The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) defines Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as "persons ... who have been forced to flee or to leave their homes ... as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters ...". In other words, IDPs are refugees who have not crossed an international border.
An extensive international framework exists to provide for the protection of refugees. The plight of IDPs, however, has long been neglected due to norms of national sovereignty; much human suffering has been ignored due to the arbitrary nature of international borders.

From 1948 to Today - Displaced

The State of Israel was established in 1948, in a bloody war which is referred to by Israelis as the War of Independence. It is referred to by Palestinians as Al Naqba ("The Catastrophe") because:

° 800,000 Palestinians fled their homes or were expelled and forced into existence as refugees;
° 150,000 Palestinians remained within Israel;
Of those who remained, 25% were expelled from their homes and became internally displaced persons (IDPs);
° 85% of the approximately 550 Palestinian towns and villages that existed prior to 1948 were depopulated. In many cases, homes were destroyed and civilians massacred.

Today, 25% of the Palestinian citizens of Israel are IDPs - approximately 250,000 people living throughout Israel in some 80 villages and towns. Most of the internally displaced are concentrated in Northern Israel and the Galilee; residents of 44 of the 162 villages destroyed in this area still remain in Israel as IDPs. Of these 44 villages, the residents of 11 have managed to remain living together in Israel as communities in exile, still hoping to return together to their homes.

Internally displaced Palestinians mourn not only the loss of their land and homes, but also the cemeteries where their ancestors lie buried and the holy places where their families prayed. Many live only kilometers from the sites of their destroyed homes, where their property often now lies unused.

Practices Used Against IDP's

The practices used against Palestinian IDPs since the creation of the State are just one component of the Zionist strategy to "Judaize" the land of historic Palestine, settling Jews where Arab homes so recently stood.

The Emergency Regulations left behind by the British Mandatory government were adopted and exploited by the Israeli State in order to expel Palestinians from their land and then deny them the right to return. Regulation 125 authorized military commanders to declare any area as a "closed military area"; this regulation was abused for the purpose of "clearing" as many Arabs as possible from the land claimed by the new Jewish State. Many IDPs forced from their villages under Regulation 125 find today that the land is still declared "closed," preventing them from returning.
The 1950 Absentee Properties Law defined IDPs as "Present Absentees" -under this law Palestinian land and properties were confiscated and transferred to State control. These lands were never returned to their original owners, even if these owners remained in or returned to Israel.