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About Palestine
There are approximately eight million Palestinians in the world today. Over half the entire Palestinian population were expelled from their homes in the 1947-49 Nakba (catastrophe) that followed partition and the creation of the State of Israel. A second wave of Palestinian refugees was created after the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the remainder of Palestine. One million Palestinians whose families were not driven out in 1948 live as second class citizens in the state of Israel.
Until now, not a single Palestinian refugee from 1948 nor their families have received a penny of compensation for their forcible dispossession nor have they been allowed to return to their homes.
The Palestinians have now experienced forty years of military occupation. The siege by the Israeli army and the economic blockade have devastated their daily lives so that 'normal' life is impossible.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights in 1967 in contravention of international law.
Since then Israel has moved over 410,00 settlers into these occupied territories in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention (article 49), the Hague Regulations and United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
Israel continues to build an illegal apartheid wall inside the West Bank despite the Advisory Ruling of the International Court of Justice in 2005 that the wall is illegal. Fifty five illegal Israeli settlements will be on the Israeli side of the wall separated from the West Bank .
Since 2000 Israel has demolished 628 Palestinian houses, home to 3, 983 people, in acts of collective punishment. These demolitions constitute a war crime. (Above statistics confirmed by Israeli Information centre Btselem, see www.btselem.org.) In total, since 1967, over 18,000 homes have been demolished for 'military' or 'administrative' reasons (source: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. See website.)
4,269 Palestinians have been killed as a direct result of Israeli military actions and 29, 456 injured during the current upraising which began in September 2000.