No peace without an end to exile
By Karma Nabulsi, The Guardian, September 18, 2002
In the second of a series, a Palestinian academic says that any Middle East deal which ignores the rights of the refugees will be rejected: A few weeks before the al-Aqsa intifada began in September 2000, an extraordinary public meeting took place at Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem. There were others at Palestinian refugee camps all over the region. A cross-party British parliamentary commission was actually asking the refugees what they thought about their future, peace and the right of return. They were taking the testimony of dozens of groups of refugees, popular committees, old people, children. This was unprecedented, for during the last 10 years of the Oslo process, the issue of the refugees had been comprehensively removed from the negotiating table - many thought for good. They were instead to be resettled either in a new state or in the host Arab countries, against their will and international law.

Facing up to ethnic cleansing
By Karma Nabulsi and Ilan Pappé, The Guardian, September 19, 2002
In the third of a series, a Palestinian and an Israeli say that only by giving the refugees a say in their future can the two peoples be reconciled: What would be the structure of a real peace between Israel and Palestine? First, the refugee issue needs to be placed at the centre of the process from where it has mysteriously disappeared. Next, all those involved in resolving the conflict must have the public courage to confront the Israeli denial of the expulsion and ethnic cleansing at the heart of the Palestinian refugee question. This remains the single largest stumbling block towards a lasting peace between both peoples.

(see also Part 1: Our strength is in the camps, by Karma Nabulsi, linked in VTJP Articles 9/17/02)

If you want to know how George W Bush will go about getting international support for war, look at how his father did it 12 years ago
By John Pilger, September 19, 2002
The making of a United Nations fig leaf, designed to cover an Anglo-American attack on Iraq, has a revealing past. In 1990, a version of George W Bush's mafia diplomacy was conducted by his father, then president. The aim was to "contain" America's former regional favourite, Saddam Hussein, whose invasion of Kuwait ended his usefulness to Washington. Forgotten facts tell us how George Bush Sr's war plans gained the "legitimacy" of a United Nations resolution, as well as a "coalition" of Arab governments. Like his son's undisguised threats to the General Assembly, Bush challenged the United Nations to "live up to its responsibilities" and condone an all-out assault on Iraq. On 29 October 1990, James Baker, the secretary of state, declared: "After a long period of stagnation, the United Nations is becoming a more effective organisation."

We cannot have them back
By Yossi Melman, The Guardian, September 20, 2002
In the last of a series, an Israeli writer argues that peace can only be achieved if the refugees accept a Palestinian state as their homeland
Where do we start? Where do we ignite the historic argument? Karma Nabulsi began her account of the Palestinian predicament on these pages with the story of 800 Palestinians massacred 20 years ago in the Beirut camps of Sabra and Shatila. Yet she failed to mention that they were killed by Lebanese Christians, not Israeli troops, or that 400,000 Israelis protested against Israel's indirect participation and forced the defence minister to resign.

Massacres Don't "Just Happen"
By Laurie King-Irani, The Electronic Intifada, September 18, 2002
On a hot and muggy Saturday morning twenty years ago, a shocking reality came to light in Lebanon. People approaching the contiguous refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila on the outskirts of Beirut that day suspected that dark deeds had taken place in the alleyways, homes, and streets of the camps for a day or more. Three days earlier, Israeli troops and tanks had surrounded the camps as the area came under constant artillery fire.