December 2011

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UN-Based Legal Advocacy

 

Badil attended the 3 days meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) which is the body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. BADIL’s Statement emphasized the Israeli State policy and collaboration with para-statal agencies that continue to severely impact indigenous Palestinian Communities. (see link)

Also, Badil with other palestinian NGO’s participated in the general debate and highlighted Israeli violations of Palestinian rights in the OPT and Israel, such as the violation of right to freedom of movement, violations of minority rights, house demolition, ethnic cleansing in the Jordan valley. Badil intervention focused on the violations of Bedouins rights especially the confiscation of their land, and the Prawer plan for ethnic cleansing

International and Local Networking, Meetings and Conferences

  

Russell Tribunal on Palestine:

BADIL attended the third session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine on November 5th-7th in Cape Town, examining the crime of Apartheid as it applies to the Israeli regime in the OPT and inside Israel. This people's tribunal of conscience was established in view of the failure to implement the 2004 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Wall and the 2008-9 war on Gaza. The tribunal heard eyewitness evidence from those who live under Israeli jurisdiction inside Israel and the OPT and also from many legal experts in the field. The tribunal found Israel's rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, to collectively amount to a single integrated regime of apartheid. The full findings can be found here>>

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Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition:

Badil participated in the 11th Global Right of Return Coalition Annual Meeting A which was held in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, between the 4th and 7th of December 2011 in the refugee camps of Mar Elias and Shatila. The meting was graciously hosted by the following members of the coalition in Lebanon: Center for the Rights of Refugees and Returnees, and the coordinating body of NGOs working in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

The final statement issued by the coalition can be found here>>>

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Conditions of Human Rights In Light of Arab Spring - one year Harvest:

Badil, alongside various Palestinian and Arab human rights organizations as well as civil society organizations, participated in the conference: "Conditions of Human Rights in the First Light of Spring – One Year Harvest," which was held in Cairo between the December 11th and 14th. Badil presented, while taking in consideration the “Arab revolutions”, a working paper regarding the legal situation of Palestinian refugees in Arab countries and adequate mechanisms to preserve and protect their rights.

More information about Badil’s participation in the conference can be found here>>>

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Kairos Palestine:

BADIL participated in the Kairos for Global Justice Conference. This Conference was attended by more than 60 participants from 15 countries participated and was held by Kairos Palestine from 4-10 December 2011 in Bethlehem. The aims and objectives of the encounter/conference were to:

  1. Strengthen and build ties among Kairos groups to form a committed global network for justice;
  2. Learn from the Palestinian experience the urgency of Kairos solidarity and to end injustice by implementing concrete actions at the national, regional and global level.

More information about the conference can be found here>>>

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European Coordination Committees and Associations for Palestine:

Badil attended the ECCP meeting in Brussels and presented its position regarding the September initiative for recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN on the 1967 boarders. Badil also organized a meeting with a Swiss delegation and presented the case of Bedouins in Bier al-Saba’ (Beer Sheva).

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TVs and Radio Talks:

Within the last three months (Oct-Dec 2011), Badil has given 8 talks on local and international television and radio. These talks were on the Statehood initiative (4 talks), Al Awda Annual Competition (1), UNRWA Report on unemployment among refugees (1), Arab spring and refugees’ rights (1), and Palestinian refugees’ rights in Lebanon. These talks fall into Badil’s advocacy and mobilization activities. For instance, Badil was a guest in a live talk show for 75 minutes with Lebanese Governmental Television (LT). The talk show focused on the civil rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and whether guaranteeing the refugees their civil rights conflicts with their right of return. The show also discussed and debated the Palestinian collective memory and Palestinian national identity through 63 years of displacement and expulsion.

