the understanding of the ongoing ‘Nakba’ of the Palestinian people and the
need for a rights-based approach to address it among local, regional and
international actors. The term ‘Nakba’ (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’) designates
the first round of massive population transfer undertaken by the Zionist
movement and Israel in the period between November 1947 and the ceasefire agreements with Arab States in 1949. The ongoing ‘Nakba’ describes the
ongoing Palestinian experience of forced displacement, as well as Israel’s
policies and practices that have given rise to one of the largest and longeststanding populations of refugees, internally displaced persons and stateless
persons worldwide.
We hope that the series will inform stakeholders, and ultimately enable
advocacy which will contribute to the dismantling of a framework that
systematically violates Palestinian rights on a daily basis. The series is intended
to encourage debate and critical comment. Since Israeli policies comprising
forced population transfer are not static, but ever-changing in intensity, form
and area of application, this series will require periodic updates.
The series of working papers will address nine main Israeli policies aiming at
forced population transfer of Palestinians. They are:
1. Denial of Residency, published April 2014
2. Discriminatory Zoning and Planning, published December 2014
3. Installment of a Permit Regime, published December 2015
4. Suppression of Resistance, published December 2016
5. Denial of Access to Natural Resources and Services, published September 2017
6. Land Confiscation and Denial of Use, published October 2017
7. Denial of Reparations to Refugees and IDPs, published October 2018
8. Segregation, Fragmentation and Isolation, published March 2020
9. Non-state Actions (with the implicit consent of the Israeli state)
Methodology
All papers consist of both field and desk research. Field research consists of
case studies drawn from individual and group interviews with Palestinians
affected by forced population transfer, or professionals (such as lawyers or
employees of organizations) working on the issue. The geographic focus of
the series will include Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian
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