Survey of
Palestinian Refugees
and Internally
Displaced Persons
2003
BADIL Resource Center
for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights
BADIL is a member of the Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition
i
Survey of Palestinian Refugees
and Internally Displaced Persons 2003
Editors:
Nihad Boqai
Terry Rempel
Design and Printing:
al-Ayyam
ISSN 1728-1679
All rights reserved
© BADIL Resource Center
For more information contact:
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian
Residency & Refugee Rights
PO Box 728
Bethlehem, Palestine
Tel/Fax. 970-2-274-7346, Tel. 277-7086
Email: info@badil.org
Web: www.badil.org
ii
Survey of
Palestinian Refugees
and Internally
Displaced Persons
2003
BADIL Resource Center
for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights
BADIL is a member of the Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition
iii
Preface
The Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons is published annually by BADIL Resource Center.
The Survey provides an overview of one of the largest and longest standing unresolved refugee and displaced
populations in the world today. It is estimated that two in five refugees today is Palestinian.
The Survey has several objectives: (1) It aims to provide basic information about Palestinian displacement – i.e. the
circumstances of displacement, the size and characteristics of the refugee and displaced population, and, the living
conditions of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons; (2) It aims to clarify the framework governing
protection and assistance for this displaced population; and, (3) It sets out the basic principles for crafting durable
solutions for Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, consistent with international law, relevant
United Nations resolutions and best practice. In short, the Survey endeavors to address the lack of information or
misinformation about Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, and encounter unconstructive political
arguments that suggest that the issue of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons can be resolved outside
the realm of international law and practice applicable to all other refugee and displaced populations.
The Survey examines the status of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons on a thematic basis.
Chapter one provides a short historical background to the root causes of Palestinian mass displacement. Chapter
two examines the demographic characteristics of the Palestinian refugee and displaced population. The third
chapter provides a basic overview of the living conditions of Palestinian refugees and displaced. The fourth and
fifth chapters examine international assistance and protection. The sixth and final chapter provides an overview
of the framework for durable solutions. Each chapter includes basic background information and highlights for
the previous year. The Survey also provides a list of recommendations concerning implementation of the rights of
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons in the context of a just and comprehensive solution to the
conflict in the Middle East.
The Survey compliments other information and advocacy materials prepared for BADIL’s Campaign for Palestinian
Refugee Rights and for the Global Coalition for the Right of Return. Many of the specific issues raised in the Survey
are addressed in more detail in other BADIL publications.
BADIL Resource Center
December 2004
iv
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Chapter One:
Historical Overview
From Mandate to Partition
The Nakba
Displacement after the 1948 War
The 1967 War
Military Occupation after 1967
2
4
8
11
15
16
Chapter Two:
Population
Population
Distribution
Refugees in Camps
Refugees Outside of Camps
Other Indicators
Development 2003
32
33
36
41
47
49
51
Chapter Three:
Living Conditions
Employment, Labor Force Participation and Income
Housing
Education
Health
Development 2003
58
59
65
69
72
75
Chapter Four:
Assistance
National Assistance
International Assistance
Development 2003
86
87
96
104
Chapter Five:
Protection
National Protection
International Protection
Development 2003
116
117
128
136
Chapter Six:
Durable Solutions
Framework
Implementation Mechanisms
Political Negotiations
Development 2003
148
149
156
163
169
Recommendations
177
Appendix
Index
183
191
v
vi
List of Tables
1.1 – Estimated Number of Palestinians Displaced, by Period of Displacement
1.2 – Estimated Area of Palestinian Land Expropriated, by Period of Expropriation
2.1 – Palestinian Refugees, Internally Displaced Palestinians and Convention Refugees
2.2 – Localities in Israel Hosting 100 or more Palestinian IDPs (1948-1950)
2.3 – Distribution of 1948 Registered Refugees, by District of Origin and by Field
2.4 – Registered Refugees in Official Camps
2.5 – Population of Palestinian Refugee Camps (Official and Unofficial)
2.6 – Major Localities in the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territories, by Refugee Population
2.7 – Distribution of Palestinian Refugees Outside Camps in Lebanon
2.8 – Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of Palestinian Refugees
2.9 – Infant and Child Mortality of Palestinian Refugees
3.1 – Employment Structure of Refugees in Lebanon and Jordan
3.2 – Reasons for Non-Participation in Labor Force (by age) in Jordan and Lebanon Camps
3.3 – Unemployment Rates (by age) in Jordan, Lebanon, 1967 OPTs and Syria
3.4 – Main Sources of Income
3.5 – Percent of Households with Indoor Environment Problems
3.6 – Destroyed Refugee Camps in Lebanon
3.7 – Enrollment Levels (by age) in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
3.8 – Highest Level of Education Completed in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
3.9 – Illiteracy (by age) in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
3.10 – Percentage of Adults (ages 15+) with Select Health Problems
3.11 – Select Health Indicators for Women
3.12 – Select Child Health Indicators
3.13 – Labor Force Participation in the 1967 OPTs, by Place of Residence
A3.1 – Employment Structure of Refugees in Syria
A3.2 – Employment Structure of Refugees in the 1967 OPTs
A3.3 – Employment Structure of Palestinians in Israel
A3.4 – Reasons for Non-Participation in Labor Force (ages 15 and over) in Syria
A3.5 – Reasons for Non-Participation in Labor Force in the 1967 OPTs
A3.6 – Unemployment Rates of Palestinians (ages 15-64) in Israel
A3.7 – Annual Household and Per Capita Income Levels (nominal and PPP)
A3.8 – Rooms per Dwelling
A3.9 – Percent of Households with Makeshift Dwelling and or Unsafe Materials
A3.10 – Highest Level of Education Completed among Palestinians in Israel
A3.11 – Percent of Children (ages 5-14) Chronically Ill or Disabled Infant and Under Five Mortality
Rate, Refugees Compared to Selected Host Countries
4.1 – Refugee Medical Consultation by Provider
4.2 – Refugee Students in UNRWA, Government and Private Schools
4.3 – Arab State Contributions to UNRWA, 1950-2003
4.4 – Palestine Red Crescent Society Services
4.5 – Institutions and the NGOs in Palestinian Refugee Localities
4.6 – UNRWA School Population, Number of Schools, Teachers, Training Places
4.7 – UNRWA Health Facilities and Programs
4.8 – Summary of Emergency Appeal Programs, 2000-2003
4.9 – UNRWA Centers and Programs by Location Population Density in Palestinian Refugee Camps
4.10 – Selected Indicators for Impact of Donor Shortfalls to UNRWA
4.11 – Estimated Losses due to Restriction on Humanitarian Access (USD)
6.1 – UNCCP Summary Schedule Showing Land Settled by Cadastral Survey and Non-Settled Land
vii
List of Figures
2.1 – Estimated Distribution of Palestinian Refugees and IDPs, by Area of Residence
2.2 – Age Structure of Palestinian Refugees
2.3 – Annual Population Growth Rate of Registered Refugees
3.1 – Refugee and IDP Total Labor Force Participation
3.2 – Household Poverty Rates
3.3 – Percent of Households with 3+ Persons per Room
3.4 – Percent of Households with Lack of Safe Drinking Water, Sanitation and Electricity
3.5 – Poverty Rates in the OPTs, by Place of Residence
3.6 – Perception of Households in the 1967 OPTs on General Health Status
4.1 – UNRWA Emergency Appeals Expenditures (as of 31 December 2003)
4.2 – Top 13 Donors to UNRWA Regular, Emergency and Project Budgets, 2003
4.3 – Top 13 Donors to UNRWA Emergency Appeals from 4 October 2000 – 31 December 2003
6.1 – Estimates of Palestinian Refugee Losses (USD millions) in 1948
List of Maps
Palestine under British Mandate Administration (1917-1948)
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (1947)
The Palestinian Territories Occupied in 1967
The 1967 Occupied Pºalestinian Territories (2003)
Official Palestinian Refugee Camp
Note on Sources
The information in the Survey is compiled from a variety of sources, including published reports,
books, statistical summaries, United Nations documents, press reports, and unpublished materials.
The information presented in the Survey represents the most recent information available to BADIL
Resource Center at the time of publication.
Due to the nature of Palestinian displacement, registration and enumeration, and technical and political
complications related to the collection of information about Palestinian refugees, systematic data and
information for all groups of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons is not available. The
most extensive data and information covers those Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and registered
with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). There is little data and
information on Palestinian refugees residing in Europe, North America and other areas outside the
Middle East. Systematic data and information is also lacking for internally displaced Palestinians.
viii
Abbreviations
ADRID
CAC
CAP
CoE
DCO
ECOSOC
EP
EU
FAFO
GA
GCC
HEPG
ICJ
ICRC
IDP
ILA
IUED
JNF
LACC
LAS
LASC
NAM
NGO
OAU
OCHA
OIC
OPT
PASSIA
PCBS
PLO
PPP
RRA
RWG
SC
SHC
UK
UN
UNCCP
UNDP
UNHCR
UNRPR
UNRWA
UNTSO
US
USAID
WFP
WHO
WJC
WWI
National Society for the Rights of the Internally Displaced
Civil Affairs Committee of the Palestinian Authority
Consolidated Appeals Process
Council of Europe
District Coordination Office
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
European Parliament
European Union
Institute for Applied Social Science
General Assembly of the United Nations
Gulf Cooperation Council
Humanitarian and Emergency Policy Group
International Court of Justice
International Committee of the Red Cross
Internally displaced person
Israel Lands Administration
Graduate Institute of Development Studies/University of Geneva
Jewish National Fund
Local Aid Coordination Committee
League of Arab States
Council of the League of Arab States
Non-Aligned Movement
Non-governmental organization
Organization of African Unity
Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs
Organization of Islamic Conferences
Occupied Palestinian Territories
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
Palestine Liberation Organization
Purchasing Power Parity
Refugee Rehabilitation Authority
Refugee Working Group
Security Council of the United Nations
Special Hardship Case
United Kingdom
United Nations
United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UN Relief for Palestine Refugees
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East
United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
United States
US Agency for International Development
World Food Programme
World Health Programme
World Jewish Congress
World War One
ix
x
Glossary
Absentee
A person who, at any time during the period between 29 November 1947 and the day
on which the state of emergency (declared on 19 May 1948) ceases to exist, was a legal
owner of any property situated in the area of Israel or enjoyed or held it, by himself or
through another, and who, at any time during the same period: (i) was a national or citizen
of Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq or Yemen; (ii) was in one of these
countries or in any part of Palestine outside the area of Israel; or (iii) was a Palestinian
citizen and left his ordinary place of residence in Palestine for a place outside Palestine
before 1 September 1948 or for a place in Palestine held at the time by forces which sought
to prevent the establishment of the state of Israel or which fought against its establishment
(as defined by Israel’s 1950 Absentees’ Property Law).
Area of UNRWA
operations
A state or territory where the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East (see UNRWA below) provides international assistance to Palestine
refugees (see Palestine refugees below). These include Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the occupied
West Bank and the occupied Gaza Strip.
Armistice Line
Assistance
The 1949 ceasefire line delineating the boundary between Israel and the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The armistice line is not an international border.
Aid provided to address physical and material needs. This may include food items, medical
supplies, clothing, shelter, as well as the provision of infrastructure, such as schools.
Asylum
Admission to residence and last protection against the exercise of jurisdiction by the
state of origin (temporary or permanently). A refugee does not have a right to be granted
asylum.
Balfour Declaration
One-page letter from Arthur Balfour, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs to Lord
Rothschild, head of the British Zionist Federation, granting explicit recognition of and
support for the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine through immigration
and colonization.
Convention refugee
A person recognized as a refugee by states under the criteria of Article 1A of the 1951
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and entitled to the enjoyment of a variety
of rights under that Convention.
Displaced person
A Palestinian displaced within and from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the context
of the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict and falling within the scope of UNSC Resolution 237
(1967). The term includes persons displaced externally and internally at that time, as well
as their descendants. The term is also used by UNRWA in reference to persons falling
under its mandate in accordance with UNGA Resolution 2252 (1967). The term does not
include Palestine refugees (see below) displaced to the West Bank and Gaza Strip during
the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.
Durable solutions
Means by which the situation of refugees can be satisfactorily and permanently resolved to
enable them to live normal lives. The three durable solutions are voluntary repatriation (i.e.
return), host country integration and third country resettlement. Voluntary repatriation is
recognized as the most durable solution. Housing and property restitution is an integral
component of repatriation.
xi
Ex-Gazan
A Palestinian who left the Gaza Strip and went to Jordan as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli
conflict. This includes Palestine refugees (see below) who came to the Gaza Strip in 1948
and persons whose home of origin is the Gaza Strip and their descendants.
Interim (Oslo)
Agreements
Agreements between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, including the
1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements signed
in Oslo, Norway, the 1994 Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area, the 1995
Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the 1998 Wye
River Memorandum, and the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum on Implementation
Timeline of Outstanding Commitments of Agreements Signed and the Resumption of
Permanent Status Negotiations.
Internally Displaced
Palestinian
A Palestinian forced or obliged to flee from his/her home, “... in particular as a result
of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflicts, situations or generalized violence,
violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed
an internationally recognized State border.” The term includes Palestinians displaced inside
Israel as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict (also included as refugees falling within
the scope of UNGA Resolution 194 (1948)), Palestinians displaced inside Israel after
1948 due to population transfer, land expropriation and house demolition, Palestinians
displaced inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict
(also referred to as displaced persons falling within the scope of UNSC Resolution 237
(1967)), and Palestinians displaced inside the Gaza Strip as a result of population transfer,
land expropriation and house demolition.
International
Protection
Interventions by states of UNHCR on behalf of asylum-seekers and refugees to ensure
that their rights, security and welfare are recognized and safeguarded in accordance with
international standards. Such interventions include: ensuring respect for the principle
of non-refoulement; admission to safety; access to fair procedures for the determination
of refugee status; human standards of treatment; and the implementation of durable
solutions.
Intifada
An Arabic term referring to the Palestinian uprising against Israel’s military occupation
of the West Bank (including eastern Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip.
Green Line
See ‘Armistice Line’ above.
Integration
One of three durable solutions afforded to refugees and displaced persons. Unlike
repatriation (see below) refugees do not have a fundamental right to voluntarily integrate
into the host state.
Jewish National
Fund
(Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) A quasi-public Jewish institution established in 1901 to
purchase land in Palestine and Syria for Jewish colonization and the creation of Jewish
state. The fund was incorporated as an Israeli company in 1953. The fund holds and
develops land exclusively for the benefit of Jews. In the 1950s the state of Israel ‘sold’
more than 2 million dunums of absentee Palestinian refugee property to the JNF. The JNF
holds nine of nineteen seats in the governing body of the Israel Lands Administration, the
government body responsible land policy, development, planning and land acquisition
for public purposes.
xii
Jewish State
A term used by Israel to define the character of the state. Israel’s High Court (Ben-Shalom
vs. Central Election Committee) states that the Jewish character of the state is defined by
three inter-related components: 1) that the Jews form the majority of the state; 2) that
the Jews are entitled to preferential treatment such as the Law of Return; and 3) that a
reciprocal relationship exists between the state and the Jews outside of Israel.
Mandate for
Palestine
A type of international trusteeship entrusted by the League of Nations in 1920 to Great
Britain. The purpose of the Mandate system was to facilitate the independence of nonself-governing territories. The Mandate for Palestine, however, aimed to facilitate the
colonization of the country through Jewish immigration and settlement in order to secure
the establishment of a Jewish national home.
An Arabic term meaning catastrophe referring to the mass displacement and dispossession
of Arab Palestinians in 1948.
Nakba
Naksa
An Arabic term meaning setback or relapse referring to the second mass displacement
and dispossession of Arab Palestinians in 1967.
National
A person recognized to have the status of a legal bond with a State as provide for under
law. Some States use the word 'nationality' to refer to this legal bond, while other States
used the word 'citizenship'.
Nationality
The status of being a citizen of a particular nation or country.
Non-refoulement
A core principle of refugee law that prohibits States from returning refugees in any manner
whatsoever to countries or territories in which their lives or freedom may be threatened.
The principle of non-refoulement is a part of customary international law and is therefore
binding on all states, whether or not they are parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Occupied
Palestinian
Territories
That part of former Palestine (22 percent) occupied by Israeli military forces in 1967.
Palestine Liberation
Organization
The body formed in January 1964 in order to represent the Palestinian people and restitute
their rights in their historic homeland as set forth in the Palestine National Charter. The two
most important institutions of the PLO are the 669-member parliament and the fifteenmember executive committee. Economic institutions of the PLO include the Palestinian
National Fund and the Palestine Martyrs’ Works Society. Major social institutions include
the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the Department of Education, the Institute for Social
Affairs and multiple unions in which Palestinians have organized themselves. The PLO
holds a permanent observer seat in the UN General Assembly.
Palestine Refugee
The term used by UNRWA (see below) in its registration system to refer to any person
whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May
1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.
Palestinian
Authority
The body establishe d under the 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim SelfGovernment Arrangements and the 1994 Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area
to administer those parts of the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories evacuated by Israel
pending the negotiation of a final settlement. The Palestinian Authority is an organ of
the PLO (see above).
xiii
Palestinian refugee
Common language used to designate all those Palestinians who have (and continue to)
become externally displaced from former Mandate Palestine (i.e. Israel and the OPTs) in
the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict, as well as their descendants.
The term refers to three groups: Palestinians who became refugees as a result of the 1948
Arab-Israeli conflict (including Palestine refugees (see above)); Palestinians who became
refugees as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict (also referred to as Displaced Persons
(see above); and, other Palestinians who were forced to leave Israel and the occupied
Palestinian territories owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race,
religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and
who are unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to these areas.
Population transfer
The systematic, coercive and deliberate movement of population into or out of an area with
the effect or purpose of altering the demographic composition of a territory, particularly
when that ideology or policy asserts the dominance of a certain group over another.
Present absentee
An Arab Palestinian who is regarded as an absentee under Israel’s 1950 Absentees Property
Law but remained in that part of former Palestine that became the state of Israel in
1948.
A committee established under the Interim Agreements (see above) between the PLO and
Israel to discuss the modalities of admission of persons displaced from the West Bank
and Gaza Strip in 1967. The committee is composed of Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan
and Egypt.
A plot of land placed at the disposal of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
refugees (see below) by the host government for accommodating Palestine refugees (see
above) and for setting up facilities to cater to their needs.
A sub-office established in 1950 by the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (see
below) to identify property ownership inside Israel and examine various interim measures
by which refugees could derive income from their properties.
Quadripartite
Committee
Refugee camp
Refugee Office
Refugee Working
Group
A body established in 1992 to improve the living conditions of Palestinian refugees and
displaced persons without prejudicing the final status deliberations on the refugee issue,
to ease and extend access to family reunification and to support the process of achieving
a viable and comprehensive solution of the refugee issue. The body is comprised of Egypt,
Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinians and Syria although Lebanon and Syria have
boycotted the Group. The Refugee Working Group is headed by Canada.
Registered refugee
See ‘Palestine refugee’ above. The term does not indicate refugee status, but rather eligibility
for assistance from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (see below)
Repatriation
One of three durable solutions afforded to refugees and displaced persons. Voluntary
repatriation in safety and dignity, based on the fundamental right to return to one’s home
and country, is recognized as the most appropriate solution to refugee flows.
Resettlement
xiv
One of three durable solutions afforded to refugees and displaced persons. Unlike
repatriation (see above) refugees do not have a fundamental right to resettle in a third
state.
Restitution
The legal remedy designed to correct the illegal taking of property from its rightful,
original owner through restoring the wrongfully taken property back to the ownership
and possession of the original owner. Restitution is an integral component of voluntary
repatriation. Compensation may be used when restitution is not factually possible of
when the injured party knowingly and voluntarily accepts compensation in lieu of
restitution.
Road Map
An international framework adopted by the United States, Russia, the European Union
and the United Nations in 2003 setting out a three-stage process based on UN Security
Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 1397 (2002) for a two-state solution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Separation Wall
The wall being constructed by Israel in the West Bank based on the notion of unilateral
separation. The Wall cuts deep inside the West Bank and effectively annexes Israeli colonies
and large areas of fertile West Bank land and water resources to Israel.
Stateless person
A person who is not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law.
Statelessness
The condition of not being considered as a national by any state under the operation of
its law.
Temporary
Protection
An arrangement or device developed by states to offer protection of a temporary nature
to persons arriving en masse from situations of conflict or generalized violence, without
prior individual status determination.
Unofficial camp
Camps established to provide additional accommodation for Palestinian refugees. Official
and unofficial camps have equal access to services provided by the UN Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees (see below) except for solid waste collection.
UN Mediator
The special representative of the United Nations mandated to facilitate a solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 1948. The Mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, was assassinated
by Zionist militias in September 1948 shortly after releasing his recommendations which
became the basis for UN General Assembly Resolution 194(III) calling upon Israel to
permit the return of refugees displaced during the war to their homes.
UNCCP
United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine. The international organ established
by the United Nations in 1948 to protect and facilitate solutions for all persons displaced
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict and to facilitate a solution to all outstanding issues
between the parties.
UNHCR
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The international organ established by
the United Nations in 1949 to protect, assist, and seek solutions for refugees worldwide.
UNRWA
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The
international organ established by the United Nations in 1949 to provide assistance
to persons displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. The United Nations later
requested the Agency to provide assistance to persons displaced during the 1967 ArabIsraeli conflict.
Voluntariness
A key factor governing durable solutions. Voluntariness means not only the absence of
measures which push the refugee to repatriate, but also means that he or she should not
be prevent from returning.
Zionism
A political movement established in the late 19th century in response to persecution of
European Jewry. The movement’s Basle Program (1897) states that the aim of Zionism is
to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public international law.
xv
xvi
Executive Summary
Two in five refugees worldwide are Palestinian
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians are one of the largest and longest-standing cases of
displacement in the world today. At the end of 2003, it is estimated that there were more than 7 million Palestinian
refugees and internally displaced persons out of a global Palestinian population of 9.7 million persons. This includes
5.7 million 1948 refugees (of whom 4.1 million are registered for assistsnce), 780,000 1967 refugees, 838,000
Palestinians displaced after 1967, 325,000 1948 internally displaced Palestinians inside Israel, and another 38,000
IDPs in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. (NOTE: all figures, except for registered refugees are estimates)
Two in five refugees in the world today are Palestinian.
Palestinian refugees and IDPs face ongoing and renewed threats to life and property
Physical security continued to be a serious concern in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories with more than
600 fatalities related to Israel’s military occupation in 2003. It is estimated that more than half were refugees and
internally displaced. While the humanitarian situation in the occupied territories stabilized in 2003, albeit with
high rates of unemployment and poverty, punitive demolition of refugee shelters and properties increased. By the
end of the year several thousand Palestinians had been newly displaced and dispossessed of property as a result of
Israel’s construction of a separation (‘apartheid’) Wall in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian Bedouin in southern
Israel were especially vulnerable to house demolition and destruction of agricultural land.
In Iraq thousands of Palestinian refugees were forced once again to leave their homes and livelihoods as a result
of the US-UK led war and occupation. Several hundred Palestinian refugees who had fled to the Jordan border
were still in need of solutions at the end of the year. Protection of those refugees remaining in Iraq continued to
be a serious concern due to violence and political instability. In Lebanon, new legislative initiatives responding to
concerns about de facto resettlement of Palestinian refugees threatened to further deprive Palestinians of the right
to property and residence.
Continued decline in living conditions in major host countries
Ongoing conflict, especially in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, shortfalls in donor contributions for
refugee assistance (regular and emergency programs) and unresolved gaps in national and international protection
contributed to further decline in refugee living conditions. In the occupied territories the gap between refugees
and non-refugees narrowed with impoverishment affecting all sectors of Palestinian society, including an emerging
trend in feminization of poverty. Refugees, non-refugees and newly-displaced Palestinians affected by the separation
Wall had even greater difficulties in reaching health and education facilities and places of employment. Palestinians
inside Israel, including IDPs, continued to experience higher rates of unemployment and poor education and
health outcomes compared to Jews.
In Iraq, the US/UK led war and occupation, and related displacement and forced eviction resulted in loss of
employment and income opportunities and threatened basic health and education outcomes. There were no major
improvements in the socio-economic situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon where economic, housing,
education and health indicators are the poorest. Education performance of refugees in Lebanon declined in 2003,
however, scores in government schools also declined during the same period.
xvii
Gaps in international protection and assistance remain unresolved
Interpretation and application of the 1951 Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian
refugees varied widely, despite the introduction of a revised interpretative note by UNHCR in late 2002. Only
Finland, Hungary and Norway in some cases have properly interpreted and applied the Refugee Convention.
Joint UNHCR-UNRWA protection and assistance to Palestinian refugees in Iraq provided a useful model for
institutional cooperation; however, the question of which international agency is responsible for refugee protection
in UNRWA areas of operation remained unresolved. Weak regional refugee instruments and mechanisms continued
to be a problem.
The political and humanitarian crisis in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, brought about by Israeli military
siege and assaults on civilian areas, including refugee camps placed further strain on the capacity of UNRWA to
provide adequate assistance for Palestinian refugees. The situation was exacerbated by the retargeting of foreign
aid to the war and reconstruction in Iraq resulting in further declines in standards relative to host countries and
international standards. The ability of UNRWA to rally donor support was compromised by politically motivated
and unsubstantiated attacks on the Agency by pro-Israel organizations.
The search for durable solutions continues to exclude basic human rights.
Bilateral and multi-lateral negotiations on the refugee issue remained frozen in 2003. The political process continued
to focus on Israeli security, political reform of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and humanitarian issues affecting
the population of the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. International human rights organizations continued
to remind state parties that excluding rights from the political process for reasons of expediency would have
terrible consequences as human rights violations and lack of respect for rule of law in general would undermine
any political process.
Official and unofficial political initiatives launched in 2003 were notable for the lack of reference to international law
and best practice. The Performance-based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict (‘Road Map’), endorsed by the UN Security Council in 2003, calls for “an agreed, just, fair, and realistic
solution” but does not define what is meant by these terms. By the end of the year implementation of the Road
Map was severely behind schedule. The United States, Israel, along with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and
Palau, continued to vote against resolutions that reaffirm principles of international law applicable to resolving
the Palestinian refugee question.
Resolutions adopted by the Council of Europe (CoE) Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament (EP)
in 2003 were also inconsistent with international law and practice on durable solutions for refugees worldwide.
Terms such as ‘realistic’ and ‘fair and balanced’ were used to delineate a solution that is based on the current balance
of power in the region rather than a solution consistent with rule of law. Other regional groupings, including the
League of Arab States (LAS), the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM), however, reaffirmed support for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and repossess
their properties.
The UN General Assembly requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to render an advisory opinion about
“the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, as described in the report of the SecretaryGeneral, considering the rules and principles of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of
1949, and relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.” If the Court decides to review the case and
render an opinion, it could have important consequences regarding the role of international law in resolving the
conflict, in general, and, more specifically, in the search for durable solutions for Palestinian refugees and IDPs.
xviii
Official positions unchanged, more civil society initiatives
There was no change in the fundamental positions of the parties about the parameters for durable solutions for
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians in 2003. Israel continued to hold the view that Palestinian
refugees should be resettled in Arab states, or in third countries outside the region. During the year the Supreme
Court upheld the state’s position that internally displaced Palestinians from the village of Iqrit in the Galilee could
not return because it could set a precedent for Palestinian refugees.
The lack of public debate and equation of return with ‘national suicide’ or the ‘destruction of the Jewish state’
continued to block efforts to encourage substantive discussion among Israeli Jews about the role of international
law in resolving the refugee issue and the larger regional conflict. Official and public debate concerning Palestinian
refugees focused on demography (i.e. how to maintain a Jewish majority), maximum separation from the
Palestinian population in the OPTs with minimum separation from the land, and renewed discussion about forms
of population transfer.
In December 2003 Ariel Sharon announced that Israel may consider unilateral redeployment (‘disengagement’) from
the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. The proposal complements accelerated construction of the separation
Wall and appears to be part of a systematic effort to entrench Israel’s control over the West Bank without the
concomitant obligations and responsibilities of an occupying power under international law and further cement
the system of ethnic-national separation that allows Israel to maintain it’s Jewish demographic majority and the
majority of the colonies (i.e. settlements) constructed in the OPTs since 1967.
The PLO continued to advocate for durable solutions for Palestinian refugees based on General Assembly Resolution
194(III) and international law. Refugee activists in the West Bank re-launched popular right of return conferences
in order to strengthen support for a rights-based approach. Preparatory committees were established in Bethlehem,
Ramallah, Tulkarem and Nablus districts. Similar initiatives were in progress in other parts of the West Bank by
the end of the year. Community activists in the Gaza Strip have adopted the same model but implementation
has been slower.
During 2003 the international umbrella network Coalition for the Palestinian Right of Return held its fourth annual
coordinating meeting, developed a joint plan of action and adopted a draft Constitution setting out the objectives
and regulations of the Coalition. Al-Awda/The Palestine Right to Return Coalition held its first convention in
Toronto, Canada focused on Principles, Strategies and Programs for the right of return. Nakba memorials (May
15) included popular marches and rallies and numerous media initiatives. Palestinian refugees, however, remained
largely excluded from official efforts to find durable solutions.
The number of civil society initiatives either supporting and/or working towards a rights-based solution for
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced continued to grow during the year. This includes a small, but growing
number of Israeli-Jewish initiatives to educate and raise awareness inside Israel about Palestinian refugees and the
role of international law in finding durable solutions. In addition, many initiatives calling for a boycott/divestment
from Israel also call upon Israel to recognize its responsibility for Palestinian displacement and related obligation
to admit those wishing to return and restitute homes and properties.
xix
xx
Chapter
Historical Overview
One
1
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Historical Overview
Preface
Displacement and dispossession of Palestinians from their historic homeland began during
the late 19th and early 20th century. It is estimated that as many as 150,000 Palestinians
were displaced within and expelled from Palestine from the beginning of the British
Mandate in 1922 through the end of 1947 when the UN recommended the partition of
the country into two states.
The majority of Palestinian refugees and IDPs were displaced during armed conflict and
the first Zionist/Israeli-Arab war in Palestine known as the Nakba or catastrophe. More
than 750,000 Palestinians were displaced or expelled between late 1947 and the first half
of 1949. Of the roughly 150,000 Palestinians who remained in those parts of Palestine
that became the state of Israel on 14 May 1948 approximately 30,000 were internally
displaced persons.
Several tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced within and expelled from Israel
between 1949 and 1967. Approximately 400,000 Palestinians were displaced, half for
a second time, during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war, when Israel occupied the West Bank,
eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Subsequent displacements and expulsions followed
in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories after the war. Secondary displacement of
refugees has continued in various countries of exile, including Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait,
Libya and most recently in Iraq.
The majority of Palestinian refugees and IDPs are from areas inside the present day state of
Israel. The state of Israel has expropriated land and properties belonging to these refugees to
be held in perpetuity for Jewish use. The remaining Palestinian refugees and IDPs are from
the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. Israel has expropriated or controls for Jewish use
approximately two-thirds of Palestinian owned land in these territories.
Today, approximately three-quarters of the Palestinian people are displaced. More than
five decades after their initial displacement/expulsion from their homeland, Palestinian
refugees and internally displaced persons still lack access to voluntary and durable solutions
to their plight based on international law and relevant UN resolutions.
2
Historical Overview
Table 1.1 – Estimated Number of Palestinians Displaced, by Period of Displacement
Year
Number of Palestinians Displaced/Expelled
1922 – 1947
100,000 – 150,000
1947 – 1949
750,000 – 900,000
1949 – 1966
35,000 – 45,000
1967
350,000 – 400,000
1968 – 2003
838,000
Note: There is no single authoritative source for the exact number of refugees displaced or expelled from their
homes of origin since 1948. The figures above are based on available data and estimates. For a more detailed
analysis of these figures and comprehensive references see, ‘Annex 1.1’ at the end of this chapter.
Table 1.2 – Estimated Area of Palestinian Land Expropriated, by Period of Expropriation
Year
1922 – 1947
1947 - 1949
1949 - 1966
1967
1968 - 2003
Area of Expropriated Palestinian Land (km2)
17,178
700
849
3,209
Note: There is no single authoritative source for the exact amount of land expropriated from Palestinians
since 1948. The figures above are based on available data and estimates. Between 1925 and 1947 Zionist
colonization associations purchased some 714 km2 of Palestinian land. For a more detailed analysis of these
figures and comprehensive references see, ‘Annex 1.2’ at the end of this chapter.
Population Transfer and Political Zionism
The UN defines population transfer as the “systematic, coercive and deliberate … movement of population into or out of an
area … with the effect or purpose of altering the demographic composition of a territory, particularly when that ideology or policy
asserts the dominance of a certain group over another.”1 [Emphasis added] This practice is also known as ethnic cleansing.
The idea of population transfer has played a key role in Zionist thinking since the founding of the Zionist movement in the late
nineteenth century.2 According to the movement’s Basle Program (1897), “the aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people
a home in Palestine secured by public international law”3 as the only solution to the persecution of Jews around the world.
Jewish immigration, colonization and Jewish labor were the primary means through which the Zionist movement sought to
establish a state in Palestine. Since mass immigration alone would not be sufficient to establish a Jewish majority, and because
most Palestinian Arab landowners were unwilling to part with their land, many leaders of the Zionist movement resorted to the
idea of transferring the indigenous population out of the country.
This idea was expressed succinctly by Theodor Herzl, the founding father of political Zionism. “We shall try to spirit the penniless
population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own
country, The property owners will come over to our side. Both process of expropriation and removal of the poor must be carried
out discreetly and circumspectly.”4
Leading Zionist thinkers developed numerous plans to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that would enable the
movement to establish and maintain an ethnic Jewish state. During the British Mandate these included the Weizman Transfer
Scheme (1930), the Soskin Plan of Compulsory Transfer (1937), the Weitz Transfer Plan (1937), the Bonne Scheme (1938),
the al-Jazirah Scheme (1938), the Norman Transfer Plan to Iraq (1934-38), and the Ben-Horin Plan (1943-48).
The idea of transfer did not end with the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948. Between 1948 and 1966 various official and
unofficial transfer plans were put forward to resolve the ‘Palestinian problem.’ These included resettlement plans for Palestinian
refugees in Iraq (1948), in Libya (1950-58) and as a result of the 1956-57 Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai.
Israel also established several transfer committees during this period.
The idea of transfer was again raised during the 1967 war. Resettlement schemes focused on the Jordan Valley, but also further
a field in South America. Thousands of refugee shelters were destroyed in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to resettle refugees
outside of refugee camps. The idea of population transfer emerged again in the context of the second Palestinian uprising
(intifada) against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
3
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Palestinian refugees are one of the largest and longest standing unresolved refugee cases in the
world today. At the beginning of the 20th century most Palestinians lived inside the borders
of Palestine, which is now divided into Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Today,
approximately half of the Palestinian people have been displaced outside their homeland.
Another twenty-five percent are displaced within the borders of former Palestine.
There have been five major waves of displacement from former Palestine. During the
British Mandate of the country more than 100,000 Palestinians were displaced within
and beyond the borders of the country. The UN General Assembly recommendation to
partition Palestine into two states in 1947 and subsequent war led to a mass displacement
of Palestinians from their historic homeland. Palestinians refer to this as the Nakba or
catastrophe.
Those Palestinians who remained in the areas of Palestine that became part of the state
of Israel in 1948 continued to be displaced after the end of the war. A fourth wave of
displacement occurred during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war when Israel occupied the West
Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip as well as the Egyptian Sinai and Syrian
Golan Heights. Since then Palestinians have continued to be displaced from the occupied
Palestinian territories and from Israel itself.
Palestinian refugees displaced between 1948 and 1967 cannot return because Israel defines
itself as a Jewish state and therefore refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes of origin inside Israel because they are not Jewish. Those refugees who originate
from the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip cannot return due to Israel’s
protracted military occupation. The legal regime in Israel and in the OPTs blocks refugee
return and restitution.
From Mandate to Partition
From the beginning of the British Mandate in Palestine in 1922 through the end
of 1947 when the United Nations recommended that the country be partitioned
into two states nearly one-tenth of the Palestinian Arab population was forced to
leave, expelled or denationalized and became refugees. Several tens of thousands of
Palestinian Arabs were also displaced internally during this period due to Zionist
colonization, the eviction of tenant farmers, and punitive house demolition by the
British administration.
During WWI, Allied forces under British command occupied Palestine which was then
one of several Arab territories that were part of the Ottoman Empire. In November
1917 the British cabinet issued the Balfour Declaration.5 The one-page letter from
Arthur Balfour, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs to Lord Rothschild, head of the
British Zionist Federation, granted explicit recognition of and support for the idea of
establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine through immigration and colonization.
At the time Jews constituted only eight percent of the population of Palestine.6 They
owned less than three percent of the total land in the country.7 Most of the indigenous
Palestinian Jewish community of Palestine did not support the idea of creating a
separate and exclusive Jewish state in the country.8 Despite widespread Palestinian
Arab opposition to the Balfour Declaration, Great Britain viewed Zionist colonization
as a way to advance British interests in the region.9
4
Historical Overview
Palestine under British Mandate Administration (1917-1948)
© Applied Research Center in Jerusalem. Reprinted with permission.
5
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
In 1919 Allied Powers met in Paris to determine the status of those non-self-governing
territories that had been part of the former Ottoman Empire. Member states of the League
of Nations decided to establish a ‘Mandate System’ to facilitate the independence of these
territories.10 In 1920 the League entrusted the temporary administration (‘Mandate’) of
Palestine to Great Britain, a “Class A” Mandate or closest to independence.11
The Mandate for Palestine, however, aimed to facilitate the colonization of the country
through Jewish immigration and settlement in order, “to secure the establishment
of the Jewish national home,” in line with the political commitment set out in the
Balfour Declaration. The Mandate accorded the Jewish minority in the country and
non-resident Jews residing elsewhere full political rights; it only granted the Palestinian
Arab majority civil and religious rights.
“[I]n the case of the ‘independent nation’ of Palestine,” observed the British Secretary
of Foreign Affairs, “we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the
wishes of the present inhabitants of the country,” as required by the League of Nations.
“Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present
needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of
the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”12
Britich soldiers prevent entry to the haram
ash-Sharif in the Old City of Jerusalem
during the 1936-39 Palestinian uprising ©
Eric Madson / Israel Government Press
Office.
6
The British administration in Palestine promulgated new laws, including the 1925
Citizenship Order and the 1928 Land (Settlement of Tithe) Order, which enabled Jews
from around the world to acquire citizenship and land in Palestine. Thousands of
Palestinian Arabs who were abroad at the time were unable to acquire citizenship
under the 1925 law.13 By the early 1940s the average rural Palestinian Arab family
had less than half of the agricultural land required for their subsistence.14
Historical Overview
This led to a series of Palestinian uprisings, including the ‘Great Revolt’ which lasted
from 1936 to 1939. The British responded with a combination of military force
and administrative measures that severely curtailed basic civil and political rights.15
Palestinian Arab leaders were arrested, jailed and deported. Thousands of Palestinian
Arab homes were demolished.16 Some 40,000 Palestinian Arabs fled the country
during the mid-1930s alone.17
Following each uprising the British government dispatched an official commission
of inquiry to Palestine. These commissions invariably identified the fear among the
indigenous population of the political and economic consequences of political Zionism
as the leading cause of the conflict. In a blunt assessment, the Shaw Commission
pointed out that in the 80 years prior to the Balfour Declaration and British Mandate,
“there [was] no recorded instance of any similar incidents.”18
In early 1947 the British government informed the newly-established United Nations
(the successor to the League of Nations) of Great Britain’s intention to withdraw from
Palestine ending more than two decades of British rule. The UN Charter stipulated
that non-self-governing territories should become independent with the termination of
a mandate. Alternatively, the Charter provided for the establishment of a ‘Temporary
Trusteeship’ similar to the mandate system.
Draft Resolution Referring Certain Legal Questions to the International Court of Justice (excerpts)
“The General Assembly of the United Nations Resolves to request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion
under Article 96 of the Charter and Chapter IV of the Statute of the Court on the following questions:
(i)
Whether the indigenous population of Palestine has not an inherent right to Palestine and to determine its future constitution
and government;
(ii) Whether the pledges and assurances given by Great Britain to the Arabs during the first World War (including the Anglo-French
Declaration of 1918) concerning the independence and future of Arab countries at the end of the war did not include Palestine;
(iii) Whether the Balfour Declaration, which was made without the knowledge or consent of the indigenous population of Palestine, was
valid and binding on the people of Palestine, or consistent with the earlier and subsequent pledges and assurances given to theArabs;
(iv) Whether the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine regarding the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine
are in conformity or consistent with the objectives and provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations (in particular
Article 22), or are compatible with the provisions of the Mandate relating to the development of self-government and the
preservation of the rights and position of the Arabs of Palestine;
(v) Whether the legal basis for the Mandate for Palestine has not disappeared with the dissolution of the League of Nations,
and whether it is not the duty of the Mandatory Power to hand over power and administration to a Government of Palestine
representing the rightful people of Palestine;
(vi) Whether a plan to partition Palestine without the consent of the majority of its people is consistent with the objectives of
the Covenant of the League of Nations, and with the provisions of the Mandate for Palestine;
(vii) Whether the United Nations is competent to recommend either of the two plans and recommendations of the majority or
minority of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, or any other solution involving partition of the territory of
Palestine, or a permanent trusteeship over any city or part of Palestine, without the consent of the majority of the people
of Palestine;
(viii) Whether the United Nations, or any of its Member States, is competent to enforce or recommend the enforcement of
any proposal concerning the constitution and future Government of Palestine, in particular, any plan of partition which is
contrary to the wishes, or adopted without the consent of, the inhabitants of Palestine.
Reprinted in, Yearbook of the United Nations 1947-1948. UN Doc. 1949.I.13 (31 December 1948).
7
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
The UN General Assembly, however, decided to appoint a special committee to
formulate recommendations concerning the future status of Palestine. The Assembly
also rejected requests to obtain an advisory opinion from the International Court of
Justice concerning the appropriate legal outcome of the British decision to terminate
the Mandate in Palestine as well as the legal authority of the UN to issue and enforce
recommendations on the future status of the country.19
In September 1947 the UN Special Committee on Palestine issued its recommendations
on the future status of the country.20 The majority of the Committee members
supported the creation of two states, one Arab and the other Jewish, “to afford a
workable basis for meeting in part the claims and national aspirations of both parties.”
Others favored a federal state to “ensure equal rights for both Arabs and Jews in their
common state.”
UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II), 29 November 1947 recommended the
partition of Palestine.21 The proposed Jewish state was allotted 56 percent of the land
even though the Jewish community comprised less than one-third of the population
of Palestine at the time and owned not more than seven percent of the land.22 Due
to the dispersion of the Arab and Jewish population in the country, nearly half the
population of the proposed Jewish state was comprised of Palestinian Arabs who
owned nearly 90 percent of the land.23
By the time the British had decided to turn the question of Palestine over to the United
Nations in 1947 an estimated 100-150,000 Palestinian Arabs had been displaced
within or from their homeland.24 This included some 30,000 Palestinians who fled
Palestine in the immediate months after the passage of UN Resolution 181.25 By this
time, Zionist colonization associations had acquired more than 700 km2 of land,
mostly from larger landowners not residing in Palestine.26
The Nakba
The UN recommendation to partition Palestine set off a series of events that led to
a mass displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. Approximately half of the
Palestinian population of the country was displaced between the end of 1947 and early
1949. Half of these refugees were displaced before the first Arab-Israeli war began in
May 1948. Israel took control of refugee homes, properties and lands. Palestinians
refer to this period as the Nakba or catastrophe.
The greatest outflow of refugees before the war took place in April and early May
1948 under a Zionist military operation known as ‘Plan Dalet’, which was designed
“to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based.”27
The massacre of more than 100 men, women and children in the Palestinian village
of Deir Yassin in April 1948 is widely acknowledged to have contributed to the fear
and panic that led to mass displacement.28
The unilateral declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel by the Zionist
movement on 14 May, followed by the subsequent entry of Arab forces in Palestine led
to the complete collapse of the UN plan to divide Palestine into two states. Palestinians
fled their homes due to attacks on civilians by Israeli forces, massacres and other
8
Historical Overview
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (1947)
© Applied Research Center in Jerusalem. Reprinted with permission.
9
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Palestinian refugees near
Tulkarem, West Bank, summer
1948. © ICRC Archives.
atrocities, and looting and destruction of property. Others were forcibly expelled.
Palestinian villages and towns were shelled by Israeli forces to encourage flight,
especially in those areas where there was local resistance or in parts of Palestine deemed
to be of strategic importance to the new state. Palestinian men, women and children,
fleeing their villages in search of temporary refuge were fired on to ensure departure.
Incidents occurred in all major cities throughout the country, including Haifa, Jaffa,
Akka, Ramle, Lydda and Jerusalem, as well as in Palestinian villages.29
Others sought temporary refuge elsewhere after hearing news of atrocities against the
civilian population.30 This included a spate of nine reported massacres in October
1948, in which Palestinian Arab villagers were raped, bound, executed and dumped
in mass graves.31 In the village of Dawayima, for example, Israeli forces killed 80-100
men, women and children. The children were killed by breaking their heads with
sticks. Several elderly women were put in a house which was then blown up.32
Palestinians were physically expelled from their villages and towns.33 In early July 1948,
for example, then Lt. Colonel Yitzhak Rabin issued orders to expel the inhabitants
of Ramle and Lydda.34 In late October 1948, an official cable was issued to all Israeli
division and district commanders in the north: “Do all you can to immediately and
quickly purge the conquered territories of all hostile elements in accordance with
the orders issued. The residents should be helped to leave the areas that have been
conquered.”35
Israeli military forces systematically destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages during
the war, one of six measures included in a “Retroactive Transfer” Plan approved in
June 1948 by the Israeli Finance Minister and Prime Minister to prevent the return of
Palestinian Arab refugees.36 Destruction of homes and entire villages was accompanied
10
Historical Overview
by large-scale looting.37 In the city of Jaffa, for example, it was estimated that the Israeli
military removed 30,000 pounds worth of Palestinian moveable property daily.38
Palestinian refugees from Ramle,
summer 1948. © ICRC Archives
By the time the first Arab-Israeli war ended in early 1949 eighty five percent of the
indigenous Palestinian population living in the territory that became the state of Israel
was displaced.39 Most refugees found refuge in those parts of Palestine (22 percent
of the total area) not under the control of Israeli military forces following the cessation of hostilities. In total, 750-900,000 Palestinians were displaced from the end of
1947 to early 1949.40
In several of the sub-districts of former Palestine that were wholly incorporated into
Israel – Jaffa, Ramle, and Beersheba – not one Palestinian village was left standing.
In total more than 500 Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed with a
land base of more than 17,000 km2.41 An estimated two-thirds of Palestinian homes
inside the new state of Israel were destroyed; the remaining third was expropriated
and occupied by Jews.42
Displacement after the 1948 War
Between 1949 and 1967 Israel continued to displace Palestinians from areas under
its control through internal transfer and expulsion, primarily from the northern
border villages, the Naqab (Naqab), the ‘Little Triangle’ (area ceded to Israel under
the armistice agreement with Jordan) and from villages partially emptied during the
war. Tens of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes and lands. The majority were
displaced during the 1950s.
Within days of the signing the Egyptian-Israeli General Armistice Agreement in early
1949, for example, some 2,000-3,000 Palestinians from the villages of Faluja and Iraq
11
© Israel Government Press Office.
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Zionist Colonization of Palestine
The displacement of Palestinians from
their homeland since the beginning of
the 20th century has been accompanied
by a simultaneous process of Zionist
colonization. Between 1922 and 1948, the
Jewish population in Palestine increased
by more than six times primarily due
to immigration. At the same time, the
international community was facilitating the
resettlement of displaced European Jews
in Palestine in violation of international
commitments not to resettle displaced
persons in non-self-governing territories
without the consent of the indigenous
population of that territory. During this period
the borders of many western countries,
including the United States, remained
largely closed to Jewish refugees, many of
whom did not consider Palestine as their New Jewish colony of Kibbutz Ein Hashofet in June 1939. © Kluger Zoltan/Israel
country of first choice for asylum. In the Government Press Office.
United States, for example, opinion polls
revealed that the majority of Americans were unwilling to permit more Jewish immigration to the country, despite their
knowledge of Nazi persecution and atrocities.43
Within the first decade of Israel’s existence, Jewish immigration accounted for over 70 percent of the growth in the Jewish
population.44 Over more than five decades, immigration remains the primary source of growth in the Jewish population inside
Israel. As of 2003, immigration accounted for approximately 60 percent of the growth of the Jewish population inside Israel. The
greatest demographic shift in Jewish population occurred in the areas that became the state of Israel where the number of Jews
increased by more than 6 times between 1948 and 2003. This is approximately the same increase in the Jewish population in
historic Mandate Palestine due to mass immigration between 1922 and 1948. An equally massive demographic shift occurred
in occupied eastern Jerusalem after 1967 where the Jewish population increased from nil in 1967 to more than 50 percent of
the population today primarily due to colonization.
The primary means of land acquisition during the period of the British Mandate was through purchase by several Zionist
associations, including the Jewish National Fund45, established to buy up land for the settlement of new Jewish immigrants in
Palestine. The JNF purchased the majority of the land acquired during this period. Total Jewish land ownership increased by
a relatively small amount during the period of the British Mandate as a percentage of the total land in Palestine. In 1922, Jews
owned approximately 2.5 percent of the total lands in Palestine. By 1945 total Jewish ownership had increased to approximately
6 percent.46 Average annual acquisitions, facilitated through the promulgation of new laws by the British administration in
Palestine, however, increased nearly 20-fold during the Mandate.
While total Jewish ownership remained small, the real impact of the acquisition of land by Zionist colonization associations
during the period of the British Mandate lay in the location and quality of land. By 1948 land acquisitions and settlement of
Jewish immigrants had created the “strategic and demographic backbone” of the nascent Jewish state. Land acquired by the
various Zionist colonization associations, moreover, included a high percentage of land in some of the most fertile areas of
Palestine. While Jewish land ownership comprised slightly less than 7 percent of the total area of Palestine by the end of the
British Mandate, Jews owned more than 12 percent of the cultivable land.47 Unlike the indigenous Palestinian Arab population,
Jews in Palestine had 100 percent of the land required for their rural subsistence.48
The amount of land under Jewish ‘ownership/control’ increased more than 10 times between 1948 and the early 1950s. The
dramatic increase in land under Jewish control can be attributed solely to the expropriation of Palestinian property. As of the
mid-1950s Jewish ‘ownership’ and control of land in historic Mandate Palestine increased from approximately 7 percent to over
70 percent. Inside the borders of the new state of Israel, Jewish ‘ownership’ and control of land had increased from approximately
11 percent to over 90 percent. The immediate acquisition of refugee property and so-called state land in the occupied Palestinian
territories in 1967 increased total Jewish ‘ownership’ and control in Palestine to over 75 percent and to nearly 15 percent of
the 1967 occupied territories. By 2003, it is estimated that Jewish ‘ownership’ and control of land comprised 85 percent of the
total area of historic Mandate Palestine.
12
Historical Overview
al-Manshiya, were beaten, robbed and forced to leave their homes.49 According to UN
observers, some 7,000 Palestinians residing west of the southern armistice lines near the
Palestinian village of Dura were expelled from Israeli-held territory in March 1949.50
Annexation of the Little Triangle led to the expulsion of 8,500 Palestinians.51 In 1950
Israeli forces expelled the remaining 2,500 Palestinian residents of the city of Majdal
(today’s Ashqelon) into the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip.52 More than 20,000
Bedouin were expelled from their traditional tribal areas of the country between 1949
and 1956.53 The majority of those who were expelled were from the Naqab in the south;
some 5,000 Bedouin in the north were expelled into Syria.
Jewish immigrant children in the
Palestinian village of Tarshiha in
May 1949. © Kluger Zoltan/Israel
Government Press Office.
Israeli police carried out raids on Palestinian villages to search for refugees who had
returned. Returnees (referred to as ‘infiltrators’) were subsequently transported to the
border and expelled.54 In January 1949, for example, refugees from the Palestinian
villages of Shfa'am, Ma’ilya and Tarshiha who tried to return home were detained,
passports and money confiscated, loaded on trucks and driven to the border and forced
to cross into Jordan.55 By 1956 Israeli forces had killed some 5,000 refugees as they
tried to return to their homes.56
Other Palestinians were transferred to new areas within the state to break up the
concentration of Palestinian population centers and open up other areas for Jewish
settlement. Many of the government records from this period remain sealed. The
remaining Palestinian inhabitants from the Galilee villages of Ja’una, Khisas and
Qeitiya, for example, were forced into trucks in summer 1949 “with brutality … with
kicks, curses and maltreatment […] and dumped on a bare, sun-scorched hillside
near the village of ‘Aqbara, just south of Safad.”57
13
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
From the end of the 1948 war through 1966 Israeli forces committed a number of
additional atrocities or massacres inside Israel, in the Jordanian-annexed West Bank and
in the Gaza Strip.58 In 1953, for example, Unit 101 headed by Ariel Sharon attacked
the village of Qibya west of Ramallah. More than 50 residents of the village were
killed.59 The most well-known massacre during this period took place in Kafr Qassem
with the killing of 49 Palestinians at the start of the 1956 war in the Sinai.60
Several Palestinian villages whose residents were displaced inside Israel were destroyed
as part of a government campaign to render border areas clean [Heb: naki] and
empty [Heb: reik].61 By the middle of the 1960s Israel had nearly completed what
was referred to as ‘cleaning up the national views in Israel.’62 The names of the more
than 500 depopulated Palestinian villages were erased from the map while Arabic
names of many remaining places and other geographical landmarks were replaced
with Hebrew names.63
Following the war Israel established a military government to prevent the return of
Palestinian refugees and maintain control over the Palestinian population remaining
inside Israel through policies of separation and isolation.64 A special network of
military courts was set up to ensure compliance with emergency regulations. Jewish
affairs in the country were governed by the civilian government. The military
government remained in place until 1966.
Israel also adopted new laws to ensure that the refugees would not be able to return
and repossess their homes and properties. The 1952 Nationality Law facilitated
the mass denationalization of the Palestinian refugees. Due to the fact that most
Palestinian refugees were outside the state of Israel on or after 14 July 1952 they
are unable to resume domicile in their homeland.65 In contrast all Jews are entitled
to Israeli citizenship according to provisions in the 1950 Law of Return.
A web of new land laws was adopted to expropriate refugee property and transfer the
property to the state and the Jewish National Fund (JNF). These included emergency
regulations and laws relating to so-called abandoned Palestinian property.66 Under
the 1960 Israel Lands Law land expropriated under this legal regime is held by the
state of Israel and the JNF as the inalienable property of the Jewish people. The land
cannot be sold to non-Jews.
Displacement in Host Countries
Palestinians who sought refuge outside their historic
homeland have experienced further displacement: from
the Arab Gulf in the 1950s when oil-producing states
kicked out striking Palestinian workers; from Jordan
during the 1970 war against the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) known as ‘Black September’; within
and from Lebanon during the civil war and the 1982
Israeli invasion when several thousand Palestinian
refugees in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and
Shatila were massacred by Israeli-allied Christian
Phalangists; from Kuwait during the 1990 Gulf War when
most of the Palestinian population (350-400,000) was
forced to leave the country; from Libya in 1996 after the
beginning of the Oslo peace process; and, in 2003 during
the US-led war in Iraq.
14
Israeli attack on Nabatiya refugee camp in south Lebanon destroys 60 percent of
the shelters. May 1974. © UNRWA Archives
Historical Overview
By the mid-1950s the number of Palestinians expelled by Israeli authorities comprised
some fifteen percent of the total Palestinian population inside Israel.67 During this
period Israel expropriated some 700 km2 of land from Palestinians who remained
within the territory that became the state of Israel.68
Palestinian refugees crossing
the Allenby Bridge into Jordan in
1967. © UNRWA Archives
The 1967 War
During the 1967 war between Israel and neighboring Arab states more than one-third
of the Palestinian population of the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip
were displaced. Half of these refugees had already been displaced once before during
the 1948 war. The 1967 war ended after only six days. Most of the Palestinian refugees
were displaced to Jordan. Some found refuge in Syria and Egypt.
Like the 1948 war Israeli military forces attacked numerous civilian areas that had
no military significance.69 Refugee camps in Jericho, for example, were bombed by
the Israeli air force leading to an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees. Both The
Guardian and The London Times reported that “Israeli aircraft frequently strafed the
refugees on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, destroying and burning.”70
Palestinians were also driven from their homes by Israeli military forces.71 Others
were transferred out of the West Bank on buses and trucks provided by the military.72
In some cases young Palestinian men were forced to sign documents that they were
leaving voluntarily. “When someone refused to give me his hand [for finger printing]
they came and beat him badly,” said one Israeli officer. “Then I was forcibly taking
his thumb, and immersing it in ink and finger printing him. […] I have no doubt
that tens of thousands of men were removed against their will.”73
15
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Israeli bulldozer demolishes Palestinian
homes in the village of Imwas west of
Jerusalem after the 1967 war.
© www.palestineremembered.com
Israel completely destroyed several Palestinian villages, including Imwas, Yalu and Beit
Nuba in the Latrun salient northwest of Jerusalem.74 The entire Moroccan quarter in
the Old City of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Western Wall, was razed to make way for a
large plaza for Jewish religious and national events. In the West Bank town of Qalqilya
Israeli military forces destroyed half of the town’s 2,000 homes. The Palestinian villages
of Beit Marsam, Beit’Awa, Jiftlik and al-Burj were also razed.
By the time the 1967 war came to an end some 400,000 Palestinians had been displaced from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.75 The areas of the West Bank most affected
included the Jordan Rift, Hebron and the frontier areas of the Ramallah district.
Israel expropriated more than 400 km2 of land owned by Palestinians who had been
displaced from the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the war.76
Military Occupation after 1967
Throughout the post-1967 period Palestinians remaining inside Israel, but especially
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have experienced continued displacement and
dispossession through a process of ‘low-intensity’ transfer77 that includes deportation,
revocation of residency rights, and demolition of homes. Tens of thousands of
Palestinians and their dependents have been affected.
Israel established a military government in the West Bank (excluding eastern Jerusalem)
and the Gaza Strip in 1967.78 Since then, the military government has issued over
1,200 military orders introducing extensive changes in the administrative structures
and substantive laws. Under the Oslo agreements in the 1990s, the Israeli military
government was withdrawn but not abolished.
Israel has deported more than 6,500 Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories
since 1967. Some 4,000 Palestinians alone were deported to Egypt in 1967.79 Deportees
16
Historical Overview
The Palestinian Territories Occupied in 1967
© Applied Research Center in Jerusalem. Reprinted with permission.
17
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
In 1971 Israel demolished
some 10,000 refugee shelters
in Gaza Strip refugee camps.
Rafah, summer 1971. © UNRWA
Archives
included Palestinians who had fought against the Israeli occupation and had served time
in Israeli prisons, political activists, school principals and supervisors who protested
censorship of textbooks, teachers and students who initiated school strikes and attorneys
who organized lawyers’ strikes.
Israel has also revoked the residency status of more than 100,000 Palestinians from the
OPTs.80 Only those Palestinians (and their offspring) registered in Israel’s September
1967 census are considered legal residents.81 The status of resident alien does not
provide a guarantee of residence. Under the Oslo agreements Palestinian inhabitants
of the OPTs were granted protected residence status. Israel retained the authority to
make the final determination on requests for permanent residency by Palestinians not
registered in the 1967 Israeli census. Israeli citizenship law is applicable to all Jewish
settlers in the OPTs.82
More than 6,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and Gaza Strip
have been demolished since 1967.83 The majority was demolished for administrative
purposes (i.e. the homes were built without permits, which generally are not granted
to Palestinians). This does not include an estimated 10,000 refugee shelters destroyed
in the 1970s and 1980s84, and more than 2,000 refugee shelters destroyed between
2000 and 2003.85
Israel has continued to expropriate Palestinian land as ‘abandoned’ land, ‘state property’
and for military use and public purpose.86 Expropriated property held by Israel in the
OPTs is not considered inalienable, but the use of land acquired under these military
orders for Jewish settlement suggests de facto permanent acquisition. Acquisitions by the
JNF in the 1967 OPTs are considered as the inalienable property of the Jewish people.