Promotion and Activation of BADIL's Ongoing Nakba Education Center

In November 2011, BADIL launched a new initiative to restructure and re-activate the Ongoing Nakba Education Centre. The aim of this project is to establish two new spaces, one physical and one virtual, as advocacy platforms documenting the ongoing and historical displacement of Palestinians through creative new media technologies. The physical space will be housed at BADIL's Bethlehem offices, and will include a photographic gallery hosting audio-visual exhibitions highlighting ongoing displacement alongside an IT suite and the established although updated Reference Library. This space will be open daily to the public as well as hosting regular events such as public film screenings and exhibition openings. The IT Suite will feature public IT facilities through which visitors can access the new project-specific website. The website will be based around an online map of historic Palestine featuring photographic essays, oral histories, short films and audio-visual presentations.

 In early 2012, the new Ongoing Nakba Education Centre will be publicly launched both physically and online, providing an essential tool for activists, researchers and journalists seeking regular information about the ongoing displacement of the Palestinian people. Initial work will include new short films and photographic essays on areas such as the Jordan Valley, South Hebron Hills, Occupied East Jerusalem, al-Walaja, al-Naqab, and Yafa, alongside photographic essays and audio presentations on historic Palestinian villages including Ijzim, Bayt Jibreen, and Deir Yassin amongst others. In the longer term, BADIL will develop this work within communities struggling against the Ongoing Nakba to assist them in producing materials themselves for distribution through the Centre.

 
Awda Award Competition

For the sixth consecutive year, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights announces the launch of the Al-Awda Award competition 2012.
BADIL has changed the award program in 2012 with regard to the procedure, conditions, categories and prizes. These developments and changes are based on BADIL’s annual plan, which aims to strengthen our programs and projects in order to promote the principles of a rights-based approach to the plight of Palestinian refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, and to promote a creative public discourse about the ongoing Nakba (displacement) of Palestinians over 63 years.

More details about procedures, categories, prizes, conditions and how to submit entries can be found here>>>
 
Youth Education & Activation

Badil CBO partners completed the third activity/action of the program “What has been done to end the ongoing Nakba”? Over 300 refugee/IDP youth participated in the action; each child selected a public personality of his/her choice without informing others and studied as much as possible about the selected personality. The entire CBO group organized a joint session in which each youth enacts the selected personality while others had to guess the name of his/her personality. To implement the action professionally, children were supported and trained by actors from different theatres whom taught how to enact those public personalities. The action aimed at giving children an opportunity to get to know Palestinian political and cultural figures and how such figures have played an effective role towards ending the Palestinian ongoing Nakba.

 

CBO partners have also implemented the fourth-fifth activity “We have rights – how can we put them into practice? Each CBO group identified up to 5 problems that have a negative impact on their lives and represented them visually in pictures or photographs; they then identified which rights they hold are affected or denied by these problems and who is responsible for helping them achieve them. The work was done in sub-groups. Interviews, pictures/photos and rights denied are documented and prepared as an exhibit.

After documenting the denied rights, each CBO organized a public exhibition and invited duty holders in order to present the problems and discuss solutions. Each CBO group planed and implemented an activity, which raises public awareness and support for resolving one of the denied rights.
   
 
Badil Strategy Forum
Follow up of Leadership Summer School Program:

42 university students and local activists, who graduated from Badil Summer School last July, have joined Badil Strategic Forum. In November 25th, Badil organized a follow up meeting for the group, which aimed at engaging them in Badil activities and programs, and also arranging a strategy plan for them in the year 2012. The first half of the day-long meeting was dedicated to the division of tasks among participants; they have agreed to distribute Badil publications and tools in the local community and local Palestinian universities. Participants have also agreed to serve as Badil facilitators in their local community, especially in organizing activities and raising awareness about the right of return and the ongoing Nakba. The second half of the meeting was devoted to a strategic discussion and debate about the Palestinian proposal for recognition of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, which was submitted to the UN in September 2011. Participants engaged in a serious discussion about the positive and negative impacts of the proposal on Palestinian basic rights, especially the right to self-determination and the right of return.

