A visit to the absentees

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I have already visited refugees in refugee camps here at the West Bank. A week ago, I visited the homes of some Palestinian refugees inside Israel. It is not the homes they are living in. But it is the homes that they are still remembering and wishing to return to.

Around 750,000 Palestinians fled during the internal violence and the Arab-Israeli war between 1947 and 1949. Of the 150,000 that remained within today's Israel, 40,000 were internally displaced. However, more Palestinians have been internally displaced after this, among other things because of war and house demolitions. As I have mentioned before, UN called for the return of the refugees in resolution 194, passed on 11th of December 1948.

Israel never allowed this return. Instead it defined the refugees as "absentees" and took over their property, first by emergency ordinances and in 1950 by the Absentees' Property Law. Those who were internally displaced also lost their property in this way, as they were defined as "present absentees". An example of this is the city of Akka, where those who didn't flee, took refuge in the old city, where they were forced to remain. Families who had their homes outside the old city were defined as absent and thus lost them. How much was taken from Palestinians in this way, is highly disputed. The Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property in 1980 suggested about 70 percent of Israeli land. The refugee organization Badil says 80 percent.

According to the Israeli organization Zochrot, out of the around 700 Palestinian villages, approximately 500 were destroyed. Most of the villages were destroyed during the war, as Israeli forces blew up the houses, occasionally leaving churches, mosques and cemeteries. Zochrot also estimates that parks belonging to the Jewish National Fund contain 86 destroyed villages. Zochrot is working to make the public in Israel aware of this part of their history, among other things by making signs marking the villages, which you can read about in this article from Haaretz.

We visited one destroyed village now turned into a park, Lubya. There were 2726 people living in Lubya in 1948. Now you find only pine trees there, planted by the Jewish National Fund. If you go there without knowing the history, you will probably never guess what this place used to look like. Only when you search for it, you find little signs: stones and marks of foundation walls on the ground. Olive trees that used to supply people with food.





In another village we went to, Shajara, more of the buildings were still standing. For instance, there was still a well with steps leading down to it.



One interesting point about refugees and return, is that most Israelis live in urban areas, while the majority of the refugees come from rural parts of the country. According to Badil, it is estimated that in 90 percent of the communities that the refugees come from, there is no conflict with existing built-up Jewish communities.
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