Israel has retained overall control of immovable property under the Oslo process.
In 2002 Israel began construction of an estimated 350 km long separation (‘apartheid’)
wall87 (‘the Wall’) in the occupied West Bank for alleged security considerations. Phase
one of the Wall in the northern West Bank (123 km in length) was completed in July
18
Historical Overview
2003. Fifteen Palestinian communities were isolated between the Wall and the 1949
Armistice Line (‘Green Line’) in five separate zones.88 Another six communities were
isolated in three enclaves east of the Wall.
The separation Wall being
constructed by Israel through the
occupied West Bank. © al-Ayyam
Archives.
Palestinians from 37 other communities lost land to the construction of Phase One of
the Wall. The Wall will likely create a new generation of refugees and internally displaced
persons due to land confiscation, house demolition and severe restrictions on freedom
of movement.89 It is estimated that the first phase of the Wall in the northern part of
the West Bank will affect the lives of some 200,000 Palestinians.90
Since 1967 it is estimated that more than eight-hundred thousand Palestinians have been
displaced from the occupied Palestinian territories.91 Israel has expropriated or acquired
control of an additional 300 km2 of Palestinian owned land inside Israel, and more than
3,000 km2 of Palestinian owned land in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.92
Until 1948 most Palestinian Arabs lived in Palestine. As of 2003 more than half of the
Palestinian people, comprising more than 4.6 million Palestinians was living in areas
outside the borders of former Palestine. The transformation in demography occurred
largely through displacement/expulsion during periods of armed conflict and subsequent
denationalization of Palestinian refugees.
Until 1948 Palestinian Arabs owned most of the land in Palestine. As of 2003, Palestinian
Arabs own or control only 10 percent of the land in former Palestine. The transformation
in the control and ‘ownership’ of land occurred largely through mass expropriation of
Palestinian owned property, which is now held by Israel as the inalienable property of
the Jewish people.
Less than one percent of the Palestinian refugee population has been permitted to return.
Even fewer have had access to housing and property restitution. Today, Palestinian
refugees are one of the largest and longest-standing refugee populations in the world.
19
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
The 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territories (2003)
© Applied Research Center in Jerusalem. Reprinted with permission.
20
Historical Overview
Annex 1.1 – Notes for Table 1.1
The estimate for the number of Palestinians displaced between 1922 and 1947 is based on British archival data and academic studies on deportation,
denationalization, forced evictions and punitive house demolitions. The estimates for the total number of Palestinians displaced in 1948 and in
1967 are derived largely from United Nations estimates and several academic studies. The estimate for the total number of Palestinians displaced
between 1949 and 1966 is based on academic studies which rely primarily on Israeli archival documents. The estimate of the total number of
Palestinians displaced since 1967 is based on estimates of the average annual rate of forced migration from the occupied Palestinian territories and
studies on residency rights, land confiscation and house demolition.
Abu-Lughod, Janet. “The Demographic Transformation of Palestine,” The Transformation of Palestine. Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (ed.). Evanston,
IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971. Had no displacement taken place, between 494,000 to 508,000 Palestinian Arabs would have
been living inside the armistice lines in Arab-Held territory with 890,000 to 904,000 living in territories held by Israel. According to
the Israeli census of November 1948 there were b etween 120,000 and 130,000 non-Jews in Israel, including 66,000 Bedouins leaving a
population of displaced persons of about 770,000 to 780,000. As of June 1967 there were an estimated 1,400,000 Palestinians living in
the West Bank (including eastern Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. According to unofficial Israeli estimates by August-September 1967 the
Palestinian population in these areas was around 950,000. The total estimated refugee population was 400,000 from the West Bank and
50,000 from the Gaza Strip.
Abu Sitta, Salman. The Palestinian Nakba 1948, The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine. London: The Palestinian Return Centre,
1998. The figure is calculated according the population of 531 depopulated Palestinian localities in Village Statistics 1944 prepared by the
British Mandate and upgraded to 1948 based on an average annual population increase of 3.8 percent compared to the number of Palestinian
Arabs remaining in Israel according to various Israeli and other sources. The population of the Bir Saba’ District was estimated from Arif
al-Arif, Bedouin Law [Arabic]. Jerusalem Press, 1933; and, S.W. Dajani, “The Enumeration of the Beer Sheba Bedouins in May 1946,”
1 Population Studies 3 (1947), and correlated with other sources. The total number of refugees is 804,767. However, if the extra villages
according to UNRWA registration are included the total number of refugees is 935,573. The extra villages include: villages whose land was
taken over by Israel in 1948, while the village houses remained in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Jewish villages or lands in which refugees
used to live and work; Palestinian Arab villages which remained in Israel, while some of their inhabitants became refugees; and villages or
sites which were satellites or extensions to listed villages.
Amro, Tayseer. “Displaced Persons: Categories and Numbers Used by the Palestinian Delegation [to the Quadripartite Committee], 14 Article
74 (December 1995). Jerusalem: BADIL/Alternative Information Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. The estimated 1967
refugee population of 311,500 does not include persons with “lost ID” permits or deportees, spouses and descendants.
Childers, Erksine B. “The Wordless Wish: From Citizens to Refugees,” The Transformation of Palestine. Ibrahim Abu Lughod (ed.). Evanston,
IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971. An estimated 30,000 Palestinians fled Palestinian immediately after the UN recommendation to
partition the country in November 1947.
Cohen, Hillel. HaNifkadim HaNokhahim, HaPlitim HaFalestinim BeIsrael me’az 1948 [The Present Absentees: Palestinian Refugees in Israel
Since 1948] [Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Institute for Arab-Israeli Studies, 2000. Approximately 700 Palestinians were expelled from Kafr Yassif
to Jordan in early 1949. In February 1949 Israeli forces transferred Palestinians inhabitants from the villages of Faradiya and Kafr Ana to
Eilabun and Majd al-Krum. Palestinians from Saffuriya were transferred to Raine and al-Mashhad. In May and June 1949 Israeli forces
expelled 4,000-4,500 Palestinians from Wadi Ara to the West Bank. In 1949 Israel also expelled some 8,500 Palestinians from the ‘Little
Triangle’ to the West Bank when the area was annexed to Israel under the 1949 Jordan-Israel Armistice Agreement. Between 1949 and
March 1950 Palestinian inhabitants of some 20 small hamlets in Wadi Ara were displaced. In 1950 Israel expelled the remaining inhabitants
of the Palestinian village of Zakariya to the West Bank.
Efrat, Moshe. The Palestinian Displaced Population from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the East Bank of Jordan. Tel Aviv: Israeli International
Institute for Applied Economic Policy Review, 1996. The total number of refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 was 140,000.
Gabbay, Rony. A Political Study of the Arab-Jewish Conflict: The Arab Refugee Problem (A Case Study). Geneva and Paris: Librairie E. Droz
and Librarie Minard, 1959. More than 40,000 Palestinians fled the country as a result of British measures to quell the ‘Great Revolt’ during
the 1930s.
Harris, William Wilson. Taking Root, Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, the Golan and the Gaza-Sinai, 1967-1980. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1980. Out of a pre-war population of around 1.4 million, approximately 430,000 left their homes between June and
December 1967.
21
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Hirst, David. The Gun and the Olive Branch. London: Faber and Faber, 1984. In 1967 the villages of Beit Marsam, Beit ‘Awa, Habla and
Jiflik were cleared and razed to the ground.
Jaber, Abdel Tayseer. The Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan. Amman: Jordan, 1996. Jordan estimated the total number of displaced
refugees from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Jordan at 188,500 and the total number of refugees displaced for the first time from the
West Bank and Gaza Strip at 200,000.
Jiryas, Sabri. The Arabs in Israel. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976. On 17 November 1951 residents of Khirbat al-Buwayshat in the
Little Triangle expelled and houses dynamited by the army.
Kamen, Charles. Little Common Ground, Arab Agriculture and Jewish Settlement in Palestine 1920-1948. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1999. Stating that between 1939 and 1945, 1,062 Palestinian tenant households in forty-eight localities were evicted from lands
bought by Jews.
Kossaifi, George F. The Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return. Information Paper Number 7. Washington, DC: The Center for Policy
Analysis on Palestine, 1996. Approximately 235,000 Palestinians were displaced for the first time in 1967, comprised of 148,000 refugees
from the West Bank and 87,000 refugees from the Gaza Strip. Estimates of forced migration between 1967 and 1986 indicate that some
20,000 Palestinians were displaced per year.
Masalha, Nur. A Land without a People, Israel, Transfer and the Palestinians. London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1997. During late May and early
June 1949 some 4,000 internally displaced Palestinians were expelled into the West Bank. A 1953 UN report stated that 7,000 Bedouin
had been expelled from the Naqab. In late May and early June 1949 4,000 internal refugees were expelled by Israel’s military government
from the Little Triangle into the West Bank. In February 1951, residents of thirteen small Palestinian villages in Wadi ‘Ara were expelled
over the border into Jordan. On 30 October 1956, a day after the massacre of 43 Palestinian citizens of Kafr Qassim, General Yitzhak Rabin
expelled 2,000-5,000 residents of the villages of Krad al-Ghanama and Krad al-Baqara to the south of Lake Hulah in Syria. In June 1967,
some 135 Palestinian families were expelled from the Moroccan quarter of the Old City and their homes demolished. In June 1967, some
10,000 residents of the villages of Beit Nuba, Imwas, and Yalu near the “Green Line” in the Latrun salient were expelled and their villages
demolished. In June 1967 some 200,000 Palestinians transferred across the border in a plan organized by Haim Herzog, the first Israeli
military governor of the West Bank. Between 1969 and 1972 some 6,000 – 20,000 Bedouin farmers evicted from the Rafah salient southwest
of the Gaza Strip. During the same period several hundred refugees were forcibly relocated from the Gaza Strip to the north Sinai. In the
early days after the 1967 war, thousands of Palestinian men aged 20-70 were deported forcibly from the West Bank and Gaza Strip across
the Jordan River. Between 1968 and 1972 over 1,095 Palestinians were deported from the West Bank and Gaza. Between August 1985 and
January 1988, some 46 Palestinians were expelled. From the beginning of the first intifada in December 1987 until the end of 1989, 64
Palestinians were deported with 8 more deported in 1991. On 16 December 1992, 413 Palestinians deported.
Morris, Benny. 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. In the summer of 1950, the remaining 2,500
Palestinian residents of the city of Majdal (Ashqelon) were expelled into the Gaza Strip.
Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. The British Foreign
Office estimated the total number of refugees at 810,000 in February 1949 and then issued revised estimates in September 1949 of 600,000
(Foreign Office Research Department) and 760,000 (UNCCP Technical Office). The Foreign Office considered the Israeli estimate low due
to the fact that it did not account for natural increase in the population since 31 December 1947 and it did not include displaced Bedouin
who had become refugees. Moreover, the Foreign Office did not agree with Israel’s assertion that Mandate population figures for Palestinian
Arabs were exaggerated and should therefore be deducted by 6 percent (See below). PRO FO371-75436 E10083/1821/31, Foreign Office to
UK Delegation to the United Nations (New York), 2 September 1949. Israel estimated the total number of Palestinian refugees at 530,000 as
of 1949. The estimate is based on the difference between the total number of non-Jewish inhabitants in the area of Palestine that became the
state of Israel as of the end of 1947 (deducted by 6 percent based on the assumption that Mandate population statistics for Palestinian Arabs
were exaggerated) and the number of Palestinians that remained inside Israel after the 1948 war. The estimate does not include the estimated
30-40,000 refugees who ‘infiltrated’ the state (i.e. returned spontaneously) – even though they may have still been displaced internally – since
November 1948. ISA FM2444/19, Dr. H. Meyuzam, to Asher Goren, the Political Department of the Foreign Ministry, 2 June 1949. In a
private letter, however, then Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry Walter Eytan noted that UNRWA registration numbers, which
were substantially higher than the Israeli estimate, were ‘meticulous’ and that the ‘real number was close to 800,000.’ CZA A340/24, Etyan
to Daniel Sirkis (Hatzofe), 10 November 1950. According to Israeli officials, “if people … became accustomed to the large figure and we are
actually obliged to acccept the return of the refugees, we may find it difficult, when faced with hordes of claimants, to convince the world
that not all of these formerly lived in Israeli territory…. It would, in any event, seem desirable to minimize the numbers…than otherwise.”
ISA FM 2564/22, Arthur Lourie to (Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry) Eytan.
22
Historical Overview
Morris, Benny. Israel’s Border Wars, 1949-56. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. According to UN observers, some 7,000 Palestinians residing
west of the southern armistice lines near the Palestinian village of Dura were expelled from Israeli-held territory in March 1949. Some
17,000 Bedouin from the Naqab (Naqab) were expelled between 1949 and 1953. On 31 May 1950 Israeli army transported 120 Palestinians
in two crowded trucks near the edge to Wadi Araba on the Israeli-Jordanian frontier and forced them across the border firing shots over
their heads. In November 1949 some 500 Bedouin families (2,000 persons) from the Beersheba area were forced across the border into the
West Bank. In May 1950, 700-1,000 persons of ‘Azazmeh or Jahalin tribes expelled to Jordan. On 2 September 1950 Israeli army rounded
up hundreds of ‘Azazmeh tribesmen (4,000 according to UNTSO reports) from the Naqab and drove them into Egyptian territory. In
September 1952 the Israeli army expelled some 850 members of the Al-Sani’ tribe from the northern Naqab to the West Bank, with several
thousand more ‘Azazmeh expelled to the Sinai in subsequent weeks. The Israel Foreign Ministry reported that some 17,000 Bedouin from
the Naqab were expelled between 1949 and 1953.
Pederson, Jon and Sara Randall and Marwan Khawaja (eds.), Growing Fast, the Palestinian Population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Norway:
FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science, 2001. The rate of out-migration is as high has 2 percent of the total population per annum.
Quigley, John. “Family Reunion and the Right to Return to Occupied Territory,” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Vol. 6 (1992). Israel
revoked the residency rights of approximately 100,000 Palestinians from the OPTs between 1967 and 1991.
al-Ruday’i, Yusef Rajab. Thawrat 1936 fi Filastin: Diras a ‘Askariyya. [The 1936 Arab Revolt in Palestine: A Military Study.] Beirut: Institute
for Palestine Studies 1983. The British administration destroyed some 5,000 Palestinian homes during the ‘Great Revolt’. The total number
of persons affected (30,000) is based on an average of six persons per dwelling.
Segev, Tom. 1949: The First Israelis. New York: The Free Press, 1986. Up to 5,000 Bedouin were expelled into Syria in October 1956. Around
700 persons were displaced from Kafr Yassif in early 1949. In 1949, some 1,000 residents of Baqa al-Gharbiyya in the Little Triangle expelled
by Israel across the border into the West Bank. In mid-April 1949, the US Consulate in Jerusalem reported that “several hundred” Galilee
Arabs – “all Israeli citizens’ – had been expelled by the Israeli army across the border.
United Nations, Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East,
Official Records of the General Assembly, Twenty-second Session, Supplement No. 13, 1 July 1966 – 30 June 1967 (A/6713). New York: United
Nations, 1967. The number of persons who had fled from the areas under Israeli occupation during and after the June hostilities is roughly
estimated at about 550,000. This figure includes: about 200,000 persons (of whom 95,000 were refugees registered with UNRWA) who
had moved from the West Bank to the East Bank in Jordan; about 110,000 persons according to Syrian sources and not more than 85,000
according to Israeli sources (of whom about 17,000 were UNRWA-registered refugees) who had moved from the south-western corner of
Syria, mainly to the areas of Damascus and Dera’a; and, about 55,000 persons (of whom 5,000 were UNRWA-registered refugees in the
Gaza Strip) who had moved across the Suez Canal from the Gaza Strip or Sinai.
United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East. Final Report of the United Nations Survey Mission for the Middle East (Part
I). UN Doc. A/AC.25/6. Estimates prepared on the basis of population estimates by villages and religion as of 31 December 1946. This
includes 280,000 in Arab Palestine from UNRPR, 1 August 1949; 7,000 in Egypt; 190,000 in Gaza. AFSC Schedule of refugee population,
30 September 1949, and information obtained 26 October 1949; 4,000 in Iraq. UNRPR, as of 30 September 1949; 70,000 in Jordan.
Report of the Technical Committee on Refugees of the Conciliation Commission for Palestine, 20 August 1949; 100,000 in Lebanon. Conservative
estimate based on UNRPR estimate of 1 August 1949; and, 75,000 in Syria. UNRPR, 1 August 1949.
“The Problem of Arab Refugees from Palestine,” US Government Report of the Subcommittee on the Near East and Africa, 24 July 1953. The
United States estimated the total refugee population at 875,000 as of 1953.
Annex 1.2 – Notes for Table 1.2
The estimate for land expropriated immediately after the 1948 war is based on total private and public land owned or used by Palestinians
on the eve of the 1948 war. This includes land held in customary ownership by Palestinian Bedouin tribes in the Naqab for grazing and
rain fed agriculture. A similar estimate may also be derived by examining total Jewish ownership and land classified as state land by the
British Mandate Administration. The estimate for land expropriated between 1948 and 1967 is derived by subtracting estimated land
losses during this period from the total area of land owned by Palestinians who remained in the territories that became the state of Israel in
1948. The estimate for land expropriated immediately after the 1967 war is derived from land expropriated as absentee and state property.
The estimate for land expropriated between 1967 and 2003 includes land expropriated and land controlled by Israel by virtue of Israel’s
military occupation of the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. The estimate also includes land expropriated by Israel from Palestinians
inside Israel between 1967 and 2003.
23
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Abu Hussein, Hussein and Fiona McKay, Access Denied: Palestinian Access to Land in Israel. London: Zed Books, 2003. This includes,
for example, 1,200 dunums expropriated in 1957 from Palestinian landowners of Nazareth and surrounding villages to establish the Jewish
colony of Upper Nazareth; land expropriated from Palestinian villagers of Tarshiha and Ma’iliya in 1957 for the establishment of the Jewish
colony of Ma’a lot; and 5,100 dunums expropriated from the Palestinian villages of Nahaf, Deir al-Asad, Bi’neh, and Majd al-Krum in
1964 to establish the Jewish colony of Karmiel. Israel expropriated some 20,103 dunums from Palestinians inside Israel in 1975 to establish
20 new Jewish colonies and expand existing Jewish cities. Hussein and McKay also cite a report in Ha’aretz (13 June 1989) stating that
some 60,000 dunums of land in the Galilee were classified as ‘state land’ between 1978 and 1987 due to settlement of title operations,
acquisitions, and expropriations. Citing A. Shmueli, “Village Population in the Hilly Upper Galilee 1967-77,” Artzot Hagalil. Tel Aviv:
Ministry of Defence, 1983; and E. Rekhes, The Arabs in Israel and Land Expropriations in the Galilee. Tel Aviv Surveys. University of Tel
Aviv, Shiloah Institute, 1977.
Abu Kishk, Bakir. “Arab Land and Israeli Policy,” 11 Journal of Palestine Studies 1 (Autumn 1981). As of 1963 Palestinians in villages
inside Israel owned 385,993 dunums of private land and 472,798 dunums of public land. Calculated from Survey of Arab Agriculture and
Development Plan A. Nazareth: Ministry of Agriculture, Unit for Survey and Planning for the Minority Villages, The Joint Development
Centre, July 1963. In a survey of 38 villages, it is estimated that 632,000 dunums of land was expropriated between 1945 and 1972.
Abu Sitta, Salman. The End of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. From Refugees to Citizens at Home. London: The Palestine Land Society and
The Palestinian Return Centre, 2001. In total Israel expropriated 17,178,000 dunums of Palestinian refugee land. This includes land as
calculated in Village Statistics and vast areas in the southern Bir Saba’ District which were held under traditional or customary ownership
by nomadic Bedouin. Customary ownership of these areas is identified by reference to maps and other documents delineating Bedouin
tribal areas. The entire District comprised some 12,000,000 dunums or approximately 60 percent of the land incorporated into the state
of Israel in 1948. Total ownership of Palestinians that remained inside the territories that became the state of Israel as of 1948 (i.e., before
expropriation) is estimated at 1,465,000 dunums. Between 1948 and 2001, Israel expropriated approximately 76 percent of the land of
Palestinian citizens or 1,113,000 dunums.
Abusway, Khader and Rose-Marie Barbeau and Muhammad al-Hasan, Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Israeli Settlement and the Peace Process.
Jerusalem: JMCC, Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, 1997. Since 1967 Israel has acquired control of 70 percent of the West
Bank, 40 percent of the Gaza Strip and 86.5 percent of East Jerusalem.
Benvenisti, Meron. The West Bank Data Project, A Survey of Israel’s Policies. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1984. By the
mid-1980s, Israel had expropriated some 60 percent of the West Bank. This included: 430,000 dunums as absentee property; 750,000 dunums
as ‘state land’; 35,000 dunums requisitioned for military purposes; and, 1.15 million dunums of land closed for military training.
Bisharat, George E. “Land, Law and Legitimacy in Israel and the Occupied Territories,” The American Law Review 43 (1994). It is estimated
that Israel expropriated 730,000 dunums of West Bank land and 119,000 dunums of Gaza land as absentee and state land immediately after
the 1967 war. Land Expropriation, Human Rights Update (PHRIC, Washington, DC), April 1991 and “Jewish Settlements in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip,” Survey of Jewish Affairs (1990).
Cano, Jack. The Question of Land in the National Conflict between Jews and Arabs 1917-1990. [Hebrew] Poalim Library, 1992. It is estimated
that Palestinians privately owned some 867,000 dunums of land inside Israel immediately after the establishment of the state in May 1948.
By the 1950s total Palestinian land ownership inside Israel had been reduced to 529,428 dunums due to expropriation.
Granott, Avraham. Agrarian Reform and the Record of Israel. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1956. At the end of 1947 Jews owned a total of
1,734,000 dunums of land. This included 435,000 dunums held by the Palestine Land Development Company (PICA), 933,000 dunums
held by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), and 366,000 dunums held by private purchasers. Granott notes that a large part of the land held
by PICA was eventually registered as private property of Jewish farmers.
Hadawi, Sami. Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948. London: Saqi Books, 1988. Palestinian land expropriated in 1948 included land in 77
border villages where the built-up area of the village remained in Arab-held territory (i.e., West Bank and Gaza Strip) but had 1,255,000 of
inaccessible land located in Israeli-held territory and 3 villages located in ‘no mans’ land of which 18 km2 was located in Israeli-held territory.
The UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) estimated that Palestinian ownership of land in 1947 amounted to 22,374,547
dunums.
Jiryis, Sabri. The Arabs in Israel. London: Monthly Review Press, 1976. It is estimated that as of 1962 Israel had expropriated 704,298 dunums
of Palestinian owned land inside Israel. The figure is based on a survey of 79 selected Palestinian villages for the period 1945-1962.
24
Historical Overview
Kedar, Alexander. “On the Legal Geography of Ethnocratic Settler States: Notes Towards a Research Agenda,” 5 Current Legal Issues (2002):
401-441. Palestinians that remained lost about 40-60 percent of the land they possessed citing Kark and Golan in Israel: The First Decade
of Independence. I.S. Troen and N. Lucas (eds.). Syracuse, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Land Grab, Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank. Jerusalem: B’tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories (May 2002). A 1987 Israeli State Comptroller, Annual Report 37 lists a total of 430 km2 of Palestinian land in the West Bank
expropriated by Israel as absentee and state property immediately after the 1967 war.
Lustick, Ian. Arabs in the Jewish State. University of Texas Press, 1980. Palestinians inside Israel had lost approximately 70 percent of their
land by 1980 due to expropriation (based on a survey of 18 Palestinian villages that whose land base decreased from 620,350 dunums in
1947 to 188,930 dunums by 1980). Under the land acquisition law of 1953, 1,250,000 dunums of land were expropriated.
Palestine Human Rights Information Center, From the Field, June 1991. The report estimates that 65 percent of the West Bank and 42
percent of Gaza have been seized by Israel.
Peretz, Don. Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1958. Approximately 40 percent of land owned
by Palestinians inside Israel was expropriated as absentee property under the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law.
Progress Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP). UN Doc. A/1985, 20 November 1951. According to
the global identification process completed by the UNCCP in 1951, 16,324,000 dunums of land was determined to be private property
owned by Palestinian s. An individual evaluation, which was criticized by several experts, identified some 7,069,091 dunums as Palestinians
owned land. The UNCCP archives include 453,000 records amounting to some 1,500,000 holdings.
A Survey of Palestine. Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946, for the information of the Anglo American Committee of Inquiry.
Volume 1 and Supplement. Reprinted in Full with Permission from Her Majesty’s Stationary Office. Washington, DC: Institute for
Palestine Studies. As of the end of 1945, it is estimated that Jews owned 1,588,365 dunums of land in Palestine. As of the end of 1946 the
estimated land owned by Jews amounted to 1,624,000 dunums. The total area of land classified as state domain under the British Mandate
was 1,560,000 dunums. This included 660,000 dunums of which title to was settled under the Land (Settlement of Title) Ordinance, and
900,000 dunums where records indicated that the land was probably state land. As of the end of 1946 the total estimated state domain
amounted to 1,700,000 dunums. It was noted that upon completion of the settlement of rights to land, the total amount of state domain
would probably increase as it would include land for communal use and development of so-called hill villages.
Village Statistics 1945, A Classification of Land and Area Ownership in Palestine. Figures are based on British Mandate statistics. According
to Village Statistics, Palestinians owned some 12,766,524 dunums of land in Palestine in 1945, excluding land held in the Naqab. Village
Statistics identified some 1,936,380 dunums in the Naqab as Palestinian owned, 65,231 dunums as Jewish owned, 2,279 dunums as public
and 10,573,110 as ‘uncultivable land.’
25
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Endnotes
Methods of population transfer may include financial subsidies, planning, public information, military action, recruitment of settlers,
legislation or other judicial action, and the administration of justice. The Human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer, including the
Implantation of Settlers, Preliminary Report prepared by Mr. A.S. al-Khawasneh and Mr. R. Hatano. Commission on Human Rights
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Forty-fifth Session 2-27 August 1993, Item 8 of the
provisional agenda, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/17, 6 July 1993, at paras. 15 and 17.
2
For more details on Zionist population transfer plans see, Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians, The Concept of ‘Transfer’ in Zionist
Political Thought, 1882-1948. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992. Also see, Chaim Simons, International Proposals
to Transfer Arabs from Palestine 1895-1947, A Historical Survey. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Publishing, Inc., 1988.
3
The Basle Program, 31 August 1897, excerpts reprinted in Documents on Palestine, From the Pre-Ottoman/Ottoman Period to the Prelude
to the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference. Madhi F. Abdul Hadi (ed.). Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1997, p. 14.
4
The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, Vol. I. Rephael Patai (ed.) New York: Herzl Press and T. Yoseloff, 1960, pp. 8-9.
5
The Balfour Declaration is reprinted in Survey of Palestine, Vol. I. Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the Information
of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Reprinted in Full with Permission from Her Majesty’s Stationary Office. Washington,
DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991, p. 1. Prior to issuing the final Declaration the British obtained the assent of the United
States. The US Congress subsequently adopted a resolution on 30 June 1922, “[f ]avoring the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people.” Ibid, p. 21.
6
Table 2.2, Population of Palestine in 1918, Projected Back from 1922 Census Figures, As Corrected, Justin McCarthy, The Population
of Palestine, Population Statistics of the Late Ottoman Period. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990, p. 26.
7
Table III, Jewish Land Ownership in Palestine, Walter Lehn, The Jewish National Fund. London: Kegan Paul International, 1988, p. 74.
8
Herbert Adams Gibbons, “Zionism and the World Peace,” Century 97 (1919), p. 371, reprinted in Richard P. Stevens, Zionism and
Palestine Before the Mandate: A Phase of Western Imperialism: An Essay with a Selection of Readings. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies,
1972, pp. 56-57.
9
John Quigley, Palestine and Israel, A Challenge to Justice. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990, p. 8.
10
Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 June 1919, reprinted in Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, supra note 5, pp. 2-3.
11
According to Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, “[c]ertain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire
[including Palestine] have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized
subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone.” The
Mandate for Palestine, 24 July 1922, is reprinted in Survey of Palestine, Vol. I, supra note 5, pp. 4-11. The Mandate did not come into
force until 29 September 1923.
12
Statement by British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Arthur Balfour, British Government, Foreign Office No. 371/4183 (1919),
quoted in The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem 1917-1988. Part I. New York: United Nations, 1990.
13
Out of 9,000 applications from Palestinians outside the country, for example, British officials only approved 100. Based on an average
family size of six persons, more than 50,000 Palestinians may have been affected. Palestine Royal Commission Report, Cmd. 5479.
London: HMSO, 1937, p. 331. For a description of the problem facing Bethlehem families see, Adnan A. Musallam, Developments
in Politics, Society, Press and Thought in Bethlehem in the British Era 1917-1948. Bethlehem: WIAM – Palestinian Conflict Resolution
Center, 2002.
14
Toward the De-Arabization of Palestine/Israel 1945-1977. Basheer K. Nijim (ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company,
1984, p. 10. The impact of the loss of land was far greater than the amount of land lost to Zionist colonization during this period.
Palestinian ownership of land declined approximately 4 percent due to the sale of land, primarily by large absentee landlords. Rashid
Khalidi, Palestinian Identity, The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, pp.
113-114. A smaller number of Palestinian Arab farmers lost their lands due to financial insolvency.
15
The emergency laws included: the 1936 Emergency Regulations, The Palestine Gazette 584, No. 2 (19 April 1936), p. 259; the 1937
Palestine (Defense) Order, The Palestine Gazette 675, No. 2 (24 March 1937), p. 267; the 1937 Defense (Military Courts) Regulations,
The Palestine Gazette 737, No. 2 (11 November 1937), p. 1138; the 1939 Defense Regulations, The Palestine Gazette 914, No. 2 (26
August 1939), p. 659; and, the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations, The Palestine Gazette 1442, No. 2 (27 September 1945), p.
1058. Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel. London: Monthly Review Press, 1976, p. 10.
16
During 1936-39, the British administration demolished some 5,000 Palestinian homes. Yusef Rajab al-Ruday’i, The 1936 Arab Revolt
in Palestine: A Military Study [Arabic], cited in Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State, The Palestinian National Movement
1949-1993. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies and Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 2.
17
Rony Gabbay, A Political Study of the Arab-Jewish Conflict: The Arab Refugee Problem (A Case Study). Geneva: Librairie E. Droz, and
Paris, Librairie Minard, 1959, p. 66. Based on an average family size of six persons, an estimated 30,000 Palestinians were affected.
18
Palestine Royal Commission: Report, supra note 13, p. 82.
19
The president of the Assembly argued that addressing matters of principle was detrimental to a political solution to the conflict. For
the proposed texts of the questions to be submitted to the ICJ see, Iraq (UN Doc. A/AC.14.21); Syria (UN Doc. A/AC.14/25); and,
1
26
Historical Overview
Egypt (UN Doc. A/AC.14/14).
Committee members unanimously approved eleven general recommendations, including a UN-supervised transition period, protection
of religious and minority rights, and citizenship and property rights. They were unable to reach a consensus concerning the future status
of the country. Report of the UN Special Committee on Palestine, The Question of Palestine. UN Doc. A/364, 31 August 1947.
21
GA Resolution 181(II), 11 November 1947 , UN GAOR, 1st Sess., UN Doc. A/64 (1947).
22
For population of Palestine see, Table 2.18, The Population of Palestine by Religion, 1870 to 1946, McCarthy, supra note 6, p. 37.
For Jewish landownership see, Lehn, supra note 7.
23
The proposed Jewish state had a population of 498,000 Jews and 497,000 Palestinian Arabs, 90,000 of whom were Bedouins. The
proposed Arab state had a population of 725,000 Palestinian Arabs and 10,000 Jews. The city of Jerusalem, which was to have
international status, had a population of 105,000 Palestinian Arabs and 100,000 Jews. Report of the UN Special Committee on
Palestine, supra note 20. State land comprised less than 3 percent of the proposed Jewish state.
24
This includes some 40,000 Palestinians who fled during the ‘Great Revolt’, an estimated 54,000 Palestinians who were denationalized
under the 1925 Palestine Citizenship Order, thousands of tenant farmers who were evicted from their villages and became internally
displaced, and an estimated 30,000 Palestinians internally displaced due to punitive house demolition. Gabbay, supra note 17;
Musallam, supra note 13; Charles Kamen, Little Common Ground, Arab Agriculture and Jewish Settlement in Palestine 1920-1948.
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991, p. 191; and Erskine B. Childers, “The Wordless Wish: From Citizens to Refugees,”
The Transformation of Palestine. Ibrahim Abu Lughod (ed.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971, p. 181. As many as
70 Palestinian rural villages disappeared. Sharif Kanaana, Still on Vacation. Jerusalem International Center for Palestinian Studies,
1992, p. 96.
25
Childers, supra note 24, p. 181.
26
Table III, Jewish Land Ownership in Palestine, Lehn, supra note 7, p. 74.
27
Walid Khalidi, “Plan Dalet: Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine,” 28 Journal of Palestine Studies 1 (Autumn 1988), p. 8.
28
Leaders of Zionist militia organizations at the time reported that 245 people had been killed in the village. These reports were broadcast
on Arab and foreign media. For a study of the massacre see, Walid Khalidi, Deir Yassin: Friday, 9 April 1948. [Arabic] Beirut: Institute
for Palestine Studies, 1999.
29
For a description of specific incidents during this period see, e.g., Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 19471949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. 41,102, 107, 117-118, 121, 200, 213-14, and 220.
30
This included massacres in Mansurat al-Khayt (18 January 1948), Deir Yassin (9 April 1948), Khirbat Nasir ad-Din (12 April
1948), Hawsha (15 April 1948), Khirbet Wa’ra al-Sawda (18 April 1948), HusEiniyya (21 April 1948), Balad ash-Sheikh (25 April
1948), Ein az-Zaytun (2 May 1948), Burayr (12 May 1948), Khubbayza (12 May 1948), Abu Shusha (14 May 1948), Tantoura (21
May 1948), al-Khisas (25 May 1948), Lydda (10 July 1948), al-Tira (16 July 1948), Ijzim (24 July 1948), Beer Sheba (21 October
1948), Safsaf (29 October 1948), al-Dawayima (29 October 1948), Khirbet as-Samniyya (30 October 1948), Saliha (30 October
1948), Sa’sa (30 October 1948), Eilaboun (29 October 1948), Jish (29 October 1948), and Majd al-Krum (29 October 1948). For
a description of these massacres, ibid, pp. 72-3, 113-15, 120, 156, 206-7, 213-14, 222-23, 228-30 and 350.
31
According to the government investigating committee, “[Prime Minister] Ben-Gurion and [Foreign Minister] Shertok appeared not
to have been shocked by what had happened.” Kibbutz Meuhad Archives – Aharon Zisling Papers 9/9/1, “Decisions of the Provisional
Government,” 7 November 1948; Hashomer Haztair Archives (Mapam, Kibbutz Artzi Papers), 66.90 (I), protocol of the meeting of
the Political Committee of Mapam, 11 November 1948; and David Ben-Gurion’s Yoman Hamilhama, 1948-49 (The War Diary), p.
809, entry for 10 November 1948, cited in Morris, supra note 29, pp. 232-233.
32
Ibid, pp. 222-23.
33
For a description of expulsions, ibid, pp. 54-56, 64, 105, 107, 115, 118-19, 121, 127, 201, 209-210, 212, 215, 227, 239, and
242.
34
Kibbutz Meuhad Archives – Palmah Papers 141-143, Operation Dani headquarters to Yiftah Brigade headquarters, 8th Brigade
headquarters, 13:30 hours, 12 July 1948. A coded (and undated) version of this order is in Kibbutz Meuhad Archives – Palmah
Papers 142-18, cited ibid, p. 207.
35
Book Review by Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz, 3 November 2000. Benny Morris, Correcting a Mistake – Jews and Arabs in Palestine/Israel,
1936-1956. Am Oved Publishers, 2000.
36
“Retroactive Transfer, A Scheme for the Solution of the Arab Question in the State of Israel,” 3-page memorandum singed by Yosef
Weitz, Ezra Danin and Elias Sasson cited in Morris, supra note 29, p. 136.
37
For a description of incidents of looting and destruction of property see, e.g., Morris, supra note 29, pp. 32, 50, 52, 54, 62-3, 88,
101-2, 106, 112-13, 116, 119, 125, 128, 215, 221 and 230.
38
Tom Segev, 1949: The First Israelis. New York: The Free Press, 1986, p. 73.
39
According to demographic projections by Abu Lughod, between 890,000 and 904,000 Palestinians would have been living in the
territories that became the state of Israel if no displacement had taken place. Janet Abu Lughod, “The Demographic Transformation of
Palestine,” in Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (ed.), The Transformation of Palestine. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1971, p. 159.
This was roughly equal to the size of the Jewish population at the end of 1948. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract
of Israel, No. 52 (2001), Table 2.1, ‘The Population by Religion and Population Group,’ pp. 2-9.
20
27
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Final Report of the United Nations Survey Mission for the Middle East (Part I). UN Doc. A/AC.25/6 citing a figure of 750,000 refugees.
The total number of refugees reaches around 900,000 if the number of persons who lost their livelihood but not their homes is added.
This includes approximately 100 ‘border’ villages where the 1949 armistice lines separated villagers from their lands. For a register
of villages depopulated during this period see, Salman Abu Sitta, The Palestinian Nakba 1948, Register, The Register of Depopulated
Localities in Palestine. London: Palestinian Return Centre, 2001.
41
Abu Sitta, supra note 40. This included vast areas in the southern Naqab (Naqab) region held under traditional or customary ownership
by nomadic Bedouin.
42
Terry Rempel, “Housing and Property Restitution: The Palestinian Refugee Case,” Returning Home: Housing and Property Restitution
Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons. Scott Leckie (ed.). New York: Transnational Publishers, 2003, p. 296.
43
Kathleen Christison, Perceptions of Palestine, Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy. Berkley: University of California Press, 1999,
p. 47. According to Nichols, “[t]he US government spoke eloquently of the plight of European Jews, [but] its actions indicated a desire
to distance itself from political unpopular efforts to liberalize immigration law or otherwise to expand the number of Jews reaching
America.” Bruce Nichols, “Religion, Refugees, and the US Government,” Refugees in the Age of Total War. Anna C. Bramwell (ed.).
London: Unwin Hyman, 1988, p. 91.
44
Anti-semitism, Nazi atrocities in Europe and Zionist information campaigns targeted at displaced European Jews resulted in a
massive increase in the number of Jewish asylum seekers in Palestine, particularly during the 1930s. Between 1933 and 1936, for
example, 30-60,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine every year. The total number of Jewish immigrants in these years accounted for
nearly 50 percent of the total number of official Jewish immigrants from the beginning of the British mandate to 1946 (the date of
the last British estimate of the population in Palestine). See, Table 1, Number of Immigrants Annually by Race. Total Number of
Persons Registered as Immigrants, Survey of Palestine, Vol. 1, supra note 5, p. 185. Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine primarily
from Poland, Russia, and Germany.
45
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) (Heb: Karen Kayemet L’Yisrael) was established by a decision of the Fifth Zionist Congress in
December 1901 and incorporated in England in April 1907. For more details see, Lehn, supra note 7.
46
Ibid.
47
John Reudy, “Dynamics of Land Alienation,” The Transformation of Palestine: Essays on the Origin and Development of the Arab-Israeli
Conflict. Ibrahim Abu Lughod (ed.), Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press, 1971, p. 134.
48
Toward the De-Arabization of Palestine/Israel, supra note 14, p. 10.
49
Morris, supra note 29, p. 243.
50
“Investigation Report,” Simon and Vermeersch, UNA DAG-13/3.3.1-18 cited in Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949-56. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1993, p. 152.
51
Hillel Cohen, HaNifkadim HaNokhahim, HaPlitim HaFalestinim BeIsrael me’az 1948 [The Present Absentees: Palestinian Refugees in
Israel Since 1948] [Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Institute for Arab-Israeli Studies, 2000, p. 58. Also see, Nur Masalha, A Land without a People,
Israel, Transfer and the Palestinians. London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1997, p. 12.
52
Benny Morris, 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, pp. 257-69.
53
Israeli Foreign Ministry reports indicate that some 17,000 Bedouin were expelled from the Naqab between 1949 and 1953. Morris,
supra note 50, p. 170.
54
Reviewing official Israeli government documents, Morris estimates that 30-90,000 Palestinian refugees attempted to return to their
homes and villages between mid-1948 and 1953. Most were expelled. Morris, supra note 50, p. 39.
55
State Archives, Foreign Ministry, Arab Refugees 2444/19, cited in Segev, supra note 38, p. 19.
56
Morris, supra note 50, p. 147.
57
Morris, supra note 29, p. 242.
58
This includes Qibya, Nahalin, Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Sharafat, Qalqilya, Khan Younis, and Rafah. For a description of these see,
Masalha, supra note 51; Khalidi, supra note 29; and, Tawfiq Tubi, Kafr Qassem, the Massacre and the Lesson. [Arabic] Haifa: Emile
Touma Institute for Social and Political Studies, 2001.
59
For a detailed description see, Morris, supra note 50, pp. 257-69.
60
For a detailed description see, ibid, p. 433, n. 3.
61
This includes the villages of Iqrit, Bir’im, al-Faluja, Iraq al-Manshiya, Farraddiya, Inan, Saffurriya, al-Khisas, Qeitiya, Khirbet Muntar,
Ghabsiyya and al-Hamma. The terms were used by Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion during a Cabinet meeting on 26
September 1948. Morris, supra note 29, p. 218.
62
Ma’ariv, 5 August 1965; Ha’aretz, 6 September 1966. See also the reply of the Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, to a parliamentary question
in The Knesset Debates, 6 February 1967, p. 1148. Sabri Jiryis, “The Legal Structure for the Expropriation and Absorption of Arab
Lands in Israel,” 2 Journal of Palestine Studies 4 (Summer 1973), p. 85, note 13. Also see, Tom Segev, “Where Are All the Villages?
Where are They?” Ha’aretz, 6 September 2002. Translated and reprinted in Between the Lines, October 2002.
63
For a more detailed discussion see, Meron Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape, The Buried History of the Holy Land. Berkeley: The University
of California Press, 2000.
64
For a detailed description see, Jiryis, supra note 15.
65
For a legal analysis of the status of Palestinians under the law of nationality as applied upon state succession see, Gail J. Boling, The
40
28
Historical Overview
1948 Palestinian Refugees and the Individual Right of Return, An International Law Analysis. Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center,
2001. Also see, Kathleen Lawand, “The Right to Return of Palestinians in International Law,” 8 International Journal of Refugee Law
532 (1996).
66
For a detailed study of these laws see, e.g., Gail J. Boling, “‘Absentees’ Property’ Laws to Israel’s Confiscation of Palestinian Property: A
Violation of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and International Law,” 11 Palestine Yearbook of International Law 73 (2000-2001).
These regulations include the 1948 Abandoned Areas Ordinance; the 1948 Emergency Regulations Concerning Absentee Property;
the 1945 Defense (Emergency) Regulations; the 1949 Emergency Regulations (Security Zones); the 1949 Emergency Regulations
(Cultivation of Waste [Uncultivated] Lands); the Emergency Law Requisition (Regulations) Law; the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law;
the 1950 Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law; the 1953 Land Acquisition (Validation of Acts and Compensation) Law;
the 1965 Absentees’ Property (Amendment No. 3) (Release and Use of Endowment Property) Law; the 1970 Legal and Administrative
Matters (Regulation) Law (Consolidated Version); the 1976 Absentees’ Property (Compensation) (Amendment) Law; the 1943 land
(Acquisition for Public Purposes) Ordinance; the 1951 State Property Law; the 1958 Prescription Law (No. 38); and the Naqab Land
Acquisition (Peace Treaty with Egypt) Law 1980.
67
At least 30,000 Palestinians were expelled from Israel between 1949 and 1956. By 1955 there were around 195,000 Palestinians living
inside Israel. Statistical Abstract of Israel, supra note 39.
68
The figure is based on a survey of 79 selected Palestinian villages. Table 5, ‘Land Lost by Some Arab Villages in Israel, 1945-1962 (in
dunums)’ in Jiryis, supra note 15, pp. 292-296. Also see, B. Abu Kishk, “Arab Land and Israeli Policy,” 11 Journal of Palestine Studies
1 (Autumn 1981); Jack Cano, The Question of Land in the National Conflict between Jews and Arabs 1917-1990. [Hebrew] Poalim
Library, 1992, p. 79; D. Peretz, Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1958, p. 142; and, I.
Lustick, Arabs in the Jewish State. University of Texas Press, 1980, p. 179. Total Palestinian land ownership inside Israel after 1948
is estimated at 1.4 million km2. Salman Abu Sitta, Palestinian Right to Return, Sacred, Legal and Possible. Second Revised Edition.
London: Palestinian Return Centre, 1999, p. 17.
69
For a description of specific incidents see, e.g., Nur Masalha, “The 1967 Palestinian Exodus,”The Palestinian Exodus 1948-67. Ghada
Karmi and Eugene Cotran (eds.). London: Ithaca Press, 2000, p. 94; Donald Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem: Six Days that Changed the
Middle East. New York: Linden Press/Simon and Schuster, 1984, pp. 228-29; and, Peter Dodd and Halim Barakat, River without
Bridges: A Study of the Exodus of the 1967 Palestinian Arab Refugees. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1969, pp. 40-42.
70
Masalha, supra note 69.
71
For a description of specific incidents see, e.g., Masalha, supra note 69, pp. 81, 85, 87 and 91-94.
72
Dodd and Barakat, supra note 69, p. 40; and, Masalha, supra note 69, p. 92.
73
Nur Masalha, The Politics of Denial, Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem. London: Pluto Books, 2003, p. 203.
74
For a description see, e.g., Masalha, supra note 69, pp. 81, 87, and 89-90.
75
Report of the Secretary General under General Assembly Resolution 2252 (ES-V) and Security Council Resolution 237 (1967). UN Doc.
A/6797, 15 September 1967; and, Abu Lughod, supra note 39, p. 162.
76
A 1987 Israeli State Comptroller, Annual Report 37 lists a total of 430 km2 of Palestinian refugee land in the West Bank expropriated
by Israel. Land Grab, Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank. Jerusalem: B’tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights
in the Occupied Territories (May 2002), p. 45. Also see, Financial Times, 29 October 1979 cited in Lehn, supra 7, p. 183. If state land
registered in the name of the Jordanian government, which administered the West Bank between 1949 and 1967 is included, it is
estimated that Israel immediately possessed 730 km2 of Palestinian owned land in the West Bank. It possessed an additional 119 km2
of Palestinian owned land in the Gaza Strip. Ester Cohen, Human Rights in the Israeli-Occupied Territories, 1967-1982, pp. 152-153
(1985), cited in George E. Bisharat, “Land, Law and Legitimacy in Israel and the Occupied Territories,” The American Law Review
43 (1992), p. 525, note 334.
77
See, The Human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer, including the Implantation of Settlers, supra note 1, at para. 32. “The causes
of population transfer can be dramatic, or subtle and insidious. Transfer can be carried out en masse, or as ‘low-intensity transfers’
affecting a population gradually or incrementally.”
78
For an overview, see, Raja Shehadeh, Occupier’s Law, Israel and the West Bank. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1985,
pp. 63-75.
79
Table 5, ‘Palestinian Estimate of Displaced Persons and Refugees During the 1967 War,’ Tayseer Amro, “Displaced Persons: Categories
and Numbers Used by the Palestinian Delegation [to the Quadripartite Committee], 14 Article 74 (December 1995). Jerusalem:
BADIL/Alternative Information Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. The figure roughly coincides with Israeli figures
if Palestinians deported to Egypt during the 1967 war are not included. Deportation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories and
the Mass Deportation of December 1992. Jerusalem: B’tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories (June 1993).
80
John Quigley, “Family Reunion and the Right to Return to Occupied Territory,” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Vol. 6 (1992).
Between 1967 and 1999, Israel revoked the residency rights of 6,185 Palestinians living in Jerusalem affecting some 25,000 people.
Table III, ‘Confiscation of Jerusalem ID Cards, 1967-1998,’ Eviction from Jerusalem, Restitution and the Protection of Palestinian Rights.
Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center (April 1999), p. 19. The table is updated through the end of 1999 with available statistics from
the Israeli Interior Ministry.
29
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Families Torn Apart, Separation of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories. Jerusalem: B’tselem, Israeli Information Center for
Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (July 1999), p. 17. In eastern Jerusalem see, Nathan Krystall, Urgent Issues of Palestinian
Residency in Jerusalem. 2nd Revised Edition. Jerusalem: Alternative Information Center, 1994; and, The Quiet Deportation, Revocation
of Residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians. Jerusalem: B’tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories and Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, 1997.
82
Land Grab, supra note 76, pp. 52-53
83
Between 1987 and mid-May 2002 alone, Israel demolished (including some partial demolitions) nearly 3,000 Palestinian homes. See,
http://www.btselem.org [last visited 20/05/02].
84
The figures for the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories do not include the destruction of refugee shelters during Israeli military
operations. In the 1970s and 1980s, for example, the Israeli military demolished over 10,000 refugee shelters in several large refugee
camps in the Gaza Strip affecting more than 62,000 refugees (UNRWA Accommodation Office).
85
Between October 2000 and October 2003 Israel had demolished more than 2000 refugee shelters in the occupied Palestinian territories.
UNRWA, UNRWA Emergency Appeal 2004. Jerusalem: UNRWA, 2004, p. 19.
86
These laws and military orders include, the 1943 Land (Acquisition for Public Purposes) Law; 1967 Military Order No. 59 (Government
Properties); 1969 Military Order No. 364 (Government Properties) Amendment No. 4; 1953 Jordanian Land Law (Acquisition
for Public Needs) as amended by 1969 Military Order No. 321 (Concerning the Lands Law – Acquisition for Public Needs); 1981
Military Order No. 949 (Concerning the Lands Law – Acquisition for Public Needs); 1967 Military Order No. 25 (Transactions
in Real Property); 1974 Military Order 569 (Registration of Special Transactions in Land); and 1983 Military Order 1060 (Law on
Registration of Unregistered Immovable Property) Amendment No. 2.
87
Depending on location the Wall will include some or all of the following features: four-meter deep trenches on either side; a dirt
path ‘to which access will be forbidden’ where potential infiltrators would be exposed to Israeli military fire; a trace path to register
foot prints; an electronic warning or ‘smart’ fence; a concrete barrier topped with barbed wire; a concrete wall rising as high as eight
meters; a two-lane military patrol road; and fortified guard towers placed at regular intervals. Palestinians have been told by Israeli
field commanders that one each side of the Wall there will be a ‘no-go’ area of various widths, possibly extending to several hundred
meters. In addition to the wall complex, there are also plans for ‘depth barriers’ 150 meters in length to be erected a few kilometers
east of the principal barrier and designed to funnel access into communities east of the wall through a limited number of checkpoints.
The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities, Report of the Mission to the Humanitarian and Emergency
Policy Group (HEPG) of the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC), 4 May 2003, para. 6.
88
For a list of these communities see, The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities, A Follow-up Report to
the Humanitarian and Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) and the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC), Update Number 3, 30
November 2003.
89
Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian
Territories Occupied by Israel since 1967, submitted in Accordance with Commission Resolution 1993/2, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2004/6, 8
September 2003, para. 10.
90
See, e.g., UNRWA, Impact of the First Phase of the Barrier on the Qalqilya, Tulkarem and Jenin Districts. Jerusalem: UNRWA, 2003.
91
The figure is based on the estimated forced migration rate of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip upgraded to 2001. It
includes those whose residency rights were revoked. The figure does not account for Palestinians inside Israel or for the number of
Palestinians in exile who were able to return to the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories following the establishment of the Palestinian
Authority in 1994. See, Table 6, ‘Estimated Forced Migration from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 1967-1986 (in thousands)’, George
F. Kossaifi, The Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return. Information Paper No. 7. Washington, DC: Center for Policy Analysis on
Palestine (September 1996), p. 8.
92
It is estimated that as of the beginning of 2001 Israel had acquired control of 79 percent of the land in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories. Passia Diary 2001, Jerusalem: PASSIA, Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, 2001, p. 257.
Also see, Land Grab, supra 76. Inside Israel it is estimated that Israel has confiscated nearly 80 percent of the land owned by Palestinian
citizens. Salman Abu Sitta, The End of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, From Refugees to Citizens at Home. London: Palestine Land Society
and Palestinian Return Centre, 2001, p. 13. Also see Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate
housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Mr. Miloon Kothari, Addendum, Report of visit to the occupied
Palestinian territories, 5-10 January 2002, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1, 10 June 2002, at 10-15 stating: “Estimates place the
proportion of Palestinian land confiscated by Israel at more than 70 percent of the West Bank and 33 percent of Palestinian land in
East Jerusalem has been confiscated, and all but 7-8 percent of the area has been closed to Palestinian construction.”
81
30
Chapter
Population
Two
31
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Population
Preface
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons are one of the largest displaced
populations in the world today. Approximately two in five refugees worldwide is
Palestinian.
There are three primary groups of Palestinian refugees. The largest group is comprised of
those Palestinians displaced/expelled from their places of origin as a result of the 1948
war. The second major group of Palestinian refugees is comprised of those Palestinians
displaced for the first time from their places of origin as a result of the 1967 war. The
third category of refugees includes those Palestinian refugees who are neither 1948 nor
1967 refugees and are outside former Palestine and unable due to revocation of residency,
denial of family reunification, deportation, etc., or unwilling to return there owing to a
well-founded fear of persecution.
There are two groups of internally displaced Palestinians. The first includes those Palestinians
who remained in the area that became the state of Israel in 1948. The second group of
internally displaced Palestinians includes Palestinians internally displaced in the 1967
occupied Palestinian territories.
The majority of the Palestinian refugee population is distributed throughout the Middle
East, primarily in Arab states that border Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Approximately one-quarter of the total Palestinian refugee and displaced population
resides in areas of former Palestine. More than one million Palestinian refugees reside in
refugee camps.
The Palestinian refugee and IDP population is young, it has high but declining fertility,
low mortality and it is growing fast. Differences in the demographic profiles of refugee and
non-refugee Palestinians today are negligible.
32
Population
Population
At the end of 2003 it is estimated that there were approximately 7.5 million
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons. This includes Palestinians and
their descendants whose ‘country of origin’1 is Palestine and who have been displaced
within or outside the borders of former Palestine (which is now divided into Israel
and the occupied Palestinian territories) and do not have access to voluntary durable
solutions, including the right to return to their homes of origin and to repossess their
properties.2
Available data on the Palestinian refugee and displaced population is characterized
by uneven quality and uncertainty primarily due to the absence of a comprehensive
registration system, frequent migration and the lack of a uniform definition of
a Palestinian refugee. Population data may describe eligibility for assistance (e.g.
UNRWA registration), eligibility for protection (e.g. UNHCR registration) or the
total number of Palestinians who have been displaced and may or may not be eligible
for assistance and protection.
The Palestinian refugee and IDP population described here is an estimation of the total
number of Palestinians who have been displaced and denied the right to return to their
homes of origin and repossess their properties. Unlike most refugees and displaced
persons worldwide who seek protection against refoulement, the primary problem facing
Palestinian refugees is the denial of the right to return to their homes of origin.
There are three primary groups of Palestinian refugees. The largest group is comprised
of those Palestinians displaced/expelled from their places of origin as a result of armed
conflict and war in 1948. This includes Palestinian refugees who are eligible for
assistance from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
(often referred to as ‘registered refugees’ or ‘Palestine refugees’) (4.1 million); and,
those refugees who were also displaced in 1948 but are not eligible or did not register
for UN assistance (1.6 million).
The second major group of Palestinian refugees is comprised of those Palestinians
displaced for the first time from their places of origin as a result of the 1967 war
(780,000). (often referred to as 'displaced prsones'.)The third category of refugees
includes those Palestinian refugees who are neither 1948 nor 1967 refugees and are
outside former Palestine and unable due to revocation of residency, denial of family
reunification, deportation, etc., or unwilling to return there owing to a well-founded
fear of persecution (838,000). The vast majority of these refugees are from the 1967
occupied Palestinian territories.
There are two groups of internally displaced Palestinians. The first includes those
Palestinians who remained in the area that became the state of Israel in 1948
(325,000). This includes Palestinians internally displaced as a result of the 1948
war and those displaced internally after 1948 due to population transfer, land
expropriation and house demolition. The second group includes Palestinians
internally displaced in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories during and after
the 1967 war (38,000). Internal displacement is difficult to conceptualize in the
context of the Palestinian/Arab-Israeli conflict; it can only be applied pragmatically
to describe the phenomenon of internal displacement in a specific period of time.
33
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Ceasefire lines have changed frequently and there is no internationally recognized
border between Israel proper and the OPTs.
In total, the Palestinian refugee and displaced population comprise nearly threequarters of the entire Palestinian population worldwide (9.7 million).3
Table 2.1 – Palestinian Refugees, Internally Displaced Palestinians and Convention Refugees
Year
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2003
Registered
1948
Refugees
Estimated
Nonregistered
1948
Refugees
Estimated
1967
Refugees
Estimated
‘Other’
Refugees
Estimated
1948
Internally
Displaced
Persons
Estimated
1967
Internally
Displaced
Persons
Convention
Refugees*
914,000
905,986
1,120,889
1,280,823
1,425,219
1,632,707
1,844,318
2,093,545
2,668,595
3,172,641
3,737,494
4,082,300
257,021
305,260
362,553
430,599
511,417
607,403
721,404
856,802
1,017,611
1,208,603
1,435,441
1,591,500
250,402
297,400
352,218
419,512
498,249
591,763
702,829
779,237
37,182
108,349
192,875
293,261
412,491
554,099
722,284
837,991
23,380
40,254
50,044
62,215
77,346
96,157
119,543
148,616
184,760
229,694
285,557
325,400
12,124
14,205
16,677
19,612
23,098
27,239
34,373
38,266
1,643,600
1,516,000
4,368,900
2,480,200
2,991,200
8,894,000
11,817,200
17,228,500
14,573,600
12,062,000
9,671,800
Note: There is no single authoritative source for the global Palestinian refugee and IDP population. The
figures above reflect estimates according to the best available sources. Figures are therefore indicative
rather than conclusive. Estimates for 1967 ‘Other’ Refugees and IDPs are revised from 2002. For more
details about the estimates see ‘Annex 2.1’ at the end of this chapter.
* Convention Refugees include all persons considered as refugees under the 1951 Convention relating to
the Status of Refugees and of concern to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This figure
includes 428,000 Palestinian refugees for 2003; however, there is no breakdown for period of displacement.
These refugees are also included in estimates of 1948, 1967 and ‘other’ refugees.
The UN Relief and Works Agency administers the only registration system for Palestinian
refugees.4 UNRWA records cover about 55 percent of the Palestinian refugee population.
Registration includes only those Palestinians displaced in 1948 (and their descendants)
in need of assistance. (See Chapter Four – Assistance) UNRWA registration files for those
Palestinians displaced inside Israel became inactive in June 1952 when the Agency
transferred assistance activities for the internally displaced to the government of Israel.5
In 1982 the UN General Assembly instructed the Secretary-General, in cooperation
with the Commissioner General of UNRWA, to issue identification cards to all 1948
Palestine refugees and their descendants, irrespective of whether they were recipients or
not of rations and services from the Agency, as well as to all 1967 refugees and to those
who have been prevented from returning to their homes as a result of the 1967 hostilities
and their descendants.6 The initiative failed, however, due to lack of cooperation among
host states concerning information on previously non-registered refugees.
Revision of UNRWA’s definition of a ‘Palestine Refugee’ in 1993, eliminating the
requirements of need and initial flight in 1948 to a country within UNRWA’s area
of operations, resulted in the registration of some previously unregistered Palestinian
refugees.7 UNRWA registration statistics do not claim to be statistically valid data.8
34
Population
An elderly refugee women with her UNRWA papers in the West Bank. © Tineke D’haese/Oxfam Solidarite
35
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
There is some variance in UNRWA records due to the fact that reporting is voluntary.