 Badil – Zochrot Joint Action; Practicality of Return:

 Work continues on BADIL and Zochrot's joint action project to discuss and draw up plans for the practical return of Palestinian refugees. The project now focuses on using the experience gained thus far and focuses on producing a practical plan for return to a particular location. Badil and Zochrot have expanded the number of participants in the project, each organization engaged 15 participants from local communities. Participants have organized two meetings, which focused on the Yaffa–Tel Aviv area, and discussed mechanisms related to practicalities of return and how such mechanisms could be used for a future plan of refugee return to this location. The group is in the process of planning a comparative study visit to South Africa, which will take place at beginning of February 2012 to learn about the process of refugee repatriation in the post-Apartheid regime
   
 
Badil Law Course at Al-Quds University

58 law students (19 women and 39 men) enrolled in the BADIL course on Palestinian refugees under international law for the fall 2011- 2012 semester. It is the largest number since Badil has started teaching this course 3 years ago. 56 students passed the course and the success average rate was 78%. Due to technical reasons, Al Quds University could not open two classes as was agreed upon. Although, Badil will continue giving this course for the spring 2012 semester, it was agreed to have 40 students maximum every semester. Both, Badil and the Law School decided to renew the memorandum of cooperation for the fall 2013.     
   
 
Research

 Badil is conducting a research project to better understand how the legal structure in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory has affected social ties between Palestinians living in other communities throughout historic Palestine and in exile. Through this project, Badil aims to at survey surveying men and women aged 15-19 from throughout historic Palestine and in exile in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan to understand how the youth view their own identity and their relations with Palestinians residing in other communities.

By analyzing the results of the survey, the final version of the paper will give an overview of how the conflict affected the Palestinian identity and how Palestinians have maintained and or developed their social ties.

 

 

Publications

BADIL's Working Paper No.12, "Applying International Criminal Law to Israel's Treatment of the Palestinian people"

The purpose of this paper is to apply ICL to Israel’s policies towards the Palestinian people. Rather than attempting to make a specific case against specific perpetrators, the aim of this paper is to set out the relevant legal framework for the application of international criminal law to some of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinian people.

This paper will thereby supplement other papers published by BADIL in the field of criminal justice, legal accountability and remedies as well as work by lawyers and other organizations with a view to combating the ongoing impunity of Israel and its officials.

This BADIL working paper will constitute the first of a new BADIL series looking into the subject of International Criminal Law.

Read the full paper online here>>>

Al-Majdal Magazine

 Issue 47-Autumn 2011: Israel and the Crime of Apartheid: Towards a Comprehensive Analysis.

This issue is the first of two issues looking at issues related to Israeli Apartheid from a number of vantage points. This first issue will include many of the testimonies to be presented at the Russell Tribunal in early November, with the subsequent issue will look at the vision of the anti-apartheid movement. It can be read online here>>>

Haq Al Awda Newspaper

Issue no. 45: This issue looks at the components and specialty of the Palestinian National Identity. It can be read online here>>>

 Issue no. 46: This issue looks at the Israeli regime of Apartheid, Colonialism and Occupation. It can be read on line here>>>

Press Releases and Statements

 

11th December 2011, marking the 63rd anniversary of UNGA Resolution 194:

 On the 63rd anniversary of UN General Assembly Resolution 194, BADIL Resource Center for Residency and Refugee Rights brings the attention of the international community to the enduring denial of the Palestinian right to reparation, rehabilitation and in particular to their right to return.

Read the full press release online here>>> 

 

 

5th October 2011, Open Letter to EU High Representative and Foreign Affairs Ministers ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council Regarding the Eviction of Naqab Bedouins (joint letter):

As human rights NGOs concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights of Palestinian people, we, the undersigned organizations, urge you to stop the eviction of 30,000 Palestinians citizens of Israel living in 14 localities north, east and south of the town of Beer Sheba (Beer Al- Saba’).

 

Read the full statement online here>>>

 

 

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