CAIRO, March 14, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The first Palestinian atlas has been launched to document for the generations to come territories usurped and occupied by Israeli troops and keep the cause vivid.

Up to 50,000 maps charting Palestinian sites that date back to 1799 are found in the English-language geographical encyclopedia, said Salman Abu Setta, a researcher in the affairs of Palestinian refugees.

The atlas, which was drawn with the help of three Palestinian research centers, saw the light Saturday, March 12, in a ceremony hosted by the Political Studies Department in Cairo University.

“The maps show some 31,000 posts, monuments and ancient places in Palestine, as well as 1,303 villages and cities that had been bulldozed flat and replaced with Israeli settlements,” Setta said.

The atlas further features 31 Palestinian military airports, 67 military posts, 643-km railway, 41 railway stations, 3,197-km paved roads, 1,700 water facilities, 11 postal offices, 99 police stations, 33 administrative checkpoints and 2,200 state-run institutions annexed by Israel.

“It is not an all-figures atlas, but it tells the story of a country called Palestine with an active population before being usurped by Israel,” said the expert.

Setta added that the atlas is based on maps and document obtained from the United Nations, the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defense.

Setta said that the project comes to endorse the inalienable right of return of millions Palestinian refugees forced out by Israel.

“It preserves Palestinian history and protect it from Israeli obliteration,” added the expert.

“It is a bridge between the past and the future, and rekindle comeback hopes cherished by millions of Palestinian refugees.”

According to UN and Palestinian statistics, Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their descendents comprise the bulk of the Palestinian refugee population today numbering over six million persons and constituting nearly two-thirds of the Palestinian people.

Seif Abdel Fattah, professor of politics in the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, said the atlas includes two kinds of maps: the first registers onetime Palestinian territories and now occupied by Israel; and the second provides a list of places that saw massacres and deadly aggressions committed by Israel.

Famed Palestinian writer Abdel Qadir Yassin said the 1500-page atlas is a welcome addition to the Arab and Palestinian heritage.

“The right of return is one of the sticking points if not the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which cannot be ignored,” he maintained.

On April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin's Irgun group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight. On April 22, Haifa fell to the Jewish mobs and 70,000 Palestinians fled.

On April 25, Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of Jaffa - the largest city in Palestine at that time, terrifying the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.

On May 14, the day before the creation of Israel on the rubble of Palestine and bodies of the Palestinians, Jaffa completely surrendered to the much better-equipped Jewish militias and only about 4,500 of its population remained.

In 1967, approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip when Israel launched a war against Jordan, Syria and Egypt, capturing and occupying the West Bank, including Al-Quds and the Gaza Strip (the Occupied Palestinian Territories).

Nowadays, Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories are mushrooming, gobbling entire villages and vast swathes of fertile land.