In order to correct some of these problems around 500,000 names were deleted from
the registration records from the early 1950s onward.
Generally, current UNRWA registration records exclude:
(1) refugees displaced in 1948
i. who fail to meet the assistance criteria;
ii. ii. who were outside the areas of UNRWA operations (and have not filed for
registration under UNRWA’s 1993 revised eligibility criteria (see page 34));
iii. who were dropped from the records due to financial constraints
limiting the number of relief recipients;
iv. who were off-spring of refugee mothers and non-refugee fathers;
v. who had an independent income or property;
vi. whose status improved and moved out of eligibility criteria;
vii. who refused to register for reasons of pride.
(2) first time displaced refugees from 1967;
(3) Palestinians who are not 1948 or 1967 refugees and are unable due to
revocation of residency, denial of family reunification, deportation, etc., or
unwilling to return to the occupied Palestinian territories owing to a wellfounded fear of persecution; and,
(4) internally displaced Palestinians.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) maintains statistics
for Palestinian refugees who fall within the mandate of the Office and are outside
UNRWA areas of operation – i.e. West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria
– and are eligible for protection.9 (See Chapter Five – Protection) Data reported by
UNHCR country offices generally reflect the view of the host country. The statistics
are provisional and subject to change.
At the end of 2003 there were approximately 428,000 Palestinian refugees of concern to
UNHCR. The majority reside in Saudi Arabia (240,000) and Iraq (100,000) followed
by Egypt (70,215) and Libya (8,787).10 Statistics on Palestinian refugees of concern to
UNHCR refer to the refugees’ country of origin as the occupied Palestinian territories.
This classification may not reflect the actual place of origin. It also means that it is not
possible to identify how many Palestinian refugees of concern to UNHCR are 1948
refugees, 1967 refugees or Palestinians displaced from former Palestine after 1967.
Estimates of the refugee and displaced population may also be derived from census
data and population growth projections. Many host countries, however, do not carry
out a regular census of their resident refugee population or fail to include Palestinian
refugees as a category of refugees. Israel, for example, does not keep separate records
for internally displaced Palestinians.11 Some countries, such as Jordan, include
Palestinians as a census category but census results are not accessible to the general
public. In North America and parts of Europe Palestinian refugees are often classified
as ‘other Middle Eastern.’
Distribution
During the major waves of displacement/expulsion in the 20th century, Palestinian
refugees tended to remain as close as possible to their homes and villages of origin
36
Population
based on the assumption that they would return with the cessation of armed conflict in
the region. In 1948 an estimated 65 percent of Palestinian refugees remained in areas
of Palestine not under Israeli control – i.e. the West Bank and Gaza Strip, comprising
22 percent of the territory of Mandate Palestine. In the West Bank the Palestinian
population swelled from 460,000 to 740,000 with the mass influx of refugees.
The impact of mass influx in that part of the former Gaza District that became known
as the Gaza Strip was even more dramatic. The population nearly quadrupled to
270,000. The remaining 35 percent of the Palestinian refugee population found refuge
in neighboring states, including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. An unknown
number of Palestinian Arab citizens were abroad at the time of the 1948 conflict in
Palestine and were unable to return to their places of origin inside Israel following
the cessation of hostilities.
Internally displaced Palestinians found refuge in some 47 Palestinian Arab villages
that remained inside the state of Israel after the 1948 war.12
Table 2.2 – Localities in Israel Hosting 100 or more Palestinian IDPs (1948-1950)
Locality
Nazareth
Abu Sinan
Fassuta
Maker
Hurfeish
IDPs as Percentage of 1951 Population
25
30
34
27
16
10
30
15
52
24
11
11
9
10
17
12
14
5
9
11
12
11
Deir Hanna
8
Bi’ne
9
Tamra (Acre)
Majd al-Krum
Kafr Yassif
Maghar
Shafa’amr
Jish
Rame
Judeide
Yafia
Daliyat al-Karmel
Kafr Kana
Reine
Isifiya
Fureidis
Deir al-Asad
Julis
Ar’abeh
Source: Charles Kamen, “After the Catastrophe I: The Arabs in Israel, 1948-51”, Middle East Studies.
During the 1967 war the majority of Palestinian refugees found refuge in neighboring
states. Most (95 percent) were displaced to Jordan, with smaller numbers of refugees
displaced to Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon.13 Areas of the West Bank closest to Jordan
suffered the highest population loss, while in the central highlands most Palestinians
sought temporary refuge in nearby fields and villages and were subsequently able to
return to their homes after the war.14 In addition, it is estimated that some 60,000
Palestinians were abroad at the time of the war and unable to return to the occupied
Palestinian territories.15
37
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Baqa’a refugee camp in Jordan
1970s. © UNRWA Archives
The distribution of Palestinians displaced from and within the occupied Palestinian
territories since 1967 and who are neither 1948 nor 1967 refugees is difficult to
determine due to the lack of a registration system and frequent displacement over more
than three decades of military occupation. Estimates of forced migration between 1967
and 1986 indicate that some 20,000 Palestinians were displaced per year.16 More recent
studies estimate the rate of out-migration/displacement to neighboring Arab states
and further abroad as much as two percent of the total population per annum.17
In the 1970s and 1980s more than 62,000 Palestinian refugees were displaced in the
Gaza Strip due to the demolition of their homes by Israeli military forces.18 Some of
these refugees were transferred to the West Bank. More than 56,000 Palestinians were
forced to change residence for reasons of security, access to employment, education
and health during the first year (2000) of the second intifada.19 Israeli military forces
demolished more than 2,000 refugee shelters between October 2000 and October
2003 leaving thousands of Palestinians homeless.20
The changes in the pattern of distribution over five decades of forced exile relate primarily
to periods of conflict in the region after 1948 and after 1967 when Palestinian refugees
have either been expelled or forced to flee in search of safety. Changes in political regimes
in host countries, the relationship between the PLO and host country authorities,
economic push and pull factors and demographic concerns have also influenced patterns
of migration and distribution of the Palestinian refugee population since 1948.
There was a significant decrease in the number of refugees residing in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip due to the 1967 war and subsequent Israeli occupation. Most of
these refugees were displaced to Jordan; hence the dramatic increase in the number
of refugees in Jordan after 1967. Lebanon also shows a substantial decrease in the
percentage of the refugee population in the country due to internal conflict, conflict
38
Population
between the PLO and Israel in Lebanon and legal and political obstacles, which militate
against Palestinian refugees’ temporary asylum in Lebanon. The higher numbers of
Palestinian refugees in the Gulf from the 1950s onward reflect patterns of economic
migration, while a dramatic decrease in the number of refugees in Kuwait occurred
as a result of the 1991 Gulf War.
Internally displaced Palestinians visit
the depopulated village of al-Bassa
in northern Israel. © ADRID.
Most internally displaced Palestinians inside Israel today are concentrated in the northern
(i.e. Galilee) region of Israel, including Palestinian cities like Nazareth and Shafa’amr,
and in cities with a mixed Jewish-Arab population, such as Haifa and Acre. IDPs are
also located in the south (i.e. Naqab). The actual distribution of IDPs inside Israel is
difficult to determine due to the lack of registration system, frequent relocation (3-4
times) and the government practice of population transfer. In the occupied Palestinian
territories IDPs are frequently forced to relocate away from Israeli colonies (‘settlements’)
and related infrastructure (i.e. bypass roads) and military zones.
Today, Palestinian refugees are living in forced exile in most areas of the world. Despite
the changes in the pattern of distribution of Palestinian refugees over the last fifty
years, however, the majority of the refugees still live within 100 km of the borders of
Israel and the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories where their homes of origin are
located. In Syria, for example, 70 percent of 1948 registered refugees are from the
Galilee. The number is slightly higher in Lebanon where 72 percent of 1948 registered
refugees are from the Galilee.
Similarly, the largest number of refugees in the occupied Gaza Strip is from the
adjacent areas of the former Gaza District. The majority of refugees from the former
Jerusalem District are either in the occupied West Bank or in Jordan. Palestinian
refugees residing in host states in the region also comprise approximately the same
percentage of the total combined population (6 percent) of the region as they did
following the first wave of massive displacement in 1948.21
39
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Table 2.3 – Distribution of 1948 Registered Refugees, by District of Origin and by Field
District of Origin
Jerusalem
Gaza
Lydda
Samaria
Haifa
Galilee
Jordan
20.0
17.0
40.0
4.0
10.0
9.0
West Bank
33.0
7.0
30.0
12.0
16.0
2.0
Gaza Strip
0.2
66.0
33.0
0.2
0.5
0.1
Lebanon
0.5
0.1
8.5
0.1
18.8
72.0
Syria
0.7
0.4
7.3
0.1
22.0
69.5
Total (all fields)
13.5
22.5
30.0
3.5
11.0
18.5
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), 2000. The six regions of the
British Mandate period included: Jerusalem: Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem; Gaza: Gaza, Khan
Younis, Majdal, Isdud, Beersheba; Lydda: Jaffa, Ramle, Lod, Rechovot; Samaria: Tulkarem, Nablus, Jenin,
Natanya; Haifa: Haifa, Hadera, Shafa‘amr; Galilee: Nazareth, Beisan, Tiberias, Acre, Safad.
During more than fifty years in exile, the village unit has also tended to remain
largely intact after mass displacement. In other words, the majority of the residents
of a particular village tended to be displaced to the same host country and often to
the same area within the host country. According to data for Palestinian refugees
registered with UNRWA, seventy-two percent of all 1948 refugees from villages moved
to one area and only 20 percent to two areas. Just 8 percent are located in more than
two areas.22 Distribution according to village of origin is evident in the structure of
Palestinian refugee camps, which are divided into quarters based on the village unit.
In Syria, for example, al-Yarmouk camp is divided into quarters based on the refugee
villages of origin of al-Tira, Lubya, Balad ash-Sheik, and ‘Ein Ghazal.
The same phenomenon is also evident in Palestinian villages inside Israel that provided
refuge for internally displaced Palestinians in 1948. In many villages, neighborhoods
are named after the origin of the displaced persons who reside in them. The Palestinian
village of ‘Arrabeh, for example, includes the neighborhood of the Mi’aris (i.e. displaced
persons originating from the village of Mi’ar). Displaced persons from al-Birwa who
took shelter in the village of al-Judeide live in the neighborhood of the Birwanis.
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Figure 2.1 - Estimated Distribution of Palestinian
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Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Palestinians at the End of Year 2003. There is no
single authoritative source for the global distribution of the Palestinian refugee and IDP population. The
chart is derived from the estimated global distribution of the Palestinian people. The majority of Palestinians
living outside former Palestine are refugees. Figures are indicative rather than conclusive.
40
Population
Refugees in Camps
Approximately 1.3 million (31 December 2003) Palestinian refugees reside in refugee
camps located in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The majority of Palestinian refugees residing in camps are 1948 refugees (and their
descendents). They comprise approximately one-third of the total registered refugee
population and about one-fifth of the total refugee population displaced in 1948.
A smaller number of refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 also reside in refugee
camps, primarily in Jordan and Syria. According to UNRWA statistics for December
2003, approximately 32,000 1967 displaced Palestinians were residing in five of eight
official UNRWA camps in Jordan. A small and growing number of poor-non-refugees
including Palestinians and other Arabs also reside in the refugee camps.
Table 2.4 – Registered Refugees in Official Camps
Year
1953
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2003
Total Registered Refugees
870,158
912,425
1,136,487
1,300,117
1,445,022
1,652,436
1,863,162
2,119,862
2,466,516
3,246,044
3,806,055
4,082,300
Registered Refugees in Camps
300,785
351,532
409,223
508,042
500,985
551,643
613,149
805,482
697,709
1,007,375
1,227,954
1,301,689
% Registered Refugees in Camps
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Not all Palestine refugees registered
as living in camps are physically resident in an official refugee camp. (Figures as of 30 June each year)
34.6
38.5
36.0
39.1
34.7
33.4
32.9
38.0
28.3
31.0
32.3
32.0
Jalazone refugee camp, West
Bank, circa 1950s. © UNRWA
Archives
41
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Official Palestinian Refugee Camps
© Derived from map of UNRWA operations published by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East.
42
Population
Camps were set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Red Crescent
and UNRWA. The first camp in Jordan (Zarqa), for example, was set up by the ICRC
after a large number of refugees had gathered near the town of Zarqa. In Lebanon,
Nahr al-Bared, Shatila, Burj al-Barajneh and ‘Ein al-Hilwe camps were established
by the ICRC and the League of Red Crescent Societies. A number of camps were set
up in former army barracks including Wavel (Baalbek), al-Buss and Rashidieh camps
in Lebanon, Neirab camp in Syria and Bureij camp in Gaza.
There are 59 official refugee camps. A camp, according to UNRWA’s working
definition, is a plot of land placed at the disposal of Agency by the host government
for accommodating Palestine refugees and for setting up facilities to cater to their
needs. The plots of land on which camps were set up are either state land or, in most
cases, land leased by the host government from local landowners. This means that
the refugees in camps do not ‘own’ the land on which their shelters were built, but
have the right to ‘use’ the land for a residence.
Five camps were established in Jordan between 1949 and 1956 to provide shelter to
refugees displaced in 1948. An additional 8 camps were set up between 1967 and
1969 to accommodate refugees displaced in 1967. In Syria most of the camps were
established between 1949 and 1953. Another two camps were set up between 1967
and 1969. Eighteen official camps were established in the West Bank between 1948
and 1953.23 Shuafat camp was established in 1965-66 for refugees who had been living
in unsanitary conditions in M’ascar camp in the Old City of Jerusalem. In Gaza all
8 official camps were established between 1948 and 1949.
There are also at least 17 unofficial refugee camps established to provide additional
accommodation for Palestinian refugees. In all respects refugees in official and
unofficial camps have equal access to UNRWA services. The Agency maintains schools,
M’ascar refugee camp, Old City
of Jerusalem, circa 1960s. ©
UNRWA Archives
43
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
health centers and distribution centers in areas outside camps where Palestinian
refugees are concentrated. In al-Yarmouk unofficial camp in Syria, for example, the
largest Palestinian refugee camp, UNRWA runs 28 schools (20 elementary and eight
preparatory) and three health centers. UNRWA is not responsible for solid waste
collection in the unofficial camps.
Refugee camps are often located close to major cities. In Jordan, eight Palestinian
refugee camps are situated within a 25 km radius of the capital city of Amman. Seventyseven percent of the camp population in Jordan live within this area. In Lebanon,
four camps were set up in the Beirut area, two each around Sidon and Tripoli and
three in the vicinity of Sour (Tyre). In Syria more than 75 percent of the refugee
population lives in Damascus or the camps around the city. Six Palestinian refugee
camps are located in Damascus area. In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
refugee camps are located near major cities such as Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramallah,
Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem.
The significant number of Palestinians remaining in camps after more than five decades
of exile can be explained by several factors:
family and village support structure in the camp;
lack of resources to rent or buy alternative accommodation outside the
camp;
lack of living space outside the camp due to overcrowding;
legal, political, and social obstacles which force refugees to remain in
the camp;
physical safety; and,
the refugee camp as a symbol of the temporary nature of exile and the
demand to exercise the right of return.
The largest camp population (484,563, 31 December 2003) resides in the occupied
Gaza Strip comprising approximately one-third of all registered refugees residing in
camps. Some of the largest refugee camps in the region are also located in the occupied
Gaza Strip. The large number of refugees living in camps is due in large part to the lack
of resources to build outside camps, denial of building permits under decades of Israeli
military occupation and the lack of building space outside of camps. In the occupied
West Bank there are fewer refugees in camps (179,541, 31 December 2003).
The second highest number of refugees living in camps is located in Jordan (307,785,
31 December 2003); however, Jordan has the lowest overall number of camp refugees
as a percentage of the total refugee population in a host country. Only 18 percent of
registered refugees in Jordan reside in camps. The low number of refugees living in
camps in Jordan out of the total refugee population in the country is related to the
opportunities afforded to most Palestinian refugees in Jordan as Jordanian citizens.
Lebanon has the highest number of refugees living in camps (223,596, 31 December
2003) out of the total refugee population in a host country. Approximately 57 percent
of refugees in Lebanon live in official camps, 8 percent in unofficial camps, and 4
percent in marginal camps. The high number of refugees in Lebanon in camps out of
the total refugee population is directly related to the restrictions placed on freedom
of movement by the Lebanese government, the lack of resources to find alternative
housing outside of the camps and concerns about physical safety.
44
Population
Table 2.5 – Population of Palestinian Refugee Camps (Official and Unofficial)
Host Country
Gaza (1)
Official Camps
West Bank (2)
Official Camps
Unofficial Camps
Jordan
Official
Unofficial
Lebanon
Official
(11)
Camp (local name)
Population
Year Established
Jabalia
Beach (Shati)
Nuseirat
Bureij
Deir al-Balah
Maghazi
Khan Younis
Rafah
107,415
78,158
66,691
30,756
21,185
23,503
62,927
93,928
1948
1948
1948
1948
1948
1948
1948
1948
Aqabat Jaber
Ein al-Sultan
Shu’afat (3)
Am’ari
Kalandia
Deir Ammar
Jalazone
Fawwar
Arroub
Dheisheh
Aida
Beit Jibrin (‘Azza)
Far’a
Camp No. 1
Askar
Balata
Tulkarem
Nur Shams
Jenin
M’ascar (4)
Silwad
Abu Shekedem
Qaddoura
Birzeit (as-Saqaeif )
5,566
1710
11,249
8,658
9,748
2,343
10,219
7,434
9,669
11,922
4,456
1,983
7,174
6,353
14,623
21,445
17,153
8,539
15,077
299 (1997)
353 (1997)
863 (1997)
1,718 (1997)
1948
1948
1965/1966
1949
1949
1949
1949
1949
1950
1949
1950
1950
1949
1950
1950
1950
1950
1952
1953
1948-1955/1956
1971/72
1948
1948
1948
Amman New Camp (Wihdat)
Talbieh (5)
Irbid
Husn (‘Azmi al-Mufti) (6)
Souf (7)
Jerash (Gaza) (8)
Jabal al-Hussein
Baqa’a (9)
Zarqa
Marka (Hittin) (10)
Ma’adaba
Sakhna
al-Hassan
50,601
4,676
23,984
20,645
15,492
15,121
30,096
86,514
17,844
42,721
5,500
4,750
9,000
Mar Elias
Burj al-Barajneh
Dbayeh
Shatila
Ein al-Hilweh
Mieh Mieh
al-Buss
Rashidieh
Burj al-Shamali
Nahr al-Bared
Bedawi
1,411
20,405
4,211
12,235
45,337
5,037
10,107
25,580
18,659
31.023
16,198
1955
1968
1950-1951
1968
1967
1968
1952
1968
1949
1968
1956
1969
1967
1952
1948
1956
1949
1948-1949
1954
1948
1948
1948
1950
1955
45
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Unofficial (13)
Destroyed Camps
Syria
Official
Unofficial
Egypt (14)
Closed Camps
Libya ⁽¹⁵⁾
Wavel (al-Jalil)
Gouraud (12)
al-Ma’ashouq
Shabiha
al-Qasmia
Kufr Bada (Abu al-U’sod)
al-U’rash (Adlon)
Shhim
Nabatiya
Tal az-Zaatar
Jisr al-Basha
7,553
3,447
4,829
2,634
813
1,448
1,978
-
1948
1956
1949
1952
Khan Eshieh
Khan Danoun
Sbeineh
Qabr Essit (as-Sayyida Zeinab)
Jaramana
Dera’a
Dera’a Emergency
Homs
Hama
Neirab
Ein el-Tal (Hindrat)
al-Yarmouk
Ramadani
Lattakia
16,685
9,325
21,869
18,966
3,751
5,601
5,398
13,747
7,654
17,869
4,329 (2002)
112,550 (2002)
1,000
6,354 (2002)
1949
1949
1958
1968-1967
1949
1950-1951
1967
1949
1949-1950
1949
1962
1956-1957
1956
1955-1956
al-‘Abbasiyya
al-Qanatarah
-
1948
1948
Saloum
-
1995-1997
1948
Sources: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Not all Palestine refugees
registered as living in camps are physically resident in an official refugee camp. (Figures as of 31 December
2003); Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 1997. Population, Housing and Establishment Census of
the Palestinian Territories; Husein Ali Sha’aban, Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon - From Hosting Through
Discrimination. [Arabic] Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2002.
(1)
During the 1970s the Israeli military administration destroyed thousands of refugee shelters in the Gaza
Strip under the guise of security. Large refugee camps were targeted in particular. Refugees were forcefully
resettled in other areas of the Gaza Strip with a smaller number transferred to the West Bank. In the Gaza
Strip, several housing projects were established to resettle some of the refugees. Some of these projects
today are referred to as camps. These include the Canada project (1972), the Shuqairi project (1973), the
Brazil project (1973), the Sheikh Radwan project (1974), and the al-Amal project (1979).
(2)
There are more than 4,220 ex-Gaza refugees distributed throughout West Bank camps.
(3)
An additional 4,000 Palestinians are estimated by UNRWA to be living in the camp due to Israel’s
policy of residency revocation in Jerusalem.
(4)
The camp was closed because of unsanitary living conditions and residents were relocated to Shu’fat
refugee camp.
(5)
As of 31 December 2003, 4,990 persons were registered refugees.
(6)
As of 31 December 2003, 20,645 persons were registered refugees.
(7)
As of 31 December 2003, 18,511 persons were registered refugees.
(8)
As of 31 December 2003, 21,542 persons were registered refugees.
(9)
As of June 2001, 10,565 persons were 1967 refugees.
(10)
As of 31 December 2003, over 15,000 persons were 1967 refugees.
(11)
Population figures for unofficial camps in Jordan are for 2000.
(12)
The camp was evacuated and residents moved to Rashidieh camp.
(13)
Population figures for unofficial camps in Lebanon are for 2001.
(14)
The two camps in Egypt were closed in 1949.
(15)
The temporary camp established after Libya decided to expel all Palestinians from the country.
Palestinians without valid residency documents for Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank were left stranded
at a desert crossing point between Libya and Egypt. The camp closed after Palestinians were permitted
to leave the camp and remain in Libya.
46
Population
Refugees Outside of Camps
The majority of Palestinian refugees live outside of camps located in and around cities
and towns in the host countries and often in areas adjacent to refugee camps. While
there are fewer refugees in the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip living in camps there
are a large number of villages and towns with a significant refugee population. There
are approximately 100 localities in the occupied West Bank in which 1948 refugees
comprise more than 50 percent of the total population.
Table 2.6 – Major Localities in the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territories, by Refugee Population
Region
Refugee Status (%)
Number of non-camp localities with
a population of > 50% refugees
Refugees
Non-refugees
Gaza
47.4
52.0
Deir al-Balah
14.1
85.5
North Gaza
28.7
70.9
Rafah
15.8
70.9
Khan Younis
42.7
56.9
Hebron
81.7
17.4
Tubas
83.5
15.8
Jericho
49.2
49.7
Jerusalem
58.1
40.8
Ramallah
70.1
28.1
Jenin
70.7
28.8
Tulkarem
67.9
31.5
Nablus
74.1
25.4
Bethlehem
71.3
28.0
Qalqilya
59.6
39.9
Salfit
34.4
65.4
Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 1997. Population, Housing and Establishment Census of
the Palestinian Territories.
4
7
6
7
8
21
1
5
12
13
30
5
11
10
6
1
Jalazone refugee camp, West
Bank, 2000. © BADIL.
47
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Refugee housing near Bourj
ash-Shamali refugee camp in
Lebanon, 2003. © BADIL
In Lebanon approximately 40 percent of the refugee population resides in gatherings,
cities and villages and other non-camp localities.24 A gathering is defined as a
community of 25 or more Palestinian households living together.
Table 2.7 – Distribution of Palestinian Refugees Outside Camps in Lebanon
Location
Population
Marginal ‘Camps’ (1)
Jal al-Bahar
al-Burghlia
al-Wasta
al-Eitania
al-Sika
al-Baraksat
Bustan al-Yahodi
al-Hamshri
Mustashfa Gaza
al-Tariq al-Jadida
al-Aramel
al-Muhajariin
al-Ghazia
Wadi al-Ziny
al-Nae’mi
Bar Elias
Tha’alabia
Sur
Sida
Beirut
Tripoli
Refugee ‘Gatherings’ (2)
Cities
905
128
708
269
660
2,535
1,210
1,200
600
257
867
1,029
1,305
8,825
4,480
2,949
4,140
4,916
17,336
13,817
3,726
Source: Hussein Ali Sha’aban, Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, From Hosting through Discrimination.
[ARABIC] Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2002. (Figures as of June 2001).
(1)
Marginal camps are considered ‘illegal settlements’ and were established during the different waves
of displacement. They also provided shelter to refugees displaced as a result of the destruction of official
camps and refugee housing during the civil war in Lebanon.
(2)
Refugee ‘Gatherings’ are located far from the cities and are largely inhabited by refugees who have
moved out of the camps due to improved socio-economic status. Unlike camps, refugees in gatherings
own their homes.
48
Population
In Syria almost 40 percent of the refugees live in urban centers with a small number
living in rural areas. In pre-war (2003) Iraq, the majority (90 percent) of Palestinian
refugees lived in the greater Baghdad area, with a smaller concentration living in the
north of the country.25 As of 1998 a small population of Palestinians, approximately
1,000, resided in the northern city of Mosul, with another 700-1,000 persons in the
southern city of Basra.
Demographic Indicators
The Palestinian refugee and IDP population is young, it has high but declining fertility
and low mortality. An average of 40 percent of the Palestinian refugee population in
major Arab host countries is below the age of fifteen. Approximately 35 percent of all
registered refugees are below age fifteen. There are no statistics for internally displaced
Palestinians; however, differences between refugees and non-refugees in major Arab
host states, except Lebanon, are negligible.26 The age structure of internally displaced
Palestinians is therefore likely to follow that of Palestinians inside Israel and in the
occupied Palestinian territories.27
������
Figure 2.2��������
– Age�����������������������������������������
Structure of Palestinian Refugees
���������
������������
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�
��
��
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��
��
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Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Abstract of Palestine, No. 4. Institute of
Women’s Studies, Birzeit University, 2002. Inside Palestinian Households, Initial Analysis of a Communitybased Household Survey. Figures for the West Bank and Gaza Strip only include refugees in camps. All
figures are for 2002, except Lebanon (2001) and Jordan (1996).
Refugees have a high fertility rate but there is a consistent decline in the fertility
rate among Palestinian refugees in Jordan, the occupied West Bank and in Lebanon
due to a postponement of marriage and an increase in the proportion of women
remaining single. The decline in the Gaza Strip is much slower. In all major Arab
host countries Palestinian refugees have a lower fertility rate than the non-refugee
population.28 The fertility rate among internally displaced Palestinians inside Israel
and in the occupied Palestinian territories is likely to be similar to the non-refugee
Palestinian population.
���� �
49
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Table 2.8 – Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of Palestinian Refugees
Host Country
Totality Fertility Rate (TFR)
Gaza
Refugees
Camp refugees
Non-camp refugees
West Bank
Refugees
Camp refugees
Non-camp refugees
Jordan
Refugees
Camp refugees
Non-camp refugees
Lebanon
Camp refugees
Syria
Camp and non-camp refugees
7.69
7.47
7.95
5.50
5.68
5.44
4.85
5.25
4.77
3.90
5.2
Source: FAF0 – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis
and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol I: Socio-economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. All figures are for the period 1991-1994, except Syria (1996-2000).
Non-camp refugees in Syria only include refugees in gatherings. A gathering is defined as a community
outside a camp with 25 or more households.
Infant and child mortality rates of the refugee population are relatively low and have
also declined over the past five decades. Infant mortality rates, for example, declined
from around 200 per 1,000 births in 1950 to around 27 per 1,000 births in the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories and 10 per 1,000 births inside Israel in 2000.29
Trends for Jordan’s refugees and Lebanon’s camp refugees are similar but the decline
is smaller.
Table 2.9 – Infant and Child Mortality of Palestinian Refugees
Country
Jordan
Lebanon
Gaza Strip
West Bank
Jordan
Syria
Infant Mortality
24.9
31.5
28.2
25.7
23.9
23.5
Child Mortality
27.4
36.8
35.0
31.0
25.8
26.5
Sources: FAF0 – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis
and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol I: Socio-economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Abstract of
Palestine No. 4. Figures for Jordan and Lebanon only include refugees in camps.
The Palestinian refugee and IDP population also has a high growth rate. This is
similar to the Palestinian population as a whole, which has roughly doubled every
twenty years.30 The rate of natural growth is highest (over 4 percent) among Bedouin
refugees, refugees residing in Jordan and internally displaced Palestinians inside Israel.
Survey data suggests that the growth rate in the OPTs has accelerated during intifada
years.31
50
Population
������
Figure 2.3
– Annual
Population Growth Rate of Registered Refugees
����
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�� ��� ���&�� � �*�� ��� �� ��� ��&��� +�+&������� 0� ��� +� ��� ���� � ����� ��&��� ���"� ����� ��$ ��"���
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Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The annual growth rate is the
percentage growth in the number of refugees registered with UNRWA. As a number of registered refugees
don’t register immediately the new births and deaths, the annual growth in the registered refugees is an
approximation of the annual growth rate of the refugee population. In the period 1990 - 1995, refugee
registration increased. (Figures as of 30 June each year).
Developments in 2003
���� �
As of the end of 2003 there were an estimated 7.5 million Palestinian refugees and displaced
persons comprising more than three-quarters of the total Palestinian population worldwide.
The registered refugee population grew by an average of 2.74 percent in 2003. UNRWA’s
Registration Division witnessed a sharp increase in the number of refugees updating their
registration records as a result of the political and humanitarian crisis in the OPTs. A total
of 145 refugee families entered into the official registration system between July 2002 and
June 2003.32 Inquiries were directed to the Agency regarding registration of Palestinians in
Iraq and members of two Palestinian tribes (Baqara and Ghanamah) in Syria.
UNRWA’s Registration Division continued the amalgamation of the ex-code process,
which integrates the records of the original 1948 refugee families with all other documents
related to their descendants. Eighty-three percent of the files in Lebanon and 67 percent
of those in the West Bank were amalgamated by June 2003. Amalgamation of ex-codes
will commence in Jordan when the family files are digitally scanned. Amalgamation was
completed in Syria and the Gaza Strip in 2002.
51
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Most host countries outside the Middle East region continue to exclude Palestinian refugees
as a category of refugees in asylum statistics. In June 2003, however, the Parliament of the
Council of Europe (CoE) called upon member states (Resolution 1338, 25 June 2003)
to include information on Palestinian origin in statistics concerning asylum seekers and
refugees. Information on changes in policy among CoE member states was not available
at the end of 2003.
During 2003 there was a significant increase in internal displacement in the occupied
Palestinian territories, due, primarily, to Israel’s construction of a separation (‘apartheid’)
Wall in the occupied West Bank for alleged security reasons. It is estimated that more than
2,300 Palestinians were displaced in 2003 by the Wall.33 A survey at the end of 2003 found
that 5 percent of the Palestinian households west of the Wall changed or were considering
changing their place of residence. Another 4.9 percent of Palestinian households east of
the Wall had also moved or were considering moving as a result of the wall.34
In total approximately 200,000 Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank, including
eastern Jerusalem, will be affected by the Wall. While they may not be displaced physically,
they will be economically and socially cut off from neighborhoods to which they were formerly
connected. This includes 80,000 Palestinians who will be surrounded by the Wall in enclaves
and 20,000 who are or will be wedged between the Wall and the 1949 Armistice Line (‘Green
Line’). More than 76,000 of those affected by the Wall are registered refugees.35
Prolonged curfews, house demolitions and harassment and attacks from Jewish settlers
continue to force Palestinians in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories to relocate. In
the southern West Bank city of Hebron, for example, 75 of 169 families (43 percent)
living in area ‘H2’ under Israeli security control in the center of the city were forced to
relocate elsewhere due to constant harassment and pressure from Israeli military forces
and Jewish settlers. Approximately 35,000 Palestinians live in H2 (4.3 sq. km) alongside
500 Jewish settlers.36
The distribution of Palestinian refugees and IDPs remained largely unchanged in 2003
except for the displacement of Palestinians within the occupied Palestinian territories as
a result of the separation Wall and a significant displacement of Palestinian refugees in
Iraq who sought refuge in border areas due to the April 2003 war and US-led occupation
of the country. By the end of 2003, however, most of the refugees ‘voluntarily’ returned
to Iraq after UNHCR was unable to find a second country of asylum. A small number
remained in Ruweished refugee camp on the border with Jordan.
52
Population
Annex 2.1 – Notes for Table 2.1
(1) 1948 registered refugees – UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). UNRWA figures are based on data voluntarily
supplied by registered refugees. Figures as of 30 June each year. UNRWA registration statistics do not claim to be and should not be taken as
statistically valid demographic data. It is collected by UNRWA for its own internal management purposes, and to facilitate certification of refugees’
elegibility to receive education, health and relief and social services. New information on births, marriages, deaths and change in place of residence
is recorded only when a refugee requests the updating of the family registration card issued by the Agency. UNRWA does not carry out a census,
house-to-house survey or any other means to ascertain whether the place of residence is the actual place of residence; refugees will normally report
births, deaths and marriages when they seek a service from the Agency. New births, for instance, are reported early if the family avails itself of the
UNRWA maternal and child health services or when the child reaches school age if admission is sought to an UNRWA school, or even later if
neither of these services is needed. While families are encouraged to have a separate registration card for each nuclear family (parents and children),
this is not obligatory. Family size information may therefore include a mix of nuclear and extended families, in some instances including as many
as four generations.
(2) 1948 non-registered refugees – Derived from The Palestinian Nakba 1948, The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine. London: The
Palestinian Return Centre, 1998, and the average annual growth rate of the Palestinian refugee population (3.5 percent). The figures do not account
for the small number of refugees reunified with family inside Israel.
(3) 1967 first time displaced refugees – Derived from Report of the Secretary General under General Assembly Resolution 2252 (EX-V) and Security
Council Resolution 237 (1967), UN Doc. A/6797, 15 September 1967 and the average annual growth rate of the Palestinian population (3.5
percent). The figures do not include 1948 refugees displaced for a second time in 1967. The figures for 1967 exclude those refugees who returned
under a limited repatriation program in August-September 1967. The figures do not account for Palestinians who were abroad at the time of the
1967 war and unable to return, refugees reunified with family inside the occupied Palestinian territories, or those refugees who returned since
1994 under the Oslo political process.
(4) ‘Other’ refugees - Derived from George F. Kossaifi, The Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return. Washington, DC: The Center for Policy
Analysis on Palestine, 1996, based on an average forced migration rate of 21,000 persons per year. Includes those Palestinian refugees who are
neither 1948 or 1967 refugees and are outside the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967 and unable due to revocation of residency,
denial of family reunification, deportation, etc., or unwilling to return there owing to a well-founded fear of persecution. The figures are based on
the percentage of non-refugee Palestinians in the OPTs (57 percent) and the average annual growth rate of the refugee population (3.5 percent).
The figures do not account for family reunification, those refugees who returned to the occupied Palestinian territories since 1994 under the Oslo
political process and for a small number of Palestinians from inside Israel who have sought refugee asylum.
(5) 1948 internally displaced persons – Derived from initial registration figures from UNRWA in Report of the Director of the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UN Doc. A/1905, 30 June 1951 and an estimated average annual growth rate of
the Palestinian population inside Israel between 1950 and 2001 (4.2 percent). According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Palestinian
Muslim population inside Israel (which comprises 82 percent of the total Palestinian population inside Israel) increased annually by 4.4 percent
between 1948 and 2001. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2002. Statistical Abstract of Israel, No. 53. A significant number of internally displaced
Palestinians received assistance from UNRWA until the Agency turned over responsibilities for the internally displaced to Israel in 1952. The
population estimate for 1950 was likely included as UNRWA registered refugees. The figure does not include those Palestinians internally displaced
after 1948, conservatively estimated at 75,000 persons. Internally Displaced Palestinians, International Protection, and Durable Solutions. BADIL
Information & Discussion Brief No. 9 (November 2002). The annual average growth rate of the IDP population is upgraded by a quarter of a
percentage point to allow for further internal displaced after 1948 due to internal transfer, land confiscation and house demolition.
(6) 1967 internally displaced persons – The estimate includes persons internally displaced during the 1967 war from destroyed Palestinian villages
in the OPTs. This figure is upgraded by the average annual growth rate of the refugee population (3.5 percent). Internally Displaced Palestinians,
International Protection, and Durable Solutions. BADIL Information & Discussion Brief No. 9 (November 2002). The figure is upgraded to include
the average number of Palestinians displaced by house demolition (1,037) each year between 1967 and 2000. The number of Palestinians affected by
house demolition is not upgraded according to the average annual population growth due to the fact that it is unknown how many IDPs return to
their home of origin. The number of IDPs in the occupied Palestinian territories for 2003 is based on the estimated number of IDPs displaced during
the 1967 war and the estimated number of Palestinian homes demolished in 2003 as punitive punishment. Table, Demolition of Houses by Years
in the al-Aqsa Intifada, B’tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (www.btselem.org). The number
of Palestinians displaced is based on an average household size of 6.4 persons. Table 3.2.14, Percentage Distribution of Households by Household
Size, Average Household Size and Region, 2002. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Abstract of Palestine No. 4. The figure does
not include the number of Palestinians displaced due to the proximity of their homes to Israeli military checkpoints and colonies (i.e. settlements).
The figure also includes the number of persons displaced in 2003 by Israel’s separation wall. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Survey
on the Impact of Separation Wall on the Localities Where it Passed Through. The significant difference between 2002 and 2003 is due to the mass but
temporary internal displacement resulting from the Israeli military reinvasion of Palestinians towns, villages and refugee camps in 2002.
(7) Convention Refugees – UNHCR, 2003 Global Refugee Trends, Overview of Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions, Asylum-Seekers
and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR. Geneva: Population Data Unit/PGDS, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, 15 June 2004. Data
reported by UNHCR country offices generally reflect the view of the host country. The statistics are provisional and subject to change. This figure
includes approximately 428,000 Palestinian refugees of concern to UNHCR.
53
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Endnotes
The term ‘country of origin’ used here “is not limited to nationality in a formal sense, that is, nationality acquired at birth or by
conferral; it embraces, at the very least, an individual who, because of his or her special ties to or claims in relation to a given country,
cannot be considered to be a mere alien. This would be the case, for example, of nationals of a country who have there been stripped
of their nationality in violation of international law, and of individuals whose country of nationality has been incorporated in or
transferred to another national entity, whose nationality is being denied them.” See, Human Rights Committee, General Comment
27, Freedom of Movement (Article 12), UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9 (1999).
2
The definition of a Palestinian refugee used here is based on the 1951 UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine draft definition
of a Palestine refugee. Addendum to Definition of a ‘Refugee’Under Paragraph 11 of General Assembly Resolution of 11 December 1948
(Prepared by the Legal Advisor), UN Doc. W/61/Add.1, 29 May 1951.
3
Table 1, Estimated Palestinian Population in the World by Country, End Year 2003, Palestinians at the End of Year 2003. Ramallah:
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (December 2003), p. 27.
4
Original registration was carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the League of Red Crescent Societies and
in Gaza by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). In 1950-51 UNRWA carried out a census in all areas of operations
excluding the Gaza Strip where it relied on AFSC records. UNRWA registration includes an individual registration number, a family
registration number and a family ex-code that links the computerized demographic data in the family registration number sheet with
the non-computerized data in the family files. The latter includes birth, marriage and death certificates and a limited number of property
deeds. For more information see, Reinterpreting the Historical Record, The Uses of Palestinian Refugee Archives for Social Science Research
and Policy Analysis, Salim Tamari and Elia Zureik (eds.). Jerusalem: Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 2001.
5
Annual Report of the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July 1951 – 30
June 1952. UN GAOR, 7th Sess., Supp. No. 13 (A/2171), 30 June 1952, para. 8. Initial registration files for the internally displaced
Palestinians include 6 boxes consisting of 11,304 family cards and 5,155 correction cards. Each card contains the names, ages, sex,
occupation, past address and ‘distribution center’ to which the family was attached. UNRWA refers to these files as ‘dead’ files.
Reinterpreting the Historical Record, supra note 4, p. 45.
6
UNGA Resolution 37/120 (I), 16 December 1982. Report of the Secretary General, 12 September 1983, UN Doc. A/38/382.
7
‘Consolidated Registration Instructions’ (CRI), 1 Jan. 1993, para. 2.13, see, Annex 2. For an overview of the development of the
UNRWA definition of a Palestine Refugee see, Lex Takkenberg, The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law. Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1998, pp. 68-83.
8
UNRWA collects statistics for internal management purposes and to facilitate certification of refugees’eligibility to receive education,
health and relief and social services. New information on births, deaths and change in place of residence is recorded only when a refugee
requests the updating of a family registration card issued by the Agency. UNRWA does not carry out a census, house-to-house survey
or any other means to ascertain whether the place of residence is the actual place of residence; refugees will normally report births,
deaths and marriages when they obtain a service from the Agency.
9
For more information on UNHCR’s mandate for Palestinian refugees see, ‘Note on the Applicability of Article 1D of the 1951
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian Refugees,’ October 2002. For analysis refer to Chapter Five of the
Survey.
10
Table 4, Refugee population and changes by major origin and country of asylum, 2003, UNHCR, 2003 Global Refugee Trends, Overview
of Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions, Asylum-Seekers and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR. Geneva: Population
Data Unit/PGDS, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, 15 June 2004, p. 29. In May 2003 UNHCR estimated that there were
60-90,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq. “Evicted Palestinians in Baghdad to receive UNHCR aid,” UNHCR Press Release, 9 May 2003.
Human Rights Watch estimated the number of Palestinians in Iraq at 35,000-75,000. Human Rights Watch, Flight from Iraq: Attacks
on Refugees and other Foreigners and their Treatment in Jordan. Vol. 15, No. 4. New York: Human Rights Watch, May 2003.
11
Israel last carried out a census of the IDP population in 1949 to plan for internal transfer of the Palestinian population remaining
after the 1948 war. According to the census there were 7,005 IDPs from 56 villages of origin residing in 26 different Palestinian villages
in the Galilee. The census did not cover all areas of the state. Central Zionist Archive, A-206/246. Census documents are archived
in the Central Zionist Archive, Yosef Weitz file, 296/246 and 206/246. Cited in Hillel Cohen, HaNifkadim HaNokhahim, HaPlitim
HaFalestinim BeIsrael me’az 1948 [The Present Absentees: Palestinian Refugees in Israel Since 1948]. Jerusalem: Van Lear Institute,
2000.
12
Table 11 – Distribution of localities which continued to exist in northern Israel, by the number of refugees who entered them,
Charles S. Kamen, “After the Catastrophe I: The Arabs in Israel, 1948-51,” Middle Eastern Studies, p. 473.
13
Report of the Secretary General under General Assembly Resolution 2252 (ES-V) and Security Council Resolution 237 (1967), UN Doc.
A/6797, 15 September 1967.
14
For more details see, William Wilson Harris, Taking Root, Israeli Settlement in the West Bank, the Golan and the Gaza-Sinai, 19671980. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1980.
15
Table 5, Palestinian Estimates of Displaced Persons and Refugees During the 1967 War, Tayseer Amro, “Displaced Persons: Categories
and Numbers Used by the Palestinian Delegation [to the Quadripartite Committee] (not including spouses and descendants).” Article
1
54
Population
74, No. 14 (1995). Jerusalem: BADIL/Alternative Information Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights.
16
George F. Kossaifi, The Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return. Washington, DC: The Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine,
1996, p. 8. According to the Jordanian government, some 7,000 Palestinians from the West Bank were displaced to Jordan every
year between 1968 and 1988. UN Doc. CERD/C/318/Add.1, 14 April 1998. Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 9 of the
Convention. Twelfth Periodic Report of States Parties due in 1997, Jordan, at para. 25.
17
Growing Fast, the Palestinian Population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Jon Pederson, Sara Randall, and Marwan Khawaja (eds.).
Norway: FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science, 2001, p. 153.
18
Table Two, Demolition of Rooms and Affected Families and Individuals in Gaza Strip Refugee Camps, as of June 1989, UNRWA
Accommodation Office, Gaza (July 1991), cited in Norma Masriyeh Hazboun, Israeli Resettlement Schemes for Palestinian Refugees in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip Since 1967. Shaml Monograph Series 4. Ramallah: Shaml Palestinian Refugee and Diaspora Center,
1996, p. 32.
19
Impact of the Israeli Measures. Survey on the Well-being of the Palestinian Children, Women, and the Palestinian Households. Ramallah:
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, June 2001.
20
UNRWA Emergency Appeal 2004. Jerusalem: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, December 2003.
21
Figure derived from estimate of the population in the area cited in Final Report of the UN Economic Survey Mission for the Middle
East, Part I, The Final Report and Appendices, p. 1. Population figures for Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, from World Bank figures.
Jordan Data Profile, Lebanon Data Profile, Syrian Arab Republic Data Profile, and Iraq Data Profile. World Development Indicators
Database, July 2001.
22
Salman Abu Sitta, From Refugees to Citizens at Home, The End of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. London: The Palestinian Return
Centre, 2001, p. 23.
23
The majority of refugees in two West Bank camps, Aqabat Jabr and ‘Ein al-Sultan, however, were displaced to Jordan during the
1967 war. Prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the number of registered refugees in Aqabat Jabr refugee camp totalled some 30,000.
There were 20,000 refugees in ‘Ein al-Sultan camp.
24
Hussein Ali Sha’aban, Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon from Hosting through Discrimination. [Arabic] Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2002. Also
see, Difficult Past, Uncertain Future: Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon. Ole Fr. Ugland
(ed.). Oslo: FAFO Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003.
25
For more details see, Arab Commission for Human Rights, The Palestinians in Iraq, Report prepared by Dr. Haytham Manna
Spokesperson for the Arab Commission for Human Rights, Following a visit to Iraq from June 10 to June 17, 2003. Paris, 24 June
2003; Palestinian Refugees in Iraq. Department of Refugee Affairs, Palestine Liberation Organization, 1999.
26
Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I, Socio-economic Conditions of Palestinian Refugees
in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Laurie Blome Jacobsen (ed.). Oslo: FAFO Institute for Applied Social
Science, 2003, p. 20.
27
Inside Israel 39.7 percent of the Palestinian population is under the age of 15. Table 2.1.3, Percentage Distribution of Palestinians
in Israel by Age Groups and Sex (End of 2002), Statistical Abstract of Israel No. 4. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics,
2003, p. 140. In the occupied Palestinian territories 45.8 percent of the Palestinian population is under the age of 15. Table 3.2.4,
Projected Population in the Palestinian Territory in the End Year by Age Groups and Sex, 2002, ibid, p. 191.
28
Finding Means, supra note 26, p. 25.
29
Table 2, Palestinian Mortality, 1860-2000, Justin McCarthy, Palestine’s Population During the Ottoman and the British Periods. Available
at, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story559.html#Table%202. [last visited 22/10/04].
30
Between 1950 and 1995, the Palestinian population in 16 selected regions of the Middle East grew by an average of 3.3 percent per
annum. For the last five-year period, the Palestinian population in these 16 countries increased at the highest rate ever, 3.7 percent per
year. Arjun L. Adlakha, Kevin G. Kinsella and Marwan Khawaja. Demography of the Palestinian Population with Special Emphasis on the
Occupied Territories. Available at, http://www.undp.org/popin/regional/escwa/popbull/bull43/chapter2.htm. [last visited 15/06/01].
31
Finding Means, supra note 26, p. 20.
32
Report of the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July 2002
– 30 June 2003. UN GAOR, 58th Sess., Supp. No. 13 (A/58/13), 10 October 2003, para. 80.
33
Survey of the Impact of the Separation Wall on the Localities Where it Passed Through, 2003. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, August 2003, p. 5.
34
Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in which the Separation Wall
Passes Through (October 2003). Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, December 2003, p. 5.
35
The Impact of the First Phase of Barrier on UNRWA-Registered Refugees. Jerusalem: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees,
2003. Available at, http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/barrier/f-phase.html. [last visited 19/11/04].
36
Hebron – Area H2, Settlements Cause Mass Departure of Palestinians. Jerusalem: Btselem, 2003, p. 8. The families lived on three
streets: al-Casbah, small Shalala, and Shuhada. Since the beginning of the second intifada 2,000-2,500 businesses have closed in the
Casbah and Bab az-Zawiya. Out of 500 shops on Casbah street only 15 are open. The number of pupils in Qordoba school dropped
from 500 to 130.
55
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
56
Chapter
Living Conditions
Three
57
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Living Conditions
Preface
Mass displacement and dispossession over more than five decades has had a discernable
impact on the living conditions of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons.
Lack of respect for human rights in host areas and inside their homeland, inadequate
levels of assistance and poor human development in some host countries have an ongoing
impact on refugee living conditions.
The unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the most negative factor affecting the living
conditions of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced. The protracted conflict distorts
national policy priorities, impedes human development and limits opportunities for growth,
prosperity and freedom across the region. While the conflict has region-wide implications,
Palestinian refugees and IDPs are the most vulnerable.
Employment and household income, housing conditions, educational attainment and
opportunities and the health of refugees and internally displaced are important indicators
for public planning and policy relative to protection and assistance as well as durable
solutions. Refugee living conditions vary across host countries, between refugees inside and
outside camps and between refugees and host country nationals.
Refugees and IDPs often experience higher rates of unemployment and poverty and lower
incomes. Housing conditions in many areas do not meet international standards. Education
attainment, elementary enrollment and literacy rates are generally high but there is a mixed
relationship between education and economic opportunities. Mother and child health
indicators are fairly good; however, refugees appear to experience higher rates of chronic
illness and psychological distress.
Protracted conflict, shortfalls in donor contributions and inadequate protection have led
to a steady decline in Palestinian living conditions over the last decade. In many areas,
the status of Palestinian refugees and IDPs compares unfavorably with that of host country
nationals and when compared to relevant international standards.
58
Living Conditions
Employment, Labor Force Participation and Income
Employment, labor force participation and income are related to access to labor
markets, education, health, the role of women in the workplace and political stability.
In some host states, like Lebanon, Palestinian refugees do not have access to all sectors
of the labor market. There is a mixed association between refugee education and
employment in Arab host states.
Sub-standard living conditions, especially in camps, lead to health problems which
affect labor force participation. Across the region economic indicators for women
lag behind those for men. The 1990-91 Gulf war, the civil war in Lebanon (19761991) and the first and second intifadas in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
have had a negative impact on access to employment, labor force participation and
household income.
Employment Structure: Construction, industry and services are the largest
sectors of employment for refugees residing in the occupied Palestinian territories,
Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and among internally displaced Palestinians* in Israel.
Approximately half of all refugee men and IDPs are employed in construction, trade
and manufacturing. Women are more often employed in health, education and
administration. While a majority of refugees and IDPs originate from rural villages,
few today are employed in agriculture.
There are few major differences in the employment structure between camp and
non-camp refugees. Construction, industry and services are the largest sectors of
employment for both groups. Palestinian refugees outside camps in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, however, are more often employed
in agriculture and in public administration. In Jordan and Syria manufacturing plays
a more important role for refugee women in camps than for women residing outside
camps.
Table 3.1 - Employment Structure of Refugees in Lebanon and Jordan
Jordan
Camp
Agriculture
Mining, Manufacturing
Construction
Public
Trade, Hotels, Restaurants
Public Administration
Education, Health, Social
Other Services
M
1
20
13
28
11
4
11
11
F
5
30
0
11
0
3
42
8
Percent of the Employed
Non-camp
Camp
M
F
M
4
8
10
20
18
14
10
1
26
26
7
27
11
2
6
8
5
0
9
39
8
12
20
9
Lebanon
Non-camp
F
10
12
1
21
1
0
32
23
M
14
14
18
31
6
0
7
9
F
17
12
2
21
2
0
32
15
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis
and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Non-camp figures for Lebanon only include refugee ‘gatherings’
defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
Israel does not maintain separate statistics for internally displaced Palestinians. (see Chapter Two
- Population) Living condition surveys of the Palestinian refugee population conducted in the 1990s
and early 2000s do not include IDPs. There are few differences in living conditions of refugees and nonrefugees in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is assumed that this trend holds true for Palestinians
inside Israel. Figures for IDPs are therefore indicative rather than conclusive.
*
59
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Sewing shop in Khan Younis refugee camp. © BADIL.
60
Living Conditions
Palestinian refugees are under-represented in the public administration and agricultural
sectors compared to host country nationals. The same applies to internally displaced
Palestinians inside Israel relative to Jewish nationals. In the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories, however, there are few differences between the refugee and non-refugee
Palestinian population, although slightly more non-refugees are employed in
agriculture. (See Annex for more details)
Labor force participation: Less than half of the total refugee labor force is
economically active. The labor force participation rate is the proportion of every
employed and unemployed person above 15 years of age to the total population above
that age. Employed persons include everyone who worked for at least one hour in
a reference period, for pay in cash or kind, or was temporarily absent from a job to
which the person has a firm attachment. Unemployed persons include everyone who
did not work at all in the reference period, even for one hour, and who was available
for work and actively sought work in the reference period.
Participation among refugee women compared to refugee men is very low. Labor force
participation rates for refugee men are approximately 70 percent and 9-18 percent for
refugee women.1 Labor force participation generally increases with higher education,
especially among women. Education is the most important reason for economic
inactivity among younger men. Older men cite health reasons. Young women cite
education and family duties as the most important reason for economic inactivity;
among older women family duties is most important.
Figure 3.1 – Refugee and IDP Total Labor Force Participation
Sources: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and
Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook
of Palestine No. 4.
61
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Table 3.2 - Reasons for Non-Participation in Labor Force (by age) in Jordan and Lebanon Camps
Percent of Persons not in the Labor Force by Age
25
45+
Jordan
Lebanon
Jordan
Lebanon
Jordan
Lebanon
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
M
F
7
1
8
2
53
3
47
4
80
12
86
30
12
2
17
6
25
4
38
5
3
0
7
1
72
41
62
30
5
1
5
0
0
0
0
0
7
14
2
11
7
17
0
6
1
44
43
86
81
86
66
9
5
13
4
17
4
2
2
2
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis
and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
15-24
Disabled or retired
Lost hope of finding job
Full-time student
Family disagree
Housewife and care
Other
Refugees in camps tend to have slightly lower rates of labor force participation. Camp
men tend to enter and exit the labor force at an earlier age, possibly due to health
problems related to camp living conditions and employment in more difficult working
conditions.2 In Lebanon refugees in camps have slightly higher rates of participation
than refugees in gatherings outside camps. Refugee camps in the occupied Gaza Strip
have the lowest rate of labor force participation.
Labor force participation rates in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are higher among nonrefugees as compared to refugees and higher among Jews than Palestinians inside
Israel. In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories there are few differences between
refugees and non-refugee Palestinians. (See Annex for more details)
Unemployment: Unemployment rates range from 5 to 35 percent, although rates in
the occupied Palestinian territories are substantially higher today due to Israeli military
practices during the second intifada. Unemployed persons include everyone who did
not work at all in the reference period, even for one hour, and who was available for
work and actively sought work in the reference period. The unemployment rate is
the proportion of unemployed persons to the total labor force.
Unemployment is higher among refugee women than among men in Jordan, Syria and
Lebanon but there are few differences between refugee women and men in the 1967
OPTs and among IDPs in Israel. Unemployment is also high among young refugees.
Education has a mixed association with unemployment rates. In the occupied West
Bank education makes almost no difference to unemployment rates; in the occupied
Gaza Strip and Lebanon unemployment rates decrease with higher education.
Table 3.3 - Unemployment Rates (by age) in Jordan, Lebanon, 1967 OPTs and Syria
M
F
Age
15-24
25-44
45+
Jordan
Camp
Non-camp
11
16
13
30
18
11
7
30
15
10
Percent of Persons Unemployed
Lebanon
West Bank
Gaza Strip
Camp
Non-camp
Camp
Non-camp
Camp
Non-camp
16
16
12
9
19
17
18
22
13
9
20
17
25
14
11
16
13
5
12
9
6
35
16
15
28
13
9
Syria
All
13.2
15.5
33
22
23
Sources: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee
Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. In Lebanon camp includes non-camp refugees on age and education due to too few observations
for separate breakdown. For Lebanon age 15-24 age is unweighted average of smaller age-groups used by the PCBS.
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4. Non-camp figures for Lebanon
only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
62
Living Conditions
The relationship between camp residence, education and unemployment is also
mixed. In Jordan unemployment among refugees in camps increases significantly with
education compared to rates among refugees outside camps. Unemployment among
camp refugees in the occupied Gaza Strip decreases with higher education, but appears
to make little difference among camp refugees in the occupied West Bank.
Emergency employment project
in Aida refugee camp. © BADIL.
Unemployment rates among refugees in Lebanon are higher than rates among Lebanese
nationals. There is little difference between refugees and non-refugees in Jordan.
Unemployment rates outside camps in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories tend
to be similar with non-refugee Palestinians. (See Annex for more details)
Income: Annual per capita incomes range from US$450 to $600. Household
incomes are higher among refugees in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories than
elsewhere and lowest among refugees in Syria. Gross national income in Lebanon,
however, is nearly four times higher than in Syria and double that of Jordan.3 Most
refugee households rely on income from wages and self-employment. The remaining
households that depend on transfers are a vulnerable low income group.
Refugee camps are low income areas compared to non-camp areas. This is especially
true in Lebanon. In the occupied Gaza Strip refugee camps and villages have the
same income levels. Camp households in Gaza and Lebanon have the lowest access
to wage employment. Camp households in Lebanon rely more on self-employment
than elsewhere. Refugees in camps in Syria rely the least on transfers.
63
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Table 3.4 - Main Sources of Income
Jordan
Wage
Self-Employment
Transfers
Other
Lebanon
Camp
Noncamp
62
17
19
3
60
21
14
4
Syria
Camp
Noncamp
56
23
18
1
67
14
17
2
Gaza
Camp
Noncamp
63
21
13
4
62
24
11
3
West Bank
Camp
Noncamp
Camp
55
12
27
9
59
16
20
10
73
12
16
10
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis
and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Figures for Gaza and West Bank (1996). Non-camp figures for
Lebanon and Syria only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or
more households.
Poverty and Palestinian Refugees
“Poverty is largely associated with family size, health, access to paid work, and access to transfers from others. The worst off
families are those that do not qualify for assistance and they have no employed members. Slightly better off, but constituting a
far larger proportion of the total, are large families with few employed members and many dependents. By contrast, female- or
elderly-headed households with no earners are often poor, but are generally better off than the other two poor groups. This is
because they more often qualify for assistance from UNRWA or receive help from family members.
“Refugees in Lebanon are worst off because they are excluded from the formal labor market and they have poorer health. They
make up the highest proportion of families with no employed member and the transfers they receive cannot compensate for
this. Refugees in Syria are better off than those in other fields, despite Syria being the poorest country. This is because many
women refugees in Syria work, and because the education level of middle-aged working refugees in that country is higher than
in other fields, facilitating relatively higher incomes.
������
“In Syria the national economy is relatively poor. But, many members of the household work
- more than any other field. The
net result is lower levels of poverty among camp �������� ���������������������������
refugees in Syria than elsewhere despite living in a
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����� - Household
�������
������� Rates������
������
Poverty
����������
���
������ ���
���
������ ���
���
relatively ‘poor’ country.
�
��
��
��
�
��
� ����������
�
� �������
“Lebanon has a higher per capita national income than
other countries but refugees are poorer than anywhere
else. Fewer refugees are employed with lower refugee
participation in the labor force, which is the result of
chronic illness and poor access to labor market. The
combination of virtually no access to large-scale social
welfare and limited access to labor income translates
into very high rates of poverty among camp and
gathering refugees, regardless of the national wealth
and economic development.
