Refugees | The American Task Force on Palestine

Legislating the Refugee Problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am

You have to laugh, or it would make you cry. That is, if you are someone who genuinely cares about Israel and believes that the two-state solution is the only thing that can save Israel as a democracy and a Jewish state, and that can end the occupation and permit the Palestinians to live, finally, as a free people with dignity and self-determination.

UN's oldest refugee camps look at sensitive upgrades
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Noah Browning - May 10, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Reuters) -- Three generations of Palestinians displaced by the founding of Israel in 1948 know only life in UN refugee camps, going to schools beneath the blue-and-white UN flag and drawing their food stocks from UN warehouses. For these Palestinians whose long-cherished goal is the right of return to the lands they lost 64 years ago, the camps must be seen as temporary no matter how permanent they might seem to others.

Refugees join Palestinians as the reviled 'other' in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Mya Guarnieri - (Opinion) May 10, 2012 - 12:00am

On Tuesday, Israelis woke up to the surprising news that the early elections announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday had been cancelled. In a deal made while the country was asleep, Mr Netanyahu forged a new coalition with the centre-right party Kadima. Now the Knesset will march in lockstep behind the prime minister, meaning little will change. Not that elections would have made much of a difference, anyway - the popular Mr Netanyahu had been expected to win by a landslide.

Jewish refugee rights is an unsolved human rights issue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Lyn Julius - (Opinion) April 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Refael Bigio remembers the moment in 1962 that the regime of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser seized his family's property. Police had cordoned off the Bigio bottling plant at 14 Aswan Street in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. A policeman barked at Bigio and his father: "Hand over the keys!"

Palestinians’ situation declining
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
April 25, 2012 - 12:00am

BEIRUT: The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Shahed) announced in its annual report Tuesday that the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is getting worse by the year, as their rights diminish in number and value daily. According to the report, “the [poor] housing conditions in camps have not been addressed, and there is no local or international initiative on the horizon to improve them.” It described the camps as “a breeding ground for disease, home collapses, and a well of social problems.”

Palestinians are not wanted in Jordan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Moshe Arens - (Opinion) April 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Jordan refuses to let in the more than 1,000 Palestinians stranded along the Syria-Jordan border, even though it has allowed 100,000 Syrian refugees to enter. There are at present an estimated 500,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, and clearly the last thing the rulers of Jordan want is for them to come streaming into Jordan.

Let's talk about refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Dan Calic - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am

This month a meeting took place with little fanfare, addressing a subject that has sat on the sidelines throughout the peace process, having received only the slightest media attention. The topic of the meeting was about refugees. No, not Palestinian refugees; Jewish refugees. For many years the world has heard about the "right of return." This refers to Arabs who became displaced during the defensive war Israel was forced to fight when the surrounding Arab countries attacked it the day after declaring independence in 1948.

A revolution is taking place in Syria's Palestinian camps
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from politics.co.uk
by Nagham Issa - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

There are no estimates as to how many Palestinians have been killed since the unrest in Syria began, but the growing call for the fall of the Syrian regime has not passed Syria's estimated 500,000 Palestinian community by. Increased tensions with the Syrian authorities could yet mark a change in direction for the revolution, particularly in the capital, home to Syria's largest Palestinian camp, Mukhyam Yarmouk.

Abbas approves changes in Lebanon refugee camps
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 25, 2012 - 12:00am

BEIRUT (Ma’an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday gave his approval to several resolutions affecting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a statement from the embassy in Beirut said. The resolutions were initially discussed during a visit by Fatah central committee member Azzam Ahmad on March 16. Ahmad had met with Palestinian faction representatives in Lebanon to discuss ways to improve the situation of refugees.

Israel Seeks to Return Refugees to South Sudan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Batsheva Sobelman - March 22, 2012 - 12:00am

REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM--Israel doesn't need celebrity activists to call its attention to troubles in Africa. After years of being on the receiving end of a steady stream of work migrants and asylum seekers, the country knows this first-hand. Civil war, tribal troubles and economic hardship in African countries have sent tens of thousands on the dangerous journey across the desert to try their luck in Israel, which they have entered through the country's sprawling, largely open border with Egypt.

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