Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin
June 30, 2004
PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH
phone: 972- 2- 625-4140 fax: 972-2- 624-2803
visit our website, click here: www.pmw.org.il
for further information, contact PMW Director, Itamar Marcus
material may be quoted, citing PMW as the source
subscribe free to PMW reports, details below

PA Denies Voting Rights to Refugees
for Political Purposes
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

Introduction
A striking decision by the Palestinian Authority (PA) will deprive
Palestinian occupants of refugee camps of their basic democratic right to
vote in the upcoming local elections. This is another step in the long
history of Arab leaders abusing camp residents as pawns for political gain.

Since Israel's creation the Arab world has actively prevented a
humanitarian solution for Arab refugees who left Israel during Israel's War
of Independence. For example, Lebanon still prohibits camp residents from
owning homes or businesses outside the camps, condemning them to perpetual
economic and social hardship.

According to the PA leadership this denial of the right to vote is being
done to highlight the "unique status" of the refugee camps.

The following statement in the PA daily by the Supreme National Committee
for the Protection of the Right of Return also reiterates the PA policy of
preventing the integration of the refugee camps into urban housing units,
calling it a "danger".

"The Supreme National Committee for the Protection of the Right of Return -
announced yesterday that it opposes the participation of the refugee camps
in the local elections that are expected to take place in the Palestinian
territories. The committee justified its objection as protecting the unique
status of the refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, considering them
testimony to the crime that the occupation state made against our nation
for 56 years. The committee warned of the dangers of integrating the
refugee camps into the urban housing units..."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 29, 2004]

to SUBSCRIBE to PMW's reports send an empty e-mail to
reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il