under the Israeli Absentees’ Property Law of 1950.95 Despite their presence inside the borders of Israel, they were deemed absent from their properties, which were consequently transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property together with the properties of Palestinian refugees. While they eventually acquired Israeli citizenship, these internally displaced Palestinians have never been allowed to exercise the right to return to their towns and villages of origin or restitution of their properties. The case of Iqrit and Kufr Birim Iqrit and Kufr Birim are two Palestinian villages located in the north of the Galilee region, near the border with Lebanon. The residents of these villages are part of the approximately 384,000 internally displaced Palestinians from around 60 towns and villages inside Israel. As with the other Palestinian IDPs displaced during the 1948 War, despite being citizens of the state, they have been denied their right to return to their villages since 1948 and their properties have been illegally appropriated by Israel. In 1948, the Israeli army requested the residents of Iqrit and Kufr Birim to leave their villages due to “security concerns” along the Lebanese border. Residents of the villages complied with the order after receiving assurances from the military that they would be permitted to return within 15 days. Some of the villagers were forced across the border into Lebanon. In 1951, the Israeli High Court ruled that the Israeli military’s ‘temporary expulsion’ of the residents of the village of Iqrit and Kufr Birim, in the Galilee, was illegal and villagers should be permitted to return.96 Following the High Court’s ruling, Israel’s military government in the area obtained retroactive inclusion of the villages into the northern “security zone”. In essence, the military’s actions created an Arab-free area along the borders, issued expulsion orders, and destroyed the villages. Iqrit was destroyed with explosives in 1951 and Kufr Birim by aerial bombardment in 1953. This situation resulted in a decades-long judicial battle led by the former Palestinian residents of the villages to have their right to return recognized. In November 1963 the Military Commander issued a closure order according to Regulation No. 125 of the 1945 Emergency Regulations that forbade entry 95 Absentee Property Law, 5710-1950, SH, No. 37, 86. An English translation of the law is available at: https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/E0B719E95E3B494885256F9A005AB90A [accessed 7 June 2018]. 96 Marwan Dalal “Choices of Law, Fragments of History: On Litigating in the Israeli Legal System”, Journal of Palestine Studies, 35, No. 3 (2005/2006), available at: http://www.palestine-studies.org/jps/ fulltext/41714 [accessed 6 June 2018]. 34