��
��
��
�
�
“Camp population has weak safety net structure to
resist economic downturns. Many camp dwellers are
poor, with the proportion of people earning less than
two dollars a day per person ranging from some 25
percent in Syria to 35 percent in Lebanon. In the camps
the winners are those with a high level of education
and those who work for UNRWA or other international
organizations. Also, in Lebanon there are more ultrapoor people among camp and gathering refugees than
in the other fields.”4
��
��
��
��
��� �
������������������
���������
���
�
��
�
“[I]n Jordan while there is some exclusion of refugees from
the labor market, they have good access to large-scale
government social welfare. These characteristics keep
a huge proportion of refugees in Jordan away from the
brink of poverty.
��
�
��
�
���������� ����
���������� ����
�����
�� ����
���������� ����
!��� ��
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means,
UNRWA’s Financial Situation and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees.
Summary Report. Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000. Poverty
is defined by income deprivation based on the World Bank USD2 (poor) and
USD1 (ultra-poor) per capita per day as the poverty line. Poverty data for the 1967
occupied Palestinian territories is not comparable due to poverty lines constructed
by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics with a basis in a minimum, local
food-plus basket using household expenditure data. In the West Bank 13 percent
of camp refugees are ultra poor and 19 percent poor. In the Gaza Strip 24 percent
are ultra poor and 38 percent poor. In 2002, 46.8 percent of Palestinians in Israel
lived below the poverty line. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 2001/2002.
64
���� �
Living Conditions
There are only minor differences in income levels between refugees outside camps and
non-refugees in Jordan. This also appears to hold true for the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories. Refugees in Lebanon, however, have much lower levels of income than
non-refugees. More non-refugees than refugees rely on wages as the principle source
of income. (See Annex for more details)
Housing
Substandard housing is an indicator of the lack of development. It is also linked to poor
health and has the greatest impact on women and other caregivers, children, handicapped
and the elderly.5 In some areas camp refugees may have better infrastructure due to more
international assistance. Thousands of refugee shelters in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories and in Lebanon have been destroyed during periods of conflict.
Housing problems tend to be more pronounced in camps, however, refugee camps
often have better infrastructure than areas outside camps due to international
assistance. While the area of refugee camps has remained the same over the last
fifty years the population has more than quadrupled. In areas where construction is
permissible this has led to vertical expansion of the camps. In some areas, like Lebanon,
the government has prohibited construction in the camps.
Crowding: More than a quarter of all refugee households in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are crowded. The international
standard for crowding is three or more persons per room. Overcrowding is related to
������
�������� ��������������������������������������������������
Figure 3.3 – Percent of Households with 3+ Persons per Room
���� ��������
������������
����������� ����
���������������������
��
��
$%������� �����(.
!����������
��
!��������� ����
��
$%����"������������,
"�#�����
"�#���� ����
$%����&�����'�����
$%����"����������
$%������� ����
��
��
$%����&�����'������,(
��
"�#���� �����(-
��
��
�����������%
"�#�������)
!��������� �����,)
!������������+
����������� �����(*
�������������()
���������������������
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee
Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Non-camp figures for Lebanon and Syria only include refugee ‘gatherings’
defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
65
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
lack of resources to expand existing shelters or build new ones, planning and building
restrictions and household size. Refugee dwellings comprise an average of three rooms.
Average household size is smallest in Lebanon and Syria; households in the occupied
Palestinian territories are larger than elsewhere.6
Housing densities in camps are the highest in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
followed by Jordan, Syria (excluding Yarmouk camp) and Lebanon. More than onethird of camp refugees live in overcrowded conditions. The average household size in
camps is smallest in Lebanon. This is related to migration and lower female fertility.7
The area of housing units in camps in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories and
in Jordan is larger than in Lebanon.8
Non-refugee households in Lebanon are less crowded than refugee households. There are
fewer differences in crowding between non-refugee households and refugee households
outside camps in Jordan and in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. In Israel
housing density among Palestinians is significantly higher than among Jews.9 Non-camp
and non-refugee populations in Jordan and the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
generally have larger dwellings than camp residents. (See Annex for more details)
Open sewage running in the street
Azmi al-Mufti refugee camp in
Jordan. © Jordanian Department
of Palestinian Affairs.
66
Infrastructure: Most refugee households are connected to a municipal sewage system
or a septic tank. Eight-five percent or more have a stable supply of electricity and
two-thirds or more have piped water or water delivered by tanker truck. Infrastructure
problems are most severe among households in Lebanon. Lebanon does not allow
camps to connect to municipal sewage systems. The primary infrastructure problem
facing all refugee households is access to a safe and stable supply of drinking water.
Living Conditions
Figure 3.4 - Percent of Households with Lack of Safe Drinking Water, Sanitation and Electricity
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee
Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. For the OPTs and Syria only includes households lacking electricity connection, stability not
included in survey. Non-camp figures for Lebanon and Syria only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community
outside a camp with 25 or more households.
Camp households may have better infrastructure than households outside of camps,
however, more than two-thirds of households without basic infrastructure are in camps.
Residents of rural camps generally face a higher risk of poor infrastructure than residents
of urban camps. Camps in the occupied Palestinian territories have historically had
better household infrastructure. Residents of Yarmouk camp and in gatherings in Syria
have better infrastructure than camp refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.
Access to basic infrastructure in refugee camps is generally better than in the group
of Arab countries as a whole.10 (See Annex for more details)
Indoor environment: Since 1948 cinder block and concrete shelters have eventually
replaced tents, huts and other forms of emergency shelters. Housing made of concrete
or concrete block is difficult to insulate in the winter and keep dry from the damp
increasing the risk of sickness and disease.11 Refugee households in Lebanon have the
most severe indoor living conditions. Satisfaction among refugees about indoor living
conditions is highest in Syria.
Table 3.5 - Percent of Households with Indoor Environment Problems
Humid
Cold in winter
Hot in summer
Poor Ventilation
Camp
66
66
64
41
Lebanon
Non-camp
62
68
58
28
Camp
60
56
65
45
Jordan
Non-Camp
61
49
39
22
Yarmouk
41
48
52
22
Syria
Camp
53
61
60
24
Non-camp
46
56
51
13
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis
and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Non-camp figures for Lebanon and Syria only include refugee
‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
67
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Indoor living conditions are generally worse among camp refugees than non-camp
refugees. Between one and three percent of camp refugees live in temporary or substandard housing.12 Rural refugees outside of camps in Jordan and the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories are more likely to reside in makeshift or otherwise unsafe
housing. Poor outdoor environment is also a problem in camps including few if any
public outdoor areas and green space, lack of garbage collection, noise, air pollution
and lack of safe outdoor spaces for children.13
Destruction of Refugee Camp Housing
Destruction in Jenin refugee camp after the Israeli military invasion of 2002. © BADIL.
During the past five decades, refugee shelters in Jordan, Lebanon and the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, in particular,
have been subject to widespread damage and destruction. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces destroyed several
refugee camps in the Jordan Valley on both sides of the Jordan river, including Nuweimeh camp in Jericho and the camp at
Karameh on the Jordanian side of the border. Most of the refugees living in Ein as-Sultan and Aqbat Jabr camps in Jericho
were displaced to Jordan. In Lebanon Israeli war planes totally destroyed al-Nabatiya refugee camp near the city of al-Nabatiya
in south Lebanon in 1974. Refugees were displaced to Ein al-Hilwe refugee camp and other camps in Beirut. Two years later,
Christian Phalangist forces totally destroyed Tal az-Za’ater and Jisr al-Basha refugee camps in eastern Beirut. Refugees were
displaced again to Ein al-Hilwe and other Beirut camps.
Table 3.6 – Destroyed Refugee Camps in Lebanon
Camp
Official Camp
al-Nabatiya (South)
Dbaieh (Beirut)
Jisr al-Basha (Beirut)
al-Dekwana (Beirut)
Mieh Mieh (Sida)
Unofficial Camp
al-Maslakh (Eastern Beirut)
Burj Hammod (Eastern Beirut)
al-Naba’a (Eastern Beirut)
Hursh Shatila (Western Beirut)
al-Hai al-Gharbi Shatila (Western Beirut)
al-Daouq (Western Beirut)
Marginal Camp
al-Shawakir (Sur)
Ras al-Ein (Sur)
Land Area
Population
Year of Destruction
103,455
83,576
22,000
56,646
54,040
6,500
5,500
3,000
15,100
4,500
1974
1975
1976
1976
1982
1,250
4,500
1,450
3,600
1,450
3,250
1975
1976
1976
1985
1985
1985
82
75
1986
1986
Source: Husein Ali Sha’aban, Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, From Hosting to Discrimination. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2002.
68
Living Conditions
Some of the displaced refugees from Dbaieh camp who remained in Lebanon later returned to the camp during the mid-1990s,
but most of the camp housing is occupied by other refugees and displaced (Lebanese and Palestinians). After 1982 some
Palestinian refugees, especially from other areas, found shelter in Mieh Mieh camp.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Israeli military demolished over 10,000 refugee shelters in several large refugee camps in the
occupied Gaza Strip displacing more than 62,000 refugees (UNRWA Accommodation Office). The demolition campaigns,
carried out under the guise of security operations, aimed to ‘thin-out’ the large refugee camps and facilitate forced resettlement
of the refugees.
During the 1980s, according to UNRWA estimates, 57 percent of refugee homes in the eight camps in Beirut, Saida and Tyre
areas of Lebanon were destroyed and 36 percent damaged in aerial bombardment, ground fighting or subsequent bulldozing
following Israel’s military invasion of the country. The massive damage affected some 73,500 refugees or 90 percent of the
camp population in those areas.
In the occupied West Bank Israeli military operations resulted in damage to more than a thousand homes in 2002 alone. In
Jenin refugee camp some 400 families were rendered homeless after the April 2002 assault and siege of the camp. Between
September 2000 and December 2003, more than 14,000 Palestinian refugees had been made homeless after the Israeli military
destroyed refugee shelters in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.
Education
Education is highly valued as a means of reaffirming identity and an opportunity for
a better life in the face of the protracted nature of the Palestinian refugee crisis. Many
refugees have benefited from quality elementary education provided by UNRWA.
Access to secondary and higher education in some host countries is restricted. Financial
constraints prevent other refugees from continuing education.
Refugees have different education problems in each host country including a serious
gender gap in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, poor education among young
camp men in Jordan, a high number of young adults in Syria without basic education
and high illiteracy at all levels.14 During the civil war and Israeli invasion of Lebanon
some refugee children lost more than a year of schooling. In the 1967 OPTs refugee
children lost between 35 and 50 percent of class time during the first intifada.
Enrollment: Enrollment rates among refugee children are high but tend to drop off at
the preparatory level due to poverty, demotivation and among young women, marriage
and social constraints. Nearly all refugee children are enrolled at the elementary stage.
Enrolment patterns begin to differentiate among host countries at the preparatory level.
Drop-out rates appear to be lower in UNRWA schools. Fewer refugees are enrolled
in secondary and higher education in Lebanon than elsewhere.
Table 3.7 – Enrollment Levels (by age) in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
Lebanon
7-9
10-14
15-18
19-24
M
97
87
42
11
Jordan
F
98
91
61
11
M
100
93
60
12
Syria
F
100
94
51
14
M
98
91
48
14
F
98
91
55
17
Sources: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000. On the Margins: Migration and Living
Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps in Jordan. FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science,
2003. Difficult Past, Uncertain Future: Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps and Gatherings
in Lebanon. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4.
69
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Among refugees in camps non-enrollment generally increases at a higher rate
among young refugee men, however, camp refugees in the occupied Palestinian
territories stay in school longer than in other fields. Non-camp refugees in Jordan
have higher preparatory and secondary enrolment rates than camp refugees;
however, in Lebanon secondary enrolment among refugees outside camps is
also very low.
In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories non-refugee Palestinians have a slightly
lower enrolment rate than camp and non-camp refugees.
Education attainment: Palestinian refugees in Jordan have the highest level
of education followed by refugees in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.
Education attainment is lowest in Lebanon where many adults have not completed
basic education. In the OPTs education attainment among women lags behind
that of men, however, there are more refugee women in the OPTs who have at
least secondary education than refugee women elsewhere.
UNRWA school in Mar Elias refugee
camp in Lebanon, 1950. © UNRWA
Archives.
70
Refugees in camps in the occupied Palestinian territories have the lowest number
of persons with less than basic education with the exception of non-camp
refugees in Jordan. In Syria, Jordan and Lebanon there has been no improvement
among camp men below age fifty and a decline among men in the lowest age
group.15 In Jordan there are more camp refugees without basic education than
refugees outside camps but the opposite holds true for Syria.
Living Conditions
Table 3.8 – Highest Level of Education Completed in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
Bachelor and above
Associate diploma
Secondary
Preparatory
Elementary
Less than elementary
Lebanon
3.0
2.0
5.5
16.1
34.5
38.9
Jordan
16.0
8.0
14.0
62.0
Syria
3.7
6.6
8.9
19.3
34.2
27.3
OPTs
14
14
44
17
5
1
Sources: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. On the Margins: Migration and Living
Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps in Jordan. FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science,
2003. Difficult Past, Uncertain Future: Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps and
Gatherings in Lebanon. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No.
4. IUED – Graduate Institute of Development Studies, 2003. Palestinian Public Perceptions on their Living
Conditions, Report IV, October 2003. Figures for Lebanon and Syria include camps and ‘gatherings’ defined
as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households; figure for OPT only includes camps.
Refugees in camps in Jordan and Lebanon have lower levels of education than host country
nationals. Palestinians inside Israel also have lower levels of attainment as compared to Jews.
In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories there are few differences between attainment
levels of camp refugees and non-refugee Palestinians. (See Annex for more details)
Literacy: Refugee men and women in Syria have the highest rate of literacy followed
by male refugees in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. Literacy is defined as
persons who could there read or write and do so easily or with difficulty. Those who
said they could do either with difficulty or easily were considered literate. In the OPTs
female illiteracy is nearly three times that of males. Refugees in Lebanon have the
UNRWA boys school in Deheishe
refugee camp, 2003. © BADIL.
71
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
highest illiteracy rates. The fact that there is no gender gap in Lebanon reflects the
high rate of illiteracy among refugee men.16
Camp refugees in Lebanon have a lower literacy rate than in any other host country
with the highest rates among camp refugees in Syria. In Jordan literacy is higher among
non-camp refugees. There is no clear pattern of difference between camp refugees and
those outside camps. There is high literacy among non-camp refugees in Jordan in
the older age range with the opposite in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Table 3.9 – Illiteracy (by age) in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria
Lebanon
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75+
M
26
23
23
26
23
16
21
25
34
53
65
-
Jordan
F
15
18
22
28
29
41
50
71
87
93
98
-
M
5
6
6
4
4
8
11
12
18
38
50
52
67
Syria
F
2
4
5
6
12
30
49
63
82
89
98
99
100
M
12
11
9
8
9
11
10
12
14
28
45
58
60
F
9
8
8
14
16
22
29
43
62
84
89
92
96
Sources: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000 On the Margins: Migration and Living Conditions
Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps in Jordan. FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003.
Difficult Past, Uncertain Future: Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps and Gatherings
in Lebanon. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4. Figures
for Lebanon and Syria include camps and ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25
or more households.
Literacy levels among Palestinian refugees are generally higher than for the Arab states
as a group.17 This is especially the case for refugee women. In Lebanon, however,
there is high illiteracy among refugees compared to the national population. There is
little difference between refugees and non-refugee Palestinians in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories.
Health
The health status of Palestinian refugees is in transition from a developing to a developed
stage. Women and children’s health has improved dramatically over the course of the
last five decades. Best reported health outcomes are in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories, Jordan and Syria. Armed conflict, ineffective protection and insufficient
assistance leave refugees in Lebanon most vulnerable to health problems.
Some 30-40,000 Palestinian refugees were killed during Lebanon’s internal wars
and conflicts between the PLO and Israel. There were more than 73,000 casualties
and fatalities during the first intifada (1987-1992) in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories, with even higher annual rates during the second intifada that began in
September 2000. Massive destruction of housing in the OPTs has further exacerbated
refugee health.
72
Living Conditions
Chronic illness/disability: Refugees in Lebanon more often report problems
with chronic illness, disability and psychological distress than refugees elsewhere.
There are few differences in self-assessed health among refugee men and women in
Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, however, more women than men report higher levels of
psychological distress and more refugees in Lebanon report bad assessed self-assessed
health than elsewhere.
Table 3.10 - Percentage of Adults (ages 15+) with Select Health Problems
% chronic illness
or injury
Jordan Camp
Jordan Non-camp
Lebanon Camp
Lebanon Non-camp
Syria Camp
Syria Non-camp
19
12
26
26
17
14
% bad self-assessed health
Male
6
4
17
16
9
7
Female
7
5
16
16
9
6
% with 3 out of 7 psychological distress
items
Male
Female
46
59
31
41
56
57
58
67
42
46
52
53
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000. Finding Means: UNRWA’s Financial Situation
and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees, Summary Report. Figures for Lebanon and Syria include
camps and ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
Refugees in camps tend to have higher incidence of chronic illness or injury, bad
self-assessed health and psychological distress. In Lebanon there are few differences
between camp refugees and those residing outside of camps except for women in
gatherings who have a higher degree of psychological stress than men. Three times
more camp and gathering refugees in Lebanon report their health as poor or very
poor than elsewhere. Refugee women in gatherings in Syria also report high incidence
of psychological distress.
Refugees report more psychological distress than non-refugees.18
Early UNRWA food distribution.
© UNRWA Archives.
73
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Women’s health: Palestinian refugee mothers have fairly good health indicators. Nearly
all refugee women visit health centers during pregnancy and the vast majority receive
qualified birth assistance. Lebanon and Syria have a lower level of assisted births and
especially among refugees outside camps in Syria. Maternal mortality rates are highest
in Lebanon and lowest in Syria.
Refugee women in camps also have good health indicators. Camp women in Jordan
have higher rates of pre-natal coverage but lower rates in the occupied West Bank.
The camp/non-camp distinction makes no difference in the occupied Gaza Strip
and in Syria. There is also no difference in assisted births between camp and noncamp refugees except in Jordan where there is less delivery assistance among camp
women.
Table 3.11 – Select Health Indicators for Women
West Bank Camp
West Bank Non-camp
Gaza Strip Camp
Gaza Strip Non-camp
Jordan Camp
Jordan Non-camp
Lebanon Camp & Non-camp
Syria Camp & Non-camp
Maternal Mortality Rate (per
100,000 live births)
112
81
n.a.
239
75
% Receiving Prenatal Care
% Deliveries Assisted
90
95
99
99
95
86
95
96
98
97
98
99
87
95
83
84
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000. Finding Means: UNRWA’s Financial Situation
and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees, Summary Report. Figures for Lebanon and Syria include
camps and ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
Prenatal care is higher among refugees than host country nationals except among
camp refugees in the occupied West Bank. In Lebanon nationals more often have
delivery assistance compared to refugees. The opposite is the case in Syria. There are
few differences in the rate of assisted births among refugees and non-refugees in the
UNRWA health center, Khan Younis,
Gaza Strip. © UNRWA Archives.
74
Living Conditions
occupied Palestinian territories. Maternal mortality rates are higher among refugee
women in the OPTs but lower in Syria and Lebanon.
Children’s health: Low birth weight is not a considerable problem among refugees; rates
are more typical of developed countries than developing countries. The international
standard for low birth rate is less than 2,500 grams. Childhood malnutrition is not a
significant problem. Standard vaccination programs are well implemented although
rates are lower among refugees in Syria and Lebanon.19 Infant mortality rates are also
low.20 Refugee children in Lebanon have the highest rates of chronic illness.
There are no significant differences in low birth weights between camp and non-camp
refugee children. Acute malnutrition is more problematic in camps in Lebanon and
Syria than in Jordan. Rates of chronic illness are higher among refugee boys in camps
compared to refugee girls and refugee children outside camps. Camps in Syria have
particularly low infant mortality rates, while the Lebanese rates are the highest.
Table 3.12 - Select Child Health Indicators
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births)
West Bank Camp
West Bank Non-camp
Gaza Strip Camp
Gaza Strip Non-camp
Jordan Camp
Jordan Non-camp
Lebanon Camp & Non-camp
Syria Camp & Non-camp
Male
29.5
Female
21.9
32.9
23.4
26.6
23.2
39.7
24.9
23.3
21.5
% Low birth weight
(infants)
% 12-13 mox. Fully
vaccinated
9
82
73
6
8
7
8
82
83
75
73
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000. Finding Means: UNRWA’s Financial Situation
and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees, Summary Report. Figures for Lebanon and Syria include
camps and ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households. Data for
low birth weight for the OPTs is for births in the last year prior to the survey, the Jordan data is for
the most recent birth, while data for Lebanon and Syria is for births taking place during the five years
preceding the survey.
Non-refugees in Jordan and Lebanon have higher incidences of low birth weights.
Vaccination rates for refugees in Syria and Lebanon are lower than reported rates for
host country nationals. Infant mortality rates are higher among host country nationals
in Jordan and Syria but lower in Lebanon. (See Annex for more details)
Developments in 2003
Israel’s ongoing military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip continued to have
serious consequences for the living conditions of Palestinian refugees and internally
displaced. The socio-economic situation of refugees in Lebanon and in Iraq remained
critical in 2003 due to poor respect for basic human rights of Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon and the impact of the US-led war and occupation of Iraq.
During the year there was a stabilization of the economic situation in the occupied Palestinian
territories at a very high level of poverty and unemployment.21 One of the outcomes of the
second intifada has been the narrowing of the gap between the various socio-economic
segments of the Palestinian society, which have all been impoverished.22 In other words, there
are fewer differences in the socio-economic status of refugees and non-refugees.
75
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
The construction of a separation Wall in the occupied West Bank threatened to
further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the OPTs. The Wall will effectively
isolate Palestinian communities from their economic and social means of support
– further exacerbating the process of fragmentation caused by internal closure and
curfew.23 Communities affected by the construction of the first phase of the Wall in
the northern West Bank in 2003 reported greater difficulties in reaching health and
education facilities and places of employment.
Unemployment across the occupied Palestinian territories increased slightly in 2003
to around 30 percent, not including discouraged workers.24 By mid-year, however,
refugee camps were no longer areas of highest unemployment in the occupied West
Bank as compared to the previous year.25 This can be explained, in part, by higher
levels of focused international assistance for refugees living in camps. This was not the
case, however, for refugees in camps in the occupied Gaza Strip where the number
of employed persons continued to decline.
Long-term unemployment in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, however, was
more of a problem for camp refugees than for Palestinians outside camps.26 At the
end of 2003 unemployment in the areas affected by the Wall in the northern West
Bank remained similar to unemployment levels across the occupied West Bank.27
However, the rate of underemployment (i.e. employment is inadequate in relation to
alternative employment) was nearly double that of the occupied Palestinian territories
as a whole.28
Table 3.13 - Labor Force Participation in the 1967 OPTs, by Place of Residence
WB non-camp
WB camp
Jerusalem
GS non-camp
GS camp
Full-time
45
52
51
52
46
Part-time
11
20
26
10
7
Few hours a day
15
8
8
18
20
Unemployed
29
20
15
20
27
Source: IUED – Graduate Institute of Development Studies, 2003. Palestinian Public Perceptions on their
Living Conditions, Report IV, October 2003. (Figures as of July 2003)
Income levels in refugee camps in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories continued
to be less favorable as compared to the incomes of non-refugees. The number of
Palestinian households in the occupied West Bank with household incomes of more
than NIS 2000 (US$ 450) was nearly double that of households in West Bank refugee
camps. There were fewer differences between camp and non-camp households in the
occupied Gaza Strip.29
There was a similar decline in the number of households with incomes below NIS
2000 in the occupied Gaza Strip during the year. In the occupied West Bank, however,
there was a slight increase of refugee camp households in this category. Palestinian
households affected by the Wall, which includes more than 76,000 registered refugees,
reported negative impact on household income.30 Due to the construction of the
Wall more than two-thirds of affected households west of the Wall no longer had
sufficient income to meet household needs compared to more than fifty percent to
the east of the Wall.
76
Living Conditions
More non-refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories were above the poverty line
at mid-year than refugees and refugees comprised the greater number of hardship
cases.31 Only one-third of refugees were above the poverty line compared to more than
half of the non-refugee population. Refugee camps were the main areas of poverty.
Approximately two-thirds of refugees in camps were above the poverty line in mid2003. In all areas the number of persons above the poverty rate decreased except in
refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.
Figure 3.5 - Poverty Rates in the 1967 OPTs, by Place of Residence
Source: IUED – Graduate Institute of Development Studies, 2003. Palestinian Public Perceptions on their
Living Conditions, Report IV, October 2003.
According to UNRWA, there is an emerging trend in feminization of poverty among
Palestinian refugees, not only in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, but also in
Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as the incidence of female-headed vulnerable households
increases.32 Even though females headed only 13.6 percent of the households within
the overall refugee population, they headed 44.7 percent of the special hardship
families, illustrating the feminization of poverty largely with in those family units
headed by elderly females or single women under the age of 60 (widows, divorced
or deserted).
During the year refugee housing conditions continued to be of serious concern as
the number of punitive house demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territories
continued to rise. During the first half of 2003 Israeli military forces demolished
double the number of refugee shelters compared to the same period in 2002.33 This
was compounded by a shortage of international funds to repair and rebuild damaged
and destroyed refugee shelters. In the occupied West Bank, one-fifth of Palestinian
households west of the Wall were totally or partially destroyed with nearly one-third
similarly affected in areas east of the Wall.34
77
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
The highest agricultural damage in the occupied West Bank was linked to the building
of the separation Wall by Israel which resulted in land requisitions, and destruction of
agricultural lands and assets, including water resources.35 Businesses owned by slightly
less than ten percent of households west of the Wall were damaged or destroyed due
to construction of the Wall with the rate around two percent to the east of the Wall.
Another seven percent of households west and twelve percent of households east of
the Wall had land confiscated for the construction of the Wall.36
Educational achievements in the OPTs continued to under serious threat with a decline
in registration and postponement of higher education. The quality of education was
further compromised as teachers failed to meet curricula requirements and children
are unable to concentrate on their studies. Falling exam results reflected the negative
impact of Israel’s military activity in the occupied territories.37 Pass rates for Arabic
language in UNRWA schools in the occupied Gaza Strip, for example, fell to 39
percent, but improved to 81 percent after three months of remedial classes.38 Refugees
and non-refugees residing in areas of the northern West Bank affected by the Wall
reported problems reaching schools and universities.39
High unemployment rates and consequent acute impoverishment resulted in serious
deterioration of the health status of refugees in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
and increased the demand on UNRWA medical care services at a time when the healthcare system was unable to function at optimal capacity. The frequent closures, curfews,
military incursions into camps and uprooting of trees brought about additional
health hazards to refugees in camps. Medical consultations at UNRWA health centers
increased by 45.1 percent in the occupied Gaza Strip and 40.3 percent in the occupied
West Bank.40 Refugees and non-refugees residing in areas of the northern West Bank
affected by the Wall reported problems reaching clinics and hospitals.41
������
Figure 3.6 - Perception of Households in the 1967 OPTs on General Health Status
�������� ����������������������������������������������������������������������
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Source: IUED – Graduate Institute of Development Studies, 2003. Palestinian Public Perceptions on their
Living Conditions, Report IV, October 2003. (Figures as of July 2003)
There were no major improvements in the socio-economic situation of Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon where economic, housing, education and health indicators are
the poorest. In addition the ban on property ownership (See Chapter Five – Protection)
78
Population
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon continued to face basic infrastructure problems.
During the year the Lebanese government moved forward with plans to separate
electricity supplied to refugee camps from their neighboring areas.42 Electrical costs
are expected to sky-rocket under new billing procedures.43
Education performance of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon also declined. Students
sitting for third preparatory level tests achieved a 42 percent pass rate in test scores
released for 2002, down by about seven percent from scores for the previous year. It
should be noted, however, that scores in government schools also declined over the
same period. There was a similar decline in test scores in UNRWA’s five secondary
schools in Lebanon with refugees achieving a 67 percent pass rate compared to 74
percent in the previous year and compared to 83 percent in government and private
secondary schools.44
Inside Israel Palestinians continued to experience high rates of unemployment
compared to Jewish nationals. Of the 25 towns and villages with unemployment
levels above ten percent, 24 were Palestinian.45 Many of the towns and villages
affected include significant IDP populations. The Supreme Court dismissed a petition
demanding equal representation for Arabs citizens of Israel - women and men - on
the boards of directors of governmental companies, in accordance with the 1993 and
2000 amendments to the Governmental Companies Law (1975).46
The US/UK led war and occupation of Iraq exposed Palestinian refugees there to new
risks as thousands were displaced from their homes. Instability in the regional economy
and re-focusing of international donor aid on Iraq, moreover, had implications for
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced elsewhere, particularly with regard to
international emergency assistance in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.
Already at the beginning of the year, UNRWA warned that donors were holding back
contributions to the Agency due to the impending war in Iraq.47
79
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Annex 3.1
Table A3.1 - Employment Structure of Refugees in Syria
Percent of the Employed
Camp
Non-camp
M
1
18
18
18
6
14
7
18
Agriculture, Fishing
Mining, Manufacturing
Construction, Electricity, Gas
Trade, Restaurants, Hotels
Transportation, Storage Communication
Public Administration
Education, Health and Social Work
Other Services
F
2
23
0
6
1
11
39
18
M
10
13
16
15
7
17
7
15
F
18
10
3
1
17
42
10
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I:
Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Figures from the Central Bureau
of Statistics and Natural Resources in Damascus state that only 2 percent of employed persons (15 years and over) are employed in agriculture
and only 11 percent in education and heath. Figures for the remaining sectors are similar. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003.
Statistical Abstract of Palestine No. 4. Non-camp figures only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or
more households.
Table A3.2 - Employment Structure of Refugees in the 1967 OPTs
Percent of the Employed
Camp
Agriculture
Mining, Manufacturing
Construction
Commerce, Restaurants, Hotels
Transportation, Communication
Services and Other
M
3
14
23
14
6
41
Non-camp
F
-
M
6
15
23
18
5
33
F
24
12
1
9
1
54
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I:
Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Table A3.3 - Employment Structure of Palestinians in Israel
Percent of the Employed
Agriculture
Industry and Manufacturing
Electricity, Gas and Water
Construction
Wholesale/Retail Trade and Repair
Hotels and Restaurants
Transport and Communication
Financial Intermediation
Real Estate and Business
Public Administration
Education
Health Services
Public Services
Publication Organization
Not Stated
M
3.9
16.7
0.5
21.4
18.0
7.2
7.8
0.6
5.6
3.6
6.0
4.2
3.4
0.2
0.9
Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4.
80
F
2.2
12.3
1.0
13.1
3.4
1.9
1.6
6.6
3.3
33.5
14.8
4.4
1.7
0.2
Population
Table A3.4 - Reasons for Non-Participation in Labor Force (ages 15+) in Syria
Percent of Persons not in the Labor Force
M
F
4.8
3.0
3.4
0.2
0.9
0.6
10.7
11.6
66.6
Disability
Retired
Do not need work
Study
Housekeeping
Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4.
Table A3.5 - Reasons for Non-Participation in Labor Force in the 1967 OPTs
Old/ill
Home making
Studying or training
Other
M
22
2
47
29
Percent of Persons not in the Labor Force
Camp
Non-camp
F
M
8
17
72
2
17
52
3
29
F
7
73
18
3
Sources: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I:
Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Table A3.6 - Unemployment Rates of Palestinians (ages 15-64) in Israel
M
F
Age
15-24
25-44
45+
Percent of Persons Unemployed
10.7
10.6
16.1
9.0
8.7
Source: Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Figures (2002).
Table A3.7 - Annual Household and Per Capita Income Levels (nominal and PPP)
Syria camps and non-camps
Lebanon camps and non-camps
Jordan camps
West Bank camps (total consumption)
Gaza camps (total consumption)
Annual household income/
consumption (US$)
2,186
3,686
3,577
4,907
4,206
Annual per capita
income (US$)
456
794
616
-
Annual per capita
income PPP* (US$)
1,622
1,444
1,357
-
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I:
Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Figures for Syria (2001), Lebanon
and Jordan (1999) and the West Bank and Gaza Strip (1998).
*Purchasing Power Parity. Non-camp refugees in Syria and Lebanon only include those residing in refugee gatherings. A gathering is defined
as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
81
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Table A3.8 - Rooms per Dwelling
Number of rooms per dwelling
2.5
3.0
3.2
2.8
3.5
3.1
2.9
3.0
Lebanon Non-camp
Lebanon Camp
Jordan Non-Camp
Jordan Camp
OPT Non-Camp
OPT Camp
Syria Non-camp
Syria Camp
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003 Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol.
I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Does not include kitchen,
bathrooms, hallways and verandas. Non-camp figures for Lebanon and Syria only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside
a camp with 25 or more households.
Table A3.9 – Percent of Households with Makeshift Dwelling and or Unsafe Materials
Makeshift dwelling and/or unsafe materials
1
4
1
1
2
3
0
3
14
Lebanon Camp
Lebanon Non-camp
Jordan Camp
Jordan Non-camp
OPT Camp
OPT Non-camp
Syria Yarmouk Camp
Syria Other Camps
Syria Non-camp
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I:
Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For the WBGS does not include
Bedouins living in tents. Non-camp figures for Lebanon and Syria only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp
with 25 or more households.
Table A3.10 – Percent of Highest Level of Education Completed among Palestinians in Israel
Percent of Highest Level of Education
1.7
5.5
13.7
11.0
37.2
15.8
10.7
Bachelor and above
Associate diploma
Matriculation
Secondary
Primary or intermediate
No certificate
Never studied
Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4. Of those surveyed 1.7 percent did not state their
education attainment level.
Table 3.11 - Percent of Children (ages 5-14) Chronically Ill or Disabled
Jordan Camp
Jordan Non-camp
Lebanon Camp
Lebanon Non-camp
Syria Camp
Syria Non-camp
Females
3.6
2.5
6.6
8.2
2.6
2.9
Males
5.2
2.5
8.3
10.8
4.0
2.9
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I:
Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Non-camp figures for Lebanon
and Syria only include refugee ‘gatherings’ defined as a community outside a camp with 25 or more households.
82
Population
Endnotes
Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. I: Socio-Economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees
in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Laurie Blome Jacobsen (ed.). Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social
Science, 2003, p. 113.
2
Finding Means, supra note 1, pp. 114-15.
3
Ibid, p. 148.
4
Laurie Blome Jacobsen. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Situation and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees. Summary
Report. Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000, p. 41; and, Willy Egset, Penny Johnson and Lee O’Brien, Finding
Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Vol. II: The Persistence of Poverty. Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied
Social Science, 2003.
5
Finding Means, supra note 1, p. 58.
6
Ibid, p. 64.
7
Ibid.
8
The average of housing units in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is 93.3 m2 and 107.9 m2 respectively. Housing and Housing
Conditions: Detailed Tabulations – Data. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2000. In Jordan the average area of housing
in camps is 88 m2 while in Lebanon the average area is 40 m2. Atlas of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan. Amman: Department of
Palestinian Affairs, 1998. Palestinians in Lebanon: Conference Report. Oxford: Center for Lebanese Studies, 1995.
9
In Israel 6.8 percent of Palestinian households have three or more persons per room compared to 0.5 percent of Jewish households.
Statistical Yearbook of Palestine No. 4. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003, p. 151.
10
World Bank, World Development Report, 2000 cited in Finding Means, supra note 1, p. 77.
11
In Jordan, for example, 55 percent of camp households report that shelters are difficult to heat in winter while nearly two-thirds
state that they are uncomfortably hot in summer. On the Margins: Migration and Living Conditions of Palestinian Camp Refugees
in Jordan. Marwan Khawaja and Age A. Tiltnes (ed.). Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 2002, p. 131. Refugees in
camps in Lebanon report similar problems. There are few differences between camp households and those outside camps in Lebanon.
Difficult Past, Uncertain Future: Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees in Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon. Ole Fr. Ugland
(ed.). Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 2000.
12
Finding Means, supra note 1, p. 62.
13
In Jordan refugee camps, less than ten percent of the space is used for garden plots. Marie Arneberg, Living Conditions Among
Palestinian Refugees and Displaced in Jordan. Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 1997. In camps in the occupied
Gaza Strip, gardens, courtyards and rooftops comprise 26 percent of space compared to 43 percent outside of camps in the Strip.
Marianne Heiberg, Geir Ovensen, et. al., Palestinian Society in Gaza, West Bank and Arab Jerusalem: A Survey of Living Conditions.
Oslo: Institute for Applied Social Science, 1994.
14
Finding Means, supra note 1, p. 80.
15
Ibid, p. 87.
16
Ibid, p. 83.
17
Literacy rates for Palestinian refugee men and women are upwards of 80 and 70 percent, respectively, compared to 72 and 45
percent for men and women in Arab states. UNDP, Finding Means, supra note 1, p. 82. The UNDP measure of literacy (proportion
aged 15 and above who can, with understanding, both read and write a short, simple statement about their everyday lives) is more
restrictive than that employed by the FAFO survey, which may explain some of the differences between refugees and the Arab states
as a group.
18
Finding Means, supra note 1, p. 158.
19
Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Situation and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees. Summary Report, supra note 4, p.
10. Some 80 percent of camp refugee children have receive their full range of vaccinations at 12 through 23 months in the occupied
Palestinian territories and Jordan, 70 percent in Syria and 75 percent in Lebanon.
20
Infant mortality rates among registered refugees have dropped from 180 deaths per 1,000 live births in the 1960s, to 32-35 per
1,000 in the 1990s. This is well ahead of the World Health Organization (WHO) target for developing countries of 50 per 1,000
by the year 2000.
21
Continuing economic deterioration in 2003 was evident in the reduced number of Palestinian employers, increasing levels of selfemployment, as people turned to low-paid and insecure petty trade and productive activities. Waged workers in the labor market
dropped and unpaid family labour, in particular involving women and children, rose. The donor countries’ continued budget support
to the Palestinian Authority enabled the PA to continue to employ civil servants without major employment cuts thereby cushioning
the impact of economic decline. For more details see, Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), Occupied Palestinian Territories 2004. New
York and Geneva: United Nations, November 2003.
22
For a more detailed analysis see, The Role of International and Local Aid during the Second Intifada, Report VI. An Analysis of Palestinian
Public Opinion in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on their Living Conditions (January – July 2003). Riccardo Bocco, et. al. Geneva:
Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva, 2003.
23
The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities, Report of the Mission to the Humanitarian and
Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) of the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC), 4 May 2003, para. 23.
24
Consolidated Appeals Process, supra note 21, p. 17. The rate increases to around 40 percent if discouraged workers are included.
25
The Role of International and Local Aid during the Second Intifada, Report VI, supra note 22, pp. 52-53. Unemployment in West
Bank refugee camps decreased from 41 percent in November 2002 to 20 percent in July 2003. The number of full-time employed
1
83
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
refugees in the Gaza Strip camps, meanwhile, decreased from 51 to 46 percent during the same time period. Ibid.
26
Ibid, p. 54.
27
According to an October 2003 survey, 23.6 percent of the households living to the west of the Wall at least one of their employed
members changed their work totally (activity and place of work), compared with 21.7 percent of the households to the east of the
Wall. As of December 2003, 21.9 percent of households affected by the Wall had changed work, 8.7 percent had changed their place
of work while 69.4 percent experienced no change. Ibid.
28
The Status of the Labour Market in the Localities in which the Expansion and Annexation Wall Passes Through (October– December,
2003) Round (The 4th quarter 2003). Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, April 2004, p. 11.
29
The Role of International and Local Aid during the Second Intifada, Report VI, supra note 22, p. 31. In July 2003, 54 percent of West
Bank households had an income of greater than NIS 2000 compared to 25 percent of refugee camp households. In the occupied Gaza
Strip, 29 percent of households had incomes greater than NIS 2000 compared to 26 percent of refugee camp households. Ibid.
30
Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in which the Separation Wall
Passes Through. Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, December 2003, p. 5.
31
Hardship cases comprised 30 percent of the refugee population compared to only 19 percent of the non-refugee population. The
Role of International and Local Aid during the Second Intifada, Report VI, supra note 22, p. 34.
32
Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July 2002
– 30 June 2003. UN GAOR, 58th Sess., Supp. No. 13 (A/58/13),para. 82.
33
UNRWA Emergency Appeal 2004. Gaza City: UNRWA, 2004, p. 19. A further 337 shelters were destroyed in the Gaza Strip during
the 3rd quarter of the year. UNRWA Emergency Appeal, Twenty-Third Progress Report, October-December 2003. Gaza City: UNRWA,
p. 5.
34
Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in which the Separation Wall
Passes Through, supra note 30, p. 5.
35
UNRWA Emergency Appeal 2004, supra note 33, p. 28.
36
Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in which the Separation Wall
Passes Through, supra note, 30, p. 6.
37
Consolidated Appeals Process, supra note 21, p. 19.
38
Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July 2002
– 30 June 2003. UN GAOR, 58th Sess., Supplement No. 13 (A/58/13), para. 63.
39
According to an October 2003 survey, 15.2 percent of the households with at least one of their members attending school or
university faced difficulties reaching their school/university, with 29.4 percent in the west of the Wall and 13.9 percent to the east of
the Wall. Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in which the Separation
Wall Passes Through, supra note 30, p. 5.
40
Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra note
38, para. 65.
41
According to a survey conducted in October 2003, after the construction of the separation Wall, 80.1 percent of the households
to the west of the separation Wall need to travel more than 4 km to reach the nearest hospital compared to 48.3 percent of the
households to the east of the Wall. The survey also revealed that 73.7 percent of the households to the west of the Wall indicated
that separation from the health centers (hospitals and medical centers) cause an obstacle for them to get the required health services,
while 38.6 percent of the households to the east of the Wall considered separation from the health services centers as an obstacle to
get their health services. Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in
which the Separation Wall Passes Through, supra note 30, p. 5.
42
Mohammed Zaatari, “Ain al-Hilweh committees fret EDL billing plan,” The Daily Star, 9 July 2003.
43
Ibid. The future collective bill for the camp is estimated to exceed 150 million Lebanese pounds (US$ 103,000). Currently the
majority of residents in Ain al-Hilweh, whose numbers exceed 70,000, pay monthly subscriptions amounting to approximately
20,000 Lebanese pounds (US$ 14), collected in coordination with bill-collectors from within the camp.
44
Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra note
38, paras. 197-98.
45
Kul al-Arab, 21 February 2003. This includes Yafa (Nazareth), Nazareth, Deir al-Asad, Abu Snan, al-Reine, Nahaf, Majad al-Krum,
Ar’ara, ‘Ibilin, Umm al-Fahem, Arabeh, Eksal, Kabul, Shafa’amr, Kafr Kanna, Sakhnin, Tal al-Sabe’a, Deir Hanna, al-Judeida al-Makr,
al-Azazme, ‘Ein Mahel, Rahat, Tamra and Kssaife. Unemployment reached 23.6 percent in Kssaife.
46
“Supreme Court Dismisses Adalah’s Petition Seeking Equal Representation for Arab Citizens of Israel on Boards of Directors of
Governmental Companies,” Adalah Press Release, 3 April 2003.
47
“Aid to Palestinians Suffers due to Focus in Iraq,” UNRWA Press Release, 10 February 2003.
84
Chapter
Assistance
Four
85
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Assistance
Preface
Refugees and internally displaced persons are entitled to assistance. Assistance activities are
closely related to protection and include provision of food, shelter, health and education
services. National authorities hold the primary responsibility for the provision of assistance
within their borders. The assistance accorded to Palestinian refugees and internally displaced
Palestinians varies among host states.
International assistance is required when states are either unable or unwilling to act on
their obligations to assist refugees and internally displaced persons. The right of refugees to
assistance and the obligations of states are set for the in the 1951 Convention Relating to
the Status of Refugees. The 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians does not include
provisions for assistance to Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. The 1998 Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement set forth the right of internally displaced persons to
assistance but do not have the legal status of a convention.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is the primary body mandated to
provide international assistance for refugees worldwide. The Office works closely with other
international and national organizations and states. No single international agency has
an explicit mandate to assist internally displaced persons. The United Nations established
a separate organ – the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East – to provide international assistance to all persons displaced during the 1948 war
in Palestine. The United Nations later requested UNRWA to assist Palestinian refugees
displaced for the first time in 1967. There is no international agency with a specific mandate
to provide assistance to internally displaced Palestinians.
National authorities and international agencies face an increasing burden to provide
assistance for Palestinian refugees and IDPs due to protracted conflict and the absence
of voluntary durable solutions. International assistance has not increased commensurate
with the growth of the refugee population and emergency needs in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories.
86
Assistance
National Assistance
National authorities hold the primary responsibility to assist refugees and internally
displaced persons within their borders. This reflects the generally recognized principle
of territorial sovereignty which prohibits intervention in matters that are essentially
within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.1
States signatories to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees2 are obligated
to provide refugees “lawfully staying in their territory the same treatment with respect
to public relief and assistance as is accorded to their nationals.” Most states in the
Middle East where the majority of Palestinian refugees reside are not signatories to
the 1951 Refugee Convention.3 The 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
reiterate the same general principle with respect to the provision of assistance for
internally displaced persons.4
The 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians5 and the 1969 Convention Governing
Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa6 applicable to African-Arab states do
not include explicit provisions for public relief and assistance on par with host state
nationals. Not all member states of the Arab League are signatories to the Casablanca
Protocol.7 Few Palestinian refugees reside in OAU Convention signatory states.8
Assistance in Arab Host States
More than two-thirds of Palestinian refugees reside in Arab host states. Jordan, the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories9, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt
host the majority of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. Most Arab host states have
established special bodies to administer humanitarian affairs of resident Palestinian
refugees and coordinate delivery of international assistance.
These include the Department of Palestinian Affairs in Jordan, the Directorate General
for Palestinian Affairs in Lebanon, the General Authority for Palestine Refugees in
Syria, the Office of the Military Governor in Egypt, the Department of Palestinian
Affairs in Iraq and the PLO Department of Refugee Affairs, in cooperation with
the Palestinian Authority in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. The PLO
Department is responsible generally for all Palestinian refugees.
Most departments responsible for Palestinian refugees are linked to the Ministry
of Interior and/or the Ministry of Social Affairs in the respective Arab host states.
In Jordan the department responsible for Palestinian refugees is linked directly to
the Office of the Prime Minister. Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and the Palestine
Liberation Organization are also members of the League of Arab States Conference
of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs. (See League of Arab States below)
Arab host states generally provide Palestinian refugees with access to health care,
education, and basic infrastructure for the camps. The nature and scope of assistance,
however, varies considerably among Arab host states. Levels of assistance are highest
in Jordan and Syria where the majority of Palestinian refugees have the same status as
host country nationals and therefore have access to services on par with Jordanian and
Syrian nationals. In many states levels of assistance are often a reflection of national
and regional political considerations.
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
National health assistance is important due to fact that the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency does not operate secondary health facilities, with the exception
of a maternity hospital in the occupied Gaza Strip and a hospital in occupied West
Bank city of Tulkarem. The Agency does provide patient reimbursement in public
hospitals (ranging from 75-90 percent of hospitalization costs) and contracts hospital
beds from host governments. (See International Assistance below)
In Syria Palestinian refugees have access to the state-run public health system which
provides universal health coverage.10 This includes hospitals, clinics and mother care
centers. Prenatal care and primary care for children under three years of age is available
at government clinics. Prenatal monitoring, young child monitoring and vaccination is
provided free of charge. While the public health system provides universal coverage, it
is facing difficulties meeting demands due to population growth.11 Private clinics and
hospitals and UNRWA play a greater role than government clinics and hospitals in
treating refugees for unexpected illness or injury. A reported six percent of the refugee
population has private insurance. Four percent do not have insurance.12
Prince Hassan refugee camp in
Jordan. © Jordanian Department
of Palestinian Affairs.
88
Refugees also have access to the public health system in Jordan, which covers most
health services in addition to pharmaceuticals.13 Patient cost-sharing is low. UNRWA
also reimburses refugee patients who receive emergency treatment in government
hospitals based on a referral from an Agency medical officer. Prenatal care and primary
care for children under three years of age is available at government clinics. Prenatal
monitoring, young child monitoring and vaccination is provided free of charge.
Government-sponsored family planning is not available in Jordan. Government and
private health clinics and hospitals and UNRWA play a similar role in treating refugees
with unexpected illness or injury, however, few non-camp refugees use UNRWA.
Assistance
Nearly two-thirds of 1948 and 1967 refugees outside camps lack insurance; half of
the camp population does not have insurance.14
While refugees have access to public health care in Lebanon the government does
not reimburse expenses.15 Public health insurance programs cover upwards of eighty
percent of the consultation, medicines and hospitalization costs. Few refugees are
able to afford private health care in Lebanon, which plays a larger role in the delivery
of health care than private health care in other Arab host countries, and few refugees
(less than ten percent) are covered by insurance.16 Nearly all secondary and tertiary
care is provided by private institutions which most refugees are unable to afford.
UNRWA and private health clinics and hospitals play a greater role than government
hospitals and clinics in treating refugees with unexpected illness and injury. This can
be explained by the under-developed state health care system. Similar to the situation
in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, private health care expanded significantly
during periods of conflict of Lebanon and the collapse of state services.
Refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories also have access to the public health
system.17 Prenatal care and primary care for children under three years of age is
available at government clinics. Women with government health insurance can
use maternity services at government hospitals free of charge in the OPTs. Prenatal
monitoring, young child monitoring and vaccination is provided free of charge. Fees,
however, are charged at OPT government facilities for postnatal health care checkups.
Like Jordan government-sponsored family planning is not available in the occupied
Palestinian territories. The health care system faces severe obstacles due to Israel’s
protracted military occupation. Other problems include weak information links
and referral systems between the various types of providers and types of care, poor
supply in rural areas and less than adequate secondary care and personnel training.18
UNRWA and private clinics play a greater role than government clinics in treating
refugees for unexpected injury and illness.19 Approximately fifty percent of refugees
do not have health insurance.20 Vulnerable low-income households can apply to the
Ministry of Social Welfare for temporary (six months) insurance. Private insurance
at higher premiums is also available.
Table 4.1 - Refugee Medical Consultation by Provider
Jordan camp
Jordan non-camp
Lebanon camp
Lebanon non-camp
Syria camp
Syria non-camp
No
Care
UNRWA
Clinic
18
40
24
29
20
19
25
2
35
28
18
23
Of those ill, % seeking care at
Private
NGO
Gov’t Clinic
Clinic or
Clinic
or Hospital
Hospital
Dispensary
27
26
27
29
2
24
4
3
24
5
10
41
1
7
47
1
Pharmacy
Other
4
3
3
3
6
3
PRCS
Clinic or
Hospital
9
8
4
2
Source: FAFO – Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and
Refugee Living Conditions. Volume I: Socio-economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The figures are based on persons with acute illness or injury two
weeks prior to the survey.
National education assistance is important because UNRWA only provides elementary
and preparatory level education, except in Lebanon where the Agency operates five
secondary schools due to the special circumstances of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Moreover, shortfalls in donor contributions to UNRWA have resulted in a suspension
of the Agency’s scholarship program for post-secondary education.
Refugees in Syria have full access to government schools.21 Basic education includes
six years of elementary education and three years of preparatory education. Both levels
are compulsory. Government schools currently provide education for approximately
one-fifth of refugee students at the elementary/preparatory level and most students at
the secondary level. Students may choose among two secondary tracks in preparation
for either university or technical training with the option of university. Refugees who
are able to afford tuition fees may also attend private schools. Post-secondary education
is free in Syria; however, individuals must pass an entrance exam. Those who do not
pass can utilize a so-called ‘Free University’ where they pay a certain fee per subject.
In Jordan most refugees have free access to public education. The government also
runs public secondary schools in refugee camps.22 Government schools currently
provide elementary/preparatory education to slightly more than one-third of the
refugees in Jordan and most refugees at the secondary level. Refugees able to afford
tuition fees can attend private schools. Two-hundred places in Jordan’s eight official
universities are reserved for Palestinian refugee students from camps. The Department
of Palestinian Affairs also manages training centers in Hittin, Zarqa and Irbid refugee
camps. Government schools, however, do not accept refugee students from Gaza who
do not hold a two-year Jordanian passport. Access to post-secondary public institutions
for this group of refugees requires special approval and limited spaces are available.
Homs refugee camp in Syria. ©
Ron Wilkinson.
90
Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories also have access to government
education. There is ten years of compulsory education in the OPTs. UNRWA plays
Assistance
the most important role in providing education for refugees at the elementary and
preparatory level. Slightly less than one-third of refugees are enrolled in government
schools.23 Those who can afford tuition fees may attend private schools. Refugees may
attend post-secondary institutions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Refugee access to public and private education in Lebanon is limited. Government
schools may admit non-Lebanese students, but no more than three per class.24
Government schools provide elementary education to few refugees but more than
one-third of preparatory level students are enrolled in such schools. Most secondary
students attend one of the five UNRWA-operated secondary schools in Lebanon.
Few attend government-run secondary schools. In Lebanon, similar to health, there
is a greater focus on private education. Private education is not affordable for most
families. Refugees have access to public and private education. The Faculty of Arts
(education) at the Lebanese University, however, only accepts Lebanese nationals.25
Few refugees are able to afford private post-secondary education in Lebanon.
Table 4.2 - Refugee Students in UNRWA, Government and Private Schools
Host Country
UNRWA
Government
Elementary
Jordan
61
34
Syria
78
21
Lebanon
84
5
Preparatory
Jordan
60
38
Syria
83
16
Lebanon
56
37
Secondary
Jordan
97
Syria
96
Lebanon
84
6
Source: Statistical Yearbook 2001/2002 No. 38. Amman: UNRWA Department of Education, 2003.
Private
5
1
11
2
1
7
3
4
10
Arab host states also provide state or rented land for the 59 refugee camps located in
Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as varying
degrees of infrastructure for the camps.
In Syria the government provided land for the establishment of refugee camps, some
of which were located in old military barracks. The Syrian government and UNRWA
are currently working in cooperation to bring housing standards in camps situated in
old barracks up to international levels. This includes reconstruction work in Neirab
refugee camp. The Syrian government also covered the cost of linking water and
sanitation systems in the camps to municipal networks and costs of improving other
basic infrastructure in refugee camps.26
In Jordan, refugee camps are located on both state land and land rented by the
government from private property owners. The government owns less than onethird of the built-up areas of the camps.27 The Jordanian government also provides
water, electricity and communications for the camps and takes care of pathways and
roads. The Jordanian government also provides in cash assistance to approximately
to 120,000 displaced persons.28
In the occupied Gaza Strip approximately two-thirds of camp lands are government
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
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land and one-third private.29 In the occupied West Bank most of the camps are
established on private lands. The occupied West Bank is connected to the Israeli
electrical grid.
In Lebanon camps were established on government and private land. In the 1950s,
however, some private landowners resorted to the courts in order to remove Palestinian
refugees from their lands. The government demanded that UNRWA relocate some
of the refugee camps to other places in Lebanon or replace some refugees who
were resettled around the official camps without providing alternative land for that
purpose.30 Refugee camps are not permitted to connect up to the nearest municipal
sewerage network.
Egypt established refugee camps in Cairo (al-‘Abbasiyya) and in al-Qantarah. These
camps were eventually closed in 1949. A smaller number of refugees managed to secure
private accommodation in the country. In Iraq Palestinian refugees were originally
housed in schools and other public buildings. The government also rented houses for
the refugees. In the 1970s the government built high-rise apartment blocks to resolve
the housing crisis in Baghad and Mosul, but this came to a halt in 1980.31
Khan Younis refugee camp in the
Gaza Strip. © BADIL.
92
Arab host states made significant contributions towards assistance programs for
Palestinian refugees during the early years of displacement after the 1948 war. The
US Department of State, for example, noted that during the last nine months of
1948 Arab states had borne “the great brunt of relief expenditures” and that the
sum of their contributions (US$ 11 million) “in light of the very slender budgets, is
relatively enormous.”32
Assistance
Today these states also contribute an annual average of less than two percent to
the general budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency; however, these states have
committed themselves to fund 7.73 percent of the Agency’s budget. Since 1950 the
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya have been the largest Arab state donors to UNRWA’s
regular budget.
Table 4.3 - Arab State Contributions to UNRWA, 1950-2003
Host State
Contribution (US$)
Algeria
-
Bahrain
538,867
Djibouti
-
Egypt
6,211,696
Iraq
10,157,229
Jordan
13,187,191
Kuwait
55,048,680
Lebanon
2,483,272
Libya
23,824,386
Mauritania
543
Morocco
8,231,738
Oman
613,000
Palestine
8,700,868
Qatar
6,145,728
Saudi Arabia
121,819,656
Somalia
-
Sudan
199,999
Syria
4,771,706
Tunisia
1,210,233
United Arab Emirates
16,155,902
Yemen
2,000
Source: UNRWA Annual Reports, 1950-2003.
Assistance in Israel
More than a quarter of million internally displaced Palestinians reside in Israel, which
is also the country of origin for the majority of Palestinian refugees. The government of
Israel assumed responsibility for internally displaced Palestinians in 1952. During the
early years of displacement Israel provided limited assistance to IDPs, either through
regular government services, or through the Refugee Rehabilitation Authority, which
operated during the early 1950s primarily in official and semi-official ‘shelter villages.’34
The number of refugees handled by the RRA was small.
RRA programs were guided by two basic criteria: preservation of the demographic
changes that took place during the 1948 war; and, preservation of Jewish control of
Palestinian land temporarily abandoned during the war. Services were conditioned
with cancellation of IDP claims to property and lands in the villages of origin. The
RRA re-settled 204 families (1,020 persons) in Israel and transferred 1,489 persons
outside the borders of Israel.35
Government construction programs launched in 1958 aimed to improve housing
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
The PLO and Refugee Assistance
The PLO Department of Refugee Affairs is responsible for Palestinian refugees in all areas of exile. Assistance includes
employment through ‘Samed’ institutions and factories, PLO-run medical facilities, popular committees, pensions, complimentary
services, and study grants.
Between 1967 and 1976 the PLO operated 22 schools in Kuwait due to a shortage of spaces in government-run schools. In
Egypt, the Palestinian Charitable Association subsidizes fees for education, provides assistance for health care services and
employment opportunities for Palestinians.
The Palestinian Red Crescent was established in 1969 by the Palestinian National Council (PNC) as a military-medical
association to provide assistance for the Palestinian resistance fighters. The association later opened health care centers in
Lebanon and other places. As of 1997 the Red Crescent operated 15 hospitals spread through the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.
Table 4.4 – Palestine Red Crescent Society Services
Indicator
Palestine
Lebanon
Syria
Egypt
Number of hospitals
5
6
3
1
Total sta
502
457
300
383
Total beds
146
168
135
150
Total admissions
10,784
9,380
9,750
1,958
Total hospitalization days
22,797
30,162
15,425
22,482
Total outpatient services
60,494
62,134
11,872
33,394
Source: Palestine Red Crescent Society (1997).
The level of PLO assistance, however, has been susceptible to political developments in host countries. In Lebanon, for
example, the expulsion of the PLO in 1982 led to a significant reduction in assistance to Palestinian refugees. In the 1990s
the three main PLO associations left in Lebanon were the Palestinian Red Crescent, the Martyrs families associations and
the Union for the Palestinian Women. Following to the departure of the PLO from the country, in addition many NGOs were
established in the refugee camps.
In Egypt, the PLO was the primary employer of Palestinians until the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied
Palestinian territories in 1995. The redirection of resources to the OPTs led to a reduction of salaries in Egypt, and an end to
all aid programs, scholarships and grants.33
conditions in shelter communities and villages with high refugee concentration, and
to encounter the phenomenon of illegal construction in Arab communities. Lands for
the housing construction program were allocated by a Permanent Land Commission
from among state lands (part of them “absentee property”) and via confiscation of
private Palestinian owned land. In addition, some 700 loans and grants were issued
to individuals in some 80 villages.36
There is currently no separate agency responsible for IDPs inside Israel today.37
Israel has contributed nearly US$ 15 million to UNRWA between 1950 and 2003.
Israel is also responsible as the Occupying Power for the civilian population in the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories. In 1967 the government signed an agreement
(Comay-Michelmore agreement) setting out Israel’s relationship to UNRWA in
the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.38 The agreement subordinated all other
considerations to Israeli security.
