Under international humanitarian law an occupying power is solely responsible for providing humanitarian assistance to the people of the territory it occupies. In the occupied Palestinian territory, this responsibility lies with Israel. However, the reality is that since 1967 the…
Construction of the Wall in the occupied Palestinian territories has had a harsh impact on Palestinian farmers, separating many from their land. Catholic Relief Services Palestine[1] has initiated a project to try to mitigate the impact. The Wall follows a…
Israel’s so-called Separation Barrier is monstrous, a political and humanitarian catastrophe that threatens any final negotiated settlement, cuts Jerusalem off from its hinterland, separates farmers from their fields, divides families and provides yet another source of humiliation for the Palestinian…
Palestinian incomes have fallen by 40% over the last four years. The economy has been shattered by sieges, curfews, restrictions on movement of people and goods, and targetted destruction of infrastructure. Intimidation by settlers and the Israeli army, the construction…
Identifying IDPs in Israel and in the OPT – on the basis of the definition provided by the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement[1] – is difficult. UNRWA considers all those who lost their homes in 1948 as refugees, yet the…
Before the establishment of the state of Israel, the Bedouin of the Negev – who are culturally distinct from the Bedouin of the Galilee – were the vast majority of the population of the region and lived as nomadic pastoralists…
Palestinians have consistently used strikes, appeals and demonstrations – all standard non-violence tactics – since the beginning of the struggle, first against the British and later against the Israelis. Now, with the country so starved of basic necessities that children…
The Fourth Geneva Convention, which came into effect in October 1951,[1] represented the post-World War II aspirations of the international community to offer permanent protection to civilians living under military occupation. The breadth of Israel’s derogation in relation to Palestinians…
The European Commission is one of the largest contributors of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people. Since the second intifada began in 2000, the EC’s Humanitarian Aid Department has provided over €191 million to meet the critical needs of Palestinians…
The abysmal failure of the Oslo process is in no small part due to its failure to provide some form of reparations to Palestinian refugees in accordance with principles of international law. Instead of redressing the historical injustice that is…