Source: – HYPERLINK http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/conferences/hrc2006/five/hrc070613am-eng.rm?start=01:42:14&end=01:45:26 http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/conferences/hrc2006/five/hrc070613am-eng.rm?start=01:42:14&end=01:45:26 
Date: June 13, 2007

Oral Statement of the NGOs Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights & Defence for Children International on the Report of the fact-finding mission to Beit-Hanoun 

Mr. President. 1948, 1967, 2007: The population transfer continues.  After 59 years of Nakbah, or catastrophe, the creation of Israel and the ensuing Arab-Israeli war which resulted in over 750,000 Palestinians fleeing or being forcefully removed from their land and 40 years of the occupation of the West Bank, including Eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.  Today, 70% of the Palestinian people are either refugees or internally displaced persons and largest and longest unsolved refugee crisis in the world.  There are approximately 6.8 million Palestinian refugees and 400,000 internally displaced persons, including about 2.7 million refugees’ children.  Many have been displaced 2 or 3 times and the displacement continues.  Within Israel, Palestinians are subject to land confiscation and home demolition, particularly in the Galilee and the Negev where Israel has undertaken a policy termed “Judaization.”  In the first two months of 2007, for instance, the homes of 33 Palestinian Bedouin families were demolished in order to force them to move to planned townships which are unsuitable for their way of life.  Thousands of homes are slated for demolition in the Negev.  The number of cases of population transfer affecting both Palestinian refugees and non-refugees [inaudible].  Yet, no international response has been developed to prevent and respond to the forced displacement of Palestinians or to look for a durable solution based on the right of return resolution and compensation.  Israeli officials have yet to be held accountable for their discriminatory actions which led to population transfer in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.  BADIL and Defense for Children International, Palestinian section calls upon the council to first, appoint a Special Rapporteur or expert to examine discriminatory practices affecting Palestinian and other minorities in Israel, including the responded and ongoing displacement of Palestinian citizens of Israel, many of whom are 1948 refugees.  Second, call upon members of the General Assembly to bring claims against Israel in the International Court of Justice to ensure that Israel complies with the obligation under International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in particular respect for the right of – [cut off by chair]