UNRWA could its privileges and immunities in protests to the government;
threaten to raise the issue to high diplomatic levels, and use press releases and
its annual reports to describe events and problems in the territories. “For its
94
Assistance
part, the Israel government will facilitate the task of UNRWA to the best of its
ability, subject only to regulations or arrangements which may be necessitated
by considerations of military security.”39
Non-Governmental Organizations
Non-governmental organizations have also played a key role in providing assistance to Palestinian refugees. Major international
non-governmental aid agencies in 1948 included the American Friends Service Committee, as well as the International Committee
of the Red Cross in cooperation with the League of Red Crescent Societies. In December 1949 private voluntary organizations
decided to terminate relief operations in Palestine.
In Syria the Association for the Liberation of Palestine was formed in 1948 to provide assistance to the refugees. By mid-1948,
however, the number of refugees in Syria grew too large and the association appealed to the Syrian government for help.
Assistance included relief in kind and cash payments, extra allowance for pregnant women, and free medical care for the sick.
Orphans were provided with food, lodging, and primary education.
In Lebanon a special committee was established in April 1948 under the Director General of the President’s Office, consisting
of representatives of the main ministries. Refugees were provided with a monthly allocation of flour, 3 Lebanese pounds per
person, 25 additional pounds for pregnant women, 50 Lebanese pounds for deaths, and 25 pounds for orphans. In Egypt, the
Higher Committee responsible for Palestinian refugee affairs, together with the Egyptian Red Crescent and several international
non-governmental organizations established an assistance system for 5,000-7,000 Palestinian refugees with material supplied
by the UN and later through USAID.
In the 1990s the number of local NGOs offering various services to Palestinian refugees in Arab host countries, including social,
medical, financial assistance, culture and sports, and services for women and youth doubled. In the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories 60 percent of NGOs working in the refugee community were established in the 1990s. In Jordan 54 percent of the total
number of NGOs were established in the 1990s and in Lebanon 59.6 percent of NGOs were established during this period.
The increase can be attributed to growing international awareness about the refugee issue, investment related to the Oslo
process, political developments in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories and greater political freedoms. Palestinian refugees
themselves became more active as they sought means for influence and change. In the past, many refugee communities
did not have the right to organize. In Lebanon, for example, organizations were barred from operating in the camps between
1959 and 1969 and camps were placed under military surveillance. Moreover, Lebanese law prevented the provision of NGO
services to non- Lebanese, including the Palestinian refugees.
Table 4.5 – Institutions and the NGOs in Palestinian Refugee Localities
West Bank
Gaza Strip
Lebanon
Jordan
NGOs
92
61
46+20
50
NGO Centers
92
61
264
146
% Distribution of Registered Refugees
16.0
22.0
10.0
42.0
Sources: Birzeit University, Development Studies Program, 2001. Institutional Structures in Palestinian Refugee Camps in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip; Ajial Center, The Statistics and Documentation Office, 2001. Palestinian Non-Government Organizations
in Lebanon: Birzeit University, Development Studies Program and al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Center, 2001. Non-Governmental
Organizations in Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan.
The majority of the institutions working in the refugee community are multi-service oriented (27 percent in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories). A large number of the institutions focus on women and education (19.7 percent on women; 9.2 percent
on education training, and displaced 15.8 percent in the occupied Palestinian territories).
In Lebanon, institutions focus heavily on kindergartens (24.6 percent), health care (19.7 percent) and social activities (14
percent). The high number of the health centers run by the NGOs in Lebanon can be explained by the legal restrictions on
Palestinian refugees that prevent access to public services and high cost of private health.
In Jordan, by contrast, NGOs operate only a small number (7.9 percent) of the total number of health centers. Most of the
health centers in refugee camps in Jordan (80.6 percent) are private. The number is even smaller (5.9 percent) in occupied
Palestinian territories (4.3 percent in the occupied West Bank and 8.3 percent in the occupied Gaza Strip).
The majority of the institutions serving Palestinian refugees are private non-governmental organizations; the rest are either
semi-private organizations or organizations established by the government in the host countries. Most of the NGOs have local
and limited services to a clientele of less than 1,000 persons.
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
International Assistance
International assistance is required when states are unable or unwilling to provide
assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons within their borders. The
primary body mandated to provide international assistance to refugees is the Office
of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. There is no single international agency
with a mandate to provide international assistance to internally displaced persons.
The United Nations established several disaster relief programs in 1948 to coordinate
and fund humanitarian operations in Palestine. In 1949 the United Nations established
a separate organ – the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East – to provide international assistance to all persons displaced during the
1948 war. The Agency officially took over the humanitarian relief operations in the
Jordanian-controlled West Bank, Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon
and Syria in May 1950. There is no international agency with a specific mandate to
provide assistance to internally displaced Palestinians in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was
established under General Assembly Resolution 302(V), 8 December 1949. The
General Assembly accorded UNRWA a short-term mandate based on the expectation
that the plight of the refugees would soon be resolved in accordance with the
framework set forth in General Assembly Resolution 194(III).40 (See Chapter Six Durable Solutions) UNRWA’s mandate has been extended on a regular basis, however,
(with the exception of assistance to internally displaced Palestinians terminated in
1952 at the request of the Israeli government) due to the lack of durable solutions
for Palestinian refugees. The United Nations later requested UNRWA to provide
international assistance to Palestinian refugees displaced for the first time in 1967
under UN General Assembly Resolution 2252 (ES-V), 4 July 1967.
Early work programs and regional economic development programs aimed to increase
the “practical alternatives” available to the refugees and thus encourage a more
“realistic” view of the future.41 Western powers hoped that economic development
would encourage resettlement of the refugees in Arab host countries and lead to a
“liquidation” of the refugee problem. By the end of the 1950s, however, the United
Nations had concluded that the economic development programs had failed to
provide a solution to the refugee problem.42 “Although the refugee problem might
… be studied in economic and political terms,” stated the UN Secretary General in
1959, “it was basically a human problem. No reintegration would be satisfactory,
or even possible, were it to be brought about by forcing people into new positions
against their will.”43
Plagued by high overhead costs, lack of regional cooperation and beset by strong
opposition among refugees to de facto resettlement, UNRWA refocused its
humanitarian operations on the delivery of basic education, health and social assistance
services.44 These three areas continue to comprise the bulk of international assistance
programs for eligible Palestinian refugees.
96
Assistance
At the beginning of the Oslo process in 1993 UNRWA began to examine how to
prepare for the eventual hand over of its installations and programs to Palestinians in
the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. A 1995 report by the Agency noted, “For
the first time since [UNRWA] was established, it is possible to see on the horizon the
end of the Agency’s mission.”45 Nearly a decade later, however, UNRWA continues to
provide education, health and social services to more than 4 million refugees.
Israel’s refusal to allow refugees to return to their homes of origin and the failure
of the international community to facilitate durable solutions for Palestinian
refugees consistent with international law, as affirmed in Resolution 194(III), “has
forced UNRWA to metamorphose into an all-purpose vehicle.”46 The Agency thus
continues to provide “essential humanitarian services and empower the refugees
through developing their human capital until there is a just solution to the refugee
problem.”
Education: UNRWA’s education program is the largest of the Agency’s programs with
more than 660 schools in its five areas of operations and more than 15,800 educational
staff (including teachers, head teachers, school supervisors and administrative staff).
UNRWA’s education budget comprises over 50 percent of the Agency’s total budget
for re-current costs.47 Education staff comprises three-quarters of the Agency’s total
staff. The largest student population served by UNRWA schools is in the occupied
Gaza Strip with approximately 192,000 pupils enrolled in elementary and preparatory
education. (figures as of 31 December 2003).
Refugee children registered with UNRWA have access to free elementary (6 years) and
preparatory (3-4 years) education. In Lebanon UNRWA also operates five secondary
schools (since 1993) due to limited access to public secondary education and the
high cost of private secondary schooling. The Agency also offers special education
for children with learning difficulties.48 UNRWA’s education program follows the
UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip,
1970s. © UNRWA Archives.
97
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
education structure of host governments in order to facilitate the transition of UNRWA
students to secondary and post-secondary level education provided by government
and private schools and universities. Not all refugee students registered with UNRWA
attend Agency schools. Students at UNRWA schools regularly out-perform students
in government schools in state qualifying examinations. The system has high retention
rates and low dropout rates. The schools also enjoy gender parity.
UNRWA also operates eight vocational and technical training centers – four in the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories, two in Jordan, and one each in Lebanon and
Syria. The centers offer training in a variety of trades courses as well as technical/semiprofessional courses. Graduates of UNRWA centers also have achieved high pass rates
in state certifying examinations and a high success rate in finding jobs. UNRWA also
operates a teacher education program and regular in-service training. A limited number
of scholarships, contingent on special funding, are offered for study at universities
in Arab countries.
Table 4.6 – UNRWA School Population, Number of Schools, Teachers, Training Places
Year
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2003
Elementary, Preparatory, and Secondary
Pupils
41,053
104,751
123,883
167,993
219,378
275,306
314,164
345,844
357,706
408,669
468,651
490,949
Schools
Teachers
64
264
382
406
480
575
627
640
631
644
640
656
~800
2,670
3,494
4,904
6,268
8,000
9,479
10,163
10,503
11,966
14,298
17,572
Vocational, Technical, and Teacher-Training
Places
303
805
2,921
3,656
4,396
4,695
5,002
5,026
5,168
4,680
5,101
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). (Figures as of 30 June each year)
Health: UNRWA operates 122 primary health care facilities and one hospital in its
five areas of operations. The Agency’s health care budget comprises around 17 percent
of the total budget. The more than 3,600 staff employed in UNRWA’s health program
comprises approximately 15 percent of the total Agency staff.49 The occupied Gaza
Strip, which has the second highest refugee population in the five areas of UNRWA
operations has one of the highest number of patient visits to Agency facilities followed
by Jordan and the occupied West Bank. (figures as of 30 June 2003)
UNRWA health services include: primary health care, nutrition and supplementary
feeding, assistance with secondary health care and environmental health in refugee
camps. Primary health services covering medical care, family health, disease control
and prevention and health education are provided directly and at no cost to refugees
registered with UNRWA. Hospital beds are contracted with public and private
hospitals with the exception of one Agency-run hospital in the occupied West Bank
town of Qalqilya. Not all refugees registered with UNRWA use Agency health
facilities. The Agency runs one of the most cost effective health services in the region
with comparable or higher results than other health services in the region. Refugees
share health-care costs through co-payment towards secondary care, tertiary care,
98
Assistance
prosthetic devices, specialized medical investigations and non-program life-saving
medicines. Owing to especially difficult socio-economic conditions in Lebanon
refugees are exempt from the co-payment system in place in other fields, although
co-payments are required for specialized life-saving treatment. Some environmental
health services in refugee camps are also provided through contractual arrangements
with local municipalities or private contractors.
UNRWA health clinic in Jabaliya
refugee camp. © UNRWA
Archives.
Table 4.7 – UNRWA Health Facilities and Programs
Health facilities and programs
Primary health care facilities
Dental care
Family planning
Special non-communicable disease care
Specialist services
Laboratories
Health Sta
Number of facilities
122
89
122
112
76
96
3,607
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). (Figures as of 30 June 2003)
Relief and Social Services: UNRWA’s relief program provides food support for special
hardship case families, shelter rehabilitation and selective cash assistance. Eligibility
and registration for UNRWA services also falls under the relief program.50 The social
services program consists of five main sub-programs: organizational development of
community-based organizations, women in development, a disability program, youth
activities and the poverty alleviation program. The relief and social services budget
constitutes approximately 10 percent of the Agency’s total budget, with the largest
share (84 percent) allocated to assist special hardship families. The program employs
671 staff persons. The largest number of households receiving special assistance is
99
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Emergency Operations
Throughout its five decades of operation, UNRWA
has provided emergency humanitarian assistance,
consisting of emergency medical assistance, remedial
education programs, food and cash assistance,
psychological counseling, post-injury rehabilitation,
as well as repair and reconstruction of refugee
shelters and Agency infrastructure during political and
humanitarian crises in its five areas of operation.
During the early 1980s, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon
largely undid the Agency’s work of three decades in the
country. Emergency operations included food rations,
distribution of blankets, mattresses, kitchen supplies
and clothing, water, and medical supplies. Following the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from Beirut, UNRWA was
left with the task of providing emergency care to the
wounded as well as the families of the victims of some Distribution of emergency foot and household kits in Burj ash-Shemali refugee
3,000 refugees massacred by Israeli-allied Lebanese camp during the war in Lebanon. © UNRWA Archives.
Phalangist militiamen in the Beirut camps of Sabra and
Shatila and the reconstruction of camps and Agency infrastructure. Many of these same emergency services were provided to
Palestinian refugees during the first intifada in the occupied Palestinian territories that began in December 1987.
Since September 2000, UNRWA has again been forced to supplement regular services with emergency programs in the 1967
occupied territories during the second intifada including emergency poverty alleviation, maintenance of nutritional safety nets,
repair of damaged shelters, provision of services to those disabled during confrontations with or attacks by occupying Israeli
military forces, and delivery of health through mobile health units; ensuring emergency preparedness with full medical supplies,
adequate transport facilities, post-injury physical rehabilitation capacities, and compensatory education; and, consciously
attempting to guarantee that violence and economic decline do not irrevocably erode the gains of the past years and create
new costs in both social and financial capital in the period to come.
Between November 2000 and the end of 2003 UNRWA made six appeals (not including a supplementary appeal in 2002 as
a result of Israel’s massive military re-invasion of Palestinian cities, towns and refugee camps) to the international community
for special funding of emergency operations in the 1967 OPTs. The appeals amounted to around half a billion US dollars. The
largest portion of the emergency programs focus on emergency employment and food aid.
There was a further erosion of donor support to the emergency in 2003. By the end of the year UNRWA had only received
45 percent of its total requirements as set out in its two Emergency Appeals. Lack of funds meant a cancellation or severe
curtailing of priority programs in the area of education, health and shelter repair and reconstruction.
Table 4.8 - Summary of Emergency Appeal Programs, 2000-2003
Number of work days created
Number of infrastructure projects completed
Number of shelters reconstructed for SHCs
Number of food parcels distributed
Tents
Blankets
Kitchen kits
c. 4 million
130 classrooms, 6 schools
355
3.4 million
1,631
102,762
3,874
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
located in Lebanon and the occupied Gaza Strip due to the difficult socio-economic
conditions faced by refugees. (figures as of 30 June 2003)
UNRWA began to offer special assistance to refugee households qualifying as “special
hardship cases”51 in 1978. Refugees who qualify as special hardship cases are eligible
for food and selective cash assistance, hospitalization subsidies, shelter rehabilitation
100
Assistance
and are given priority in programs offered by the social services division and preference
in enrolling in vocational training schools. Food assistance includes five basic
commodities distributed on a quarterly basis (flour, rice, sugar, milk and oil).52 Cash
subsidies (US$ 40 per year) are provided on a case-by-case basis to SHC families
(approximately 20 percent of SHC cases) facing emergency situations, such as the loss
of goods or income due to fire, flooding, death or incapacity of heads of households
or primary income earners. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates, however, often
result in a reduction of total per capita allocations for cash assistance. Food and cash
subsidies amount to around US$ 106 per person per year (30 June 2003).
UN brovided tents for refugees
whose shelters were destroyed by
Israeli military forces during a 2001
invasion of Pethlehem. © BADIL
The social services division encourages self-reliance in the refugee community through
poverty alleviation schemes and community-based, locally-managed institutions and
services concerned with women and development, the rehabilitation and integration of
refugees with disabilities and youth activities and leadership training. Poverty alleviation
schemes offer both financial and non-financial services, including various credit products,
to individuals and groups for projects such as business start-ups and for training in technical
and business skills. The size of most loans falls with the range of US$ 500 to 10,000.
UNRWA has established 71 Women’s Program Centers, 27 Youth Activities Centers
(primarily located in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories) and 36 communitybased rehabilitation centers/programs. Some 59 percent of all community-based
organizations have gained full self-management capacities. In the 1967 occupied
territories, approximately two-thirds of community-based organizations have registered
with the Palestinian Authority as independent legal entities. However, few communitybased institutions have achieved financial sustainability.
101
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Women’s program centers provide skills training for women and disabled persons,
technical assistance for refugee-owned and/or operated income-generation enterprises
and public awareness drives on social issues, such as early marriage, drug addiction,
smoking and domestic violence. Support services for women, such as counseling,
legal advice and kindergartens as well as recreational and cultural activities are also
offered. Youth centers organize a wide range of community service, recreational and
educational activities, such as repair of camp roads, public library services, sporting
events, film screenings, plays and lectures on a wide range of community issues.
Since 1991 UNRWA has also operated a microfinance and micro-enterprise program
in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. The program was launched in response
to deteriorating economic conditions following the outbreak of the first intifada in
1987 and the Gulf war in 1991.The program is organized around three revolving
loan funds in the occupied Gaza Strip and two in the occupied West Bank. Loans
are given to small-scale enterprises in the occupied territories, to women organized in
groups in the occupied Gaza Strip and to micro-enterprise in the occupied territories.
In 2003 UNRWA expanded the program into Jordan and Syria.
Table 4.9 – UNRWA Centers and Programs by Location
Women’s Program Centers
Youth Activities Centers
Community-based rehabilitation centers
Gaza Strip
10
8
7
# UNRWA Centers/programs by location
West Bank
Jordan
Lebanon
15
21
10
18
1
13
10
1
Syria
15
5
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Figures as of 30 June 2003.
League of Arab States
The League of Arab States was established in 1945 with the “purpose of … draw[ing]
closer the relations between member States and coordinate[ing] their activities with
the aim of realizing a close collaboration between them ….”66 The League comprises
Humanitarian Access
UNRWA’s relationship with host governments is based on bilateral agreements and the principles set forth in the UN Charter and
the 1946 Convention on United Nations Privileges and Immunities. Under the UN Charter, member states are obligated (Article
2) to grant UNRWA “every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter.” UNRWA is also considered
to be a legal individual in UN member states (Article 104); member states are obligated to respect the privileges and immunities
needed by the Agency to fulfill its mandate. Under the 1946 Convention on United Nations Privileges and Immunities, the UN is
a juridical personality under state laws (Article 1). UN property and assets are immune from legal process (Article II.2) and its
premises are inviolable, immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference whether
by executive, administration, judicial or legislative action (Article II.3). The UN, its assets, income, and property are exempt from all
direct taxes, customs duties, and import and export restrictions on articles for official use (Article II.7). Differences in interpretation
of the convention are to be referred to the International Court of Justice unless the parties agree otherwise (Article VIII).
UNRWA, however, has faced various restrictions on delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. During the
first Palestinian intifada in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, for example, Israeli authorities refused to allow entry of
donations of foodstuffs and medical supplies through the port of Ashdod for so-called health and security considerations.
The humanitarian aid supplies eventually had to be rerouted for use in Lebanon. Since the beginning of the second intifada
in September 2000, UNRWA has faced a variety of restrictions and violations of its privileges and immunities. These include
arrest and detention of local staff, restrictions on entry and exit of local staff, restrictions on freedom of movement within the
West Bank and Gaza Strip affecting delivery of humanitarian aid, confiscation of ID cards of local staff, denial of access of
teachers to schools and training centers and doctors and nurses to medical centers and hospitals, special permits to bring
certain goods into the Gaza Strip and armed interference with Agency staff.
102
Assistance
UNRWA Funding
Since it was established in 1950 UNRWA has faced continual shortfalls in donor contributions related to the system of voluntary
funding by UN member states, delays in contributions for current budget cycles, political and humanitarian crises which
necessitate emergency programs53 and rising costs and inflation.54 The lack of a durable solution places further strain on Agency
services. UNRWA currently requires a budget growth of 7.5 percent per annum based on an average 3.5 percent growth in the
refugee population and an annual weighted average rate of inflation in the Agency’s areas of operation of 4 percent.55
Since 1950, 116 donor states, in addition to the European Union and non-governmental sources, have contributed US$ 6.9
billion (not including inflation) to provide international assistance to Palestinian refugees. The largest single donor between
1950 and 2003 is the United States (US$ 2,709,545,685). Calculated as contributions per capita and as a percent of total GDP,
however, Norway, Sweden and Denmark are the most ‘generous’ donor states among the top 13 donors to UNRWA when total
contributions as of 2000 are calculated on a per capita basis as well as percent of GDP.
In absolute terms, the largest funding for UNRWA comes from the United States (28 percent), the European Union (24 percent),
Japan (9 percent) and Sweden (6 percent). The most generous UNRWA donors in terms of the proportion of aid channelled
to UNRWA are Sweden, Norway, the United States and Switzerland – each of which give approximately 1 percent of total
overseas development aid (ODA) funding to UNRWA.56 Since 1972 UNRWA has received about 200 million USD (in coisntant
1982 USD) yearly, but the amount has varied somewhat between the different years. The registered number of refugees has
increased during the period, but the real number of refugees resident in UNRWA’s fields of operations has not increased as
fast. The number of users of UNRWA services has not increased as must as the number of registered refugees. This is partly
because those users who can afford to use services other than those provided by UNRWA often do so.
Refugees themselves also make significant contributions where possible to help cover the cost of UNRWA operations. In all
fields except Gaza, nominal contributions at prescribed rates are collected from pupils and trainees on a voluntary basis to
improve Agency facilities and equipment in schools and training centers. Other forms of community support include in-kind
donations of equipment, furniture, and supplies. Refugees participate in the environmental health program through self-help
projects for paving of pathways and drains in refugee camps, and modest payments by refugee families for connection of
shelters to sewerage and water systems installed in camps.
Chronic budget shortfalls have led to high rates of double-shifting in Agency schools57, reliance on unsatisfactory rented
buildings58, over-crowded classrooms59, reduced teacher/student interaction, higher workloads for staff, difficulties in hiring
qualified teachers at existing salary scales, inability to keep up with educational reforms introduced by host governments,
suspension of post-secondary scholarship assistance60, reductions in maintenance allocations and cuts in allocations for
vocational training, equipment and supplies.
In health services donor shortfalls have resulted in strict controls on referrals and duration of hospital stays in some areas and
some redeployment of contracted beds from the private sector to less expensive NGO hospitals, below average per capita
expenditure on health services61, a higher number of patients per health personnel62 and difficulties in maintaining competitive
salaries for recruitment of high quality health care professionals.
UNRWA is also unable to provide relief and social service assistance to all of those refugees who are in need of services
provided by the Agency. UNRWA has been forced to adopt increasingly stringent criteria for qualification as a special hardship
case, limit special cash assistance to acute crises63, and limit needed shelter rehabilitation64. Agency social workers have an
excessively high patient caseload.65
The Agency has attempted to cope with the chronic shortfall in donor contributions through a number of austerity measures,
primarily consisting of cutbacks in international staff posts, services and freezing of planned expansion of services as well as
postponing maintenance and construction costs.
Table 4.10 - Selected Indicators for Impact of Donor Shortfalls to UNRWA
% schools on double shifts
% schools in rented premises
% classes with 48+ students
# daily consultations per doctor
West Bank
41.4
15.8
4.8
104
Gaza Strip
78.1
0
60.3
109
Jordan
91.6
25.8
14.0
103
Lebanon
50.6
45.6
6.3
82
Syria
92.8
9.9
26.9
94
All Fields
75.8
17.2
29.3
98
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). (Figures as of 31 October 2001)
103
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
three main bodies: the Council of Ministers, the General Secretariat and the Permanent
Committees for each field of cooperation between members.67
In October 1951 the Director of UNRWA was invited to consult with a special
committee established by the League of Arab States to consider the Agency’s new
program and its recommendations to the 6th Session of the GA. As of September
1951 the League had contributed an estimated 3.5 million USD. It also assisted by
way of free transport and distribution of relief supplies. The LAS also conducted,
with cooperation of UNRWA, a survey of educational and social conditions among
the refugees.
According to LASC Resolution 325 (12 June 1950) League members agreed to
cooperate with UNRWA in the discharge of Agency responsibilities, “provided that
every state should declare its reservations to the said Agency in respect of the final
settlement of the Palestinian problem and the right of refugees to return to their
homes and to be compensated for their funds and properties.”
The Arab League emphasizes the importance of continued support for UNRWA,
until the refugee issue is resolved on the basis of Resolution 194(III), as a sign of
international responsibility for the Palestinian refugee case. LAS Resolution 4645
(6 April 1987) called upon Arab states to increase their contributions to UNRWA’s
general budget to 1981 levels (7.73 percent).
Developments in 2003
Major developments during the year include ongoing emergency assistance in the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories, continued shortfalls in donor funding for
the UN Relief and Assistance Agency and joint UNRWA/UNHCR assistance to
Palestinian refugees displaced from Iraq during the war and US-UK led occupation
of the country.
Arab League funding for UNRWA’s general budget continued to fall well below the
7.73 percent ceiling set in 1981. During 2003 Arab host states contributed US$ 4.96
million to UNRWA’s general budget (1.6 percent), in addition to another US$ 27
million pledged by the United Arab Emirates for the rebuilding of Jenin refugee camp
after Israel destroyed around 400 shelters during the military invasion of the camp in
2002 and a US$ 700,000 by Saudi Arabia for special projects.68
Arab host states also provided in-kind support to UNRWA during the year. This
included vaccines in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Syria.
During the year, however, the Syrian Ministry of Health was forced to discontinue
vaccine support due to financial constraints. The Ministries of Health of Jordan,
Lebanon and Syrian provided refugee patients with anti-tuberculosis drugs and
provided laboratory support for surveillance of vaccine preventable diseases targeted
for elimination and other diseases such as measles, rubella and HIV/AIDS.
In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Authority made available
to UNRWA a total of 153 dunums of land in the occupied Gaza Strip, valued at more
than US$ 4 million. This land is being used to provide re-housing for 620 nuclear and
extended families in the Khan Yunis and Rafah areas, where repeated Israeli military
104
Assistance
action caused the destruction of that number of shelters.69 Due to ongoing military
operations it was not possible to reconstruct the shelters in their original location.
In addition to UNRWA funding, Jordan reported an expenditure of approximately
US$ 423 million on refugee education, health care, social services, subsidies and
rations, rent and utilities and public security. Syria reported expenditures for similar
services totaling nearly US$ 94 million.70 Israel did not contribute to UNRWA’s
budget in 2003 and does not provide assistance to the civilian population in the
occupied territories in violation of its obligations under international law as the
occupying power.
Refugees themselves continued to make significant contributions in 2003 to cope
with the impact of Israel’s military and economic siege in the occupied Palestinian
territories. This included the donation of more than US$ 1.5 million by UNRWA
staff in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, as well as refugees and nationals in Syria
and the Palestine Right of Return Coalition. In all fields except Gaza, nominal
contributions at prescribed rates were collected from pupils and trainees on a
voluntary basis to improve facilities and equipment in schools and training centers.
Overall contributions collected in 2002/2003 amounted to more than half a million
dollars.71
UNRWA schools in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories experienced higher than
average enrollment levels during the year due to the inability of families to pay for
alternative private education. Due to funding shortfalls during the reporting period,
UNRWA was only able to implement limited curricula changes adopted by host
governments in all areas of operation.72 The Agency remains unable to support its
scholarship program (suspended in 1997/1998) through its regular budget. Twentysix UNRWA students and 2 staff were killed during the reporting period.
High rates of poverty in the OPTs due to Israel’s military re-occupation of areas
under Palestinian Authority administration led to a breakdown of cost-sharing
arrangements in the West Bank regarding secondary care. Three additional hospitals
were contracted due to lack of freedom of movement. UNRWA continued to operate
a double-shift clinic at the health centers in the five largest camps in the Gaza Strip
to address the gap between limited resources and increasing needs of the refugee
population. The Agency continued to make improvements in environmental health
conditions in refugee camps.73 Special attention continued to be paid to the early
detection and management of micro-nutrient disorders, especially iron deficiency
anaemia that was still highly prevalent among pre-school children and women of
reproductive age.
UNRWA’s special hardship program also faced increased demand due to the difficult
socio-economic situation in Jordan, continuing restrictions on employment of
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and the situation in the occupied Palestinian
territories. The number of special hardship cases increased by 1.6 percent from the
previous period.74 Insufficient resources permitted only $500,000 to be allocated
as cash assistance during the reporting period, well below the $2.9 million peak in
1996.75 Funding shortfalls also meant that UNRWA was only able to rehabilitate a
fraction of the total number of refugee shelters in need of urgent repairs.
105
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
During 2003 UNRWA’s microenterprise program expanded its operations into Jordan
and Syria. The credit operations of UNRWA’s microfinance and microenterprise
program were severely hampered owing to the disastrous economic consequences
of Israeli-imposed military closures and other measures restricting the movement of
labor and goods. The program was unable to maintain its normal state of financial
self-sufficiency for a second year. For the second year the program ate into its capital
base to survive these recessionary forces.
UNRWA also continued to provide emergency food, cash, employment and shelter
rehabilitation services to Palestinian refugees in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories during 2003. More than US$ 64 million was budgeted for emergency
food assistance with more than US$ 55 million allocated for emergency employment
creation during 2003. Approximately US$ 36 million was budgeted for emergency
shelter rehabilitation.
There was renewed strain on UNRWA’s general budget in 2003. UNRWA ended the
year 2003 with a deficit of $5.9 million in the cash portion of the regular budget,
when income was measured against planned expenditures. The Agency was not able
to implement fully its planned activities owing to the lack of full funding of its budget
and therefore was compelled to incur expenditure only as pledges were received.
In real terms, the Agency’s biennium budget for 2002-2003, and the 2004-2005
budget which was under preparation during the latter half of the reporting period,
revealed negative growth when adjusted for increase in the beneficiary population
and underlying inflation.
During 2003, eighteen United Nations and international organizations sent a public
letter of protest to Israel against the restrictions.76 Six UNRWA staff members were
killed during the period, including UNRWA’s project manager in Jenin who was killed
by Israeli sniper fire inside a clearly-marked UNRWA compound, while arranging for
the evacuation of his staff as a result of an Israeli military operation. There were no
instances during the reporting period of armed interference with UNRWA personnel
or vehicles by the Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian or Lebanese authorities.
In June 2002 the World Jewish Congress launched an international campaign calling
for the integration of UNRWA with the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees and the creation of the plan for the mass resettlement of Palestinian
refugees in host and third countries.77 The WJC used the occasion of the renewal of
UNRWA’s mandate in June 2003 and a session of the UN Sub-Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in August to press its case. The WJC
campaign was motivated by a political objective that aimed to extinguish Palestinian
refugee rights.
During 2003 UNRWA was actively involved in the United Nations contingency
planning efforts in Iraq before the conflict erupted, and followed developments
closely as they affected tens of thousands of Palestinians living in Iraq, many of them
Palestinian refugees. UNRWA remained in close touch with the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees throughout the crisis to address the needs of
the persons affected. The Agency also participated in delivering emergency assistance
to Palestinian families fleeing the conflict and temporarily accommodated in tented
camps on the Jordanian-Iraqi border.
106
Assistance
Table 4.11 - Estimated Losses due to Restrictions on Humanitarian Access (USD)
Type of Restriction
Loss of working hours in Gaza Strip due to closures and curfews
Accommodation of staff unable to return home due to closure
Transit fee at Karni crossing into Gaza
Excess storage and demurrage charges due to closure
Damage to UNRWA installations in West Bank
Damage to UNRWA installations in Gaza Strip
Lost teacher days in West Bank schools
Lost teacher days in Gaza Strip schools
Lost instructor days in West Bank Vocational and Training Centers
Lost instructor days in the Gaza Strip Vocational and Training Center
Source: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Figures as of 30 June 2003.
Cost (US$)
141,000
54,058
233,245
369,500
66,300
46,000
830,000
491,900
162,000
32,200
Figure 4.1 – UNRWA Emergency Appeals������
Expenditures (as of 31 December 2003)
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107
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Figure 4.2 – Top 13 Donors to UNRWA Regular, Emergency
and Project Budgets, 2003
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Figure 4.3 – Top 13 Donors to UNRWA Emergency Appeals from 4 October 2000 - 31
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US pledges include USAID.). *European Commission Humanitarian Office
108
Assistance
Endnotes
Article 2(7), Charter of the United Nations, 26 June 1945. “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United
Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall required the Members to
submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement
measures under Chapter VII.”
2
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (‘Refugee Convention’), effective 22 April 1954, 28 July 1951, 189 UNTS 137.
3
Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen are signatories but host only small numbers
of Palestinian refugees. According to UNHCR statistical reports for 2002-2003 there were 4,005 Palestinian refugees of concern
to UNHCR in Algeria, 70,195 (Egypt), 813 (Morocco) and 149 (Yemen). 2002 Statistical Yearbook. Geneva: Population Data
Unit/PGDS, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, 2002, pp. 199, 391 and 515. 2003 Global Refugee Trends, Overview of
Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions, Asylum-Seekers and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR. Geneva: Population
Data Unit/PGDS, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, 15 June 2004, p. 29.
4
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Addendum to: Report of the Representative of the Secretary General, Mr. Francis
M. Deng, submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/39, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, 11 February 1998, Further
Promotion and Encouragement of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, including the Question of the Programme and
Methods of Works of the Commission on Human Rights, Mass Exoduses and Displaced Persons.
5
Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians, 11 September 1965 (‘Casablanca Protocol’). Available at, http://www.badil.org/
Documents/Protection/LAS/Casablanca-Protocol.htm. [last visited 31/3/04]
6
Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (‘OAU Convention’), effective 20 June 1974, 10
September 1969, 1001 UNTS 1945.
7
Kuwait, Lebanon and Libya endorsed the Protocol but with reservations. Saudi Arabic, Morocco and Tunisia are not
signatories.
8
These states include Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia. According to UNHCR statistical reports for 20022003 there were 4,005 Palestinian refugees of concern to UNHCR in Algeria, 70,195 (Egypt) and 8,604 (Libya). 2002 Statistical
Yearbook, supra note 3, pp. 199, 369 and 391. 2003 Global Refugee Trends, Overview of Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable
Solutions, Asylum-Seekers and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR, supra note 3, p. 29.
9
The 1967 occupied Palestinian territories are included as an Arab host state due to the fact that Palestinian refugees residing
therein originate from areas inside the state of Israel. While there is no de jure international border the 1949 armistice line (‘Green
Line’) constitutes a de facto international border between Israel and the occupied West Bank.
10
For a brief overview see, Marzio Babille, et. al. Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Volume
III: Social Service Delivery to Palestinian Refugees: UNRWA and other Providers, UNRWA Financial and Donor Environment. Oslo:
FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003, pp. 20-22.
11
Ibid, p. 21.
12
Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Volume I: Socio-economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees
in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Laurie Blome Jacobsen (ed.). Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social
Science, 2003, p. 187. Few (two percent) are not registered with UNRWA and do not have private insurance. Babille, et. al, supra
note 10, p. 22.
13
For an overview see, Babille, et. al, supra note 10, pp. 16, 21-22.
14
Marie Arneberg, Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees and Displaced in Jordan. Oslo: FAFO Institute for Applied Social
Science, 1997, p. 35.
15
For a brief overview see, Babille, et. al, supra note 10, pp. 19-20, 22.
16
Ibid, p. 22.
17
For an overview see, Babille, et. al, supra note 10, pp. 17-19, 23.
18
Ibid, p. 19.
19
Finding Means, supra note 12, p. 189. According to a 1997 survey by the Health, Development and Policy Institution (HDIP),
approximately 40 percent of refugees seek treatment at UNRWA, 31 percent at private clinics and 25 percent at government
clinics. Id.
20
Finding Means, supra note 12, p. 184.
21
For a brief overview see, Babille, et. al, supra note 10, p. 60.
22
Atlas of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan. Amman: Department of Palestinian Affairs, 2001. In 2001 this included 10
secondary schools: 4 in Baqa’a camp, two in Azmi al-Mufti, two in Hittin, one in Jerash and one in Souf refugee camp. From
these 10 schools, there are 6 schools for girls and 4 for boys.
23
Riccardo Bocco et. al. Palestinian Public Perceptions on their Living Conditions. Report VI. Geneva: Graduate Institute of
Development Studies, University of Geneva, 2003, p. 183.
24
Babille, et. al, supra note 10, p. 59. Natour notes that 10 percent of spaces at the elementary, intermediate and high school level
in public and private schools are reserved for non-Lebanese students. Suheil Natour, The Legal Status of Palestinians in Lebanon.
Paper presented at the Palestinians in Lebanon Conference organized by the Centre for Lebanese Studies and the Refugee Studies
Programme, Queen Elizabeth House, 27-30 September 1996, p. 46.
25
Natour, supra note 24, p. 46.
26
Finding Means, supra note 12, p. 203. Also see, Hamad Said al-Mawed, The Palestinian Refugees in Syria, Their Past, Present and
Future. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 1999.
1
109
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Five Decades of Responsibility in the Refugee Camps of Jordan. Amman: Department of Palestinian Affairs, 2000, p. 21.
Atlas of Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jordan, supra note 22.
29
Adwan Talab, Refugee Camp lands: Political/Juridical Issues and Social Practices in the West Bank and Gaza. Paper prepared for the
International Symposium: The Palestinian Refugees and UNRWA in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, 1949-1999, 31 August-2
September 1999, Dead Sea, Jordan, p. 17.
30
Report of the Director General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, 1 July
1958-30 June 1959, UN GAOR, 14th Sess., Supp. No. 14 (A/4213), 30 June 1959, Annex H, para. 30.
31
The Iraqi governments of Abdel-Karim Qassem (1959) and Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr (1970) were responsible for constructing the
bulk of Palestinian housing in the al-Salam, al-Horiyya and al-Baladiyat districts of Baghdad to resolve the housing problem of the
Palestinian refugees. Following the 1948 exodus to Iraq, many of the Palestinians were housed in old schools and military camps
under the direct supervision of the Iraqi ministry of defense, in bad living conditions, Until the 1970s. see, Palestinian Refugees in
Iraq. Department of Refugee Affairs, Palestine Liberation Organization, 1999. Under Saddam Hussein’s regime three buildings
were constructed in the al-Baladiat area. See, Rasha Saad, “Displaced Yet Again,” Al-Ahram, Issue No. 641, 5-11 June 2003. The
Iraqi government also rented houses for Palestinian refugees. As estimated 63 percent of the Palestinian refugees in Baghdad (1,466
families, comprising 8,944 refugees) benefited from such government-provided houses. Palestinian Refugees in Iraq. Department
of Refugee Affairs, Palestine Liberation Organization, 1999. [On file with BADIL]
32
Palestine Refugee Problem, Annex I, Washington, 22 April 1948, Foreign Relations of the United States 1949, p. 938. Cited in
Donald Neff, Fallen Pillars, US Policy towards Palestine and Israel since 1945. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies,
1995, p. 69. The same report noted, “the total direct relief offered … by the Israeli government to date consists of 500 cases of
oranges.” Ibid.
33
Oroub al-Abed, The Palestinians in Egypt: An Investigation of Livelihoods and Coping Strategies. Egypt: The American University
in Cairo/Forced Migration Refugee Studies Program, September 2003, p. 13.
34
The common denominator of shelter villages was that IDPs constitute the majority of the residents. RRA supervised housing
construction in the shelter villages. However, the distinction between “shelter villages” and villages that were not designated as such
as not absolutely clear. The RRA, for example, also operated in Reine (Nazareth), and shelter villages also absorbed refugees who
were not transferred by the RRA. Hillel Cohen, The Present Absentees: Palestinian Refugees in Israel since 1948. Jerusalem: Institute
for Israeli-Arab Studies, 2000, pp. 26-27.
35
Ibid.
36
Ibid.
37
The affairs of internally displaced Palestinians were administered until 1953 by a Refugee Rehabilitation Authority (RRA). The
primary purpose of the RRA was to protect the Jewish character of the state of Israel and not the rights of the internally displaced
Palestinians. The RRA resettled internally displaced Palestinians in areas away from their villages of origin and transferred Palestinians
outside the borders of Israel.
38
Comay-Michelmore Agreement, 14 June 1967. The agreement entered into force on 14 June 1967. Michael Comay was then
political advisor to the foreign minister and ambassador at large and Lawrence Michelmore was UNRWA Commissioner General.
The agreement is reprinted in Benjamin Schiff, Refugees unto the Third Generation, UN Aid to Palestinians. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse
University Press, 1995, pp. 295-96.
39
Ibid, p. 295.
40
According to Article 6 of Resolution 302(IV), all relief and works operations were to be terminated by the middle of 1951.
41
During the initial six years of its operations, while providing relief, primary health and education services, UNRWA initiated
four types of programmes aimed at reintegrating the refugees into the economic life of the region : i) “Work Relief ” i.e. small scale
training and employment creation; ii) “Works Projects” i.e. medium-sized public sector government-controlled projects such as
road-building and tree- planting aimed at employment creation; iii) assistance to and subsidization for small numbers of Palestine
refugees willing to resettle including to places such as: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Columbia, Chile, Egypt, Honduras, Iran,
Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Sierra Leone, Saudi Arabia, United States, Venezuela, Germany, and Yemen; iv) large scale regional
development projects with regional governments.
42
See, UNGA Resolution 614 (VII), 6 November 1952 recognising that “immediate realization” of the reintegration goals has not
been possible and noting that “increased relief expenditures are therefore required, with a resultant reduction in the reintegration
funds”. Also see, Resolution 916 (X), 3 December 1955 noting that “no substantial progress has been made in the programme for
reintegration of refugees”.
43
Proposals for the Continuation of United Nations Assistance to Palestine Refugees, Document Submitted by the Secretary-General. UN
Doc. A/4121, 15 June 1959, para. 17.
44
See, UNGA Resolution 1315(XIII), 12 December 1958 requesting UNRWA “to plan and carry out projects capable of supporting
substantial numbers of refugees and, in particular, programmes relating to education and vocational training”. Also see, Resolution
1456 (XIV), 9 December 1959 directing the Agency “to continue its programme of relief for the refugees and … expand its
programme of self-support and vocational training”.
45
UNRWA, UNRWA and the Transitional Period: A Five-Year Perspective on the Role of the Agency and its Financial Requirements.
Vienna (31 January 1995).
46
Peter Hansen, From Humanitarian Crisis to Human Development – The Evolution of UNRWA’s Mandate to the Palestine Refugees.
Address to the American University of Cairo, 21 September 2003. Available at, http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/statements/aucsep03.pdf. [last visited 31/3/05]
47
On average UNRWA spends US$ 320 (2003) per elementary student and US$ 453 per preparatory student. UNRWA in Figures
27
28
110
Assistance
(31 December 2003). Gaza City: Public Information Office, UNRWA Headquarters, March 2004.
48
In the 2002/2003 academic year, those activities benefited 850 slow learners, 1,138 pupils classified as remedial cases, 11 blind
children, 81 deaf children and 115 handicapped. Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July 2002 – 30 June 2003. UN GAOR, 58th Session, Supp. No. 13 (A/58/13), 11 October
2003, para. 49.
49
UNRWA allocates approximately US$ 13 per capita on health care. Ibid, para. 75.
50
[Palestine refugee] shall mean any person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15
May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict. Consolidated Registration Instructions
(CRI), 1 January 1993, para. 2.13, see Annex 2.
51
SHCs are defined as households having no male adult medically fit to earn an income and no other identifiable means of financial
support above a defined level.
52
UNRWA continued to provide food rations to Palestinian refugees in all areas of operation until the early 1980s. Following the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, UNRWA rations were redirected from all areas of operations
to Lebanon with the consent of refugees. However, following the end of the crisis in Lebanon, rations were not reinstated.
53
Over the course of its fifty-year history of operations, UNRWA has launched numerous emergency funding appeals to cover the
costs of emergency programs. In 1997, for example, UNRWA launched a special emergency appeal for Lebanon totaling US$ 11
million to support essential health, education, and relief and social services to alleviate financial pressures resulting from insufficient
resources in the Agency’s regular budget. Two emergency appeals were issued in 2001 covering the period of March to December
for a total of US$ 114 million. In 2002 UNRWA issued an appeal for US$ 117 million. Following the massive military assault
on Palestinian refugee camps in March and April 2002, UNRWA was forced to issue a supplementary emergency appeal to the
international community for US$ 55.7 million to cover additional emergency expenses.
54
Over the last decade the gap between UNRWA’s budgeted and actual expenditure has reached as much as US $50 to $70 million
per year out of a total budget of around US$ 250 to $300 million.
55
UNRWA’s regular budget comprises recurrent and non-staff costs. It is further divided into cash and in-kind portions. The cash
budget is funded through unearmarked cash contributions recorded as income to the General Fund. The in-kind budget represents
the value of in-kind donations that the Agency expects to receive based on agreements with donors or past practice (e.g. food aid).
The project budget comprises mainly non-recurrent costs funded by earmarked project contributions. Activities are implemented
only if donors specifically fund them. Most of the Agency’s capital costs are included in the projects budget, as are certain other
one-time activities and essential expenditure that cannot be met by regular budget allocations. Education services account for the
majority of UNRWA expenditures, followed by health, and relief and social services, with operational and common services making
up the remainder of expenditures. Operational expenditures include supply, transport, architectural and engineering services that
support all Agency programs. Common services include management and administrative services that support all Agency programs,
as well as working capital reserves to be allocated to programs during the budget biennium.
56
Laurie Blome Jacobsen, Finding Means, UNRWA’s Financial Situation and the Living Conditions of Palestinian Refugees, Summary
Report, 2000, p. 8.
57
Region-wide, three-quarters of UNRWA schools run on double-shifts. Despite an expanded program of school construction since
1993, the Agency has been unable to reduce the rate of double-shifting. During UNRWA’s last reporting period 77.1 percent of
schools operated on a double-shift basis owing to a shortage of school buildings. Report of the Commissioner-General of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra note 48, para. 46. In Jordan, where the largest number
of refugees reside, 92 per cent of schools operate in double shifts. In local government schools, the situation is the reverse, with
approximately 90 percent being in single-shift operation. Preliminary studies carried out by UNRWA’s Department of Education
show that in achievement tests the performance of pupils in double shift schools is inferior to that of pupils in single-shift schools.
Ibid, para. 33.
58
Shortfalls in donor contributions for the construction of the necessary number of new schools (and restrictions on new
construction in Lebanon) has also forced UNRWA to house schools in often unsatisfactory rented premises. Approximately 13
percent of UNRWA schools are located in rented facilities with the situation most severe in Lebanon where 46 percent of Agency
schools are located in rented buildings. Between 1993 and 2002, however, special project funds have enabled UNRWA to reduce
the overall number of rented school buildings from 94 to 78. Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, 1 July 2001-30 June 2002. UN GAOR, 57th Sess., Supp. No. 13 (A/57/13), 27
October 2002, para. 43. In the 2002/2003 academic year, the classroom occupancy at rented schools averaged 29.91 students per
class as compared to 44.3 students per class at Agency-built schools due to smaller sizes of available classrooms. Through project
funding, the Agency managed to reduce the number of rented premises by 18.1 per cent from 94 in the 1993/1994 academic year
to 77 in 2002/2003. The 77 rented premises housed 113 schools, with the Lebanon and Jordan fields having the largest numbers
of such schools. Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East, supra note 48, para. 47. Between the 1993/1994 and 2002/2003 academic years, the number of school buildings increased
by 0.97 percent and the number of schools increased by 2.5 percent, whereas the total enrolment increased by 23.1 percent. Ibid,
para. 45.
59
The high rate of growth in the student population and lack of funding for new or expanded facilities has also led to overcrowding
in Agency schools. Classroom occupancy rates are substantially higher than the rates in host country schools. The average classroom
occupancy rate for 2002/2003 was 42.9 students. The rate is particularly high due to extremely overcrowded classrooms (75
percent) in the Gaza Strip. The area per student in UNRWA schools ranges between 0.83 – 1.17 sq. m., an average of 1 sq. m. per
student, which is low compared with UNESCO standards (1.40-1.50 sq. m. per student). Classroom occupancy rates continue
111
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
to average 44.3 pupils per class, and in some fields this figure rises to 47.1 per class. Overcrowding within the Agency’s education
system continued, with the average classroom occupancy rate at 42.2 pupils in the 2002/2003 academic year. Occupancy was
highest in the Gaza Strip at 47.1 pupils per classroom and lowest in Lebanon at 36.4. Report of the Commissioner-General of the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra note 48, para. 60.
60
Since 1997 UNRWA has been unable to provide scholarships for post-secondary education due to funding shortfalls. Existing
scholars in the program, however, continue to receive assistance through special project funds until they complete their studies.
61
Due to funding shortfalls UNRWA per capita health expenditures are considered far below public expenditure on health by
countries in the Agency’s area of operations and compare with public expenditure in the world’s least developed countries. Taking
the allocations on environmental health services and food aid separately, the net per capita allocation on the full range of preventive
and curative medical care services, both at the primary and secondary levels, was US$ 9.30 for the 2000-2001 biennium.
62
Lack of sufficient donor contributions to keep pace with the natural growth of the refugee population, moreover, has resulted in
extremely high patient loads for health care personnel as much as 20 times higher than the rates in Arab host countries. The overall
health personnel/population ratios remained as low as 0.8 doctors and 2.2 nurses per 10,000 refugees (2000-2001 biennium). The
corresponding rates are 13.8 doctors and 19.7 nurses/midwives per 10,000 persons in Syria and 16.6 doctors and 30 nurses/midwives
per 10,000 persons in Jordan. UNRWA has also been unable to reduce the high number of daily consultations per doctor. On
average, UNRWA doctors see more than 106 patients per day (as of December 2001). The long-desired objective of reducing the
average number of consultations to not more than 70 per medical doctor per day has not been achieved due to funding shortfalls
and a recruitment freeze.
63
Between 1997 and 2000 UNRWA was forced to suspend allocations for selective cash assistance. Current allocations, reinstated
in January 2000, however, only allow the Agency to provide allocations to approximately one-third of the families in need of
special assistance.
64
Available resources for shelter rehabilitation continue to fall short of identified needs. Some 14,000 SHC case families, comprising
some 54,000 persons, still live in housing that does not meet minimally acceptable standards for structural soundness, hygiene,
ventilation and space relative to family size. An estimated US$ 12 million is needed to repair these shelters.
UNRWA employs 268 social workers with an average caseload of 262 cases per year (June 2002), well in excess of the recommended
250 cases per year. The average caseload of social workers in 2002-2003, at about 258 cases per year, was brought in line with
the recommended norm of 250 cases per year. Ten new social worker posts were established in Syria and filled in order to reduce
the high-caseload of social workers from 350/400 to 250 cases and meet Agency norms. Report of the Commissioner-General of the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra note 48, para. 91.
65
Pact of the League of Arab States, effective 10 May 1945, 22 March 1945, 70 UNTS, 248, 252.
The 21 members of the League of Arab States are Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya,
Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
68
Table 10 – Contributions in Cash and In-kind by Governments and the European Community, Report of the CommissionerGeneral of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra note 48.
69
Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, supra
note 70, para. 92.
70
Ibid, paras. 37 and 39.
71
Ibid, para. 57.
72
A new Palestinian curriculum was introduced for the 3rd and 8th grades to replace the Jordanian curriculum in the West Bank
and the Egyptian curriculum in the Gaza Strip. In Syria a new study plan, new curricula and textbooks for the elementary and
preparatory cycles were gradually introduced. The new format for the 6th elementary grade was fully implemented in UNRWA
schools in 2002/2003 while the new format for the 7th grade was implemented in selected UNRWA and government schools.
UNRWA also introduced Computer Science for 8th grade in its schools following the introduction of the subject in government
schools. In Jordan UNRWA introduced computer science for the 7th and 8th grades. UNRWA was not able to extend the educational
cycle from 9 to 10 years in the 1967 OPTs in keeping with changes introduced by the Palestinian Authority. UNRWA was also
unable to introduce new courses or expand the capacity of existing courses in the Agency’s vocational and technical training centers
without reducing old courses. Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East, supra note 48, para. 48.
73
In Gaza, UNRWA implemented projects in sewerage, storm water drainage and solid waste management in and outside the
camps at a cost of US$ 25.65 million, while projects planned for implementation, subject to availability of funds, are estimated
at US$ 14.36 million. In Lebanon, feasibility studies and detailed designs were completed for the rehabilitation and construction
of the water and wastewater infrastructure in two camps in Tyre area and one camp each in Saida, Beqaa and the north areas. In
Syria, a partnership and financing agreement between the government, the donor and UNRWA, seeks to focus on improvement
of water supply systems in Khan Eshieh and Khan Dannoun camps and construction of a sewerage network in Khan Eshieh camp.
Capital projects were complemented in all fields by self-help camp improvement activities, to which the Agency contributed material
inputs and the community voluntarily provided labor inputs. Ibid, paras. 260, 207, 224
74
The three largest categories of SHC assistance were directed to families whose male breadwinner was incapable of working for
medical reasons (35.51 percent), families headed by a widow, divorcee or deserted female (12.9 percent), or the destitute elderly
(24.36 percent). Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East, supra note 48, para. 82.
75
Ibid, para. 84.
66
67
112
Assistance
Signatories included the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), World Food Programme
(WFP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), World
Health Organisation (WHO), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Médecins sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde,
Pharmaciens sans Frontières -- Comité International, OXFAM GB, Care International, MERLIN, Enfants Refugiés du Monde,
Solidaridad Internacional, CRIC (Centro Regionale d’Intervento per la Cooperazione), Movement for Peace, Disarmament and
Liberty, UNA International Service (UK), and World Vision.
77
The campaign has been joined by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, prominent neo-conservatives such as Daniel Pipes (Director
of Middle East Forum), US Congressmen, including Eric Cantor (Chairman of the Congressional Taskforce on Terrorism and
Unconventional Warfare) and Tom Lantos (Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on International Relations),
and the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.
76
113
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
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114
Chapter
Protection
Five
115
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Protection
Preface
Refugees and internally displaced persons are entitled to protection. Protection includes
recognition and safeguarding of refugee and IDP rights, security and welfare. National
authorities hold the primary responsibility to protect refugees and IDPs within their borders.
National protection accorded to Palestinian refugees in host states and internally displaced
in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories varies. Few host states where the
majority of Palestinian refugees reside are signatories to relevant international instruments.
Interpretation of relevant instruments by signatory host states is inconsistent.
International protection is required when states are unable or unwilling to protect refugees
and internally displaced persons. The rights and duties of refugees and the obligations of states
are set forth in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The Convention
includes special provisions governing the status of 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees.
The 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians delineates standards for the treatment
of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. The 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement set forth the rights of internally displaced persons. The 1965 Protocol and
the 1998 Guiding Principles, however, do not have the legal status of a convention.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is the primary body mandated to
provide international protection for refugees worldwide. The Office works closely with other
international and national organizations and states. The United Nations established a
separate organ – the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine – to provide international
protection to all persons displaced during the 1948 war in Palestine. The UN did not
establish a special organ for Palestinian refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 or for
internally displaced Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. There is no single
UN agency mandated to protect internally displaced persons. The League of Arab States
established several organs to monitor the treatment of Palestinians in member states.
Significant gaps exist in the protection of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced
persons due to the collapse of UNCCP protection, limited protection afforded by the
UNHCR, lack of effective protection by the Arab League and varying interpretation of
relevant instruments.
116
Protection
National Protection
National authorities hold the primary responsibility to protect refugees and internally
displaced persons within their borders. This reflects the generally recognized principle
of territorial sovereignty. The Charter of the United Nations prohibits intervention in
matters that are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.1
States signatories to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees2 are obligated
to guarantee refugees within their borders the right to employment, housing, public
education, property ownership, freedom of movement, identity papers, travel
documents and social security. The Refugee Convention requires that most of these
rights be guaranteed at the same level as nationals of the state; all are guaranteed at
least at the same level as other foreign aliens. Most states in the Middle East where
the majority of Palestinian refugees reside are not signatories to the 1951 Refugee
Convention.3
Arab states signatories to the 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians4 recognize
the right of Palestinian refugees to employment, freedom of movement, residency
and travel documents. Most of these rights are to be guaranteed at the same level as
nationals of the state. Not all member states of the Arab League are signatories to
the Casablanca Protocol.5 The 1969 Convention Governing Specific Aspects of Refugee
Problems in Africa6 applicable to African-Arab states includes provisions for residency,
travel documents and voluntary repatriation. Few Palestinian refugees reside in OAU
Convention signatory states.7
Protection in Arab Host States
More than two-thirds of Palestinian refugees reside in Arab host states. Jordan, the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories8, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt
host the majority of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. Refugee protection is often
a reflection of national and regional political considerations.
Employment: Implementation of the Casablanca Protocol with respect to the right to
employment on par with host state nationals is subject to numerous restrictions. Most
Palestinian refugees in Syria, Jordan and Iraq have the right to employment on par with
host state nationals although they may experience informal discrimination.9 A smaller
number of unregistered refugees, including those who subsequently entered Syria from
other Arab states, and refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip who entered Jordan during
or immediately after the 1967 war do not have full access to employment.10
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories have the same right to employment as non-refugee Palestinians. Access to
employment, however, is often restricted by Israel’s military occupation and related
regime comprising military closures, permit system, roadblocks, curfews and property
destruction. Israel does not accept the de jure application of international humanitarian
law in the West Bank (including eastern Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip.11 Access to
employment is particularly difficult for Palestinians, the majority of whom are refugees,
in the occupied Gaza Strip. The construction of a separation Wall in the occupied West
Bank beginning in 2002 has imposed further restrictions on access to employment.
117
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Palestinian refugees in Egypt have the same right to employment as other foreign aliens
who find it difficult to obtain work permits.12 Refugees wishing to practice a profession
must hold Egyptian residence and obtain a permit issued by the Ministry of Labor and
Training.13 Employment in the civil service is based on reciprocal rights for Egyptian
nationals in the foreigner’s state of citizenship.14 Due to the fact that most Palestinian
refugees in Egypt are stateless, there is no possibility of reciprocal agreements and
no possibility of public sector employment. Holders of Egyptian travel documents
endorsed with a visa other than for a tourist visit, however, are formally exempt from
the requirement that native workers be given priority for employment.15
Emergency employment project
in Aida refugee camp, West Bank.
© BADIL.
118
In Lebanon and Kuwait Palestinian refugees do not have the same right to employment
as other foreign aliens.16 Both countries reserve the right to restrict access to
employment under the Casablanca Protocol.17 Only naturalized citizens are eligible
for civil service employment. Palestinians are barred from employment in nearly
seventy different professions in Lebanon.18 Entry into professional associations and
employment is based on the individual having Lebanese nationality for a minimum
of ten years and reciprocal rights for Lebanese citizens in the foreigner’s state of
citizenship.19 Due to the fact that most Palestinian refugees are stateless, there is
no possibility of reciprocal agreements and no possibility of entry into professional
associations. Work permits are not required for work in agriculture, construction and
day labor; however, work in these fields is irregular and low paid. Foreigners must
leave Kuwait upon termination of employment. Non-Kuwaitis are not permitted to
join professional associations.
Protection
Education: Most Arab host states provide Palestinian refugees with access to public
elementary, secondary and post-secondary education.20 Access may be restricted
due to limited spaces available for foreigners, including Palestinian refugees and for
financial reasons. Jordan, Syria and Iraq accord most Palestinian refugees access to
all levels of education on par with host state nationals. Palestinian refugees from the
occupied Gaza Strip who entered Jordan during and after the 1967 war, however,
must compete for a limited number of spaces available to Arab students for postsecondary education; fees must be paid in foreign currency and candidates must have
a clean security record.21
Palestinian school children at a
gate in the separation Wall in the
West Bank. © al-Ayyam Archives.
In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories Palestinian refugees and internally
displaced persons have the same right to education as non-refugee Palestinians.
Access to education, however, is often restricted by Israel’s military occupation and
related regime comprising military closures, permit system, roadblocks, curfews and
property destruction. The construction of a separation Wall in the occupied West Bank
beginning in 2002 has imposed further restrictions on access to employment.
