Introducing the Series 1 This series of working papers on “Forced Population Transfer: The Case of Palestine” constitutes an overview of the forced displacement of Palestinians as a historic and ongoing process which detrimentally affects the daily life of Palestinians and threatens their national existence. Historical Context: The Case of Palestine At the beginning of the 20th century, most Palestinians lived inside the borders of Mandate Palestine, now divided into the state of Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territory (the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip). The ongoing forcible displacement policies following the establishment of the British mandate of Palestine in the 1920s made Palestinians the largest and longest-standing unresolved refugee case in the world today. By the end of 2014, an estimated 7.98 million (66 percent) of the global Palestinian population of 12.1 million are forcibly displaced persons.2 The ultimate aim of BADIL’s series is to parse the complex web of legislation and policies which comprise Israel’s overall system of forced population transfer today. The series is not intended to produce a comprehensive indictment against the State of Israel, but to illustrate how each policy fulfills its goal in the overall objective of forcibly displacing the Palestinian people while implanting Jewish-Israeli settlers/colonizers throughout Mandate Palestine (referring to “historic Palestine”, consisting of Israel, the 1967 occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip). Despite its urgency, the forced displacement of Palestinians rarely receives 1 Extract from BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, ”Introduction to Forced Population Transfer: The Case of Palestine”, March 2014. Available at: http://www.badil.org/ phocadownload/Badil_docs/publications/wp15-introduction.pdf 2 BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, “Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (VIII) 2013-2015”, November 2015, page xiii. Available at: http:// www.badil.org/phocadownloadpap/badil-new/publications/survay/Survey2013-2015-en.pdf 5