Housing and property restitution for Palestinians is absent from the draft of the so-called Geneva accord currently being discussed despite the fact that restitution has become a main component of durable solutions to long-term conflicts worldwide. Read more about Restitution: a major component in durable solutions
BADIL comments on the responses to and debate of the recent survey released by Dr. Khalil Shekaki on Palestinian refugees’ choice to not return. BADIL notes that “These comments were triggered mainly by a piece of commentary written by Jehudith Harel (14 July), who touches on many important points.” Read more about BADIL on the PRS Refugee Poll
A recent review by the UN of Israel’s performance under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern that “excessive emphasis upon the State as a “Jewish State” encourages discrimination and accords a second-class status to its non-Jewish citizens. Read more about UN Committee: "Excessive emphasis upon the State as a 'Jewish State' encourages discrimination"
The commemoration of Palestinian Land Day this year coincides with the ongoing Israeli reoccupation and military siege of Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories and the US-UK led war against Iraq. Read more about Palestinian Land Day 2003
March 21 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Refugees and IDPs often face multiple forms of racial discrimination. Sometimes racial discrimination is a root cause of displacement. Too often refugees and IDPs are discriminated against in places of exile. Racial discrimination, moreover, is frequently a barrier to the right of refugees and IDPs to return to their homes of origin following the cessation of conditions that led to their displacement. Read more about Why do Israel, the US, and the EU discriminate against Palestinian refugees and IDPs?
The Geneva based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) has identified the countries guilty of most consistently abusing and defying international housing rights law in 2002 for its new annual Housing Rights Violators Award. Israel is among the ten states chosen to receive the award, writes BADIL. Read more about Israel wins the world's worst housing rights violators award