Palestinian refugees in Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait are treated as other foreigners.22 This
includes quotas for admission of foreigners in public schools and universities.23 Like
ex-Gazan refugees in Jordan, Palestinian refugees in Egypt are required to pay university
fees in foreign currency. Children of government employees (including retirees), children
of Egyptian widows and divorcees, children of mothers who passed their Egyptian
high school exams, continuous residents of Egypt and students in need of financial
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assistance, however, are exempt from ninety percent of school and university fees. Since
2000 Palestinian students at Egyptian schools are exempt from paying fees due to the
economic difficulties facing Palestinians as a result of the second intifada.24
Travel Documents: Most Palestinian refugees and internally displaced are stateless
persons (See box below – Status of Palestinian Refugees under the Statelessness Conventions)
and require travel documents in order to move across international borders. Most Arab
host states issue travel documents in accordance with provisions in the Casablanca
Protocol. Refugees residing in states signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention and
recognized as ‘Convention Refugees’ are eligible for Convention travel documents.
Some states, including Iraq and Syria require all persons, including Palestinian refugees
to obtain special permission to travel abroad.
Refugees in Egypt and Iraq are eligible for a five-year travel document.25 Syria issues
six-year travel documents. Most refugees in Lebanon receive a single-year travel
document; unregistered refugees, however, are only eligible for a document valid for
three months with a stamp indicating ‘Not Valid for Return’.26 Palestinian refugees
displaced to Jordan in 1948 hold Jordanian citizenship and do not require travel
documents. Palestinian refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip who entered Jordan
during and after the 1967 war do not have Jordanian citizenship; many use Egyptianissued travel documents27 when traveling abroad.
Egypt is one of the only LAS member states that requires Palestinian refugees holding
travel documents to obtain an entry visa, transit or return visa prior to entry or transit
through Egypt.28 Palestinian refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip who entered Jordan
during and after the 1967 war also require return visas to re-enter Jordan.
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories may obtain a ‘Palestinian Passport’ that functions as a travel document.29
Refugees and IDPs who held Jordanian passports before July 198830, are also eligible
for a five-year renewable Jordanian passport that functions as a travel document.
Holders of a Palestinian passport and a passport from a second state must enter and
exit the occupied Palestinian territories on their ‘Palestinian Passport’. Palestinian
residents of Jerusalem who hold Jordanian passports and wish to travel via land to
Jordan must obtain a permit from the Israeli Ministry of Interior; a laissez passer
is required for travel via Israel’s international airport. Since January 2002 holders
of Palestinian passports from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including
Palestinians with dual citizenship, are not permitted to exit or enter Israel through
Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.31
Residency: Arab states generally grant residency status to Palestinian refugees in
accordance with the Casablanca Protocol, however, residency status varies.32 Palestinian
refugees from the occupied West Bank who took up residence in Jordan before 1 June
1983 are eligible for full residency and hold yellow cards.33 Most Palestinian refugees
residing in Egypt hold temporary residency permits valid for one to three years.34
In Lebanon only those Palestinian refugees who took direct refuge in Lebanon in
1948 are eligible for residency.35 Since 2002 Arab citizens/residents from non-Gulf
Cooperation Council states, including Palestinian refugees, are not allowed to stay
in Kuwait for more than three months.36 Foreigners must leave the country upon
termination of employment.
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Protection
Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories have the same residency status as non-refugee Palestinians: they are
considered resident aliens or foreigners under Israeli civil and military law.37 Israel
retains overall control of the regulation of residency status in the OPTs.38
Kalandia checkpoint between
Jerusalem and Ramallah. ©
al-Ayyam Archives.
Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab host states that require Palestinian refugees to
regularly renew their residency status.39 In Jordan, however, only those Palestinian
refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip who entered Jordan during and immediately
after the 1967 war must renew their residency status on a regular basis.40
Dual nationality is generally not recognized in the Arab world. Few Palestinian
refugees have acquired citizenship in Arab host states with the exception of refugees
in Jordan.41 Palestinian refugees in Iraq are granted preferential treatment in respect
of naturalization.42 Palestinian refugees in Syria may acquire Syrian citizenship if they
are women married to Syrian men, had Syrian citizenship before 1948 or by special
dispensation from the Ministry of the Interior.43 A small number of Palestinian refugees
have acquired citizenship in Lebanon.44 In Kuwait foreigners are required to have ten
years residence before becoming eligible for citizenship.
Housing and Property: In most Arab host states, except Jordan and Iraq, Palestinian
refugees and internally displaced are not permitted to own property on par with
host state nationals.45 The Casablanca Protocol does not address the right to
property. Palestinians who took up residency in Jordan during or immediately after
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Housing conditions in Shatila
refugee camp in Lebanon. © BADIL.
1967, however, are not permitted to own, rent or sell immovable property without
government permission.46
Refugees in Syria and Egypt may own property but subject to restrictions. In Syria
refugees may not own arable land; however, they may acquired a single home provided
s/he is registered with the General Authority for Palestine Refugees. Palestinian
refugees in Egypt have the same right to own immovable property as foreign aliens.47
Property ownership in Egypt is limited to a single private residence; a business may
be acquired in partnership with an Egyptian national. Foreigners are not permitted
to own agricultural land or desert land in Egypt.48
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Kuwait are not permitted to own immovable
property.49 Several tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have obtained
Lebanese citizenship have the right to own property.
Palestinian refugees and IDPs in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories have the
right to own property. The right to property, however, is often violated by Israel’s
military occupation and related regime comprising military closures, permit system,
roadblocks, curfews and property destruction. Military orders have enabled Israel
to acquire control of vast areas of Palestinian land and property, including refugee
property.50 Property in the occupied territories held by the state of Israel and the
Jewish National Fund may not be transferred by sale or in any other manner.51 The
construction of a separation Wall in the occupied West Bank beginning in 2002 has
imposed further restrictions on the right to property.
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Protection
Status of Palestinian Refugees under the 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians
The 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians promulgated by the League of Arab States delineates standards for the
treatment of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. The Casablanca Protocol is narrower in scope than relevant international
instruments. It only addresses residency status, travel documents and employment rights. The Casablanca Protocol does
not address the specific circumstances of those Palestinians displaced for the first time in 1967, displaced Palestinians who
are neither 1948 or 1967 refugees and internally displaced Palestinians. Several other regional agreements (see 1992 Cairo
Declaration below) clarify legal principles concerning Palestinian refugees but are not considered binding instruments.
The Casablanca Protocol establishes a set of guidelines for member states of the LAS regarding the treatment of Palestinian
refugees. Under the Protocol Palestinians have the right to employment on par with nationals of the host country52, the right to
leave and enter host states53, freedom of movement54, the right to a travel document55 and the right to the same treatment as
LAS nationals with regard to visas and residency applications56. While the Protocol is narrower in scope than the 1951 Refugee
Convention some of its provisions provide greater rights in theory than those set forth in the 1951 Refugee Convention. In the
area of self-employment and employment in the liberal professions the Protocol provides for the same treatment as nationals
whereas the 1951 Refugee Convention only provides for as favorable treatment as possible and not less than accorded to
aliens. Article 26 of the 1951 Refugee Convention provides for freedom of movement within the host country, whereas Articles
2 and 3 of the Casablanca Protocol also provide for freedom of movement between Arab states. The Casablanca Protocol,
however, is not a Convention and is not considered to be legally binding on states signatory to the Protocol.
The draft 1992 Cairo Declaration on the Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Arab World delineates principles for the
protection of refugees and displaced persons in the Arab world but does not have the legal status of a convention. During the 1990s
Arab human rights and refugee law experts in the region participated in a joint process with the UNHCR and the San Remo Institute
for Humanitarian Law resulting in the draft regional covenant. The declaration emphasizes the need to ensure international protection
for Palestinian refugees, encourages Arab states that have not done so to accede to the 1951 Refugee Convention, and calls upon
Arab states to provide the LAS with relevant information concerning the status of Palestinian refugees in host countries.
The PLO and Refugee Protection
The PLO Department of Refugee Affairs is responsible for Palestinian refugees in all areas of exile. Historically, the PLO has
attempted to protect Palestinian refugees through diplomatic interventions with relevant state authorities. Palestinian refugees
with protection concerns are able, in principle, to approach PLO missions in host countries to obtain protection assistance
from the organization.
In the 1960s, for example, the PLO appealed to the Kuwaiti government to increase the number of Palestinians admitted into
government schools. The situation improved until the 1967 war when additional refugees arrived in the country. The PLO later
concluded an agreement with the government that enabled Palestinians to run their own schools. The program lasted until
1976. In the 1980s the PLO made interventions with Egyptian authorities after the introduction of new legislation under which
Palestinians in Egypt were no longer permitted to own agricultural land. In the 1990s, the PLO approached UNRWA, UNHCR
and other international organizations about the possibility of registering Palestinian refugees in Iraq with UNRWA in order to
improve levels of assistance.
Protection provided by the PLO, however, has been susceptible to political developments in host countries. In 1982, for example,
the PLO was forced to leave Lebanon leaving Palestinians without a diplomatic address to seek protection assistance. During
the late 1970s and again in the 1980s relations between Egypt and the PLO declined leaving Palestinians with less effective
protection. In the 1990s, Kuwait severed relations and funding to the PLO after then Chairman Yasser Arafat threw his support
behind former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who had invaded Kuwait. Palestinian refugees in Kuwait were left without
effective diplomatic protection and most were forced to leave the country.
Protection in Israel
More than a quarter of a million internally displaced Palestinians reside in Israel. As a
successor state established in three-quarters of the land area of former Palestine, Israel is
the ‘country of origin’57 for the majority of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced
persons. Israel grants preferential treatment to Jewish Israelis in accordance with Israel’s
status as a ‘Jewish state’.58
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Employment: Internally displaced Palestinians hold Israeli citizenship and have the
same right to employment as Jewish nationals of Israel. Discrimination with regard to
employment is prohibited, however, Palestinians experience informal discrimination in
the public and private sector.59 (See Chapter Three – Living Conditions for indicators)
Education: Internally displaced Palestinians also have the right to education. Israel has
separate independent education systems – state secular and state [Jewish] religious – in
accordance with Israel’s status as a ‘Jewish state’.60 The education system aims to advance
Jewish culture and Zionist ideology. There are no state institutions to meet the distinct
religious needs of Palestinian Muslims and Christians.
Residency: Internally displaced Palestinians are citizens of Israel.61 Israel’s nationality
law effectively excludes all Palestinians displaced outside the borders of the state from
acquiring residency and citizenship. Israeli citizenship is almost never granted to nonJews. All Jews, regardless of their national origin or citizenship, have the right to residency
and citizenship in Israel in accordance with Israel’s status as a ‘Jewish state’.62 Palestinian
citizens who marry Palestinian residents of the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories may
face difficulties in retaining their citizenship and residency status in Israel.
Housing and Property: Internally displaced Palestinians have the right to own property,
however, Israel has adopted a series of laws to confiscate and transfer immovable property
owned by Palestinians to the state and the Jewish National Fund.63 Property held by the
state and the JNF may not be transferred by sale or in any other manner.64 Internally
displaced Palestinians are considered ‘present absentees’ under Israeli law with regard to
property owned or used before 1948 and cannot repossess such property now held by
the Office of the Custodian of Absentees’ Property. Jews may repossess property managed
by the Custodian.
Protection in Countries outside the Arab World*
More than half a million Palestinian refugees reside outside the Arab world in Europe,
the Americas and elsewhere. Most arrived there as a result of either voluntary or forced
migration from Arab states of first asylum. National protection varies among host states
depending on national asylum law and interpretation and application of the 1951 Refugee
Convention. Palestinians seeking protection outside the Arab world generally have the
right to stay in the country of asylum during the determination process. In many countries,
but not all, asylum seekers are permitted to work and provided with basic housing.
Successful Palestinian applicants are usually not granted asylum/citizenship status but
recognized as refugees and afforded protection in accordance with the standards of the 1951
Refugee Convention. Most Palestinian refugees seeking protection outside the Arab world,
however, fail to obtain legal status and related protections because national authorities
do not apply or apply erroneous interpretations of the 1951 Refugee Convention to
Palestinian refugees.
National authorities have adopted at least four different approaches and eight different
interpretations of Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention relevant to Palestinian
This section is based on Elna Sondergaard, Closing Protection Gaps, Handbook on Palestinian Refugees
in States Signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Forthcoming from BADIL 2005.
*
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Protection
refugees (See box below – Status of Palestinian Refugees under the 1951 Convention Relating
to the Status of Refugees). Only few countries, among them Hungary and Finland, apply
Article 1D properly and convey refugee status under Article 1D. Many countries have not
incorporated Article 1D into national legislation (e.g. Canada and the US) or do not apply
Article 1D in national asylum practice (e.g. Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland65).
Other countries apply Article 1D but based on erroneous interpretations of the meaning
of its exclusion and inclusion clauses. In Germany Palestinians can obtain refugee status
under Article 1D only if they have not ‘voluntarily relinquished’ UNRWA assistance,
in Denmark and France only if UNRWA ceases its functions and in the Netherlands
only if they are unable to return to their country of former habitual residence due to a
well-founded fear of persecution in that country and cannot invoke UNRWA protection
there. In Norway only Palestinian refugees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
are granted refugee status under Article 1D, and in Sweden Article 1D conveys certain
rights and benefits only after Palestinian asylum seekers have obtained a permanent
residence permit.
In the United Kingdom Article 1D is interpreted as meaning that Palestinians who
were born on or before 28 July 1951 and who were assisted by UNRWA on that date
are permanently excluded from applying for refugee status under the 1951 Refugee
Convention. In other countries (e.g. Australia, New Zealand and the UK) Article 1D is
interpreted as not having an inclusion clause which would automatically grant benefits of
the 1951 Refugee Convention to Palestinian refugees. It is rather interpreted as a provision
which may exclude Palestinian refugees from the scope of the Convention. They may,
however, quality under Article 1A(2).
All these interpretations lead to the same conclusion: that asylum claims submitted by
Palestinian refugees are assessed under the criteria set out in Article 1A(2) and/or other
criteria, for example, protection on humanitarian grounds. Thus, due to the particular
interpretation adopted by national authorities and courts, Palestinian asylum seekers
have not derived any rights and benefits from the primary provision of the 1951 Refugee
Convention relevant to their case (i.e. Article 1D) beyond the ‘right’ to not be excluded
from applying for asylum.
Due to the lack of implementation of Article 1D and the difficulties Palestinian refugees
face with fulfilling the criteria set out in Article 1A(2) the availability of complementary
forms of protection become important for Palestinian refugees seeking a legal status
in third countries. The legal status and rights granted under a complementary form of
protection are often similar to those granted to recognized refugees. In Poland, Spain
and Sweden Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories are currently granted
residence permits on humanitarian grounds due to the ongoing conflict. This includes
a formal legal status with defined rights. In other countries, such as Germany and
Switzerland, however, complementary protection is no more than a temporary suspension
of a deportation order.
Few countries possess a specialized procedure designed for examining an applicant’s claim
of statelessness. Like in the case of complementary forms of protection this problem
is not specifically related to Palestinians. In most countries in which stateless claims
are examined, no practice has developed with regard to recognition of Palestinians as
stateless persons. This may be explained by the fact that most national authorities examine
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Palestinians under domestic asylum law including frameworks for complementary forms
of protection. Some Palestinians have been recognized as stateless persons in Belgium,
France, Germany and Switzerland, and granted the benefits of the 1954 Convention
Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.66 (See box below – The Status of Palestinian Refugees
under the Stateless Conventions)
Like other asylum seekers, Palestinians with a final negative decision in their asylum
application and not granted a complementary form of protection are requested
to leave. As stateless persons, however, they often have no where to go because no
state will allow them to (re) enter their territory. They are, therefore, at risk of being
caught in a state of legal limbo. In some countries, such as Australia, Spain and the
United States, rejected asylum seekers may be detained. In many countries, including
Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Sweden and the UK, rejected asylum seekers
who cannot be returned or removed are tolerated to stay but without legal status. In
other countries, such as Denmark, rejected asylum seekers who cannot be returned
may receive a legal status, at least after some time and often in the framework of
complementary forms of protection.
Status of Palestinian Refugees under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
The primary instrument governing the status of refugees in international refugee law is the 1951 Convention Relating to the
Status of Refugees. The Convention requires states to grant refugees certain rights, including freedom of religion, rights
in movable and immovable property, access to courts, freedom from undue restrictions on employment, primary education
and identity papers.
Palestinian refugees have a unique status under the 1951 Refugee Convention.67 The majority of Palestinian refugees
are prima facie refugees (i.e. refugees in the absence of evidence to the contrary). The factual ‘trigger’ for the inclusion
of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 as ‘Convention refugees’ is different than that applied to all other refugees.
Generally, refugees are considered to be Convention refugees according to the criteria set forth in Article 1A of the
Convention. This includes individuals, who have,
… been considered a refugee under the Arrangements of 12 May 1926 and 30 June 1928 or under the
Conventions of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938, the Protocol of 14 September 1939 or the Constitution
of the International Refugee Organization;
in addition to persons who,
… as a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside
the country of his nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection
of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence
as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and 1967, however, fall under the scope of the 1951 Refugee Convention according
to the criteria set forth in Article 1D. Article 1D states:
This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United
Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.
When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being
definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United
Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Convention.
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Protection
Article 1D was inserted into the 1951 Refugee Convention to address: 1) the factual circumstances of Palestinian
refugees at the time of the drafting of the Convention; and, 2) possible developments relative to the protection of this
particular refugee population in the future.
Due to the fact that Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and 1967 were already receiving protection or assistance
from the United Nations (i.e. the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine/UNCCP and the UN Relief and Works
Agency/UNRWA, respectively), the international community decided to suspend application of the Refugee Convention
(See the first clause of Article 1D) in order to avoid overlapping, and potentially conflicting mandates between the
UNCCP and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN body mandated to provide
protection for refugees worldwide. A number of states also felt at the time that Palestinian refugees should not be placed
in a more general category of refugees considering the fact that the United Nations itself was partially responsible for
the refugee crisis due to the recommendation to partition Palestine into two states (UNGA Resolution 181) against
the express wish of the majority of the indigenous inhabitants of the country. Moreover, there was a concern that
Palestinian refugees would be relegated to a position of minor importance within the global refugee regime. Palestinian
refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 fall within the provisions set forth in Article 1D due to the fact that they
already receive assistance or protection from the United Nations (See the first clause of Article 1D). UNRWA has
provided assistance to this group of refugees since 1967 by special request of the UN General Assembly (Resolution
2252 ES-V, 4 July 1967).
In the event that UNCCP protection or UNRWA assistance ceased to exist for any reason, however, the international
community included a provision (i.e. ‘trigger’) in the Refugee Convention (See the second clause of Article 1D) to
activate the application of the Convention and inclusion of Palestinian refugees as ‘Convention refugees.’ The trigger
for the application of the Refugee Convention to Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 was activated in the early
1950s when the UNCCP ceased to provide effective protection for Palestinian refugees. The trigger for the application
of the Refugee Convention (See the second clause of Article 1D) to Palestinian refugees displaced for the first time in
1967 has been activated by the ‘cessation’ of protection for this group of refugees – i.e. the international community
has never provided systematic international protection to Palestinian refugees displaced for the first time in 1967. The
intent and purpose of Article 1D is to ensure comprehensive international protection and assistance for Palestinian
refugees until their situation is resolved according to relevant UN General Assembly resolutions.
Palestinian refugees who are neither 1948 or 1967 refugees and are outside the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel
since 1967 and are unable to return due to revocation of residency rights, denial of family reunification, deportation,
etc., or unwilling to return there owing to a well-founded fear of persecution fall under Article 1A of the 1951 Refugee
Convention. Article 1D of the Refugee Convention does not apply to this group of Palestinian refugees due to the fact
that they do not receive protection or assistance from other organs or agencies of the United Nations.
The Refugee Convention also includes specific criteria concerning the cessation of refugee status. Generally, the
cessation of refugee status under the Convention is governed by the six conditions set forth in Article 1C. These
include the acquisition of effective protection, reacquisition of a lost nationality or the acquisition of a new nationality.68
It is important to note that cessation of refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention does not extinguish the
right of a refugee to return to his home of origin. The right to international protection and the right to return are two
different rights under international law. A refugee may thus acquire a new nationality, but still be entitled to exercise
a right of return.
The Status of Palestinian IDPs under the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
The status of internally displaced Palestinians inside 1948 Palestine/Israel and in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
is similar to that of other internally displaced persons. Internally displaced persons are not covered by the 1951 Refugee
Convention. There is no international convention that sets forth the rights and duties of internally displaced persons and
concomitant obligations of states. The 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement adopted by the UN Commission
of Human Rights, however, outlines the specific rights of internally displaced persons, and the obligations of states towards
internally displaced population groups.69 The Guiding Principles, which are based on a review of international instruments,
affirm the right of internally displaced persons to request international humanitarian assistance, the right of international actors
to offer such assistance, and the duty of states to accept such offers.
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The Status of Palestinian Refugees under the Stateless Conventions
A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law is called a stateless person. Stateless
persons who are refugees are covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention. For stateless persons who are excluded from the
coverage of the Refugee Convention, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention
on the Reduction of Statelessness provide an additional regime for protection under international law. The Conventions, however,
have limited reach as they have been ratified by very few states.
Palestinians became stateless in 1948 with the end of the British mandate and the creation of a Jewish state (i.e. Israel)
in 78 percent of the territory of historic mandate Palestine. Palestinian citizenship terminated with the mandate and with
the proclamation of the state of Israel on 15 May 1948. Israel’s 1952 Nationality Law confirmed the repeal of the Palestine
Citizenship Orders (1925-42), retroactively from the day of the establishment of the state of Israel. Israel’s 1952 Nationality
Law effectively denied Israeli citizenship to the majority of 1948 Palestinian refugees – i.e. they were denationalized. While a
significant number of states have recognized ‘Palestine’ as an independent state, following the declaration of independence by
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on 15 November 1988, Palestine as an entity still does not meet the international
legal criteria of statehood: a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and the capacity to enter into relations with
other states. The majority of the Palestinian people worldwide are both refugees and stateless persons.
The 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons was adopted to regulate and improve the status of stateless
persons and assure stateless persons the widest possible exercise of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The 1954
Convention provides stateless persons with similar benefits to those that the 1951 Refugee Convention provides to refugees.
The 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness was drafted to address the gaps left by the 1954 Stateless Convention,
and to reduce as much as possible, or eliminate the phenomenon of statelessness.70 According to Article 1, a contracting state
must grant its nationality to a person born in its territory who would otherwise be stateless at birth, by operation of law, or upon
application. It also prohibits, with a number of exceptions, depriving someone of their nationality and categorically prohibits
denial of nationality on grounds of race, religion or political opinion.
Similar to the 1951 Refugee Convention the 1954 Stateless Convention does not apply (Article 1) to “persons who are at present
receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the UNHCR, protection or assistance so long as they are
receiving such protection or assistance.” Most Arab states where the majority of refugees are residing are not signatories to
the Convention. Interpretation of the status of Palestinians as stateless persons varies among and even within those states
which are signatories to one or other of the two statelessness Conventions.
International Protection
International protection is required when states are either unable or unwilling to
protect refugees and IDPs. International protection activities include ensuring asylum,
securing basic human rights, provision of travel documents as well as facilitating
durable solutions and monitoring the treatment of refugees once they return home
to ensure provision of national protection.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is the primary international
body mandated to provide international protection for refugees worldwide. The
Office works closely with other international and national organizations and states.
UNHCR does not have an explicit mandate to protect internally displaced persons;
however, the refugee agency may carry out expanded functions by request of the UN
Secretary General and the General Assembly. The UNHCR only provides protection
to eligible Palestinian refugees outside UNRWA areas of operation – i.e. West Bank,
Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The United Nations established a separate organ – the UN Conciliation Commission
for Palestine – to provide international protection to all persons displaced during
the 1948 war in Palestine. The UN did not establish a special organ for Palestinian
refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 or for internally displaced Palestinians
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in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. The UNCCP is no longer active.
The League of Arab States has provided a form of temporary protection for Palestinian
refugees in member states for more than five decades. This includes the adoption of
regional standards for the treatment of Palestinians in Arab states and the establishment
of a number of bodies to oversee Palestinian affairs in member states.
The international community currently recognizes no international agency as having
an explicit mandate to protect 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees and internally
displaced persons in UNRWA areas of operation. A number of other international
organizations, however, have provided a limited degree of protection for Palestinian
refugees over the past five decades. These include the International Committee of the
Red Cross and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.71
The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine(UNCCP)
The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine was established under
paragraph 2 of UN General Assembly Resolution 194(III). The General Assembly
authorized the Commission to protect the rights, property and interests of all persons
displaced in 1948. The UNCCP does not have a protection mandate for other
categories of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons. The Commission
is comprised of representatives of the United States, France and Turkey and is
empowered to create sub-organs, as necessary, in order to fulfill its mandate. Today
the Commission has no budget and no staff. The secretary of the UNCCP is a staff
member of the UN Department of Political Affairs.
During its early years of operation, the Commission attempted to provide legal,
diplomatic and physical protection for refugees displaced during the 1948 war. The
newly-established state of Israel assumed responsibility for Jews displaced during the
war. UNCCP protection activities therefore focused on stateless Palestinian Arab
refugees. The UNCCP established several subsidiary bodies, including a Technical
Committee and an Economic Survey Mission, to investigate and recommend
immediate measures, which might be taken to safeguard the rights and property of
the refugees.
Immediate efforts were undertaken to persuade Israel to permit the return of certain
categories of refugees (without prejudice to the right of all refugees to return to their
homes) based on humanitarian considerations. The UNCCP attempted to facilitate
the return of owners of citrus groves and their laborers, for example, in order to
reduce the total number of persons in need of relief. Similar efforts were made to
ensure access for Palestinian Arab farmers who had been cut off from their lands by
the 1949 armistice lines.
The UNCCP also attempted to reunite separated Palestinian Arab families. The
program focused on repatriation of dependents (i.e. children and female spouses) with
breadwinners who had remained in the territory that became the state of Israel. The
Commission also appealed to Israeli officials to allow religious leaders and other clergy
to return to their places of origin. At the same time, the Commission urged Israel to
allow freedom of worship and respect the sanctity of mosques and churches.
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Finally, the UNCCP engaged in various activities to protect the legal status and rights
of refugees. The Commission drafted a refugee definition to identify those persons
in need of international protection.72 It also worked with Israeli officials to facilitate
refugee access to blocked savings accounts and assets in banks inside Israel. Appeals
were also made to Israeli officials to abrogate discriminatory laws adopted in the
aftermath of the displacement of the Palestinian population and initial efforts were
begun to identify and document refugee property inside Israel.
UNCCP efforts met with mixed success. The UN General Assembly adopted the
recommendations drafted by one of the Commission’s sub-organs, the Economic
Survey Mission, for short and long term economic relief. This included the creation
of a new mechanism, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. (See
Chapter Four – Assistance) The Commission also succeeded in facilitating the release
of blocked accounts and assets. The Israeli government and the Israeli Custodian of
Absentees’ Property retained a significant proportion of the monetary value of accounts
and assets, however, through the imposition of taxes and administration fees.
Through the family reunification program a small number of refugee dependents were
able to return. In late 1949 and early 1950, for example, approximately 800 dependents
who had been displaced to Jordan and Lebanon were able to rejoin family members
inside Israel. In February 1950, 115 refugee dependents were able to cross into Israel
from the Gaza Strip. Palestinian inhabitants of two villages cut by the armistice lines
were permitted to cultivate their land in territory held by Israel.
At the same time, however, Israel refused to permit the immediate return of owners of
citrus groves and their laborers. Israeli officials rejected UNCCP appeals to abrogate
discriminatory property laws and refused to release religious property, particularly
that belonging to the Muslim community. The UNCCP was unable to significantly
advance political negotiations between Israel and the Arab states.
When the United Nations established the UNCCP in 1948 it was assumed that
the refugees would return to their places of origin within a short period of time.
The Commission was not provided with the machinery or with the resources to
protect Palestinian refugees in the context of a protracted conflict. The ability of
the Commission to fulfill its mandate, moreover, was compromised by the lack of
international political will.
By the early 1950s, the UNCCP had reached the conclusion that it was unable to fulfill
its mandate. The UN General Assembly decision to merge refugee protection with
the larger task of Arab-Israeli conciliation ultimately compromised the Commission’s
ability to protect and promote the legal rights of the refugees. The rights affirmed in
Resolution 194(III) were often deferred in light of what the Commission came to
view as the practicalities on the ground – i.e. Israel’s opposition to the return of the
refugees.73
In light of the ongoing stalemate in political negotiations, the UN Secretary
General recommended that the UNCCP focus its protection activities on the
identification and evaluation of Palestinian property. The General Assembly accepted
the recommendation and the UNCCP budget was reduced to conform to the
Commission’s limited protection activities. As of 1952, the Commission has taken the
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Protection
view that the governments concerned have the primary responsibility for the settlement
of their outstanding differences, including the plight of the refugees.74
Since this period, the UNCCP has not provided Palestinian refugees with the basic
international protection accorded to all other refugees. Today the UNCCP still exists
in name and produces an annual one-page report on its activities.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations General Assembly established the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees – Resolution 319(IV) – in 1949. It is the primary
international body mandated to provide protection to refugees worldwide. This
includes persons considered to be refugees under the 1951 Convention relating to the
Status of Refugees. UNHCR is also the primary body mandated to provide protection
to stateless persons.75
UNHCR recognizes 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees outside UNRWA areas of
operation as prima facie ‘Convention refugees’ under Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee
Convention.76 In other words, they do not need to prove individual persecution under
Article 1A. Descendants of 1948 and 1967 refugees are also entitled to protection
under the Refugee Convention, even if they have never lived in one of UNRWA’s
areas of operation.
Other Palestinians displaced after 1967, who are neither 1948 or 1967 refugees, and
are considered refugees according to Article 1A of the Convention also fall within
the protection mandate of UNHCR. As of 2003 UNHCR statistics indicate that an
estimated 428,000 Palestinian refugees or five percent of the total Palestinian refugee
population (not including internally displaced persons), fall within the UNHCR
mandate.77
UNHCR’s approach to 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees may be explained by a
variety of factors, including: the absence of an inclusion clause for Palestinian refugees
in the 1950 Statute of the UNHCR, similar to the second clause of Article 1D of the
1951 Refugee Convention; the perception that the ‘political character’ of the Palestinian
refugee case is incompatible with the ‘neutral character’ of UNHCR protection
activities; financial concerns related to the inclusion of millions of additional refugees
in UNHCR programs; and, combined Western and Arab opposition to the inclusion
of all Palestinian refugees within the protection mandate of the UNHCR.
Agency protection activities for Palestinian refugees include assistance concerning
travel documents, renewal of registration cards for refugees outside the areas of
UNRWA operations, and facilitation of interim solutions for Palestinian refugees
in cases of forced departure from Arab host countries. After the Palestine Liberation
Organization was forced to leave Lebanon in 1982, for example, UNHCR intervened
with the Lebanese authorities on behalf of Palestinian refugees who had experienced
difficulty in obtaining the renewal of Lebanese travel documents.
During the 1990-91 Gulf War UNHCR extended protection services and provided
material assistance for several hundred thousand Palestinian refugees in the Gulf States
confronted with detention and forced departure. Between 1995 and 1997, UNHCR
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provided assistance to Palestinian refugees stranded on the Libyan-Egyptian border
after being expelled from Libya in 1995. And UNHCR has provided protection and
material assistance to Palestinian refugees displaced during the 2003 war in Iraq.
The UNHCR recognizes the protection gap faced by 1948 and 1967 Palestinian
refugees and has issued several calls to remedy the problem. Following the massacre
of several thousand Palestinian refugees in Beirut in September 1982 by Israeli-allied
Lebanese Phalangist militiamen, for example, the UNHCR Executive Committee, the
advisory body to the High Commissioner, “expressed the hope that measures would
be taken to protect refugees against such attacks and to aid the victims.”78
During the late 1980s and the early 1990s in the context of the first Palestinian intifada
in the 1967 occupied territories, the UNHCR issued numerous executive committee
conclusions that “[e]xpressed concern about the lack of adequate international
protection for various groups of refugees in different parts of the world, including a
large number of Palestinians, and hoped that efforts would be undertaken within the
United Nations system to address their protection needs.”79 [Emphasis added]
The League of Arab States (UNHCR)
Survivors of the massacre in
Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon
in 1982. © UNRWA Archives.
132
The League of Arab States was established in 1945 with the “purpose of ... draw[ing]
closer the relations between member States and coordinat[ing] their activities with the
aim of realizing a close collaboration between them ....”80 The League comprises three
Protection
main bodies: the Council of Ministers, the General Secretariat and the Permanent
Committees for each field of cooperation between members.
The LAS Council and the Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior have adopted a
series of resolutions concerning the status and treatment of Palestinian refugees in
their territories. Resolutions are based on proposals and suggestions submitted to the
League by the permanent Palestinian representative, the General Administration for
Palestine Affairs at the General Secretariat and the Supervisory Council on Palestinian
Refugees Affairs in Arab host states.
The primary resolution concerning the status and treatment of Palestinian refugees
in Arab states is the 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians. (See box above
– Status of Palestinians under the 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians) Jordan,
Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Libya have ratified
the Casablanca Protocol. Kuwait, Lebanon, and Libya endorsed the Protocol but
with reservations.81 Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia are not signatories. In 1991
the League of Arab states adopted Resolution 5093, which authorized states to treat
Palestinian refugees in accordance with local norms rather than the provisions set
forth in the Protocol.82
Resolutions also address the reunification of divided families (e.g. Resolution 424,
14 September 1954) and the issuance of a standard travel document (e.g. Resolution
18, 9 April 1953). No uniform identity paper or travel document, however, has ever
been designed or issued by the Arab League. Travel documents are issued by individual
member states. In 1970 the Supervisors Conference adopted Resolution 2600 stating
that the acquisition of another nationality would not trigger the cessation of refugee
status. In 1977, the PLO proposed that a Palestinian passport be issued which would
be recognized beyond the Arab region. The proposal was never implemented, however,
due to the absence of a Palestinian state and lack of sufficient Arab political will.
The League has established a number of bodies to oversee Palestinian affairs in member
states. This includes the Conference of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs (‘Supervisors
Conference’), comprised of heads of government departments in host countries that
administer Palestinian refugee affairs. The Supervisors Conference was established in
1964 to succeed the Heads of Departments of Palestine Affairs, which was set up in
1959 to study all aspects of the Palestinian problem.
The Supervisors Conference meets bi-annually. Membership is limited to supervisors
of refugee affairs. Issues of concern include follow-up on UNRWA assistance activities,
issues related to refugee travel, residency, education and employment and discussion
of all matters related to general developments in the Palestinian issue. Delegations
from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, the PLO and the League General Secretariat
usually attend.
The Supervisors Conference has conducted investigations into member state
compliance with the Casablanca Protocol. During a 1985 field visit to Arab states with
significant Palestinian refugee populations, for example, the League obtained written
assurances by states to relax arbitrary measures imposed on the refugees. The League
has also formed additional committees to investigate specific protection problems. In
1976, for example, the LAS formed a committee comprised of Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
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Picking up the damage after an
Israeli military assault on Deheishe
refugee camp during the second
intifada. © BADIL.
Syria and Kuwait to liaise with Lebanon concerning the implementation of the Cairo
Agreement and its annexes.
Implementation of LAS standards varies. Despite the obligation to provide the same
treatment as nationals in the areas of employment, the right to leave and enter, travel
documents, and visas and residence, treatment accorded to Palestinian refugees in
Egypt, Libya, Kuwait and other Gulf states, in particular, is often similar to protection
standards accorded to foreigners. In contrast, Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria,
Iraq, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia generally enjoy relatively favorable treatment by
host country authorities.
LAS monitoring and enforcement initiatives have not produced significant or
lasting improvements. Investigations conducted by the Supervisors Conference have
concluded that implementation of LAS standards for the treatment of Palestinians
in member states is poor. Following the 1991 Gulf war, for example, several states,
including Kuwait, Lebanon and Libya that had lifted some restrictions on Palestinian
refugees after LAS intervention imposed new restrictions on refugees.
The Arab League and UNHCR have also signed a cooperation agreement that provides for
periodical consultation, mutual representation, exchange of documents and information
and cooperation with UNRWA.83 The Arab League and UNHCR have reaffirmed
their support in maintaining the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the
continuation of its services to refugees in its five areas of operation until a just solution
for the problem of refugees is found on the basis of United Nations resolutions.
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International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
The International Committee of the Red Cross is the main body responsible for the implementation of international humanitarian
law. Over the course of five decades of conflict in the Middle East, the ICRC has provided basic protection to Palestinian
refugees in cooperation with the League of Red Crescent Societies.
During the 1948 war in Palestine, ICRC civilian programs focused on physical protection, prevention of forced expulsion,
tracing of missing persons, family reunification and facilitation of the return of refugees to their places of origin. The Committee
established refugee camps to provide shelter and undertook several census operations to register Palestinian refugees. The
ICRC also attempted to ensure protection for those refugees who had spontaneously returned to their homes inside Israel.
The ICRC provided similar types of protection during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war. In 1968, for example, the ICRC facilitated
the return of some 200 refugee children who had been displaced to Jordan during the war. The ICRC also made numerous
appeals to Israeli officials concerning the destruction of Palestinian homes and villages, calling upon Israel to cease demolition
operations and assist in the reconstruction of the homes and pay compensation to the owners.
Since 1967, the ICRC has continued to provide protection to Palestinian civilians, including refugees in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Under international humanitarian law relevant to occupied territory, the parties to a conflict may appoint a “Protecting
Power” to safeguard the interests of parties to a conflict, including citizens. No Protecting Power has been appointed for the
1967 occupied Palestinian territories. In 1972 the ICRC offered to act as a substitute Protecting Power in the territories, however,
Israel rejected the offer. ICRC protection, therefore, is limited to the extent that Israel is willing to cooperate.
Protection activities have included intervention concerning special cases seeking family reunification and intervention with the
Israeli authorities in response to violations of humanitarian law, such as expropriation of land, deportation and house demolition.
When Israel began systematic and widespread demolition of refugee shelters in Gaza camps in the 1970s, the ICRC appealed
to the Israeli government for the cessation of the demolition program. Following complaints by refugees, Red Cross officials
requested Israel to close down offices located in refugee camps that were offering subsidies to ‘voluntary emigrants’ as a way
of facilitating continued transfer of the Palestinian population.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has also worked actively alongside the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
in the occupied territories and in Lebanon to provide protection for refugees during periods of political crises and popular
unrest. Following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000 and Israel’s military response to the
uprising, for example, the ICRC deployed additional delegates in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. Delegates monitor
developments and work closely with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to ensure safe passage for emergency
medical services.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees is the primary international body mandated to provide assistance
to Palestinian refugees. UNRWA does not have an explicit mandate to provide international protection. As UNRWA noted in
reference to the need for international protection of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in the early 1980s: “The only means at
the disposal of [UNRWA] is … to report, to warn and to make representations to the authorities responsible.”
UNRWA officials have made repeated interventions to the United Nations and relevant officials concerning the protection of
Palestinian refugees in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories and in Lebanon. In 1967, for example, then CommissionerGeneral of UNRWA, Lawrence Michelmore, approached the UN Under-Secretary General seeking international protection for
refugees in the occupied territories. The initiative failed to attract sufficient support at the United Nations based on the UnderSecretary’s view that Israel would oppose a protection initiative.
During the first Palestinian intifada in the 1967 occupied territories that began in December 1987 UNRWA recruited additional
international staff to provide protection through monitoring, reporting and a limited degree of intervention. By 1991 it had come
to include a “legal aid scheme” run by the Agency with the purpose of helping the “refugees deal with a range of problems of
life under occupation,” including “sustained follow-up in cases of deaths, injuries and harassment; bureaucratic difficulties in
obtaining various permits; discrimination in access to courts of law, welfare benefits, etc.; travel restrictions; and, various forms
of collective punishment.” The Refugee Affairs Officer Program (RAO), as it was called, was eventually phased out, first in the
occupied Gaza Strip (1994) and then in the occupied West Bank (1996), following the redeployment of the Israeli military and
establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the mid-1990s.
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The provision of services that guarantee basic economic, social, and cultural rights, particular in emergency humanitarian
crises, may also be considered as a type of protection – i.e. “relief protection”. Over the past several decades UNRWA has
administered several emergency programs in response to acute and immediate needs of the refugee community, including
programs in Lebanon and in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. In the fall of 2000 UNRWA began providing emergency
assistance in response to rapidly deteriorating conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories as a result of Israel’s attempt
to suppress the second Palestinian intifada through military force.
UNRWA has also offered legal advice and assistance to refugees apply for family reunification. Since September 2000, however,
Israeli authorities have stopped receiving family reunification applications. UNRWA also handles requests for confirmation of
refugee status from Palestinians and from governmental and non-governmental organizations worldwide.
Developments in 2003
Protection gaps in 2003 continue to be most severe in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories and in Lebanon. Major developments during the year include the war in
Iraq, where an estimated 60-90,000 Palestinian refugees reside and Israel’s construction
of a separation Wall in the occupied West Bank.
In the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories Israeli security forces and settlers killed 664
Palestinians in 2003, 123 of whom were children and 30 women. Another 2,992 were
injured.84 It is estimated that at least half of all fatalities were refugees and internally
displaced persons. Violations of the right to property and attacks on refugee camps
continued throughout the year. While the overall scale of damage was less than the
previous year, the number of refugee shelters destroyed by Israeli forces increased.
During the first half of 2003 Israeli forces destroyed on average 73 shelters per month,
double the average in 2002.85 By the end of 2003 more than 14,000 refugees had
been made homeless since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000.86
The publication of the Road Map (See Chapter Six – Durable Solutions) in April had
little impact on the demolition of Palestinian houses by Israeli forces. Between April
and June 2003, a total of 244 houses were totally demolished.
Israel’s construction of a separation Wall in the occupied West Bank had grave
implications for all aspects of Palestinian life, including the right to work, property,
residency, education and health. For households living west of the Wall (i.e. between
the Wall and the ‘Green Line’) nearly one-quarter had to change their place of
work, one-fifth were partially or totally destroyed, close to one-tenth had property
confiscated, nearly a third had difficulties reaching schools or universities and threequarters had trouble reaching hospitals and medical centers.87
The Wall threatens to create a new category of displaced persons in the occupied
territories and will also affect refugees living in areas designated for its construction.
Approximately one-third of those affected in some degree by phase one of the Wall in
the northern West Bank are 1948 Palestinian refugees. This includes 1,870 refugees
living in so-called enclaves west of the Wall, 67,250 refugees living in enclaves
east of the Wall and another 7,355 refugees living further east but not in enclaves.
Approximately five percent of households west and east of the Wall had changed or
were intending to change residence.88
Palestinians aged sixteen and above who reside in the so-called seam zone (i.e. closed
security zone) created by the Wall must obtain a permit from the commander of
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Protection
Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank in order to enter and remain in the
zone.89 Persons under age sixteen may remain in the seam zone without a permit but
must obtain a permit (except if s/he is under the age of 12) or be accompanied by a
person with a permit if s/he wishes to enter the zone. Palestinians not resident in the
zone must apply for a permit to enter.90 Israeli citizens and residents are permitted to
enter the zone without obtaining a permit.
Palestinians living in and around Jerusalem continued to face restrictions on residency
rights. In the village of Nu’man, for example, Israel has refused to recognize villagers as
Jerusalem residents even though the village is located inside the expanded municipal
limits. In 2003 Israeli authorities attempted to expel the residents from the village,
claiming that they were illegally residing in their homes. The current route of the
Wall, moreover, will imprison residents within the village. They are forbidden from
entering Israel and will be physically cut off from the occupied West Bank.91
Palestinian refugees in Iraq faced renewed threats to life and property as a result of
the US/UK-led war in Iraq. The war led to renewed displacement of the refugee
population. By the end of July 2003, more than 1,100 Palestinian refugee families
(4,000 persons) were evicted from their homes by Iraqi landlords.92 Approximately onethird of Palestinian refugees displaced were initially accommodated in tents pitched in
two soccer fields in Baghdad. Others fled to al-Karama on the Iraq-Jordan border.
The Jordanian government agreed to admit refugees with Jordanian spouses or other
close family members of Jordanian nationality. According to the Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), however, authorities required mixed
Palestinian/Jordanian families to sign waivers indicating that they would return to
Iraq once the crisis was over.93 The document was collected by Jordanian authorities
upon entry of each family into the country. International organizations were not able
to view the document.
UNHCR coordinated provision of services to Palestinian refugees displaced during
the war. A temporary camp was set up in Baghdad and in camps on the border with
Jordan. It subsequently identified a vacant apartment block in Baghdad and secured
the agreement of Iraq’s Coalition Provision Authority to house refugees there. UNHCR
also set up a registration program to establish the exact number of refugees and issue
identity documents.
UNRWA assisted UNHCR with the new case load of refugees. The Agency dispatched
several teams to the Jordan-Iraq border to interview refugees newly arrived in Jordan,
assess their health status and advise UNHCR on issues relevant to protection and the
search for longer-term solutions. UNRWA also provided some refugees with in kind
and cash support and facilitated specialized medical treatment. A joint UNRWAUNHCR information form was developed and used to collect information relevant
to both organizations.
UNHCR urged neighboring and refugee-sheltering countries to support Jordan to
accommodate refugees from Iraq. By the end of the year, however, several hundred
refugees were still in need of solutions. The Iraqi Governing Council, which replaced
the former government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, established a new Ministry
of Displacement and Migration in August 200394. The Ministry is responsible for
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all matters relating to Iraqi refugees and displaced persons and all non-Iraqi refugees
residing in Iraq. The staff of the Palestinian Affairs Office of the former Ministry of
Labor and Social Affairs was transferred to the new Ministry.95
In Lebanon the Parliament withdrew draft legislation that would have overturned the
ban on Palestinian refugees owning property in the country. Lebanon’s constitutional
council also asked the Interior Ministry to remove citizenship from Palestinians and
Syrians granted citizenship in 1994. It is estimated that up to 300,000 persons would
be affected. The granting of citizenship was challenged as inconsistent with Lebanon’s
constitution which prohibits resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the country.96
Palestinians traveling between the occupied Palestinian territories and Jordan and
Egypt via land crossings continued to face restrictions and delays. The new regulations
were apparently designed to limit the number of West Bank residents in Jordan.
Jordan estimates that tens of thousands of Palestinians have moved to Jordan during
the second intifada. Under the new rules most Palestinians would find it difficult
to obtain an entry visa. Exceptions apply for humanitarian cases, including medical
treatment and attendance at a marriage or funeral in Jordan.
Israel adopted new legislation barring Palestinians from the occupied territories from
obtaining citizenship or residency status in Israel by marriage to an Israeli citizen,
thus prohibiting them from living in Israel with their spouses.97 The law exclusively
targets Palestinians; the general policy for residency and citizenship status in Israel for
other foreign spouses remains unchanged. In November the Supreme Court issued an
order nisi compelling the state to explain why the ban on family reunification should
not be declared null and void.
Palestinians inside Israel, including IDPs, also faced continued violations on the right
to property in 2003. This included widespread demolitions in the Naqab and in the
north of the country.98 The government continued its policy of spraying Bedouin
crops with toxic chemicals to force them off the land. This included incidents in
March, April and June in which more than 4000 dunums of crop land were destroyed.
The government also set aside new money to fund a plan to remove the remaining
Bedouin living in ‘unrecognized villages’ from their land and extinguish all outstanding
land claims. Under the Eviction of Trespassers Law it is not possible to argue that
the villages have existed since before the creation of the state of Israel, or in other
cases that villagers are living on land where the state transferred them following the
confiscation of their original lands.
There were no major developments in addressing the protection gap created by the
collapse of the UNCCP. UNRWA continued to provide a limited degree of protection
through its Operations Support Officer Program which was expanded in the West
Bank from 6 to 10 international staff and re-introduced in the Gaza Strip with four
staff. The program facilitates access of staff members and UNRWA vehicles, including
ambulances and humanitarian convoys, through checkpoints in the OPTs, in reporting
on the developing humanitarian crisis among the Palestinian population and in
bolstering UNRWA’s resources for monitoring and inspecting Agency installations
on a regular basis to ensure that they are not used for unauthorized or improper
purposes.
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Protection
There were few developments in the application by states of the 2002 UNHCR Note
of the Applicability of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian
Refugees. Most states continue to interpret the the 1951 Refugee Convention in
Palestinian cases in a manner that is not consistent with the 2002 Note. Most
Palestinian refugees seeking protection outside the Arab world are therefore unable
to obtain legal status and related protections. In Hungary, however, five cases in
which Palestinians were recognized as refugees under the Convention in 2003 were
adjudicated generally in accordance with the 2002 Note. In three other cases the
proper interpretation was not applied.99
In the Netherlands the Minister of Alien Affairs and Integration issued guidelines in
2003 regarding recognition of Palestinian refugees.100 The guidelines, however, are
not consistent with the 2002 UNHCR Note. Among other issues, the guidelines
incorrectly state that UNRWA has a protection mandate for Palestinian refugees
residing in its areas of operation. Under the guidelines a Palestinian refugee from
one of UNRWA’s areas of operation must submit a claim under Article 1A of the
1951 Refugee Convention which will be judged in relation to whether the refugee
can invoke UNRWA ‘protection.’ In one case, however, the courts have asked Dutch
authorities to re-decide the case because they failed to prove that UNRWA could
actually protect the claimant.101
The International Committee of the Red Cross also continued to provide limited
protection for the civilian population in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories
and persuade Israel to comply with its obligations under IHL. Activities focused on
increased protection and assistance to civilian victims of violence and extreme hardship
induced by Israeli security restrictions. This included economic security programs and
emergency shelter and basic household supplies.
UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, the
Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination addressed protection concerns including
inequalities in employment between the Jewish and Arab sectors, access to employment
for Palestinians in the OPTs, the education system in Israel, demolition of homes
in the OPTs, restitution and compensation for damages to land and property in the
OPTs, expropriation of land in the OPTs, access to services in unrecognized villages,
demolitions and crop destruction among Bedouin, and Israel’s new law banning family
reunification for Palestinians from the OPTs with spouses inside Israel.102
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Endnotes
Article 2(7), Charter of the United Nations, 26 June 1945. “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United
Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall required the Members to
submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement
measures under Chapter VII.”
2
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (‘Refugee Convention’), effective 22 April 1954, 28 July 1951, 189 UNTS 137.
3
Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen are signatories but host only small numbers
of Palestinian refugees. According to UNHCR statistical reports for 2002-2003 there were 4,005 Palestinian refugees of concern to
UNHCR in Algeria, 70,195 (Egypt), 813 (Morocco) and 149 (Yemen). 2002 Statistical Yearbook. Geneva: Population Data Unit/
PGDS, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, 2002, pp. 199, 391 and 515. 2003 Global Refugee Trends, Overview of Refugee
Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions, Asylum-Seekers and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR. Geneva: Population Data
Unit/PGDS, Division of Operational Support, UNHCR, 15 June 2004, p. 29.
4
Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians, 11 September 1965 (‘Casablanca Protocol’). Available at, http://www.badil.org/
Documents/Protection/LAS/Casablanca-Protocol.htm. [last visited 31/3/05]
5
Kuwait, Lebanon and Libya endorsed the Protocol but with reservations. Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia are not signatories.
6
Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (‘OAU Convention’), effective 20 June 1974, 10 September
1969, 1001 UNTS 1945.
7
These states include Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia. According to UNHCR statistical reports for 2002-2003
there were 4,005 Palestinian refugees of concern to UNHCR in Algeria, 70,195 (Egypt) and 8,604 (Libya). 2002 Statistical Yearbook,
supra note 3, pp. 199, 369 and 391. 2003 Global Refugee Trends, Overview of Refugee Populations, New Arrivals, Durable Solutions,
Asylum-Seekers and Other Persons of Concern to UNHCR, supra note 3, p. 29.
8
The 1967 occupied Palestinian territories are included as an Arab host state due to the fact that Palestinian refugees residing therein
originate from areas inside the state of Israel. While there is no de jure international border the 1949 armistice line (‘Green Line’)
constitutes a de facto international border between Israel and the occupied West Bank.
9
This includes Palestinian refugees who entered Syria and Jordan as a result of the 1948 and 1967 wars, except for those refugees
from the Gaza Strip who entered Jordan during and after the 1967 war. For Syria see, Law No. 260, 10 July 1956. Refugees in Syria
are exempt from legislation that requires civil servants to hold Syrian nationality for at least five years prior to government service
(Decree No. 37 (1949)). Also see, Law No. 65 (1950), Law No. 119 (1951), Law No. 162 (1952) and Law No. 250 (1952) cited in
Annual Report of the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, covering the period 1
July 1951 to 30 June 1952. UN GAOR, 7th Sess., Supp. No. 13 (A/2171), 30 June 1952. Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 hold
Jordanian citizenship and have the same right to employment as Jordanian nationals. The Iraqi government upgraded the status of
Palestinian refugees vis-à-vis public sector employment in 1965 except with regard to retirement benefits (Decision 15108 (1964)).
Since 1969 Palestinian refugees employed in the public sector have also received retirement benefits (Decree No. 336 (1969)).
Palestinian Refugees in Iraq. Jerusalem: PLO Refugee Affairs Department, 1999. [On file with BADIL].
10
There are an estimated 40,000 unregistered Palestinian refugees in Syria. In addition there is are an estimated 15,000 additional
Palestinian refugees who entered Syria, primarily from Jordan and Lebanon in the 1970s and from Kuwait in the early 1990s. Finding
Means, UNRWA’s Financial Crisis and Refugee Living Conditions. Volume I: Socio-economic Situation of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan,
Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Laurie Blome Jacobsen (ed.). Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 2003,
p. 198. In Jordan it is estimated that three percent of the total refugee population originates from the Gaza Strip. Marie Arneberg,
Living Conditions Among Palestinian Refugees and Displaced in Jordan. Oslo: FAFO, Institute for Applied Social Science, 1997, p.
16. Palestinian refugees who entered Jordan during or immediately after 1967 must obtain approval from state security officials for
employment. Oroub al-Abed, Stateless Gazans: Temporary Passports in Jordan. Unpublished manuscript. [On file with BADIL]. alAbed cites a figure of 150,000 Gazans in Jordan.
11
International consensus affirms the de jure applicability of the 4th Geneva Convention to the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel argues that because the annexation of the West Bank by Jordan and Egyptian control of the Gaza Strip never received international
recognition, the territories do not meet the requirement for application of the Geneva Convention because they were not the territory
of a High Contracting Party.
12
During early years of exile in Egypt, Palestinian refugees were forbidden to work for or without wages due to the assumption that
refugees would soon return to their homes of origin and because of the serious unemployment situation in Egypt. Egyptian President
Gamal Abdel Nasser introduced more favorable employment laws in the 1950s. For further discussion and relevant legislation see,
Laurie Brand, Palestinians in the Arab World, Institution Building and the Search for State. New York: Columbia University Press,
1988, pp. 52-53.
13
Law No. 48 (1978). The present restrictions on employment in professions were put in place after the death of Egyptian President
Gamal Abdel Nasser. Oroub al-Abed, The Palestinians in Egypt: An Investigation of Livelihoods and Coping Strategies. Cairo: Forced
Migration Studies Program, American University of Cairo, 2003, p. 8.
14
Law No. 137 (1981). Palestinian refugees had the same right to state employment as Egyptian nationals under the Abdel Nasser
regime. Ibid.
15
Decree No. 657 (1954). Also see, Law No. 137 (1981) and Decree No. 25 (1982).
16
The Law Regarding Entry to, Residency in and Exit from Lebanon (1962) prohibits non-Lebanese from engaging in work in Lebanon
1
140
Population
without a license from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Also see, Law No. 17561 (1964) as amended by Decision No.
289/2 (1982) and Decision No. 621/1 (1995)). Under the 1969 Cairo Agreement between the PLO and the Lebanese government,
Palestinian refugees were accorded the right to work; this agreement was unilaterally abrogated by the Lebanese parliament in 1987.
Suheil Natour, “The Legal Status of Palestinians in Lebanon,” 10 Journal of Refugee Studies 3 (1997). The government of Kuwait
maintains strict control over foreign employment. Employers must obtain work permits for foreign employees through the Ministry
of the Interior or the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. Lex Takkenberg, The Status of Palesitnian Refugees in International Law.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998, pp. 158-59.
17
Kuwait reserves the right to exclude Palestinian refugees from employment in private business on par with Kuwaiti citizens. Lebanon
only grants refugees the right to employment based on “the right of keeping their Palestinian nationality, in accordance with prevailing
social and economic conditions in the Republic of Lebanon.” Abbas Shiblak, The League Of Arab States and Palestinian Refugees’
Residency Rights. Monograph 11. Ramallah: Shaml Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Center, 1998, p. 36.
18
Decree No. 621/1 (1995). For a list of professions see, Petter Aasheim, “The Palestinian Refugees and the Right to Work in Lebanon,”
A Minor Field Study. Graduate Thesis, Faculty of Law, University of Lund (September 2000). [On file with BADIL] Some refugees
may receive special exemption under the law. This includes persons residing in Lebanon since birth, of Lebanese origin in cases of
mixed marriage or persons married a Lebanese woman.
19
Law No. 8/79 (1970). Also see Decree No. 1658 (1979) permitting foreigners to practice medicine, pharmacy and engineering if
they are nationals of state that applies reciprocal treatment to Lebanese nationals. Ibid.
20
According to the Arab ministers of education, Palestinian students are to be treated the same as children of the host state. Brand,
supra note 12, p. 119.
21
al-Abed, supra note 10.
22
Palestinians were treated on par with Egyptian nationals until 1978 when the Egyptian government required all Palestinian students
to transfer from public to private schools. Children of members of the Palestine Liberation Army and the Administrative Office of the
Governor of Gaza were exempt. Between 1978 and 1995 Palestinian students were prohibited from studying medicine, pharmacology,
economics, political science and mass communication. Many students were expelled and the General Union of Palestine Students
was closed after student demonstrations against Sadat’s decision to visit Jerusalem in 1977. Scholarships and subsidies for universities
were terminated and entry restricted. al-Abed, supra note 13, p. 9. Palestinian refugees were treated on par with Kuwaiti nationals
until the 1960s when the government introduced a quota system to address overcrowding as a result of increased migration and
budgetary problems. Brand, supra note 12, p. 118.
23
In Lebanon foreigners are allowed to constitute up to ten percent of state school classes. Few Palestinian refugees can afford private
schools which are considered to offer a better education than state institutions. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
thus operates five secondary schools in Lebanon for Palestinian refugees. The Faculty of Arts in the Lebanese University Education
section which prepares teachers for Lebanese secondary schools does not accept Palestinian students. Natour, supra note 16, p. 45.
In Kuwait the government limited the number of non-Kuwaitis in government schools in 1965 to 25 percent, however, it allowed
the PLO to open its own schools. Some members of the Palestinian communities established several private schools. The PLO was
later given permission to operate its own schools with teachers, buildings and furnishings supplied by the Ministry of Education.
The program lasted until 1976 and included 22 schools when they were closed for financial and political reasons and the students
incorporated into government schools. In the 1980s due to overcrowding the government decided that only children of expatriates
who had been in Kuwait as of 1 January 1963 would be permitted to register in government schools. Other children would have to
enroll in private schools, tuition for which the government subsequently moved to subsidize by 50 percent for children affected by
the ruling. Ten percent of spaces in Kuwait University are available for foreign students. Brand, supra note 12, pp. 119-121.
24
al-Abed, supra note 13, p. 10.
25
In Egypt travel documents are issued to those refugees who took refuge in the country in 1948. A substantial number of holders
of Egyptian travel documents no longer have legal residency in Egypt. Between 1960 and 1967 Egypt also issued travel documents
to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which was under Egyptian administration (Decision No. 28 (1960)). Takkenberg, supra note 16, p.
153; Brand, supra note 12, pp. 50-52. Until 2003 Palestinian refugees in Iraq were allowed to leave the country two times per year,
once for pilgrimage and once for a visit. Refugees were required to obtain an exit visa. Flight from Iraq: Attacks on Refugees and other
Foreigners and Their Treatment in Jordan. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2003, p. 17.
26
In Lebanon refugees registered with UNRWA receive a travel document renewable three times. Refugees registered with the League
of Red Crescent Societies (LRCS) in 1948, but not with UNRWA in 1950, are also eligible for a travel document renewable three
times. The document is distinguishable from the one accorded to UNRWA registered refugees by a stamp indicating ‘Valid for Return’.
