DS110.K36B5613

- Chapter One: a case ongoing the displacement of kfr bir'im -Chapter Two: reclaiming in justice in israel's courts: the legal struggle - Chapter Three: against all odds : the Political Struggle - Chapter Four: kafr bir'im the place activities in the village - Chapter Five: a personal duty: individual initiatives for kafr bir'im

The fact that the case of Kafr Bir'im is featured in this booklet should not come as a surprise. Kafr Bir'im hasgarneredmajorpolitical and media attention ever since the Palestinian inhabitants of this village were displaced in 1948. Kafr Bir'im has remained on the agenda despite its erasure from the geographic map. The constant presence of Kafr Bir'im is due, more than anything else, to the struggle of its inhabitants for return to their village and the multitude of efforts sustained overtime. Despite Israel's profound and express unwillingness to reopen the 'fileof1948',thevillageof Kafr Bir'im hasbeenrepeatedlyon the agenda. Its Palestinian inhabitants did not allow their case to be ignored or forgotten; they always looked for new ways to bring it to light, knocked at numerous doors, and fought on several fronts at the same time. Kafr Bir'im stands as an example for what Palestinians displaced by the state of Israel have been doing in order to return to their villages. It also serves to illustrate Israel's categorical and persistent refusal to deal with what could imply a recognition of the right of return of the internally displaced Palestinians and refugees. This booklet,published almost sixty years into the Palestinian "Nakba" (catastrophe) of 1948, presents the story of the protracted struggle of Kafr Bir'im's people for return to their village. It recounts key events, achievements, obstacles and failures through the oral and written narratives of the displaced people themselves. Thefirstchaptercoversthebeginningofdisplacement and subsequent developments; the second chapter outlines the displaced villagers' struggle in Israel's courts, and the third describes their effortsinthepoliticalarenaandamongthemedia.Thefourthandfifthchaptersfeatureactivitiescarried out by the Kafr Bir'im displaced in their destroyed village, as well as individual initiatives launched by the displaced for their village and the quest for return. Maps, photos and documents are included in order to illustrate their story.« »Sami Zahra, a 78-years-old Bir'imite, remembers what happened: "The occupation forces searched the village dignitaries, including my father, and told them that the people had to leave for two weeks for 'security reasons', because the village is located near the Lebanese border. I escaped into the mountains for two days because my father told me: 'Run to the mountains! Thearmywantstokilltheyouths. Theyconsideryoutrouble-makersandthismaycausetheexpulsion of the whole village'. It was a severely cold winter, and I slept in a very old cave used as a tomb in the past and with many bones still there. Then I went to Lebanon for one week. I returned to my family when I learned that the majority of the villagers had been expelled to the village of Jish."« »The village priest, Father Yusef Istifan Susan, recalls: "All of the inhabitants of the village became homeless. TheMinister of Minorities at the time, Bechor Shitrit, came to visit the northern borders accompanied by the military governor of the area, Elisha Soltz. Theministerandhiscompanions were received in the village of Jish, so that Kafr Bir'im's Mukhtar, Qaisar Ibrahim, and its Priest, Yusef Susan, rushed to Jish to tell him about the plight of the people of their village. Other people of Kafr Bir'im in the region came the following day to meet the Minister who said he wanted to examine in depth the matter of Kafr Bir'im. He then ordered that the inhabitants of Kafr Bir'im should be moved to Jish for two weeks, until the military operations on the northern borders would be terminated. The Minister assured the people that they would return to their village in two weeks. He told them: "Don't take with you to Jish anything not needed during this short period of time."« »Israeli writer David Grossman quotes a Jewish settler in the settlement of Ein Hod (i.e. the 1948 depopulated Palestinian village of Ayn Hawd) in the early 1990s: "Giving them a foothold once again will undermine our right to the place and to keeping it. If you grant them recognition of what existed before 1948, you undermine the basis of all of our present existence, the whole situation and the whole state."«