70 European Parliament Resolution on the situation in Gaza, 13 November 2006.
71 The European Parliament has not affirmed the right of return in its resolutions on the Middle East. The Council of Europe (CoE),
a regional network that precedes the EU, has also passed resolutions that violate Palestinian refugees’ right of return, proposing
instead solutions based on involuntary resettlement in the host countries (for example, Resolution 1338/2003).
72 In 1949, LAS member states emphasized that “the lasting and just solution to the problem of refugees would be their repatriation
and the safeguarding of all their rights to their properties, lives and liberty, and that these should be guaranteed by the United
Nations” (LASC Resolution 231, 17 March 1949). During the 1950s and 1960s, Arab states set out a variety of plans for durable
solutions for Palestinian refugees. LASC resolutions taken after 1967 continue to emphasize the right of Palestinian refugees
displaced from the occupied Palestinian territory to return to their homes of origin.
73 Beirut Declaration, The Arab Peace Initiative on Recognition of Israel in Return for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, UN GA Resolution
A/56/1026, 15 August 2002.
74 Final Communique of the Annual Co-ordination Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Member States of the Organization
of the Islamic Conference, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 25 September 2006, 3 Ramadan 1427; Annex to the letter,
dated 8 December 2006, from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations to the Secretary-General,
UNGA A/62/622, 11 December 2006.
75 Resolutions on the Cause of Palestine, Al-Quds Al-Sharif, The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Islamic Boycott of Israel, Thirtysecond
Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, 28–30 June 2005, Sana’a: Organization of Islamic Conference,
30 June 2005, para. 8.
76 Declaration on Palestine, XIV Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, 19 August 2004.
77 The PLO had at that stage suffered a number of setbacks, leading to the destruction of its infrastructure and popular bases in
Jordan (1970) and Lebanon (1982 and 1985). The PLO was also weakened by the first Gulf War (1990/91). These events led to
ruptures between the PLO and its constituencies, and “undercut its organically developed democratic mechanisms.” For more, see
Nabulsi, Karma, “Popular Sovereignty, Collective Rights, Participation and Crafting Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees,”
Working Paper 4, Badil Resource Center, April 2003, p. 8.
78 Declaration issued by the First Popular Refugee Conference in Deheishe Refugee Camp, 13 September 1996. [On file with
BADIL]
79 The Right of Return. Report of the Joint Parliamentary Middle East Councils’ Commission of Enquiry, Labour Middle East Council
(LMEC), London, 2001; also at www.badil.org/Publications/Other/Refugees/returnbook.PDF.
80 See Karma Nabulsi, “Palestinians Register: Laying Foundations and Setting Directions,” Report of the Civitas Project, University
of Oxford, August 2006.
81 For the full text and signatories of the 2005 Call, see www.bds-palestine.net
82 See Omar Barghouti, “The Light at the End of the Gaza-Ramallah Tunnel”, The Electronic Intifada, 20 June 2007. For more on
BDS, visit, for example, http://www.pacbi.org/ or www.stopthewall.org.
83 See “Sanctions Against the Israeli Occupation: It’s Time,” Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Jerusalem, 27 January
2005.
84 See “The Future Vision of Palestinian Arabs in Israel,” the National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in
Israel, Nazareth, 2006, pp. 9–11.
85 For more information, see the Zochrot website at http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php.
86 Letter to President Bush, Human Rights Watch, 11 April 2005.
87 Limitation on the Rights of Palestinian Refugee Children, Lebanon, Amnesty International, 5 June 2006.
88 “Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territory Quartet Meeting: New Approach Needed to Break Deadlock,” Public Statement, Amnesty
International, 1 February 2007.
89 “Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territory Quartet Meeting: New Approach Needed to Break Deadlock, Public Statement,” Amnesty
International, 1 February 2007.
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