Refugees eligible only for a three-month travel document include those not registered with UNRWA or the League of Red Crescent
Societies. Takkenberg, supra note 16, p. 163.
27
See note 25 above.
28
Takkenberg, supra note 16, p. 153. Between 1995 and early 1999 Palestinian refugees were required to obtain a re-entry visa from
a Lebanese Embassy prior to returning to Lebanon. In most cases visa applications were rejected. It is estimated that as many as
100,000 Palestinians were unable to return to Lebanon due to the procedure.
29
Article VI(1)(d), Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area, 4 May 1994. The front cover of the ‘passport’ includes the phrase
‘travel document’. The ‘passport’ is issued jointly by the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli military administration. Restrictions on
freedom of movement in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories, however, may prevent Palestinians from reaching exit crossings
from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For further discussion of these changes see, Manal Jamal and Buthaina Darwish, Exposed Realities,
Palestinian Residency Rights in the ‘Self Rule Areas’ Three Years After Partial Israeli Redeployment. Bethlehem: BADIL Alternative
Information Center, 1997.
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Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Prior to 1995 Palestinians were issued two-year documents. Between 1948 and 1967 Palestinian residents of the West Bank were
able to travel abroad on passports issued by the Jordanian government. After 1967 Israel required Palestinian residents of the occupied
territories to obtain special permits to travel abroad. In July 1988 the King of Jordan announced that “legal and administrative links”
between the East and West Bank would be severed. West Bank Palestinians who held Jordanian passports thus lost their right to
citizenship and residence in Jordan. Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip were able to travel abroad on special travel documents
issued by the All Palestine Government until 1960 when they were replaced with Egyptian travel documents. See note 25 above.
After 1967 they also required special Israeli-issued permits.
31
Palestinians seeking to leave and return via land crossings with Jordan and Egypt face frequent restrictions and delays upon exit
and entry.
32
For Syria see, Law No. 250 (1956). Between 1958 and 1961 Syria and Egypt formed a union known as the United Arab Republic.
Palestinian refugees held special 10-year residence permits.
33
Those who left the West Bank for Jordan after that date hold green cards and do not have a right of residence in Jordan and can
only visit Jordan for up to one month at a time.
34
Palestinian refugees are eligible for three types of residency: special (valid for ten years), ordinary and temporary. Law No. 89 (1960)
as amended by Law No. 49 (1968), Law No. 124 (1980) and Law No. 100 (1983). Takkenberg, supra note 16, p. 151.
35
Decree No. 319 (1962). Between 1969 and 1987 residency status was regulated by the Cairo Agreement between the PLO and
the Lebanese government; the agreement was unilaterally abrogated by the Lebanese parliament in 1987. After the expulsion of the
PLO from Lebanon in 1982 the right of Palestinian refugees to reside in Lebanon was severely curtailed. It is estimated that 12,000
refugees who were assumed to have acquired residency or citizenship abroad were removed from the population registry. Palestinian
refugees who arrived later – including refugees displaced in 1967 – are not eligible for residency and considered to be residing illegally
in Lebanon (Decree No. 136 (1969)). Natour, supra note 16, pp. 12-16.
36
Nationality Law (1959) as amended by Decree No. 40 (1987), Statute No. 1 (1982), Decree No. 100 (1980) and Statute No. 30
(1970). Palestinian refugees are eligible for residency, which can only be obtained at the request of a Kuwaiti national through the
Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. Brand, supra note 12, p. 113. “Kuwait Restricts Stay o f NonGCC Arabs,” 4 Middle East New Line 472, 12 December 2002. Under the new regulations, Jordanians, Palestinians, Sudanese and
Yemenis are given one-month visas for family visits in Kuwait. After that month, the visa could be extended for up to two more
months. At that point, the nationals would be asked to leave the country. Those nationals arriving on business trips would be issued
one-month non-renewable visas.
37
For eastern Jerusalem see, 1952 Entry to Israel Law (1952). For the occupied West Bank see, Order No. 234 Relating to Identity
Cards and Population Registry (1968) and Order No. 297 Relating to Identity Cards and Population Registry (1969). Similar orders
were issued in the Gaza Strip. Only those Palestinians registered in the 1967 Israeli census and their descendants are considered
to be legal residents of the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories. Jordan and Egypt regulated the residency status of Palestinians in
the West Bank (including eastern Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, respectively, until 1967 when relevant legislation was replaced by
Israeli military law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and civilian law in eastern Jerusalem. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
and Gaza Strip hold green ID cards which must be approved by Israel. Palestinians residing in occupied eastern Jerusalem hold blue
Israeli-issued ID cards. Between 1967 and 1994 Israel revoked the residency status of some 100,000 Palestinian residents of the
OPTs. Noga Kadman, Families Torn Apart, Separation of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories. Jerusalem: Btselem – Israeli
Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 1999, p. 18. In eastern Jerusalem Israel revoked the residency status of some
6,000 Palestinians between 1967 and 1999 affecting more than 25,000 persons. Table III, ‘Confiscation of Jerusalem ID Cards,
1967-1998’, Eviction from Jerusalem, Restitution and the Protection of Palestinian Rights. Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center for
Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, 1999, p. 19.
38
Under the Oslo agreements residency issues are handled jointly between the Israeli District Coordination Office (DCO) and the
Civil Affairs Committee of the Palestinian Authority (CAC). Agreements between Israel and the PLO eliminated extended residence
abroad as criteria for revocation of residency rights and provided for a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee to find solutions for those
persons from the West Bank and Gaza Strip whose residency rights were revoked by Israel. This committee was never established and
the issue remains unresolved. For more discussion see, Jamal and Darwish, supra note 29. This process broke down at the beginning
of the second intifada in September 2000.
39
Since the Gulf crisis in the early 1990s and the involuntary migration of Palestinians from Kuwait (many of whom held Egyptian
travel documents) renewal of residency permits in Egypt has become more difficult.
40
Passport Law (No. 2) (1969). In 1968 Jordan issued ex-Gazans a one-year temporary passport which serves as a residency card. At
the beginning of the 1980s the government issued a three-year passport to ex-Gazans. This regulation was revoked after the failure of
the 1985 ‘Amman Agreement.’ In 1990, the government issued 80,000 two-year passports. More restrictive measures were introduced
after the signing of a peace agreement between the PLO and Israel. al-Abed, supra note 10.
41
Nationality Law (No. 6) (1954). Jordanian law, however, does not provide automatic citizenship to Palestinians who took up
residency in Jordan after 1954.
42
Nationality Law (No. 43) (1963).
43
Nationality Law (No. 98) (1951).
44
This includes mostly Christian refugees who were granted citizenship in the 1950s under the presidency of Camille Chamoun to
keep the balance between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon. Takkenberg, supra note 16, p. 164.
45
For Jordan see, Law No. 40 (1953) as amended by Law No. 12 (1960), Law No. 20 (1970), Law No. 31 (1977), Law No. 29
(1980) and Law No. 2 (1980). Also see, Law No. 25 (1968). Suheil Natour, The Palestinians in Lebanon: New Restrictions on Property
Ownership (2003), p. 19. [On file with BADIL] Palestinian refugees who entered Iraq between 1948 and 1950 are excluded from
30
142
Population
1994 legislation (Decision No. 23) that annulled all laws allowing foreigners to possess real estate, or invest in companies inside
Iraq (Decision No. 133 (1997)). Jamil Mus’ab, Palestinian Diaspora in Iraq. A study presented at the conference “Future of Expelled
Palestinians,” Amman, Jordan, 11-13 September 2000, p. 10, Natour, id, p. 19. In early 2000 the Iraqi government announced a
new policy that Palestinians who had resided in the country since 1948 would be granted the right to own property in Baghdad.
However, many refugees stated that legal restrictions prohibiting them from registering homes, cars or telephone lines in their own
name remained in force. Flight from Iraq, supra note 25, p. 18.
46
Law No. 40 (1953). Also see, Cassation Court Decision No. 1930/1966 (30 March 1997) confirming that Palestinian holders of
two-year passports are non-Jordanian citizens and cannot rent or sell immovable property without having obtained a permit from
the ministerial council.
47
Law No. 81 (1976) as amended in 1981. Palestinian refugees were originally exempt from legislation barring foreigners from
owning agricultural land (Law No. 15 (1963)). al-Abed, supra note 10, p. 11.
48
At least 51 percent of a business investment must be Egyptian-owned with government approval. Total area of the business is
limited to 3,000 m2 (Law No. 56 (1988)). Guarantees and Investment Incentives Law (No. 8) (1997). On agricultural and desert
land see, Law No. 104 (1985). Ibid.
49
In Kuwait see, Law No. 74 (1979). Arab citizens from other Arab states may only a single piece of real estate with approval of the
government. The person must have residence in Kuwait for a minimum of ten years, sufficient income and a clean security record.
The property must not exceed 1,000 m2. It is also based on reciprocal treatment. The land must not be under joint ownership with
a Kuwaiti. Natour, supra note 45,, p. 20. In Lebanon see, Decree No. 296 (2001). Palestinians are prevented from buying real estate,
registering real estate and passing property on to heirs.
50
Military Order No. 25 Concerning Transactions in Real Property (1967); Military Order No. 58 Concerning Abandoned Property
(Private Property) (1967) (The Gaza version of the military order is identical but numbered differently); Military Order No. 59
Concerning Government Properties (1967); Military Order No. 150 Concerning Abandoned Property of Private Individuals [in the
West Bank] (Additional Provisions) (1967); Military Order No. 321 Regarding the Lands Law (Acquisition for Public Needs) (1969)
(amending the 1953 Jordanian Land Law – Acquisition for Public Needs, Law No. 2 for 1953); Military Order No. 364 Concerning
Government Properties (Amendment No. 4) (1969); Military Order 569 Concerning the Registration of Special Transactions in Land
(1974); Military Order No. 949 Regarding the Lands Law (Acquisition for Public Needs) (1981); Military Order 1060 Concerning
Law on Registration of Unregistered Immovable Property (Amendment No. 2) (1983). In addition, Israeli military commanders
have issued orders for the requisition of privately owned Palestinian land for military needs.
51
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was established by decision of the fifth Zionist Congress (1901) to purchase land in Palestine and
Syria for Jewish colonization. The JNF was incorporated as an Israeli company in 1953. According to its Memorandum of Association,
the JNF is forbidden to sell national land to non-Jews. For further discussion see, Walter Lehn, The Jewish National Fund. London:
Kegan Paul, 1988. All land classified as ‘Israel Lands’ under the 1960 Basic Law: Israel Lands (Section 1) may not be transferred
either by sale or in any other manner.
52
Article 1, Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians. “Whilst retaining their Palestinian nationality, Palestinians currently residing in
the land of [ ] have the right to employment on par with its citizens.”
53
Article 2, Ibid. “Palestinians residing at the moment in [ ] in accordance with the dictates of their interests, have the right to leave
and return to this state. Their right of entry only gives them the right to stay for the permitted period and for the purpose they entered
for, so long as the authorities do not agree to the contrary.”
54
Article 3, Ibid. “Palestinians residing in other Arab states have the right to enter the land of [ ] and to depart from it, in
accordance with their interests. Their right of entry only gives them the right to stay for the permitted period and for the purpose
they entered for, so long long as the authorities do not agree to the contrary.”
55
Article 4, Ibid. “Palestinians who are at the moment in [ ] as well as those who were residing and left to the Diaspora, are given,
upon request, valid travel documents. The concerned authorities must, wherever they be, issue these documents or review them
without delay.”
56
Article 5, Ibid. “Bearers of the travel documents residing in LAS states receive the same treatment as all other LAS state citizens,
regarding visa and residency applications.”
57
For further discussion of this concept see, Chapter Two, note 1.
58
The Jewish character of the state is defined by three inter-related components: 1) that the Jews form the majority of the state; 2)
that the Jews are entitled to preferential treatment such as the Law of Return; and 3) that a reciprocal relationship exists between the
state and the Jews outside of Israel. Ben Shalom vs. Central Election Committee, 43 P.D. IV 221 (1988), in 25 Israel Law Review
219 (1991). Legal Violations of Arab Minority Rights in Israel. Shafr Amr: Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in
Israel, 1998, pp. 44-45.
59
Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1992). Also see, Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law (1981) and Equality of Opportunities
in Labor Law (1988).
60
State Education Law (1953). Also see, Compulsory Education Law (1949). For more details see, Second Class, Discrimination Against
Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s Schools. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2001.
61
Nationality Law (1952).
62
Law of Return (1950).
63
Land (Acquisition for Public Purposes) Ordinance (1943); Defense (Emergency) Regulations (1945); Abandoned Areas Ordinance
(1948); Emergency Regulations Concerning Absentee Property (1948); Emergency Regulations (Security Zones) (1949); Emergency
Regulations (Cultivation of Waste [Uncultivated] Lands) (1949); Absentees’ Property Law (1950); Development Authority (Transfer
of Property) Law (1950); Absentees’ Property (Amendment) Law (1956); State Property Law (1951); Prescription Law (No. 38)
143
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
(1958); Absentees’ Property (Amendment No. 3) (Release and Use of Endowment Property) Law (1965); Absentees’ Property
(Compensation) (Amendment) Law (1976); and, Negev Land Acquisition (Peace Treaty with Egypt) Law (1980).
64
See note 51 above.
65
This may also include Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa but the small numbers of cases do not permit assessment of application by
national authorities.
66
Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (‘1954 Stateless Convention’), effective June 6, 1960, Sept. 28, 1954, 360
UNTS 117.
67
Analysis is based on Susan M. Akram and Guy Goodwin Gill, Brief Amicus Curaie, Board of Immigration Appeals, Falls Church,
Virginia, published in 11/12 Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2000/2001); and, Takkenberg, supra note 16.
68
Under Article 1(C), refugee status ceases if the refugee: (1) has voluntarily re-vailed himself of the protection of the country of
his nationality; (2) having lost his nationality, he has voluntarily reacquired it; (3) he has acquired a new nationality, and enjoys
the protection of the country of his new nationality; (4) he has voluntarily re-established himself in the country which he left or
outside which he remained owing to fear of persecution; or (5) he can no longer, because the circumstances in connection with
which he has been recognized as a refugee have ceased to exist, continue to refuse to avail himself of the protection of the country
of his nationality.
69
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2/1998.
70
Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (‘1961 Statelessness Convention’), effective Dec. 13, 1975, August 30, 1961, 989
UNTS 175.
71
The United Nations has also recommended various types of monitoring activities in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories to
enhance protection of the Palestinian population. Other UN organs have also addressed the issue of international protection for
Palestinians. In 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories the UN Security Council
(Resolution 605, 22 December 1987) called upon the Secretary General to submit recommendations on the “ways and means for
ensuring the safety and protection of Palestinian civilians under Israeli occupation.” The recommendations specifically suggested that the
UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) add additional international staff; that the UN consider the appointment of an ombudsman
for the occupied Palestinian territories; and, that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Conventions use all means at
their disposal to persuade Israel to respect the Convention in all circumstances. In 1990 the UN Security Council (Resolution 681,
20 December 1990) requested the Secretary General to monitor the situation of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and submit a
tri-annual report to the General Assembly. The initiative was suspended in 1991 at the request of the United States, which argued
that the program might interfere with the political process started in Madrid in 1991. The UN General Assembly has also issued
numerous resolutions calling for protection of Palestinian refugees and cessation of attacks on refugee camps.
72
Addendum to Definition of a ‘Refugee’ Under Paragraph 11 of General Assembly Resolution of 11 December 1948 (Prepared by the Legal
Advisor), UN Doc. W/61/Add.1, 29 May 1951.
73
For more details see, Terry Rempel, The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) and a Durable Solution
for Palestinian Refugees. Information & Discussion Brief No. 5. Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency &
Refugee Rights, 2000.
74
See, UNGA Resolution 394(V), 14 December 1950. On the reduction in the UNCCP budget see, UNGAOR, 6th Sess., Annexes,
Agenda Item 24(a), UN Doc. A/2071 (1952), at para. 1.
75
UNHCR’s interpretation of the status of Palestinian refugees (see note 75 above) does not provide clear legal analysis on the status of
Palestinian refugees as “stateless persons.” The lack of clarity on this matter has negative implications concerning additional provisions
for international protection under 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
76
See, ‘Note on the Applicability of Article 1D of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian Refugees.’
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), October 2002.
77
See Chapter Two, note 10.
78
Executive Committee Conclusion No. 27 (XXXIII) – 1982, “Military Attacks on Refugee Camps and Settlements in Southern
Africa and Elsewhere.”
79
Executive Committee Conclusion No. 46 (XXXVIII) – 1987. See also, Executive Committee Conclusion No. 50 (XXXIX) – 1988;
Executive Committee Conclusion No. 55 (XL) – 1989; Executive Committee General Conclusion on International Protection (XLI)
– 1990; Executive Committee General Conclusion on International Protection (XLII) – 1991; Executive Committee Conclusion
No. 68 (XLIII) – 1992; and Executive Committee Conclusion No. 71 (XLIV) – 1993. These conclusions ceased following the
commencement of the Oslo process in 1993, despite the continued protection gap affecting 1948 and 1967 Palestinian refugees.
80
Pact of the League of Arab States, effective 10 May 1945, 22 March 1945, 70 UNTS, 248, 252. The 21 members of the League
of Arab States are Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
81
Kuwait reserves the right to interpret Article 1 of the Protocol on the basis that it excludes the right of ‘private business’ on par with
Kuwaiti citizens. Lebanon reserves the right to interpret Article 1 of the Protocol in accordance with prevailing social and economic
conditions in Lebanon and the right of Palestinians to maintain their nationality. It further reserves the right to interpret Article 2
with the added phrase “on equal terms with Lebanese citizens and in accordance with the laws and regulations in operation”; and
Article 3 with added phrases “whenever their interests demand it” and “allowing Palestinians into Lebanon is conditional upon their
obtaining an entry visa issued by the concerned Lebanese authorities.” It has also submitted reservations on articles 4 and 5. Libya
submitted reservations to Article 1 “since dealing with Palestinian citizens in Libya is on par with and equal to dealing with other
Arab citizens residing in Libya.” Abbas Shiblak, The League of Arab States and Palestinian Refugees’ Residency Rights. Monograph 11.
Ramallah: Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre Shaml, 1998, pp. 35-36.
144
Population
For a discussion see, Takkenberg, supra note 16, p. 149.
Cooperation Agreement between the League of Arab States and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 27 June
2000. [On file with BADIL]
84
This represents a decrease in fatalities from 2002 (1,067 deaths). Palestine Red Crescent Society, Table of Figures, Total daily
numbers of deaths & injuries in the West Bank and Gaza, http://www.palestinercs.org/crisistables/table_of_figures.htm. [last visited
31/3/05] For the total number of Israeli fatalities in 2003 see, http://www.btselem.org. [last visited 31/3/05]
85
UNRWA Emergency Appeal 2004. Gaza City: UNRWA, 2004, p. 19. A further 337 shelters were destroyed in the Gaza Strip during
the 3rd quarter of the year. UNRWA Emergency Appeal, Twenty-Third Progress Report, October-December 2003. Gaza City: UNRWA,
p. 5.
86
UNRWA Emergency Appeal, Twenty-Third Progress Report, supra note 85, p. 19.
87
Impact of the Separation Wall on the Socioeconomic Conditions of Palestinian Households in the Localities in which the Separation Wall
Passes Through (October 2003). Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003. The government of Israel has confiscated over
3,000 acres of Palestinian land for the construction of the wall and an estimated 40,000 acres of high-income land will be affected. For
more detailed statistics and legal issues about property see, The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities,
Report o the Mission to the Humanitarian Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) of the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC). 4 May
2003 and The Impact of Israel’s Separation Barrier on Affected West Bank Communities, A Follow-up Report to the Humanitarian and
Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) and the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC). Update No. 3, 30 November 2003.
88
Ibid.
89
Order Regarding Security Regulations (Judea and Samaria) (No. 378), 5730-1970, Declaration Concerning Closing an Area
no. S/2/03 (Seam Zone). Also see, Order Regarding Security Regulations (Judea and Samaria) (No. 378), 5730-1970) Regulations
Regarding Permit to Permanent Resident in the Seam Zone.
90
Order Regarding Security Regulations (Judea and Samaria) (No. 378), 5730-1970, Regulations Regarding Etnry and Stay Permits
to the Seam Zone. Order Regarding Security Regulations (Judea and Samaria) (No. 378), 5730-1970, General Permit to Enter the
Seam Zone and to Stay in it.
91
For more details on the village see, Nu’man, East Jerusalem, Life Under the Threat of Expulsion. Status Report. Jerusalem: Btselem
– The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 2003.
92
“UNHCR Uses High Tech Gear to Register Palestinians in Iraq,” 17 July 2003. In many cases Iraqi landlords claimed that they
were reclaiming property they had been forced by the government to rent out to the refugees for minuscule sums.
93
Palestinian refugees were not allowed to enter Jordan until 1 May when some 500 Palestinians entered al-Ruweished Camp ‘A’
set up for third-country nationals. al-Ruweished is the last Jordanian town before the border with Iraq.
94
CPA Order No. 50 defining MDM responsibilities was signed into law on 11 January 2004.
95
In addition, all movable and immovable property under the control of the Palestinian Affairs Office in the former Ministry of Labor
and Social Affairs and the records and data of the Office were transferred to the new Ministry.
96
“Impact of Naturalization Decision Starts to Sink in, Tens of Thousands could Lose Citizenship,” Daily Star, 13 May 2003. “Lebanon
could Strip Citizenship from Syrians, Palestinians,” 5 Middle East Newsline 175, 11 May 2003.
97
Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), 31 July 2003. The new law will affect thousands of married couples
and their children, who are currently living in Israel, as well as newly-married couples, forcing families to separate or to leave the
country.
98
For a summary of demolitions as reported in the press see, Review of the Arab Press, Arab Human Rights Association, http://www.
arabhra.org.
99
For more details see, Sondergaard, Closing Protection Gaps, Handbook on Palestinain Refugees in States Signatories to the 1951
Refugee Convention. Forthcoming from BADIL 2005.
100
Ibid.
101
AWB/03/17365. For more details see, ibid.
102
Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Israel. 23/05/2003. E/C.12/1/Add.90,
23 May 2003. Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Israel. 21/08/2003. CCPR/CO/78/ISR, 21 August
2003. The Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order): Israel. 22/08/2003. CERD/C/63/Dec.2. (Decision).
82
83
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Chapter
Durable Solutions
Six
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Durable Solutions
Preface
Durable solutions to refugee flows include voluntary repatriation, voluntary host country
integration and voluntary third country resettlement. Of the three solutions repatriation
or return is recognized as an individual right under international law. Voluntariness or
refugee choice is the key principle governing these solutions. Refugees also have an individual
right to housing and property restitution and compensation for damages and losses.
The United Nations set forth a specific framework for durable solutions for all persons
displaced/expelled in 1948. General Assembly Resolution 194(III), 11 December 1948,
affirms that the refugees, including those internally displaced within Israel, have a right to
return to their homes, repossess housing and property and receive compensation for damages
and losses. Those who do not wish to exercise their right of return are entitled to resettlement
assistance, restitution and compensation for damages and losses. The UN Security Council
affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1967 to return in Resolution 237,
14 June 1967. The UN has repeatedly affirmed the right of return for those Palestinians
in refugee-like situations due to expulsion, deportation, denial of residency rights, etc.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is the primary international
body mandated to facilitate durable solutions for refugees worldwide. The Office works
closely with other international and national organizations and states. The United
Nations established a separate organ to facilitate implementation of durable solutions
for persons displaced/expelled in 1948 – the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine.
The UNCCP is no longer active. The UN has not established a separate mechanism to
facilitate implementation of durable solutions for those persons displaced for the first time
in 1967. There is no implementation mechanism for durable solutions for internally
displaced Palestinians.
More than fifty years after their initial displacement, Palestinian refugees and IDPs are
still denied access to durable solutions in accordance with international law, relevant
UN resolutions and best practice. A variety of factors have contributed to this stalemate,
including: Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and places of
origin due to the ethnic-national origins of the Palestinian refugee population; the protracted
Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and the
lack of sufficient international will to enable refugees to exercise their fundamental human
rights under international law as affirmed in relevant UN resolutions.
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Framework
The three main durable solutions for refugees are repatriation to the country of origin,
host country absorption and third state resettlement. Voluntary repatriation in safety
and dignity, based on the fundamental right to return to one’s home and country, is
recognized as the most appropriate solution to refugee flows. For refugee solutions to
be durable they must be voluntary. Voluntariness means that states should not take
“measures which push the refugee to repatriate, but also ... [refugees] should not be
prevented from returning.”1
Numerous peace agreements to conflicts involving situations of mass displacement
affirm the right of return of refugees and displaced persons and the right to housing
and property restitution. This includes agreements in Macedonia, Kosovo, Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tajikistan, Georgia, Burundi, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Mozambique, Cambodia and Guatemala. These rights have also been affirmed in
scores of resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, General Assembly and
the Commission on Human Rights.2
The framework for durable solutions for all persons displaced in 1948, including
internally displaced persons inside Israel is set forth in paragraph 11 of UN General
Assembly Resolution 194(III), 11 December 1948.3 Resolution 194(III) affirms three
separate rights – the right of return, the right to housing and property restitution
and the right to compensation – and two distinct solutions (return, restitution and
compensation or resettlement, restitution and compensation) governed by the principle
of individual refugee choice.
Paragraph 11(a) delineates the specific rights and the primary durable solution for
persons displaced in 1948. The General Assembly, “[r]esolves that refugees wishing to
return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do
so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid … for loss of or
damage to property…” In other words, the primary durable solution for these refugees
is return, housing and property restitution and compensation for loss of or damage to
property. Resolution 194(III) does not ‘resolve’ that the refugees should be resettled.
Refugees who choose not to exercise the rights set forth in paragraph 11(a), however,
may opt for resettlement in host states or in third countries, as well as housing and
property restitution and compensation. Paragraph 11(b) ‘instructs’ the UN Conciliation
Commission for Palestine, the body mandated to facilitate implementation of durable
solutions for 1948 refugees, to facilitate the resettlement of those refugees choosing
not to return and the payment of compensation. In other words, the sole trigger for
the resettlement of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 is the voluntary choice of
the refugee not to return to his or her place of origin.
Resolution 194(III) also provides a general timetable for the implementation of the
return of the refugees. The debate during the drafting process of the resolution indicates
that the Assembly “agreed that the refugees should be allowed to return when stable
conditions were established. It would appear indisputable that such conditions were
established by the signing of the four Armistice Agreements.”4 The Assembly also
rejected an amendment that included the phrase, “after the proclamation of peace
between the contending parties in Palestine, including the Arab States.”5
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The framework for durable solutions for Palestinian refugees and IDPs displaced
in 1967 is set forth in paragraph 1 of UN Security Council Resolution 237, 14
June 1967.6 The resolution calls upon Israel to facilitate the immediate return of all
persons “who have fled [the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip] since
the outbreak of the hostilities.” No conditions are attached to the implementation of
the right of return. The United Nations has also affirmed the right of Palestinians in
refugee-like situations due to expulsion, deportation and denial of residency rights
to return to their places of origin.7
For more than five decades, the United Nations has affirmed the right of Palestinian
refugees and IDPs to return to their places of origin and the right of refugees and
IDPs to repossess their homes and properties. In 1976 the United Nations prepared
a comprehensive two-stage peace plan including durable solutions for Palestinian
refugees.8 The first stage of the plan provided for the immediate return of refugees
displaced in 1967. The second stage included return of 1948 refugees. The plan
addressed issues concerning implementing mechanisms, peacekeeping and monitoring,
refugee registration, legal reform inside Israel to facilitate return and financing.
In 1983 the United Nations convened an International Conference on the Question
of Palestine in Geneva. The Conference was attended by representatives of 137 states.
The Conference reiterated the obligation of all member States, under the Charter of
the United Nations, to facilitate “the implementation of the right of return of the
Palestinians to their homes and properties.”9 “In the event of Israel’s persistent noncompliance with the relevant United Nations resolutions which embody the will of
the international community,” the Conference called upon the UN Security Council
to take “appropriate measures in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,
to ensure Israel’s compliance with these resolutions.”10
The conformity of the framework delineated by the United Nations for durable
solutions for Palestinian refugees and IDPs with international legal principles and
practice over the past five decades lends further weight to its value as a normative
framework for a resolution of the Palestinian refugee and IDP issue today.
The Right of Return
The right of return is anchored in several bodies of international law: the law of
nationality as applied upon state succession, humanitarian law, human rights law
and refugee law (a subset of human rights law which also incorporates humanitarian
law).11 The right of return has also been affirmed in numerous UN resolutions relating
to other refugee and IDP cases.
Under the law of nationality, as applied upon state succession, newly emerging
successor states are obligated to accord nationality status to all habitual residents of
the territory undergoing the change in sovereignty and to allow them to exercise their
right of return to their homes or place of origin, regardless of where they may have
been on the actual date of succession. Under the law of nationality states may not
denationalize their own nationals in an attempt to cast them out. Specifically, states
are required to readmit their own nationals.
Under humanitarian law there is a general right of return, which applies to all displaced
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persons, irrespective of how they came to be displaced during the period of conflict.
A military occupant must let the occupied population continue its normal existence
with a minimum of interference. This includes a requirement that the local population
be permitted to remain in or return to their place of origin following the cessation
of hostilities. Deliberate, forcible expulsion – especially when carried out on a mass
scale – is expressly prohibited under humanitarian law.
The right of return is also a customary norm of international human rights law and is
found in a vast array of international conventions, including the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, as
well as regional human rights treaties. International human rights law also incorporates
the general prohibition against forcible expulsion.
Finally the right of return exists as a special subset of human rights law known
as refugee law. The principle of refugees’ absolute right of return to their place of
origin (including their homes) is central to the implementation of durable solutions.
According to UNHCR Executive Conclusion No. 40, for example, “(a) The basic
rights of persons to return voluntarily to the country of origin is reaffirmed and it is
urged that international co-operation be aimed at achieving this solution and should
be further developed.”12
The United Nations has reaffirmed the right of Palestinian refugees and IDPs to return
to their homes in numerous Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.
These include UN Security Council Resolutions 93 (18 May 1951) and 237 (14 June
1967) and UN General Assembly Resolutions 194 (11 December 1948), 3236 (22
November 1974) and 2252 (4 July 1967).
Many Palestinian refugees
continue to hold the keys to their
homes. ‘Ein al-Hilwe refugee
camp, Lebanon, 1996. © Tineke
D’haese/Oxfam Solidarite.
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General Assembly Resolution 194(III) affirms the right of all persons displaced in 1948
to return to their homes of origin. Paragraph 11(a) states: “refugees wishing to return
to their homes … should be permitted to do so.” By 1948 the right of refugees and
displaced persons to return to their places of origin had already assumed customary
status in international law.13 Arbitrary denationalization and mass expulsion were
prohibited under international law.
The UN Mediator in Palestine, whose recommendations formed the basis of
Resolution 194(III), explicitly noted that the right of return should be affirmed
(rather than recognized) by the United Nations. Correspondence and reports of the
UN Mediator repeatedly affirm the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes as a remedy to the involuntary character of their displacement. According to
the American Representative to the UN in 1948, Resolution 194(III), paragraph 11,
“endorsed a generally recognized principle and provided a means for implementing
that principle…”14
The resolution also affirms the right of refugees to return to their homes of origin. The
General Assembly clearly meant the return of each refugee to “his[her] house or lodging
and not to his[her] homeland.”15 The Assembly rejected two separate amendments
that referred in more general terms to the return of refugees to “the areas from which
they have come.”16
Housing and Property Restitution
The right to housing and property restitution is also anchored in four separate
branches of international law: the law of nations, humanitarian law, human rights
law and refugee law.17 Restitution is the name of a specific legal remedy designed to
correct the illegal taking of private property from its rightful, original owner through
restoring the wrongfully taken private property back to the ownership and possession
of the original owner. The right to restitution has also been affirmed in numerous UN
resolutions relating to other refugee and IDP cases.
Under the law of nations private property may not be confiscated by governments
unless: (1) the expropriation is being done for a valid (nondiscriminatory) purpose;
(2) adequate due process safeguards are employed (allowing the property owner to
protest the proposed confiscation if it is not being done for a valid purpose); and (3) full
compensation (or substitute property of equal value) is paid to the owner in exchange
for the property. In the specific context of state succession, the Doctrine of Acquired
Rights requires that private property of individuals in the territory undergoing the
change in sovereignty be respected by the successor state in all cases.
Under humanitarian law the Hague Regulations annexed to the 1907 Hague
Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land contain at least
sixteen articles, which contain rules requiring combatants to respect private property.
Similarly, the Fourth (Civilians) Geneva Convention incorporates the private property
protections from the Hague Regulations and includes a particularly strong prohibition
against “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military
necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” in Article 147, defining “grave
breaches” of humanitarian law.
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Human rights law also contains a “right to own property free from arbitrary
governmental interference.” This right is found in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in all three of the regional
human rights conventions (i.e. African, inter-American and European). The right of
restitution – which is the logical corollary of its ‘sister’ right to own property – exists
as the applicable remedy whenever property has been taken illegally (as determined
by international law standards) by a government or with official governmental
sanction.
Church in the depopulated
Palestinian village of al-Bassa in
Israel, 2004. © BADIL.
Finally, refugee law also contains the right of restitution. The principle of the refugees’
absolute right to return, on a voluntary basis, to their place of origin – including,
specifically, to their homes of origin – is central to the implementation of durable
solutions designed by the international community to address refugee flows. According
to UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion No. 101, for example, “all returning
refugees should have the right to have restored to them or be compensated for any
housing, land or property of which they were deprived in an illegal, discriminatory
or arbitrary manner before or during exile.”
The United Nations has affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees and IDPs to
restitution in numerous resolutions. These include General Assembly Resolutions
194 (11 December 1948), 3236 (22 November 1974), 36/146 (16 December 1981)
and 58/229 (23 December 2003).
General Assembly Resolution 194(III) affirms the right of all persons displaced in
1948 to housing and property restitution. “[The] underlying principle of paragraph
11, sub-paragraph 1 … is that the Palestine refugees shall be permitted … to return
to their homes and be reinstated in the possession of the property which they previously
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held.”18 [Emphasis added] The right to restitution for refugee property “wrongfully
seized, sequestered, requisitioned, confiscated, or detained by the Israeli government”19
reflected general principles of international law in 1948.
The right to housing and property restitution in Resolution 194(III) should also be
read in light of the UN Mediator’s earlier communiqués to the UN Security Council.
In June 1948, for example, the Mediator wrote that the residents of Palestine should be
permitted both to return to their homes without restriction and to regain possession of
their property.20 “There have been numerous reports from reliable sources of large-scale
pillaging and plundering, and of instances of destruction of villages without apparent
necessity,” wrote the UN Mediator. “It would be an offence against the principles
of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to
return to their homes….”21 [Emphasis added]
It is clear from the phrasing ‘to their homes’ that the United Nations General Assembly
intended to affirm the right of all persons displaced in 1948 to housing and property
restitution. If the General Assembly had not intended to affirm the right to housing
and property restitution it is likely that the broader language referring to the right to
return to one’s ‘homeland’ would have remained.
Compensation
The right of refugees and displaced persons to compensation is anchored in several
bodies of international law, including: the law of nations, humanitarian law, human
rights law and refugee law.22 Compensation refers to a legal remedy by which a person
receives monetary payment for harm suffered. Compensation should not be seen as
an alternative to restitution and should only be used when restitution is not factually
possible or when the injured party knowingly and voluntarily accepts compensation
in lieu of restitution. The right to compensation has been affirmed in numerous UN
resolutions relating to other refugee cases.
Under the Law of State Responsibility states are responsible for the commission of
an internationally wrongful act. Elements of an internationally wrongful act include
conduct consisting of an action or omission that is attributable to the state under
international law and conduct that constitutes a breach of an international obligation
of the state. When a person becomes a refugee it violates any rights that depend to
any extent for their full and effective enjoyment on a person’s ability to live in his
own country. Successor governments remain bound by the responsibility incurred
by predecessor governments.
Under humanitarian law states have an obligation to pay compensation for breaches
of their obligations in accordance with Article 3 of the 1907 Hague Convention
(IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Article 148 Fourth Geneva
Convention, and Article 91 Protocol I. The Hague Regulations annexed to the 1907
Convention provide for the individual right to demand an indemnity for losses
sustained in cases of violations. The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War also provides that an Occupying Power make
arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods.
Numerous human rights instruments include express provisions relating to the right
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of every individual to an effective remedy for human rights violations including the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and all
three regional human rights conventions (i.e. African, inter-American and European)
recognize an enforceable right to compensation. The International Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination provides for the right to seek
“just and adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered.”
Many Palestinian refugees
also continue to hold property
documents. Other documentation
is archived at the UN. © Tineke
D’haese/Oxfam Solidarite.
International refugee law also affirms the right of refugees and IDPs to compensation.
In 1992 the International Law Commission adopted the Declaration of Principles of
International Law on Compensation to Refugees. According to UNHCR Executive
Committee Conclusion No. 101, which affirms the right of refugees and displaced
persons to housing and property restitution “where property cannot be restored,
returning refugees should be justly and adequately compensated by the country of
origin.”
The United Nations has affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees and IDPs to
compensation in several resolutions. These include General Assembly Resolutions
194 (11 December 1948), 36/146 (16 December 1981) and 58/229 (23 December
2003).
General Assembly Resolution 194(III) affirms the right of all persons displaced in
1948 to compensation. Paragraph 11 affirms two types of compensation: (1) payment
to refugees not choosing to return to their homes; and, (2) payment for the loss of
or damage to (movable and immovable) property. The General Assembly rejected
draft resolutions and amendments that did not include provisions for payment for
the loss of or damage to property.23 The right to compensation applies to all refugees
irrespective of whether they choose to exercise their right of return.
The right to compensation for those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage
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to property in violation of established rules of warfare reflected recognized principles
of international law, which prohibited “looting, pillaging, and plundering of private
property and destruction of property and villages without military necessity.”24 This
included the right of refugees to demand individual claims irrespective of lump sum or
collective payments. Under the Final Act of the 1945 Paris Conference on Reparations,
for example, the Allied Governments provided that the method of collective reparations
would not prejudice individual claims by refugees.
The substitution of the phrase “loss of or damage to property which under principles
of international law or in equity should be made good” during the drafting process
indicates that the General Assembly did not wish to arbitrarily limit claims to
compensation for losses and damages.25 The reference to international law was also
included specifically to refer to those refugees choosing to exercise their right of return
in the event that domestic law in the new state of Israel would not provide equal
protection for the right to compensation for Palestinian refugees and IDPs choosing
to return to their homes.26
Paragraph 11 reflected the recommendations of the UN Mediator in Palestine who
called upon the United Nations to affirm the “payment of adequate compensation
for the property of those choosing not to return.”27 Compensation also aimed to
provide a remedy to “large-scale looting, pillaging and plundering, and of instances
of destruction of villages without apparent military necessity.”28 “The liability of the
Government of Israel … to indemnify those owners for property wantonly destroyed,”
stated the Mediator “is clear, irrespective of any indemnities which the Provisional
Government may claim from the Arab States.”29
Implementation Mechanisms
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is the primary
international body mandated to facilitate durable solutions for refugees worldwide.
The Office works closely with other international and national organizations and states.
UNHCR does not consider Palestinian refugees who reside in one of the five areas of
UNRWA operations as falling within its mandate. (See Chapter Five – Protection)
The United Nations established a separate organ to facilitate implementation of
durable solutions for all persons displaced in 1948 (including internally displaced
Palestinians) – the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine. The
Commission is composed of representatives of the United States, France and Turkey
and is empowered to create sub-organs, as necessary, in order to fulfill its mandate.
Today the Commission has no budget and no staff.35 The United Nations has not
established a separate organ to facilitate implementation of durable solutions for those
Palestinians displaced for the first time in 1967.
The 1994 Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area36 established a ‘Quadripartite
Committee’ composed of Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt to seek durable
solutions for Palestinians displaced from the occupied Palestinian territories in 1967.
The Committee, however, was unable to agree upon a definition of ‘displaced persons’
and unable to agree upon appropriate modalities for durable solutions for this group
of Palestinian refugees.
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Voluntariness (Refugee Choice)
Refugee choice or voluntariness is the cornerstone of UNHCR repatriation programs and is dealt with extensively in the
Office’s 1996 Handbook on Voluntary Repatriation: International Protection. The UNHCR notes that refugee choice is affected
both by conditions in the host country and by conditions in the country of origin. “Voluntariness means not only the absence
of measures which push the refugee to repatriate,” states the UNCHR Handbook, “but also means that he or she should not
be prevented from returning, for example, by dissemination of wrong information or false promises of continued assistance.”
(Emphasis added).
In other words, the denial of basic rights guaranteed under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and pressure
or threats on refugees to leave by interest groups or host country authorities, inhibit refugee choice and potentially render
decisions to be less than voluntary. On the other hand, discrimination in domestic legislation and provision of essential services,
lack of guarantees for the safety of returnees and attempts to encourage anti-refugee sentiment among the population in the
country of origin, also prevent refugees from making a free choice as to whether they wish to exercise their right of return.
Information is critical to refugee choice. Refugees should be provided with as much information as possible concerning the
conditions in their country of origin. Information should be disseminated via, among others, posters and leaflets, oral presentations,
videos, refugee information committees and through counseling by international protection staff and reconnaissance visits by
refugee groups to areas of return.
The UNHCR Handbook further provides a list of the type of information to be provided to refugees. This includes a description
of the conditions in the country of origin in general, as well as details of the situation in specific area(s) of return, including
the level of security. Refugees should be further informed about what type of protection will be provided upon their return in
addition to the type of assistance to expect (such as infrastructure rehabilitation projects) and what not to expect. Prior to
making choices, refugees should receive a text of guarantees or assurances provided by the government of the country of
origin, supplemented by explanations as to their content and scope.
Details about the repatriation procedure should also be provided. This includes information on: customs, immigration and health
formalities; procedures for bringing personal and communal property; access to land and restitution procedures; registration
and documentation for repatriation; the timing and phasing of the repatriation operation; special arrangements for vulnerable
groups such as women, children and the elderly; de-registration procedures for assistance, if any; and, procedures and options
for those not wishing to repatriate. Refugees should also be aware of how to contact international protection staff in their country
of origin in case of protection problems.
General Assembly Resolution 194(III) affirms the principle of individual refugee choice. The UN General Assembly intended
to confer upon individual refugees the “right of exercising a free choice as to their future.”30 By 1948, the principle of refugee
choice or voluntariness had already become an established principle of refugee law and practice.
The principle of individual refugee choice is repeatedly emphasized in documents prepared by the UN Mediator in Palestine,
whose recommendations formed the basis for Resolution 194(III). According to the Mediator, the “unconditional right [of the
refugees] to make a free choice should be fully respected.”31 “The verb ‘choose’ indicates that the General Assembly assumed
that […] all the refugees would be given a free choice as to whether or not they wished to return home.”32
In order to make a free choice, the United Nations recognized that refugees should be “fully informed of the conditions under
which they would return.”33 Moreover, the individual choice of the refugee was not to be influenced or hindered in any way
by the relevant governments. General Assembly Resolution 194(III) affirms the principle of safe return. Resolution 194(III)
not only imposes an obligation upon refugees choosing to return “to live at peace with their neighbors”, but also imposes an
obligation upon Israel “to ensure the peace of the returning refugees and protect them from any elements seeking to disturb
that peace.”34
There is no implementation mechanism for durable solutions for internally displaced
Palestinians.
The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine
General Assembly Resolution 194(III) instructs the UN Conciliation Commission
for Palestine, established under Article 2 of the same resolution, to “facilitate the
repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and
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the payment of compensation.” The Commission was also authorized to establish suborgans, as it deemed necessary, to fulfill its mandate. When the UNCCP was established
the UN General Assembly assumed that “all that would have been necessary was for
those refugees who wished to do so to undertake the journey to return and resume
their interrupted lives, perhaps with a little financial assistance from the international
community.” The Commission was therefore authorized to ‘facilitate’ rather than ‘assure’
the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.37 In other words, the UNCCP was
not given executive functions or powers of arbitration in relation to the implementation
of durable solutions. The General Assembly rejected several amendments to paragraph
11 intended to both limit and expand the functions of the Commission.38 In 1950 the
Assembly specifically requested the UNCCP (UNGA Resolution 394(V), 14 December
1950) to protect the rights, properties and interests of the refugees.
Activities Related to Return
During the early years of operation the UNCCP attempted to facilitate the return
of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 primarily through intervention with Israel
and preliminary technical work required to craft the return operation. One of the
first steps taken by the Commission was to gather basic information about the
refugees (including places of origin, professional and occupational background and
living conditions) and the policies and political positions of Arab host countries
and Israel. In June 1949 the Commission established a Technical Committee to
investigate methods for determining refugee choices and collect information related
to return, as well as resettlement, rehabilitation and compensation. The Technical
Committee visited refugee camps in Jericho, Hebron, Bethlehem, Homs, Gourard,
Wavell, Anjar, and five camps in Gaza to ascertain the wishes and opinions of
the refugees. Members of the Committee also consulted with experts from the
American University of Beirut, former Mandate officials and other personalities
in the Middle East.
In meetings with the Israeli government the UNCCP stressed the important role
refugee repatriation might play in contributing to an overall resolution of the conflict.
Without prejudice to the right of all refugees to return, the Commission also attempted
to promote the safe return of specific groups, including divided families and religious
officials. The Commission also established a second technical track of mixed working
committees, composed of Arab and Israeli representatives and chaired by individual
UNCCP members. Through these committees the Commission sought to advance
agreement on the return of refugees who owned citrus groves, along with the required
laborers, in order to prevent crop loss and reduce the number of persons requiring
humanitarian assistance.
A small number of Palestinian refugees from the villages of ‘Abasan and Khirbet
Ikhza’a were permitted to cultivate their land in territory held by Israel with the
creation of a special zone. In addition, a small number of refugees were permitted
to rejoin families inside Israel, particularly where the breadwinner remained
inside the country. In December and January 1949, for example, a total of some
800 dependents from Lebanon and Jordan rejoined their families in Israel. On
14 February of the same year, 115 persons from Gaza crossed into Israel. These
refugees were regarded, however, as new immigrants rather than returnees (i.e.
Israel did not recognize their legal title to their properties).
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The UNCCP ceased protection activities related to return in the 1950s. The
Committee noted that the conditions for return assumed under Resolution 194(III)
had changed in the intervening years since the adoption of the resolution. In the early
1960s the UNCCP appointed a special representative, Joseph E. Johnson, to try to
promote a solution to the refugee issue. Defining the fundamental considerations for
durable solutions, Johnson noted that the primary focus should be on the refugees as
set down in General Assembly Resolution 194(III). Numerous meetings were held
with senior government officials in the region but no progress was made on the return
of refugees due to Israel’s continued obstruction.
Sansour building on Jaffa and Ben
Yehuda roads in 1935. © Israel
Government Press Office.
Activities for Housing and Property Restitution
The UNCCP also attempted to facilitate restitution of refugee property through
calls for reform of Israeli property laws, intervention with relevant authorities and
actual documentation of Palestinian property inside the borders of the new state of
Israel. The Commission called upon Israel to abrogate discriminatory legislation,
including the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law, used to confiscate refugee property.
The Commission also requested Israel to suspend all measures of requisition and
occupation of Palestinian Arab homes and to unfreeze waqf (property endowed for
religious purposes under Islamic law) property. Israel ignored these requests.
The Commission attempted to secure immediate housing and property restitution for
especially vulnerable groups of refugees without prejudice to refugee property claims
in general. Access to land was particularly critical to refugees in the Gaza sub-district.
The mass influx nearly quadrupled the population in the area, while the armistice lines
cut most of the rural population off from their lands. The Commission also attempted
to facilitate immediate property restitution for owners of citrus groves.
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The same building in 1998 fifty
years after Israel took control
of the western neighborhoods
of Jerusalem and expropriated
Palestinian property. © BADIL
In 1950 the Commission established a sub-office (‘Refugee Office’) to identify property
ownership inside Israel and examine various interim measures by which refugees could
derive income from their properties. A global and individual identification of Palestinian
property was conducted based on British mandate records39 to establish a comprehensive
record of individual Palestinian Arab property to verify individual property claims.
Forms (RP/1) were prepared for each parcel owned by Arabs, including partnerships,
companies and cooperative societies. Separate forms (RP/3) were prepared for land
owned by the state (including land let to Palestinian Arabs), other public authorities
(including religious bodies), Jews and other non-Arab individuals.
According to the global identification process, 16,324 km2 of 26,320 km2 (the
total area of Mandate Palestine) were determined to be private property owned by
Palestinian Arabs. The individual identification process was completed in the early
1960s. The UNCCP property database contains some 453,000 records documenting
around 1.5 million individual holdings and is archived at the United Nations. The
Commission itself and several independent experts note that the UNCCP records are
problematic in several areas40, however, the records provide the most comprehensive
database of Palestinian refugee property to date. More recent studies that attempt to
compensate for errors in the UNCCP records, for example, estimate the total amount
of refugee land inside Israel at 17,178 km2.41 Digitization of the UNCCP database
was completed in the late 1990s.
160
Durable Solutions
Table 6.1 – UNCCP Summary Schedule of Land Settled by Cadastral Survey and Non-settled
Land (excl. Beersheba sub-district) in Forms RP/1 and RP/3 (in metric dunums)
RP/1
Sub-district
Settled
Acre
Beisan
Nazareth
Safad
Tiberias
99,683
146,232
179,444
221,815
193,493
Haifa
352,576
Jenin
Nablus
Tulkaram
35,031
257,790
Hebron
Jerusalem
Ramallah
7,506
6,040
-
Jaffa
Ramle
138,903
411,620
Gaza
Sub-total
Total
670,078
2,720,211
Non-settled
Galilee
408,024
935
68,901
125,895
946
Haifa
53,004
Samaria
193,376
23,414
74,781
Jerusalem
1,137,302
215,442
6,240
Lydda
1,522
158,193
Gaza
5,905
2,473,880
5,194,091
RP/3
Settled
Non-settled
34,763
218,928
230,365
240,132
242,725
252,887
12,232
109,017
1,867
529,372
37,360
5,586
167,875
23,219
3,230
427
20,222
-
17,101
55,239
-
141,762
185,557
2,897
8,111
138,770
121,817
684
523,844
2,680,328
Source: Appendix A/1 to UN Document A/AC.25/W.84 of 28 April 1964.
Activities for Compensation
The UNCCP also examined means and principles for the implementation of
compensation. The Commission instructed the Economic Survey Mission42, for
example, to prepare a preliminary study of the question of compensation, including
recommendations concerning the principles on which compensation should
be determined, the procedures for submission and valuation of claims and the
mechanisms to consider and settle compensation claims. Precedents for reparations
and compensation examined by the UNCCP included measures by which the Israeli
government obtained reparations and compensation from the German government
for Jews who were victims of Nazi atrocities.
The Commission emphasized that the Israeli Government should be urged to agree
to the principle that payment of compensation for property (both movable and
immovable) of refugees choosing not to return should be separate from a general
peace settlement with the Arab states. The bulk of the refugees from Israeli territory
were not citizens of Arab states at the time of their displacement and therefore their
right to compensation was not be confused with the claims and counter-claims
between the contending states and their nationals. The Commission also examined
means to “associate the refugees with the determination of any figure, which might be
established.” This included, for example, having refugees present during the different
stages of the operation “for the purpose of seeing that their interests [were] protected
and giving the benefit of their experience to the United Nations bodies entrusted
161
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
with the operation.”
The UNCCP Refugee Office completed a global and individual evaluation of
Palestinian property for the purpose of compensation. The evaluation was based on
British mandate records and the opinions of the Refugee Office land specialist, Arab
and Israeli experts. The Office assessed the global value of the Palestinian Arab land at
100,383,784 Palestinian pounds or 280 million dollars at the dollar-pound exchange
rate in 1951. This was divided into 70 million pounds in rural property with the
remainder as urban property. The Office also assigned an estimate of 21,570,000
Palestinian pounds to movable lost property. The Office requested information from
Israeli authorities as regards expropriated movable property in September 1951 but
received no response. Due to political considerations the Commission decided against
release of information concerning the total value of refugee properties based on the
individual valuation process. According to Commission records the total value of
Palestinian Arab land in Israel as of 29 November 1947 under the individual assessment
was 235,660,250 Palestinian pounds of which 31 million pounds was owned by
Palestinians inside Israel leaving 204,660,190 pounds
as refugee land.43
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Source: Yusif Sayigh, The Israeli Economy. Beirut: PLO Research Center, 1967. Atif Kubursi, Palestinian
Rights and Losses in 1948: The Quest for Precision. Washington, DC: The Center for Policy Analysis on
Palestine, 1996. Table compiled by PRRN in the summary of the July 1999 workshop on compensation
.[for Palestinian refugees [http:/www.prrn.org
162
Durable Solutions
Activities for Resettlement
The UNCCP made several interventions with Arab states to secure resettlement spaces
for Palestinian refugees choosing not to exercise their right to return to their places
of origin inside Israel. The governments of Jordan and Syria agreed to resettle those
refugees choosing not to return to their homes of origin inside Israel provided that
refugees were given the choice to return, which would be implemented under the
auspices of the United Nations.44 The Egyptian government stated that resettlement
would be difficult due to the population density of Egypt and lack of arable land,
however, the government did not rule out resettlement in the future within the
framework of international technical and financial aid. The government of Lebanon
also stated that resettlement would be extremely difficult given the population density
of the country.
The Red Cross and Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees
The International Committee of the Red Cross has sought to facilitate durable solutions for Palestinian refugees, within its limited
mandate, following the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 and again in 1967. After the 1948 war, ICRC delegations in Tel
Aviv (Jaffa), Amman, Cairo and Ramallah facilitated, to the extent possible, repatriation and family reunification for Palestinian
refugees. This included, for example, 1,500 inhabitants of Gerbis near Tulkarem. Due to the fact that Israel opposed the return
of the refugees, however, the ICRC eventually decided to promote resettlement. Many of the refugees that the ICRC assisted
to return were again uprooted due to Israeli pressure.
Following the 1967 war the ICRC proposed and obtained the consent of government representatives of Jordan and Israel for a
series of meetings to discuss the repatriation of Palestinian refugees displaced for the first time in 1967. Under an agreement
concluded in August 1967, a process was established to facilitate the orderly return of the refugees. Israel, however, retained
overall control, including the right to reject applications for so-called security purposes. Narrow time constraints limited the
number of refugees able to participate in the repatriation scheme and infringed on the voluntary character of return. Out of more
than 35,000 repatriation applications for some 140,000 persons, Israel only approved slightly more than 4,500 allowing less
than 20,000 refugees to return to their homes.45 Refugees displaced in 1948 and again in 1967 were not able to return. Israel
rejected appeals by the ICRC to extend the time limit to enable the return of all those refugees wishing to do so.
Political Negotiations
The first round of political negotiations to craft durable solutions for all persons
displaced in 1948 lasted from 1949 to 1952. These UN-facilitated talks ended in
failure. The issue of 1967 refugees was raised during peace negotiations between
Egypt and Israel in the late 1970s, but again there was no solution. The most recent
round of political negotiations began in 2000 in the context of final status talks
between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization as stipulated in the 1993
Declaration of Principles. Internally displaced Palestinians have been excluded from
all political negotiations.
The PLO, which was established in 1964 and is recognized as the legitimate
representative of the Palestinian people, has consistently called for the return of
Palestinian refugees to their homes of origin in accordance with international law,
relevant UN resolutions and the choice of each refugee.46 The state of Israel has
consistently opposed the return of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948, including
internally displaced Palestinians, but has accepted, in principle, the right of those
refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 to return to the occupied West Bank
and Gaza Strip.47 In practice, several thousand refugees have returned under family
reunification schemes.
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First Popular Refugee Conference,
Deheishe Refugee Camp,
Bethlehem, September 1996. ©
BADIL
The primary difference between the two positions – Palestinian and Israeli – is the
framework for durable solutions and the starting point in crafting such solutions. For
Palestinians, the framework for durable solutions is international law as affirmed in
UN General Assembly Resolution 194(III) and Security Council Resolution 237. The
starting point in crafting durable solutions is the wish of each individual refugee. For
Israel, the framework for a solution is primarily political; the objective is to maintain
the Jewish character of the state. The starting pointing in crafting a solution is the
collective desire to maintain Jewish demographic homogeneity and Jewish control of
the land (including land confiscated from Palestinian refugees).
1948 Palestinian Refugees
Early negotiations between Israel and the Arab states concerning durable solutions for
Palestinian refugees began in 1949 and ended in 1952. Negotiations were facilitated by
the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine and based on UN General Assembly
Resolution 194(III). The UNCCP attempted to facilitate negotiations through several
conferences, a series of framework proposals and smaller mixed working groups in
order to bridge the gap between the Arab position demanding an immediate return
of Palestinian refugees and Israel’s focus on territorial issues.
Between 1949 and the early 1950s Israel and the Arab states put forward several
proposals to resolve the refugee issue. Israel offered to annex the Gaza Strip along with
the resident refugee population, later offering to permit 100,000 refugees to return to
areas within the borders of Israel. In both cases, Israeli officials were aware that Arab
host states would reject the offers as inconsistent with UN Resolution 194(III). The
Arab states proposed that Palestinian refugees from areas included in the proposed Arab
state as set forth in the 1947 UN Partition Plan should be permitted to immediately
return to their homes of origin. Subsequent negotiations would then address the
process of facilitating a solution for those refugees who came from places inside the
borders of the state of Israel as set forth in the UN Partition Plan.
164
Durable Solutions
During this period the UNCCP facilitated two conferences, one in Lausanne (1949)
and the other in Paris (1951), concerning a comprehensive peace agreement and a
solution to the refugee issue. The UNCCP also put forward several frameworks to try
to advance negotiations on the refugee issue. In mid-August 1949, for example, the
UNCCP submitted a memorandum inquiring whether the parties would be willing
to sign a declaration stating that the refugee issue would be resolved by repatriation to
Israel and resettlement. Two years later the UNCCP submitted a series of proposals for
discussion at the conference in Paris, including a request that Israel agree to the return
of a specified number of refugees and accept the obligation to pay compensation for
property of non-returnees. Beginning in 1950 the UNCCP also attempted to advance
negotiations by trying to address a subset of issues. The Commission proposed that
a mixed working committee should be established, for example, to study the issue
of refugees in Gaza.
By November 1951, however, the UNCCP had concluded that it was impossible to
carry out its mandate and further noted that any solution to the outstanding issues
would be up to the parties themselves. In 1961 the UNCCP made one final effort to
facilitate durable solutions for Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of the 1948 war.
The Commission appointed a special representative, Joseph E. Johnson, then head of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to explore with host governments
and Israel solutions for Palestinian refugees. The mission, however, ended without
further progress on the refugee issue.48
The Arab League and Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees
The League of Arab States, the primary regional organization in the Middle East and North Africa, has consistently called for the
return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties. In 1949 LAS member states emphasized (LASC Resolution 231,
17 March 1949) that “the lasting and just solution of the problem of refugees would be their repatriation and the safeguarding
of all their rights to their properties, lives and liberty, and that these should be guaranteed by the United Nations.” During the
1950s and 1960s Arab states set forth a variety of plans for durable solutions for Palestinian refugees. This included several
plans outlining a staged return of the refugees. LASC resolutions after 1967 also emphasize the right of Palestinian refugees
displaced from the occupied Palestinian territories to return to their homes of origin.
The League of Arab States has also affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to housing and property restitution. In 1955
LAS member states called (LASC Resolution 1030, 14 October 1955) for the appointment of a neutral custodian or custodial
commission for the management of properties on the behalf of refugees. It also called for payment of rent for refugee properties
pending any solution, that the sale of refugee properties cease immediately and any sales already undertaken be declared
null and void, representation of refugees in the property documentation work carried out by the UNCCP and for the UNCCP
to investigate losses of moveable property. From 1994 onward the League has requested the UN Secretary General to advise
the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine to compile a comprehensive list of Palestinian refugees and their properties.
