BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

From the Nakba to the Present Day – Ongoing Displacement
Palestinians living in the Galilee and Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab (Negev) have been subject to
house and property demolition, land confiscation, and the spraying of their crops with toxic chemicals to induce
their displacement. Palestinian Bedouins who refuse to move to Israeli-built townships, around 70,000 persons, live
in unrecognized villages deprived of all services, including water and electricity. Palestinians in the Galilee and the
Naqab also face difficulties in obtaining building permits; approximately 60,000 Palestinian homes in the Naqab
(Negev) and 40,000 homes in Galilee were declared unlicensed and are threatened with demolition. 147 Since 1976,
the state of Israel has confiscated over 230,000 dunams in the Naqab (Negev), where Jewish settlements are built
to prevent Bedouins from making use of their lands. 148
1.7.3 Home demolition
Between 2002 and 2004, nearly 400 homes were demolished in the Naqab (Negev). 149 In 2005, at least 1,200 home
demolition orders were issued to Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab. 150 In February 2005, for instance, 10 homes in
the unrecognized Naqab village belonging to the Azazmi Bedouin were destroyed. The Israeli Land Administration
issued a press release stating “in line with the Supreme Court decision and after 19 years of legal struggle, we finally
succeeded in expelling the Bedouin who have occupied state land.” 151 Home demolition also occurred in other regions,
such as Lid (Lydda), where 10 homes were demolished between January and March 2006. 152
1. 8 Forced Displacement in Host Countries
Palestinians who have sought refuge outside their homeland have experienced further forced displacement. In
the 1950s, Arab Gulf oil-producing states expelled striking Palestinian workers. When the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) challenged the power of the Hashemite Kingdom in 1970, vast numbers of Palestinians
were expelled (between 18,000 to 20,000) and their camps were brutally demolished. This war, known as “Black
September”, also resulted in the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan and its relocation to Lebanon.
In south Lebanon, Israeli warplanes
bombed and destroyed the al-
Nabatiya refugee camp near the city
of al-Nabatiya in 1974. Refugees
were displaced to Ein al-Hilwe
refugee camp and other camps in
Beirut. Two years later, Christian
Phalangist forces razed Tal az-Za’ater
and Jisr al-Basha refugee camps
in eastern Beirut. Refugees were
displaced yet again to Ein al-Hilwe
and other Beirut camps. The 1982
Israeli invasion of Lebanon led to
the massacre of several thousand
Palestinian refugees in the Beirut
refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila
by Israeli-allied Christian Phalangists
in September 1982. Palestinian refugees were also displaced as a result of the “war of the camps” (1985–87) between
the Lebanese army and PLO forces who remained after the departure of the PLO. 153
Overview of the destroyed refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon, 1982. © UNRWA Archives.
According to UNRWA estimates, during the 1980s and following Israel’s military invasion of Lebanon, 57% of
homes in the eight refugee camps in the Beirut, Saida and Tyre areas were destroyed, with another 36% damaged
in aerial bombardment, ground fighting, and subsequent bulldozing. The vast scale of the damage affected some
73,500 refugees – 90% of the camp population in those areas.
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