Press Releases

For Immediate Release

The flurry of activity among diplomats and political figures over the past few months masks a further disengagement from human rights and public participation in peacemaking, says the latest issue of BADIL's quarterly magazine Al-Majdal.

Al-Majdal's editorial "The Other 'Disengagement'-Human Rights, Popular Democracy and a Just Peace" points out that these elements are critical for a just and durable peace but are missing from recent proposals.  If such efforts are pursued, neither Palestinians nor Israelis will have the kind of long-term solution they deserve.

This issue also reports on a meeting at BADIL with a Jewish Israeli organization working on Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation; the 4th annual Right of Return conference in London; a BADIL-sponsored tour of Palestinian refugee to study land restitution and public participation in peacemaking in South Africa; and BADIL's expert forum on housing and property restitution for Palestinian refugees.

Refugee protection issues covered include an update on Palestinians from Iraq, housing demolition in Rafah, and the impact of Israel's "Apartheid Wall" on registered refugees.  This issue also looks UNRWA's difficulties in raising money for its emergency programs and its work in rebuilding Jenin camp (West Bank) and rehabilitating housing in Neirab camp (Syria.(In addition, the new Al-Majdal issue presents guest authors Jaber Suleiman on the Burj al-Shemali Massacre and Omar Barghouti on the obstacle to a secular democratic solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Print copies of Al-Majdal issue no. 20 will be mailed shortly to subscribers and a PDF version will be on: www.badil.org/Majdal/2003/majdal03.htm.  Annual subscriptions for four issues are available from [email protected] for $20.