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Forced Migration Review 26: Palestinian displacement:
a case apart?

The September 2006 issue includes a major feature on Palestinian displacement. Twenty-eight articles by UN, Palestinian and international human rights organisations, Palestinian scholars in the diaspora and Jewish and Israeli activist groups examine the root causes of the displacement of Palestinians, the consequences of the failure to apply international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Palestinian entitlement to protection and compensation.

The articles in this issue discuss how failure to address the Palestinian refugee crisis represents perhaps the gravest shortcoming of the UN since its foundation. The international community has not exerted sufficient political will to advance durable solutions consistent with international law and Security Council resolutions requiring Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967. Durable solutions for displaced Palestinians have been discussed without reference to the legal norms applied in other refugee cases. Refugee rights, entitlements to compensation or restitution and the rights to protection of those Palestinians living under continued military occupation were not central to the now-moribund Oslo peace process – nor are they part of the subsequent US-sponsored ‘Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution’. Creeping annexation continues unchecked. Upon completion of Israel’s Wall, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be restricted to a series of non-contiguous enclaves which constitute an eighth of the area of historic Palestine. Despite pro-democracy rhetoric, Western response to the internationally-validated Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 has sparked a politically-induced crisis and crippled the Palestinian economy. Ordinary Palestinians are suffering as donors freeze funding required to maintain humanitarian assistance and development programmes.

We are grateful to the donors whose support enables us to substantially increase our normal print runs – A M Qattan Foundation, DanChurchAid, Interpal, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Save the Children UK, the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme on Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in the Middle East, the Sultan of Oman, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Welfare Association.

This issue is being published in English, Arabic, Hebrew, French and Spanish. We hope it may improve understanding of Palestinian displacement and would welcome your support in ensuring copies reach policy- and opinion-makers in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. If you are able to assist with distribution, please email the editors.