Since the establishment of the AIC-Project for Palestinian Residency & Family Reunification in 1992, we have perceived the question of the future of the millions of Palestinian refugees as the core of this human rights project. Due to the absence of political moves on this issue, the possibilities for fruitful interventions by a small project and limited staff like ours were at that time practically non-existent. Problems of family reunification, quantitatively and qualitatively insignificant compared with the refugee issue, were the only field in which local human rights organizations could enter into a bargaining process with the Israeli authorities and sometimes achieve positive results. 

When the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations became public in September 1993, the Project for Palestinian Residency & Family Reunification shifted its focus to highlight two issues which we expected would become crucial in the course of the new political process that had started with the Oslo Accords: the future of Palestinian residency rights in Jerusalem, and the collective return of Palestinian refugees. Since then we have been part of a successful human rights and information campaign on Jerusalem, and have closely monitored the political negotiations, especially those taking place in the framework of the multilateral working group for refugee affairs. In order to give expression to the new focus, we decided in late 1994, to change the name of our project to Project for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights. In 1995, we will engage in joint AIC-IPS research projects on Palestinian refugees from Jerusalem (1948 and 1967), continue campaigning for Palestinian residency rights in Jerusalem in cooperation with the JACC/Chicago and in the new NGO framework of the Palestinian Housing Rights Movement, monitor the political negotiations about the return of the 1967 displaced persons which finally started in Amman on March 7, and send a delegation to Jordan for both research on, and legal counseling for Palestinian refugees in Jordan. ARTICLE 74, as well as our special publications, will continue to report about our activities.