Since 1998, League member states have also called upon the UN to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the state of
Palestinian refugee properties, the violation of land ownership rights and the status of revenues accruing from such uses. The
League also called upon the UN to obtain a complete copy of all documents and maps held by the Israel Lands Administration
(ILA) and further requested the UN to appoint a custodian for the properties. In 1998 the League also invited member states
(LASC Resolution 5279, 25 March 1998) to consider 15 May as an Arab day in solidarity with Palestinian refugees.
Political negotiations on the refugee issue restarted in the early 1990s. The MadridOslo process, which began in 1991, established two separate tracks to address the
refugee issue – a multilateral track and a bilateral track. The multi-lateral track was
established in 1992 to address regional issues. This included the issue of Palestinian
refugees. Internally displaced Palestinians were excluded. Bilateral negotiations on the
refugee issue were to begin no later than three years after the beginning of the interim
165
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period (focused on self-government) as set forth in Article V of the 1993 Declaration
of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements.49
The Refugee Working Group, headed by Canada (‘Gavel holder’) was established
during the first round of the multilateral negotiations that was held in Moscow in
January 1992. The RWG was accorded a mandate to: (1) improve the living conditions
of the Palestinian refugees and displaced persons without prejudicing the final status
deliberations on the refugee issue; (2) to ease and extend access to family reunification;
and, (3) to support the process of achieving a viable and comprehensive solution of
the refugee issue. Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinians and Syria are all
members of the RWG, although Syria and Lebanon have boycotted the RWG.
The RWG identified seven main themes concerning the refugee issue and assigned
a lead country (shepherd) to follow-up each theme: Databases (Norway); Family
Reunification (France); Human Resources Development (US); Job Creation (US);
Public Health (Italy); Child Welfare (Sweden); Economic and Social Infrastructure
(EU); and the Human Dimension (Switzerland). RWG activities have been conducted
at two levels: plenary sessions to review ongoing work and set priorities for the future
and the ‘intersessional’ meetings to bring together Arab and Israeli representatives, their
extra-regional counterparts and international experts for more detailed consideration
of specific aspects of the refugee issue.
In 1997 the Arab League called for a boycott of the multilaterals in protest of the
policies of the Israeli government. No plenary sessions have been held since that time.
RWG activities continued at the intersessional level. The multilaterals as well as the
format of the formal opening of negotiations in Madrid, were intended to meet Arab
desires for enlarged negotiating fora and address issues that had regional components.
It was also understood that the multilaterals would generally operate by consensus
and that the chairs of the working groups would act as facilitators rather than exerting
any procedural power or direction. While consensus allowed the RWG to continue
to operate, it also represented a serious weakness as difficult issues, such as the right
of return and housing and property restitution and all the related technical issues
have remained off the table.
The 1994 Treaty of Peace between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State
of Israel also includes provisions concerning Palestinians refugees displaced in 1948
and those displaced in 1967. Article 8 of the agreement specifically mentions that
the parties will solve the refugee issue in accordance with international law and “in
negotiations, in a framework to be agreed bilaterally or otherwise.”50 Following the
passage of the agreement Israel amended its 1950 Absentees’ Property Law declaring
that property of Jordanian residents or citizens would not longer be defined as absentee
property. The amendment, however, does not apply retroactive to the agreement
and thus prevents Palestinian refugees in Jordan from filing claims for housing and
property restitution.
Official bilateral negotiations between Israel and the PLO did not begin in earnest
until 2000 due to a series of delays concerning interim issues. The first round of final
status negotiations took place in the United States at Camp David in July 2000. There
were no substantive negotiations on durable solutions for Palestinian refugees at Camp
David. Neither Israel nor the United States, which hosted and facilitated the talks,
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Durable Solutions
was willing to contemplate durable solutions based on international law as set forth
in UN Resolution 194(III). American bridging proposals focused on resettlement,
rather than return, in order to accommodate Israel’s demand to maintain a permanent
Jewish majority in the state.
During the last round of final status negotiations at Taba, Egypt in January 2001,
the Palestinian delegation presented a schematic framework for durable solutions for
Palestinian refugees.51 In general, the Palestinian proposal provides a legal framework
for durable solutions that is consistent both with the terms of UN General Assembly
Resolution 194(III) as well as international law and practice relative to durable
solutions for refugees. The Israeli response, by contrast, primarily provides a political
framework, components of which are inconsistent with Resolution 194(III) as well
as international law and practice. In early 2002 the EU Special Representative to the
Middle East Peace Process released a paper summarizing the general content of the
Taba negotiations and positions of both parties on the Palestinian refugee issue.52
The EU ‘non-paper’ provides several additional details not included in the previously
published working papers presented by Israel and the PLO in Taba. Israeli officials
suggested a 15-year absorption program to facilitate limited return of Palestinian
refugees to Israel. According to the EU non-paper, absorption numbers suggested by
Israel ranged from 25,000 refugees over three years to 40,000 over five years. These
numbers represent less than one percent of the total Palestinian refugee population.
Moreover, the quota system violates the right of the remaining 99 percent of the
refugee population to exercise their individual right of return. Israeli officials rejected
the right of Palestinian refugees to be restituted of their properties.
1967 Refugees
Early negotiations concerning a solution to the plight of Palestinians displaced in
1967 began in August 1967 between Jordan, which hosted the majority of refugees
Palestinian refugee children
march in the annual Nakba
commemoration in Bethlehem.
© BADIL
167
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
displaced in 1967, and Israel, which was in military control of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. The International Committee of the Red Cross facilitated the negotiations.
Palestinians were not officially represented at these talks. Both parties agreed to a
process whereby refugees could submit applications to return to their places of origin in
the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel, however, retained overall control concerning
the admission of refugees. Few were able to return and re-establish residence under
the short-lived process.
More than a decade later the issue of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1967 was
addressed in the context of political negotiations between Israel and Egypt. The 1978
Camp David Accords included provisions for a ‘continuing committee’ to discuss
the “modalities of admission of persons displaced from the West Bank and Gaza in
1967.”53 Egypt and Israel also agreed to work with each other and other interested
parties towards a “prompt, just and permanent implementation of the resolution of
the refugee problem.” The Accords did not include provisions for the right of return
of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948. The UN Commission on Human Rights
subsequently declared “the validity of agreements purporting to solve the problem
of Palestine requires that they be within the framework of the United Nations and
its Charter and its resolutions” and rejected “those provisions of the accords which
Refugee Participation in the Search for Durable Solutions
For decades the Palestinian people have been denied the basic right to participate in key decisions concerning the future of
Palestine. They have been talked about, argued over and decided for but rarely included. Likewise, the Middle East Peace
Process that began in the 1990s provided few opportunities for public participation. The secret Oslo negotiations between
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the subsequent talks over interim arrangements, final status talks at Camp
David and Taba and the international Road Map all failed to provide scope for public participation.
This peacemaking process also shifted from an agenda articulated by Palestinian civil society to one that was subject to regional
and international political pressures. This is particularly evident in relation to the question of Palestinian refugees and displaced
persons. Refugees have more often than not been considered as objects of humanitarian assistance rather than individuals
with rights and as legitimate actors in the peacemaking process. They have been assessed, surveyed, quantified, classified,
but few policymakers, diplomats and commentators have bothered to ask and listen to the refugees themselves about how
they envision a solution to their plight.
Exclusion of Palestinian refugees and IDPs from the peacemaking process combined with demands for better representation
from their own leadership, gave rise to initiatives of political self-organization among refugee community in 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories, inside Israel and in exile. These initiatives were as much an expression of concern about the exclusion
of refugee rights as they were about the popular demand for better representation and democratization of the peacemaking
process.
Popular refugee conferences inside Israel among internally displaced Palestinians followed by similar conferences among
refugees across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid 1990s set out the basic principles, structures and mechanisms
of a popular campaign for refugee rights. Refugees emphasized that the campaign should be a broad-based, non-sectarian,
independent movement comprised of Palestinian popular organizations and initiatives (refugee and non-refugee) in the homeland
and in exile to pressure and lobby for the protection of Palestinian refugee rights and durable solutions based on international
law as affirmed in relevant UN resolutions. “It should be clear that popular refugee support for parties – elected or not, official
or not – and for any negotiating team, will depend on their respect for democracy, national and human rights.”58
Strategy debates, lobbying and protest activities encouraged not only additional grassroots organizations, but also the PLO
operated Popular Service Committees, elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and activists in Palestinian
unions, political parties and national institutions (Palestinian National Council, and others) to join the campaign. Communitybased right of return initiatives in Palestine connected with similar initiatives in exile, and recruited professional research and
media assistance. By 2000 new refugee rights initiatives were launched in Lebanon, Syria, Europe, and in North America and
the global right of return network organized its first joint activities (Nakba Day, May 2000; and first joint strategy workshop).
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Durable Solutions
ignore, infringe upon, violate or deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,
including the right of return…”54
The issue of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1967 was addressed again in the context
of the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace agreement.55 The 1993 Declaration of Principles
between Israel and the PLO includes provisions for a continuing committee (based
on the Camp David Accords) to discuss the modalities of admission of persons
displaced from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.56 The continuing committee
composed of Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt (‘Quadripartite Committee’)
was subsequently established under the 1994 Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho
Area.57 These agreements do not include reference to relevant resolutions of the United
Nations nor do they affirm that the refugee issue should be resolved in accordance
with international law. The problem of 1967 displaced Palestinians, which was to be
resolved during the interim period of the Oslo process remains unresolved.
Developments in 2003
Throughout 2003 the political process remained focused primarily on Israeli security,
political reform of the Palestinian Authority and humanitarian issues affecting
the population of the occupied Palestinian territories. Bilateral and multi-lateral
negotiations on final status issues, including the refugee issue, remained frozen.
There was no change in the fundamental positions of the parties about the parameters
for durable solutions for Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “The right of return is a recipe for
the destruction of Israel. We will not accept such a thing. We made that very clear.
This is something Israel insists on and sees as a condition for continuing the process.”59
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) responded that “This is an
unacceptable and unreasonable demand. The right of return is one of every refugee
and I cannot abandon this right.”60
Major developments during the year included the release of a new international
framework known as the Performance-based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State
Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (‘Road Map). Other developments include
the recommendation by the UN General Assembly to obtain an advisory opinion from
the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s construction of
a separation Wall in the West Bank and the decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to ‘disengage’ from the Gaza Strip.
The Road Map was officially released in April 2003 based on the appointment of an
‘empowered Prime Minister’ to the Palestinian Authority and commencement of a
reform program.61 The framework sets out a three-stage process based on UN Security
Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and 1397 (2002) for a two-state
solution to the conflict as well as specified political processes, proposals of different
multi-Arab states committees, accepted principle and existing peace agreements.
The Road Map provides an ambiguous set of guidelines to resolve the refugee issue.
It calls for “an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution” but does not define what is
meant by these terms. It does not explicitly affirm the rights of Palestinian refugees
although it does refer to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (‘Beirut Declaration’) which
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
affirms that “a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem is to be agreed upon
in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.”62 The Beirut Declaration,
however, is not mentioned in the Road Map as part of the framework for durable
solutions for Palestinian refugees.
The Road Map also calls upon the Quartet to convene an international conference, in
consultation with the parties, at the beginning of 2004 “leading to a final, permanent
status resolution in 2005, including on borders, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements.”
[emphasis added] The PLO and Israel accepted the Road Map, the latter with
reservations. Israel demanded that any final agreement recognize Israel’s right to exist
as a Jewish state, waive the right of return of Palestinian refugees, remove all references
to the Beirut Declaration and end all claims related to the conflict.63
On 19 November 2003 the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed the
Road Map.64 In late December the General Assembly reminded the parties of their
obligations under the Road Map and called for parallel and reciprocal steps, credible
third party monitoring mechanism and an end to occupation.65 By the end of 2003
the Road Map was severely behind schedule. Major provisions for 2003, including
an end to violence, withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Palestinian territories
occupied after 28 September 2000, a freeze on Israeli settlements in the OPTs, an
international peace conference, and the creation of a Palestinian state with provisional
borders were not implemented.
In early December 2003 the UN General Assembly requested the International Court
of Justice to examine legal issues surrounding Israel’s construction of a separation Wall
in the West Bank for alleged security considerations.66 The Resolution asks the ICJ
about “the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall being built by
Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and
around East Jerusalem, as described in the report of the Secretary-General, considering
the rules and principles of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention
of 1949, and relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions?”
Among the issues before the Court will be the destruction of Palestinian homes and
properties, expropriation of Palestinian land and displacement for the construction
of the Wall. If the ICJ finds the request within its jurisdiction and decides to issue
an advisory opinion it could have potential political and legal implications for
all Palestinian refugees and displaced persons. While the question submitted by
the General Assembly to the Court pertains to the specific circumstances of the
construction of the Wall, affirmation that Palestinians who are being displaced and
dispossessed by the Wall have a right to return and repossess their properties will likely
have political and legal ramifications for all Palestinian refugees and IDPs.
In December 2003 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel may
consider unilateral moves, including disengagement (i.e. redeployment) from the
Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. While the proposal calls for a removal of
Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip, Israel would apparently continue to control all
land borders, the Mediterranean coast and the airspace over the Gaza Strip – i.e. Israel
would continue to exercise effective control. Under international law the Gaza Strip
would therefore remain occupied. The majority of Gaza’s population is refugees who
would remain confined to the Strip.
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The disengagement proposal complements accelerated construction of the separation
Wall deep inside the West Bank. While the alleged aim of Ariel Sharon’s proposed
disengagement plan is security, it appears part of a systematic effort to entrench
Israel’s control over the occupied Palestinian territories without the concomitant
obligations and responsibilities of an occupying power under international law and
further cement the system of ethnic-national separation that allows Israel to maintain
it’s Jewish demographic majority and the majority of the colonies (i.e. settlements)
constructed in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967.
In June 2003 the Supreme Court of Israel agreed that there is no longer a justification
for the closed order preventing the return of IDPs from the Palestinian village of Iqrit
in the Galilee.67 The Court further stated that without allocation of land by the state
to the residents of the villages there is no practical way to settle the issue. However,
the Court upheld the state’s position that allowing the IDPs to return now would
possibly create a precedent which could be used against the state and therefore ruled
that the state was not required to implement the return of displaced to their villages
at the present time. The residents of the village were evacuated ‘temporarily’ by the
Israeli military after the 1948 war for security reasons with a promise that they could
return. The promise was not implemented. Israel’s Supreme Court subsequently ruled
in the 1950s that the villagers should be permitted to return.
During the year international human rights organizations continued to remind state
parties of the importance of international law for durable solutions. “Disregarding
human rights, or subordinating these rights to political considerations, can only
undermine the prospect of achieving durable peace and security,” warned Amnesty
International.68 “Every serious effort at conflict resolution has a human rights
component,” said Human Rights Watch. “There’s no reason why the IsraeliPalestinian conflict should be any different. Leaving rights out of the equation might
look expedient now, but it will have terrible consequences as abuses on both sides
undermine the process.”69
UN member states reaffirmed the basic rights of Palestinian refugees, which they
have done annually since 1948.70 The General Assembly also reaffirmed the right
of Palestinians refugees to their property and the income derived therefrom.71 This
includes the “right of the Palestinian people to claim restitution as a result of any
exploitation, loss or depletion of, or danger to, their natural resources.”72 The Economic
and Social Council reaffirmed the right of refugee women and children to return to
their homes and properties.73
The United States, Israel, along with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau,
however, continued to vote against resolutions that reaffirm Palestinian refugee rights.74
The United States introduced a consolidated resolution on “Assistance to Palestine
Refugees and Support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East” (UNGA Resolution 58/95, 17 December 2003), which excluded, for the
first time, reference to Resolution 194(III), the UNCCP and expression of concern that
the repatriation and compensation of Palestinian refugees had not yet be effected.75
Resolutions adopted by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and the
European Parliament in 2003 were also inconsistent with international law and
171
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Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
practice on durable solutions. In June the CoE Parliamentary Assembly reiterated
recommendations similar to those issued in 1998.76 The Council called for a “just
settlement” of the refugee problem to be implemented with “all necessary flexibility”
taking into account the historical and political developments in the region. In October
the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution calling upon Palestinian
officials “to take a “realistic approach” to the sensitive question of the right of return
for refugees … so that a “fair and balanced solution” can be reached between the
parties…”77 Both resolutions recommend that durable solutions should be found
within a Palestinian state and support compensation as a substitute for repatriation.
Other regional groupings, however, reaffirmed support for the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes and repossess their properties. The League of Arab
States reaffirmed the 2002 Beirut Declaration and the principles for a comprehensive
peace in the region. These included “the exercise by the Palestinian people of all of their
inalienable rights, including their right to self-determination and to the establishment
of an independent State on all of their national territory with Jerusalem as its
capital, the guarantee of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the release of
Palestinians who have been abducted or arrested and are now in Israeli prisons.”78
The Organization of Islamic Conference, meeting at the Foreign Minister level in
May 2003, reaffirmed the “imprescriptible and inalienable national rights [of the
Palestinian people], including its right to return, to self-determination, and to the
establishment of its independent state on its national territory with al-Quds al-Sharif
as its capital.”79 The Foreign Ministers also called on “the Member States to request
the UN Secretary-General to advise the Conciliation Committee, in collaboration
with UNRWA and concerned states, carry out a comprehensive census of Palestinian
refugees and their property and develop a global vision to solve their problems based on
their right to return to their homeland, Palestine, in accordance with UN Resolution
194.” The Non-Aligned Movement also reaffirmed its support for the inalienable
rights of the Palestinian people.80
Former and current Palestinian and Israeli political and security officials launched
informal initiatives for a solution to the conflict in 2003. This included the NusseibehAyalon initiative81 and the Geneva initiative82. Both initiatives are based on partition of
historic Palestine into two ethno-national states – Israel and Palestine – according to the
1949 armistice lines (‘Green Line’). Both emphasize resettlement and compensation
as the preferred solution for Palestinian refugees. Palestinian refugee organizations
rejected both initiatives because they did not affirm the right of refugees to return to
their homes and repossess their properties.
In mid-2003 refugee activists in the West Bank decided to re-launch the popular right
of return conferences – an initiative initially started in 1995-96 and subsequently
put on hold – in order to strengthen the voice of Palestinian refugees. Preparatory
committees were established in three West Bank regions – Bethlehem, Ramallah and
Tulkarem. Similar initiatives were in progress in Nablus and Hebron by the end of
the year. The regional popular conferences will elect regional representatives with the
aim of establishing a higher popular right-of-return coordinating committee in the
West Bank. Community activists in the Gaza Strip have adopted the same model but
have yet to take the initial steps already accomplished in the West Bank.
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Durable Solutions
During 2003 the international umbrella network Coalition for the Palestinian Right
of Return held its fourth annual coordinating meeting, developed a joint plan of
action and adopted a draft Constitution setting out the objectives and regulations
of the Coalition. Al-Awda/The Palestine Right to Return Coalition held its first
convention in Toronto, Canada focused on Principles, Strategies and Programs for
the right of return.
Nakba memorials in the occupied Palestinian territories included popular marches
and rallies held in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Hebron, Tulkarem, Nablus and in towns
and camps of the Gaza Strip. Inside Israel the Association for the Defense of the
Rights of the Internally Displaced organized trips to refugee villages of origin and an
annual right of return march to the depopulated Palestinian village of Umm al-Zeinat
located on Mount Carmel (Haifa) on the 55th anniversary of the Nakba. Zochrot, a
Jewish-Israeli organization recently established to educate Israeli Jewish society about
the Nakba and the right of return organized guided visits to numerous Palestinian
refugee villages for Israeli Jews. It also continued a campaign to raise awareness by
posting signs at village sites and in cities with information about the Palestinian
heritage and presence before 1948.
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Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Endnotes
Handbook on Voluntary Repatriation: International Protection. Geneva: UNHCR, 1996, p. 10.
For a summary see, Susan M. Akram and Terry Rempel, “Recommendations for Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees: A
Challenge to the Oslo Framework,” 11/12 Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2000/2001), pp. 52-53.
3
UNGA Resolution 194(III), 11 December 1948. UN Doc. A/810, at 21 (1948).
4
UNCCP, Analysis of Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly’s Resolution of 11 December 1948. UN Doc. W/45, 15 May 1950.
5
Ibid.
6
UNSC Resolution 237, 14 June 1967.
7
On deportation, see, e.g., UNSC Resolution 799 (1992), 18 December 1992; UNSC Resolution 726 (1992), 6 January 1992;
UNSC Resolution 694 (1991), 24 May 1991; UNSC Resolution 641 (1989), 30 August 1989; UNSC Resolution 636 (1989), 6
July 1989; UNSC Resolution 608 (1988), 14 January 1988; UNSC Resolution 607 (1988) 5 January 1988; and UNGA Resolution
34/29, 16 November 1979.
8
Report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, UN GAOR, 32nd Sess., Suppl. No. 35.
(A/31/35), 21 July 1976.
9
Geneva Declaration on Palestine and Programme of Action for the Achievement of Palestinian Rights, UN Doc. A/39/497, 12 October
1983.
10
Ibid.
11
For a detailed legal analysis see, e.g., Gail J. Boling, The 1948 Palestinian Refugees and the Individual Right of Return. Bethlehem:
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, 2001.
12
Conclusion on Voluntary Repatriation, UNHCR Executive Committee No. 40 (XXXVI) (1985); and, Conclusion on Voluntary
Repatriation, UNHCR Executive Committee No. 18 (XXXI) (1980).
13
A Study on Statelessness, United Nations Department of Social Affairs, UN Doc. E/1112, UN Sales Pub. 1949.XIV.2 (August 1949).
W. Thomas Mallison and Sally V. Mallison, An International Law Analysis of the Major United Nations Resolutions Concerning the
Palestine Question. United Nations, New York, 1979, p. 31. UN Doc. ST/SG/SER.F/4. Also see, Rex J. Zedalis, “Right to Return: A
Closer Look,” 6 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 413 (1992), pp. 507-508.
14
Compensation to Refugees for Loss of or Damage to Property to be Made Good Under Principles of International Law or in Equity. UN
Doc. W/30, 31 October 1949.
15
Analysis of Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly’s Resolution of 11 December 1948, supra note 4.
16
Ibid.
17
For a detailed legal analysis see, e.g., Gail J. Boling, “‘Absentees’ Property Laws and Israel’s Confiscation of Palestinian Property:
A Violation of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and International Law,” 11/12 Palestine Yearbook of International Law (20002001). Also see, Commentary on the Draft Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons. Addendum
to Housing and Property Restitution in the Context of the Return of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Progress Report of the Special
Rapporteur, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/22/Add.1, 8 June 2004.
18
Historical Precedents for Restitution of Property of Payment of Compensation to Refugees. UN Doc. W/41, 18 March 1950.
19
Ibid. Also see, Letter and Memorandum dated 22 November 1949. Concerning Compensation, received by the Chairman of the Conciliation
Commission from Mr. Gordon R. Clapp, Chairman, United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East. UN Doc. W/32, 19
January 1950.
20
Text of Suggestions Presented by the United Nations Mediator on Palestine to the Two Parties on 28 June 1948, UN Doc. S/863, 3 July
1948.
21
Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, submitted to the Secretary General for Transmission to the Members of
the United Nations. UN GAOR, 3rd Sess., Supp. No. 11, UN Doc. A/648, 16 September 1948.
22
For a detailed analysis see, e.g., Michael Lynk, “Compensation for Palestinian Refugees: An International Law Perspective,” 11
Palestine Yearbook of International Law (2000-2001). Also see, Commentary on the Draft Principles on Housing and Property Restitution
for Refugees and Displaced Persons, supra note 12.
23
See amendments submitted by the United States (A/C.1.351/Rev, 1 and 2), Guatemala (A/C.1/398/Rev, 1 and 2) and Colombia
(A/C.1/399).
24
Progress Report of the UN Mediator on Palestine, supra note 21.
25
Compensation to Refugees for Loss of or Damage to Property to be Made Good Under Principles of International Law or in Equity, supra
note 14. A broader set of claims may include compensation for human capital losses and psychological suffering.
26
Letter and Memorandum dated 22 November 1949. Concerning Compensation, received by the Chairman of the Conciliation Commission
from Mr. Gordon R. Clapp, Chairman, United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East, supra note 19.
27
Progress Report of the UN Mediator in Palestine, supra note 21.
28
Ibid.
29
Ibid.
30
Analysis of Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly’s Resolution of 11 December 1948, supra note 4.
31
Progress Report of the UN Mediator on Palestine, supra note 21.
32
Letter and Memorandum dated 22 November 1949. Concerning Compensation, supra note 19.
33
Analysis of Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly’s Resolution of 11 December 1948, supra note 4.
34
Ibid.
35
Although the UNCCP is no longer active it continues to prepare annual reports of its activities. The reports state that the Commission
1
2
174
Durable Solutions
has nothing new to report. See, e.g., Fifty-Seventh Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, covering the period
from 1 September 2002 to 31 August 2003. UN Doc. A/58/256, 31 August 2003. The reports are prepared by the secretary of the
UNCCP who is a staff member of the UN Department of Political Affairs.
36
“Pursuant to Article XII of the Declaration of Principles, the two Parties shall invite the Governments of Jordan and Egypt to
participate in establishing further liaison and cooperation arrangements between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian
representatives on the one hand, and the Governments of Jordan and Egypt on the other hand, to promote cooperation between them.
These arrangements shall include the constitution of a Continuing Committee. The Continuing Committee shall decide by agreement
on the modalities of admission of persons displaced from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, together with necessary measures
to prevent disruption and disorder. Article XVI, para. 1 and 2, Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area, 4 May 1994.
37
Analysis of Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly’s Resolution of 11 December 1948, supra note 4.
38
Ibid.
39
These included the microphotographs of registers of title supplemented by the original registers when the microfilm was missing or
defective; Registers of Deeds; Tax Distribution Lists and, failing these, taxpayers’ registers; Field Valuation Sheets, and, failing these,
valuation lists and taxpayers’ registers; schedule of rights (in respect of blocks for which no registers of title had been prepared); parcel
classification schedules; land registrars’ returns of depositions; and, village maps and block plans. For a comprehensive study see,
Michael Fischbach, Records of Dispossession, Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2003.
40
For a more detailed discussion of the records and problem see, Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948. London: Saqi
Books, 1988. Adnan Abdelrazek, “Modernizing the Refugee Land Records: Advantages and Pitfalls,” Reinterpreting the Historical Record,
The uses of Palestinian Refugee Archives for Social Science Research and Policy Analysis. Salim Tamari & Elia Zureik (eds.) Jerusalem:
Institute of Jerusalem Studies/Institute of Palestine Studies, 2001, pp. 173-181.
41
Salman Abu Sitta, The Palestinian Right to Return: Sacred, Legal and Possible. 2nd Revised Edition. London: The Palestinian Return
Centre, 1999, p. 17.
42
The UNCCP established the Economic Survey Mission to examine the economic situation in the countries affected by the 1948
war and make recommendations for an integrated program to enable governments concerned to overcome economic dislocations
caused by the war, to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and payment of
compensation and promote economic conditions conducive to the maintenance of peace and security in the region.
43
Fischbach, supra note 39, p. 272.
44
Progress Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission, Covering the Period from 23 January to 19 November 1951. UN Doc.
A/1985, 20 November 1951.
45
International Review of the Red Cross – 10th Year, June 1967 – June 1970, p. 449.
46
The 1968 National Charter of the PLO, for example, affirms the right of all Palestinians to return to their homeland. The Charter is
reprinted in, Documents on Palestine, From the Pre-Ottoman/Ottoman Period to the Prelude of the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference.
Vol. II. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1997, pp. 213-15. On the eve of final status negotiations under the Oslo process, the PLO Department
of Refugee Affairs affirmed that a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue “will be defined as the Israeli acceptance of the
Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homes and to receive compensation, as outlined in UN General Assembly Resolution
194 and subsequently relevant UN resolutions.” Reprinted in The Palestinian Refugees, FACTFILE. Jerusalem: PLO Department of
Refugee Affairs, 2000, p. 18.
47
The decision to prevent the return of Palestinian refugees was taken at a June 1948 Israeli cabinet meeting and confirmed in the
Reply of the Provisional Government of Israel to the Proposal Regarding the Return of Arab Refugees, Aug. 1st, 1948. Annexed to the
Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, supra note 16. At the opening of final status negotiations under the Oslo
process the Israeli delegation stated that “in order to bring about a permanent and stable solution [for Palestinian refugees] which
does not perpetuate the conflict, this cannot be found within the borders of Israel.” Available at, http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa. Last
visited [19/11/2003].
48
The report of the special representative is annexed to The Nineteenth Progress Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission
for Palestine for the period 12 November 1960 to 13 October 1961, UN Doc. A/4921, 13 October 1961.
49
“It is understood that these negotiations shall cover remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security
arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbours, and other issues of common interest.” Article V(3), Declaration
of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, 13 September 1993.
50
“Recognizing the massive human problems caused to both Parties by the conflict in the Middle East, as well as the contribution
made by them towards the alleviation of human suffering, the parties will seek to further alleviate those problems arising on a bilateral
level. Recognizing that the above human problems caused by the conflict in the Middle East cannot be fully resolved on the bilateral
level, the Parties will seek to resolve them in appropriate forums, in accordance with international law, including the following: In
the case of refugees, (i) In the framework of the Multilateral Working Group on Refugees; (2) In negotiations, in a framework to
be agreed, bilateral or otherwise, in conjunction with and at the same time as the permanent status negotiations pertaining to the
Territories referred to in Article 3 of this Treaty.” Article 8, para. 1(b), Refugees and Displaced Persons, Treaty of Peace between the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel, 26 October 1994.
51
Palestinian Proposal on Palestinian Refugees, 21 January 2001. Reprinted as an annex to, Principles and Mechanisms for Durable
Solutions for Palestinian Refugees: ‘The Taba Proposals’,Occasional Bulletin No. 10. Bethlehem: BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian
Residency and Refugee Rights, 2001.
52
The full text of the EU ‘non-paper’ concerning refugees (as published in Ha’aretz) is reprinted in al-Majdal, Issue No. 13 (March
2002).
175
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
“During the transitional period, representatives of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the self-governing authority will constitute a continuing
committee to decide by agreement on the modalities of admission of persons displaced from the West Bank and Gaza in 1967,
together with necessary measures to prevent disruption and disorder. Other matters of common concern may also be dealt with
by this committee. Egypt and Israel will work with each other and with other interested parties to establish agreed procedures for
a prompt, just and permanent implementation of the resolution of the refugee problem.” Section A. West Bank, para. 1(e), Camp
David Accords, 17 September 1978.
54
Commission on Human Rights Resolution No. 2 (XXXVI), 14 February 1980.
55
Article 8, para. 1(a), Treaty of Peace between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel, supra note 40.
56
“The two parties will invite the Governments of Jordan and Egypt to participate in establishing further liaison and cooperation
arrangements between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian representatives, on the one hand, and the Governments of
Jordan and Egypt, on the other hand, to promote cooperation between them. These arrangements will include the constitution of a
Continuing Committee that will decide by agreement on the modalities of admission of persons displaced from the West Bank and
Gaza Strip in 1967, together with necessary measures to prevent disruption and disorder. Other matters of common concern will be
dealt with by this Committee.” Article XII, Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, supra note 39.
57
“Pursuant to Article XII of the Declaration of Principles, the two Parties shall invite the Governments of Jordan
and Egypt to participate in establishing further liaison and cooperation arrangements between the Government of
Israel and the Palestinian representatives on the one hand, and the Governments of Jordan and Egypt on the other
hand, to promote cooperation between them. These arrangements shall include the constitution of a Continuing
Committee. The Continuing Committee shall decide by agreement on the modalities of admission of persons displaced from the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, together with necessary measures to prevent disruption and disorder. Article XVI, para. 1
and 2, Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area, 4 May 1994.
58
Declaration Issued by the First Popular Refugee Conference in Deheishe Refugee Camp, 13 September 1996. [On file with
BADIL]
59
Quoted in, “Sharon: Palestinians Must Give up Right of Return,” Jerusalem Post [Internet Edition], 8 May 2003. Israel’s Deputy
Prime Minister, Ehud Elmert, reiterated that “Without an explicit commitment by the Palestinians to depart wholly, unequivocally
and completely from the ‘Right of Return’, Israel is not going to do anything dramatic in peace moves.” “Israel: The Palestinians
Must Drop Demand,” Associated Press, 28 April 2003.
60
Quoted ibid. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath reiterated that “The right of return is no longer an illusion. It
is an integral part of the [2002] Arab peace initiative, which is one of the reference points of the Road Map. I want to be clear: this
right includes returning to an independent state and to Palestinian cities in the Jewish state. Whether a person returns to Haifa (Israel)
or to Nablus (West Bank) their return is guaranteed.” Agence France Press, 15 August 2003.
61
Performance-based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 30 April 2003. Available at,
http://www.un.org/News/dh/mideast/roadmap122002.pdf. Last visited [19/11/2003].
62
The Arab Peace Initiative, 28 March 2002. Available at, http://saudiembassy.net/2002News/Statements/StateDetail.asp?cIndex=142.
Last visited [19/11/2003].
63
“Israel’s road map reservations,” Ha’aretz Internet Edition, 27 May 2003.
64
UN Security Council Resolution 1515, 19 November 2003
65
UN General Assembly Resolution 58/21, 3 December 2003.
66
UN General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.16, 3 December 2003.
67
The decision has not yet been officially published, but is available on the Supreme Court website. HCJ 840/97.
68
“Human rights should not be bargained away in roadmap negotiations,” Amnesty International, 3 June 2003.
69
“Roadmap needs rights component,” Human Rights Watch, June 3, 2003.
70
UN General Assembly Resolutions 58/18 (3 December 2003); 58/91 (17 December 2003); 58/92 (17 December 2003); 58/93
(17 December 2003); and, 58/94 (17 December 2003).
71
UN General Assembly Resolution 58/91, 17 December 2003. Concerning housing and property restitution for Palestinians displaced
for the first time in 1967 see, Commission on Human Settlements Resolution 18/12, 16 February 2001.
72
UN General Assembly Resolution 58/229, 23 December 2003.
73
ECOSOC Resolution 2003/42, 15 September 2003.
74
This includes votes against UN General Assembly Resolutions 58/18, 58/91, 58/92, 58/93 and 58/94. The US, Marshal Islands,
Micronesia and Palua abstained from Resolution 58/91.
75
Resolution 58/95 was based on an American draft resolution (A/C.4/58/L.9, 31 October 2003) and the revised draft resolution
(A/C.4/58/L.9, 7 November 2003) submitted by Australia, Canada, Dominican Republic, Palau, Uganda and the US. The nonconsolidated resolutions are 58/91, 17 December 2003 and 58/93, 17 December 2003.
76
CoE Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 1338, 25 June 2003. The recommendations were issued in the aftermath of a hearing
on the status of Palestinian refugees in Europe held earlier in the year in Budapest and a special report prepared by the Council’s
Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography (CoE Doc. 9808, 15 May 2003) on the conditions in which the Palestinian
refugees stay irrespective of the place. CoE Parliamentary Resolution 1156, 23 April 1998, called for a solution to the Palestinian
refugee issue largely through resettlement and the creation of a Palestine Refugee and Displaced Persons Final Status Fund.
77
European Parliament Resolution 2002/2166(INI), 23 October 2003. The Resolution was based on a European Parliamentary
Report on Peace and Dignity in the Middle East (A5-0351/2003) prepared by Special Rapporteur Emilio Menendez del Valle
(Spanish Socialist MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Authority), of
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defense Policy.
53
176
Durable Solutions
LAS Council Resolution 245, 1 March 2003.
OIC Resolution 5/30, Thirtieth Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (Session of Unity and Dignity), 28-30
May, 2003. OIC Foreign Ministers reiterated this position in September 2003.
80
Final Document of the XIII Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement Kuala Lumpur, 24 - 25
February 2003. This position was reiterated by the NAM Ministerial Committee on Palestine in September 2003. Statement of the
Ministerial Committee on Palestine of the Non-Aligned Movement, 26 September 2003.
81
Nusseibeh-Ayalon Initiative, 7 March 2003. Available at, http://www.mifkad.org.il/en/index.asp. Last visited [19/11/2003].
82
Geneva Accord, 1 December 2003. Available at, http://www.heskem.org.il/Heskem_en.asp. Last visited [19/11/2003].
78
79
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178
Recommendations
Recommendations
General Recommendations
1. Strengthen the rule of law: The current and future status of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons
should be addressed by a framework consistent with international law, relevant United Nations resolutions (UNGA
194(III) and UNSC 237), and best practice. Fundamental principles include the right of refugees and IDPs to
return to their homes of origin, repossess their homes, lands and properties, and be compensated for losses and
damages. Robust mechanism's to investigate human rights violations, determine responsibility and accountability
for the injuries, loss of life and property violations, ensure reparations for the violations from those responsible,
and prosecute those guilty of serious violations of international law should be developed.
2. Facilitate refugee/IDP participation: The process of clarifying protection gaps and crafting durable solutions
should include the refugee and IDP communities in order to strengthen democratic principles and structures,
expand the range of solutions and lend greater legitimacy to any future peace agreement. Special emphasis should
be accorded to the inclusion of Palestinians outside the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories and Israeli civil society
as well as women, children and the elderly. Other sectors of Palestinian and Israeli civil society should be included
in the broader search for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Mechanism/s for regular consultation with
refugees and internally displaced as well as other sectors of civil society should be developed.
International Community
1. Support rights-based durable solutions: The Quartet (US, Russia, EU and UN) and other members of the
international community should support and facilitate solutions for Palestinian refugees and IDPs consistent with
international law, relevant UN resolutions and best practice (see Chapter Six). The United States, the EU and the
Council of Europe, in particular, should revisit and revise positions/resolutions on the Palestinian refugee issue
that are inconsistent with international law.
2. Adopt and apply proper interpretation of Article 1D (Refugee Convention): States signatories to the 1951
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees should adopt and apply Article 1D in line with its plain language,
drafting history and applicable canons of treaty construction (see Chapter Five). States should not return-deport
Palestinian refugees unless asylum authorities are able to estalish that effective protection is guaranteed in the
country s/he is to be removed to.
3. Implement the protection standards of the statelessness conventions: States signatories should adopt and
apply provisions of the 1954 Statelessness Convention in line with the proper interpretation of Article 1D (Refugee
Convention) and develop appropriate procedures for the assessment of protection claims under the Convention.
States who have not done so should ratify the Convention.
4. Strengthen regional instruments and mechanisms for refugee protection and durable solutions: Members
states of the League of Arab States should develop the 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians in line with
the 1992 Cairo Declaration and regional refugee instruments such as the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific
Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa with the aim of increasing the scope of protection and clarifying the applicable
framework for durable solutions. States members should also strengthen regional mechanisms to monitor
implementation of relevant regional standards.
5. Increase donor assistance to UNRWA: States should increase contributions for refugee assistance in line with
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
the average annual growth rate of the refugee population and annual weighted average rate of inflation in UNRWA's
areas of operation and in prallel to the systematic search for durable solutions consistent with international law,
relevant UN resolutions, and best practice. Arab states should bring contributions in line with the commitment
set forth in LAS Resolution 4645 (1987) (i.e. 7.8 percent of UNRWA's total regular budget).
United Nations
1. Identify agency responsibility to search for and implement durable solutions: UNHCR, UNRWA,
UNCCP and other relevant bodies should continue inter-agency consultation and coordination with the aim
of clarifying respective mandates and identifying agency responsibilities for the search for and implementation
of durable solutions. The appropriate body or bodies should draft a framework for durable solutions based on
international law, relevant UN resolutions and best practice and make clear to all stakeholders that an greement
should be consistent with the consensus of voluntary repatriation, restitution and compensation based on the free
and informed choice of each individual. Official land records and archives of the United Nations Conciliation
Commission for Palestine should be opened up to Paelstinian refugees and internally displaced persons to verify
documentation and registration of properties.
2. Identify agency responsibility to protect Palestinian refugees and IDPs in UNRWA areas of operation:
Effective remedy of the protection gap for Palestinian refugees in UNRWA areas of operation and IDPs requires
clarification of mandates (i.e. division of protection and assistance roles) and increased inter-agency coordination
between UNHCR, UNRWA, UNCCP and other relevant bodies. These three agencies, having been accorded a
lead role in the provision of protection and assistance for Palestinian refugees/IDPs, should take the initiative to
establish a coordination mechanism or secretariat for the exchange of documents, information, data and reports
regarding their respective policies and operations. Special attention should be given to clarifying the issue of
'returnability' and continued documentation of state practice regarding interpretation of Article 1D and protection
of Palestinian refugees.
3. Establish comprehensive registration system for Palestinian refugees and IDPs: The United Nations should
coordinate action to establish a comprehensive registration system for Palestinian refugees and IDPs for the purpose
of international protection and crafting of durable solutions. A comprehensive registration system should include
all categories of Palestinain refugees and internally displaced persons.
Correct gender discrimination in UNRWA registration system: The United Nations should remedy gender
discrimination in the existing UNRWA registration system. Children born to a registered refugee woman married to
a non-refugee man should not be deprived of UNRWA assistance and related services. A comprehensive registration
system (see above) should be consistent with gender equality standards.
Government of Israel
1. Comply with international law standards for durable solutions: The governmetn of Israel should repeal or
revise nationality and property legislation to bring relevant laws into compliance with international human rights
obligations, as recommended by various United Nations human rights treaty bodies, so that Palestinian refugees
may re-establish domicile in their homeland and repossess their homes and properties. The government of Israel
should also implement without further delay the 1951 High Court decisions regarding the return of IDPs from
the villages of Iqrit and Bir'im in the context of implementing durable solutions for all IDPs inside Israel. The
government of Israel should provide access to all archives containing 1948-related documentation and other
documentation related to the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians since 1948.
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Recommendations
2. Implement protection standards in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories: The government of Israel should
apply international human rights instruments and the Fourth Geneva Convention in their entirety in the 1967
occupied Palestinian territories and end its 36-year illegal occupation of the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem,
and the Gaza Strip. The government of Israel should cease all construction and dismantle completed sections of
the separation Wall in the West Bank which is leading to new waves of displacement and dispossession.
3. Dismantle discriminatory para-statal institutions: The government of Isreael should review its relationship
with the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency and its subsidiaries including the Jewish National Fund, as
recommended by UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies, and dismantle these institutions which discriminate against
Palestinians by providing preferential public services to Jews which are not available to Palestinians.
Palestine Liberation Organization
1. Develop a draft framework and mechanisms for durable solutions: The PLO should draft a framework for
durable solutions for Palestinian refugees and IDPs in consultation with refugee and IDP communities consistent
with international law, relevant UN resolutions and best practice. The PLO should also design a model for
mechanisms to implement durable solutions, including return and housing and property restitution.
2. Strengthen the Department of Refugee Affairs: The PLO should strengthen tyhe capacity of the Department
of Refugee Affairs as the Palestinian body mandated to oversee the refugee issue. The PLO should strengthen, and
where applicable, establish PLO offices where Palestinian refugees can seek the assistance and protection of their
representatives.
3. Rebuilding the representative structures of the PLO: The PLO should rebuild the representative structures
inside the PLO so that Palestinians, including refugees and IDPs, can fully participate in the search for a solution
to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the refugee issue in particular, and so that elected officials can more effectively
represent their constituency.
Civil Society
1. Raise awareness about refugee rights: Palestinian, Israeli and international civil society should raise awareness
about refugee rights and the standard framework for durable solutions for refugees and displaced persons worldwide
that is also applicable to Palestinian refugees. Tools for awareness raising should include public rallies and debates,
the media, academic research and the arts.
2. Lobby and campaign for a solution consistent with international law, relevant UN resolutions and best
practice: Palestinian, Israeli and international civil society should lobby and campaign the international community
to build pressure for a rights-based approach to durable solutions for Palestinian refugees and internally displaced
persons. Boycotts and divestment should be considered as legitimate means of pressure.
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182
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Appendix
Selected United Nations Resolutions
UN General Assembly Resolution 194(III)
11 December 1948
ESTABLISHING A UN CONCILIATION COMMISSION, RESOLVING THAT JERUSALEM SHOULD BE PLACE UNDER A PERMANENT
INTERNATIONAL REGIME, AND RESOLVING THAT THE REFUGEES SHOULD BE PERMITTED TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES.
The General Assembly,
Having considered further the situation in Palestine,
1. Expresses its deep appreciation of the progress achieved through the good offices of the late United Nations Mediator
in promoting a peaceful adjustment of the future situation of Palestine, for which cause he sacrificed his life; and
Extends its thanks to the Acting Mediator and his staff for their continued efforts and devotion to duty in Palestine;
2. Establishes a Conciliation Commission consisting of three States members of the United Nations which shall have the following functions:
(a) To assume, in so far as it considers necessary in existing circumstances, the functions given to the United Nations Mediator on
Palestine by resolution 186 (S-2) of the General Assembly of 14 May 1948;
(b) To carry out the specific functions and directives given to it by the present resolution and such additional functions and directives
as may be given to it by the General Assembly or by the Security Council;
(c) To undertake, upon the request of the Security Council, any of the functions now assigned to the United Nations Mediator on
Palestine or to the United Nations Truce Commission by resolutions of the Security Council; upon such request to the Conciliation
Commission by the Security Council with respect to all the remaining functions of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine under
Security Council resolutions, the office of the Mediator shall be terminated;
3. Decides that a Committee of the Assembly, consisting of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom
and the United States of America, shall present, before the end of the first part of the present session of the General Assembly, for the
approval of the Assembly, a proposal concerning the names of the three States which will constitute the Conciliation Commission;
4. Requests the Commission to begin its functions at once, with a view to the establishment of contact between the parties themselves
and the Commission at the earliest possible date;
5. Calls upon the Governments and authorities concerned to extend the scope of the negotiations provided for in the Security Council’s
resolution of 16 November 1948 1/ and to seek agreement by negotiations conducted either with the Conciliation Commission or
directly, with a view to the final settlement of all questions outstanding between them;
6. Instructs the Conciliation Commission to take steps to assist the Governments and authorities concerned to achieve a final settlement
of all questions outstanding between them;
7. Resolves that the Holy Places - including Nazareth - religious buildings and sites in Palestine should be protected and free access to
them assured, in accordance with existing rights and historical practice; that arrangements to this end should be under effective United
Nations supervision; that the United Nations Conciliation Commission, in presenting to the fourth regular session of the General
Assembly its detailed proposals for a permanent international regime for the territory of Jerusalem, should include recommendations
concerning the Holy Places in that territory; that with regard to the Holy Places in the rest of Palestine the Commission should call
upon the political authorities of the areas concerned to give appropriate formal guarantees as to the protection of the Holy Places
and access to them; and that these undertakings should be presented to the General Assembly for approval;
8. Resolves that, in view of its association with three world religions, the Jerusalem area, including the present municipality of
Jerusalem plus the surrounding villages and towns, the most eastern of which shall be Abu Dis; the most southern, Bethlehem; the
most western, Ein Karim (including also the built-up area of Motsa); and the most northern, Shu’fat, should be accorded special and
separate treatment from the rest of Palestine and should be placed under effective United Nations control;
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Requests the Security Council to take further steps to ensure the demilitarization of Jerusalem at the earliest possible date;
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to present to the fourth regular session of the General Assembly detailed proposals for a
permanent international regime for the Jerusalem area which will provide for the maximum local autonomy for distinctive groups
consistent with the special international status of the Jerusalem area;
The Conciliation Commission is authorized to appoint a United Nations representative, who shall co-operate with the local authorities
with respect to the interim administration of the Jerusalem area;
9. Resolves that, pending agreement on more detailed arrangements among the Governments and authorities concerned, the freest
possible access to Jerusalem by road, rail or air should be accorded to all inhabitants of Palestine;
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to report immediately to the Security Council, for appropriate action by that organ, any
attempt by any party to impede such access;
10. Instructs the Conciliation Commission to seek arrangements among the Governments and authorities concerned which will
facilitate the economic development of the area, including arrangements for access to ports and airfields and the use of transportation
and communication facilities;
11. Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so
at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss
of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or
authorities responsible;
Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the
refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine
Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;
12. Authorizes the Conciliation Commission to appoint such subsidiary bodies and to employ such technical experts, acting under
its authority, as it may find necessary for the effective discharge of its functions and responsibilities under the present resolution;
The Conciliation Commission will have its official headquarters at Jerusalem. The authorities responsible for maintaining order in
Jerusalem will be responsible for taking all measures necessary to ensure the security of the Commission. The Secretary-General will
provide a limited number of guards to the protection of the staff and premises of the Commission;
13. Instructs the Conciliation Commission to render progress reports periodically to the Secretary-General for transmission to the
Security Council and to the Members of the United Nations;
14. Calls upon all Governments and authorities concerned to co-operate with the Conciliation Commission and to take all possible
steps to assist in the implementation of the present resolution;
15. Requests the Secretary-General to provide the necessary staff and facilities and to make appropriate arrangements to provide the
necessary funds required in carrying out the terms of the present resolution.
1/ See Official Records of the Security Council, Third Year, No. 126.
UN General Assembly Resolution 302(V)
8 December 1949
ESTABLISHING THE UN RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES (UNRWA)
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 212 (III) 2/ of 19 November 1948 and 194 (III) 3/ of 11 December 1948, affirming in particular the provisions
of paragraph 11 of the latter resolutions,
Having examined with appreciation the first interim report 4/ of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East
and the report 5/ of the Secretary-General on assistance to Palestine refugees,
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1. Expresses its appreciation to the Governments which have generously responded to the appeal embodied in its resolution 212 (III),
and to the appeal of the Secretary-General, to contribute in kind or in funds to the alleviation of the conditions of starvation and
distress among the Palestine refugees;
2. Expresses also its gratitude to the International Committee of the Red Cross, to the League of Red Cross Societies and to the
American Friends Service Committee for the contribution they have made to this humanitarian cause by discharging, in the face of
great difficulties, the responsibility they voluntarily assumed for the distribution of relief supplies and the general care of the refugees;
and welcomes the assurance they have given the Secretary-General that they will continue their co-operation with the United Nations
until the end of March 1950 on a mutually acceptable basis;
3. Commends the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund for the important contribution which it has made towards
the United Nations programme of assistance; and commends those specialized agencies which have rendered assistance in their
respective fields, in particular the World Health Organization, the United nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
and the International Refugee Organization;
4. Expresses its thanks to the numerous religious, charitable and humanitarian organizations which have materially assisted in bringing
relief to Palestine refugees;
5. Recognizes that, without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 11 of General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11 December
1948, continued assistance for the relief of the Palestine refugees is necessary to prevent conditions of starvation and distress among
them and to further conditions of peace and stability, and that constructive measures should be undertaken at an early date with a
view to the termination of international assistance for relief;
6. Considers that, subject to the provisions of paragraph 9(d) of the present resolution, the equivalent of approximately $33,700,000
will be required for direct relief and works programmes for the period 1 January to 31 December 1950 of which the equivalent of
$20,200,000 is required for direct relief and $13,500,000 for works programmes; that the equivalent of approximately $21,200,000
will be required for works programmes from 1 January to 30 June 1951, all inclusive of administrative expenses; and that direct relief
should be terminated not later than 31 December 1950 unless otherwise determined by the General Assembly at its fifth regular
session;
7. Establishes the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East:
(a) To carry out in collaboration with local governments the direct relief and works programmes as recommended by the Economic
Survey Mission;
(b) To consult with the interested Near Eastern Governments concerning measures to be taken by them preparatory to the time when
international assistance for relief and works projects is no longer available;
8. Establishes an Advisory Commission consisting of representatives of France, Turkey, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland and the United States of America, with power to add not more than three additional members from contributing
Governments, to advise and assist the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East in the execution of the programme; the Director and the Advisory Commission shall consult with each near Eastern Government
concerned in the selection, planning and execution of projects;
9. Requests the Secretary-General to appoint the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East in consultation with the Governments represented on the Advisory Commission;
(a) The Director shall be the chief executive officer of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East responsible to the General Assembly for the operation of the programme;
(b) The Director shall select and appoint his staff in accordance with general arrangements made in agreement with the SecretaryGeneral, including such of the staff rules and regulations of the United Nations as the Director and the Secretary-General shall agree
are applicable, and to the extent possible utilize the facilities and assistance of the Secretary-General;
(c) The Director shall, in consultation with the Secretary-General and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary
Questions, establish financial regulations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East;
(d) Subject to the financial regulations established pursuant to clause (c) of the present paragraph, the Director, in consultation with
the Advisory Commission, shall apportion available funds between direct relief and works projects in their discretion, in the event
that the estimates in paragraph 6 require revision;
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10. Requests the Director to convene the Advisory Commission at the earliest practicable date for the purpose of developing plans
for the organization and administration of the programme, and of adopting rules of procedure;
11. Continues the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees as established under General Assembly resolution 212 (III) until 1
April 1950, or until such date thereafter as the transfer referred to in paragraph 12 is affected, and requests the Secretary-General
in consultation with the operating agencies to continue the endeavour to reduce the numbers of rations by progressive stages in the
light of the findings and recommendations of the Economic Survey Mission;
12. Instructs the Secretary-General to transfer to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
the assets and liabilities of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees by 1 April 1950, or at such date as may be agreed by him
and the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East;
13. Urges all Members of the United Nations and non-members to make voluntary contributions in funds or in kind to ensure that the
amount of supplies and funds required is obtained for each period of the programme as set out in paragraph 6; contributions in funds
may be made in currencies other than the United States dollar in so far as the programme can be carried out in such currencies;
14. Authorizes the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,
to advance funds deemed to be available for this purpose and not exceeding $5,000,000 from the Working Capital Fund to finance
operations pursuant to the present resolution, such sum to be repaid not later than 31 December 1950 from the voluntary governmental
contributions requested under paragraph 13 above;
15. Authorizes the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions,
to negotiate with the International Refugee Organization for an interest-free loan in an amount not to exceed the equivalent of
$2,800,000 to finance the programme subject to mutually satisfactory conditions for repayment;
16. Authorizes the Secretary-General to continue the Special Fund established under General Assembly resolution 212 (III) and to
make withdrawals therefrom for the operation of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, uponä the request of the
Director, for the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East;
17. Calls upon the Governments concerned to accord to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East the privileges, immunities, exemptions and facilities which have been granted to the United Nations Relief for Palestine
Refugees, together with all other privileges, immunities, exemptions and facilities necessary for the fulfilment of its functions;
18. Urges the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the International Refugee Organization, the World Health
Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and
other appropriate agencies and private groups and organizations, in consultation with the Director of the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, to furnish assistance within the framework of the programme;
19. Requests the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East:
(a) To appoint a representative to attend the meeting of the Technical Assistance Board as observer so that the technical assistance
activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East may be co-ordinated with the
technical assistance programmes of the United Nations and specialized agencies referred to in Economic and Social Council resolution
222 (IX) A 6/ of 15 August 1949;
(b) To place at the disposal of the Technical Assistance Board full information concerning any technical assistance work which may be
done by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, in order that it may be included in the
reports submitted by the Technical Assistance Board to the Technical Assistance committee of the Economic and Social Council;
20. Directs the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to consult with the United Nations
Conciliation Commission for Palestine in the best interests of their respective tasks, with particular reference to paragraph 11 of
General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948;
21. Requests the Director to submit to the General Assembly of the United Nations an annual report on the work of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, including an audit of funds, and invites him to submit
to the Secretary-General such other reports as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
may wish to bring to the attention of Members of the United Nations, or its appropriate organs;
22. Instructs the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine to transmit the final report of the Economic Survey Mission,
with such comments as it may wish to make, to the Secretary-General for transmission to the Members of the United Nations and
to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
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1/ See Official Records of the third session of the General Assembly, Part II, Resolutions, page 19.
2/ Ibid., Part I, Resolutions, page 66.
3/ Ibid., page 21.
4/ See Official Records of the fourth session of the General Assembly,
Annex to the Ad Hoc Political Committee, document A/1106.
5/ Ibid., documents A/1060 and A/1060/Add.1.
6/ See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Fourth Year, Ninth Session, Resolutions, page 4.
UN Security Council Resolution 237
14 June 1967
CALLING ON ISRAEL TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS IN AREAS AFFECTED BY THE 1967 MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT AND TO FACILITATE THE
RETURN OF REFUGEES.
The Security Council,
Considering the urgent need to spare the civil populations and the prisoners of the war in the area of conflict in the Middle East
additional sufferings,
Considering that essential and inalienable human rights should be respected even during the vicissitudes of war,
Considering that all the obligations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949 1/
should be complied with by the parties involved in the conflict,
1. Calls upon the Government of Israel to ensure the safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of the areas where military operations
have taken place and to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who have fled the areas since the outbreak of hostilities;
2. Recommends to the Governments concerned the scrupulous respect of the humanitarian principles governing the treatment of
prisoners of war and the protection of civilian persons in time of war contained in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949;2/
3. Requests the Secretary-General to follow the effective implementation of this resolution and to report to the Security Council.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2252(ES-V)
4 July 1967
REAFFIRMING THAT HUMAN RIGHTS SHOULD BE RESPECTED IN AREAS AFFECTED BY THE 1967 MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT AND ENDORSING
UNRWA ASSISTANCE TO REFUGEES DISPLACED IN 1967.
The General Assembly,
Considering the urgent need to alleviate the suffering inflicted on civilians and on prisoners of war as a result of the recent hostilities
in the Middle East,
1. Welcomes with great satisfaction Security Council resolution 237 (1967) of 14 June 1967, whereby the Council:
(a) Considered the urgent need to spare the civil populations and the prisoners of war in the area of conflict in the Middle East
additional sufferings;
(b) Considered that essential and inalienable human rights should be respected even during the vicissitudes of war;
(c) Considered that all the obligations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949
187
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1/ should be complied with by the parties involved in the conflict;
(d) Called upon the Government of Israel to ensure the safety, welfare and security of the inhabitants of the areas where military
operations had taken place and to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who had fled the areas since the outbreak of hostilities;
(e) Recommended to the Governments concerned the scrupulous respect of the humanitarian principles governing the treatment of
prisoners of war and the protection of civilian persons in time of war, contained in the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949,2/
(f) Requested the Secretary-General to follow the effective implementation of the resolution and to report to the Security Council;
2. Notes with gratitude and satisfaction and endorses the appeal made by the President of the General Assembly on 26 June 1967;3/
3. Notes with gratification the work undertaken by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the league of Red Cross Societies
and other voluntary organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians;
4. Notes further with gratification the assistance which the United Nations Children’s Fund is providing to women and children in
the area;
5. Commends the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East for
his efforts to continue the activities of the Agency in the present situation with respect to all persons coming within his mandate;
6. Endorses, bearing in mind the objectives of the above-mentioned Security Council resolution, the efforts of the CommissionerGeneral of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to provide humanitarian assistance,
as far as practicable, on an emergency basis and as a temporary measure, to other persons in the area who are at present displaced and
are in serious need of immediate assistance as a result of the recent hostilities;
7. Welcomes the close co-operation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and of
the other organizations concerned, for the purpose of co-ordinating assistance;
8. Calls upon all the member States concerned to facilitate the transport of supplies to all areas in which assistance is being
rendered;
9. Appeals to all Governments, as well as organizations and individuals, to make special contributions for the above purposes to the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and also to the other intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations concerned;
10. Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Commissioner- General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, to report urgently to the General Assembly on the needs arising under paragraphs 5 and 6
above;
11. Further requests the Secretary-General to follow the effective implementation of the present resolution and to report thereon to
the General Assembly.
1/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75 (1950), No. 972.
2/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75 (1950), Nos. 970-973.
3/ See Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifth Emergency Special Session, Plenary Meetings, 1536th meeting, paras. 29-37.
UN General Assembly 3236(XXIX)
22 November 1974
RECOGNIZING THE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF PALESTINIANS TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES AND
PROPERTY FROM WHICH THEY WERE DISPLACED.
The General Assembly,
Having considered the question of Palestine,
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Having heard the statement of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people,1/
Having also heard other statements made during the debate,
Deeply concerned that no just solution to the problem of Palestine has yet been achieved and recognizing that the problem of Palestine
continues to endanger international peace and security,
Recognizing that the Palestinian people is entitled to self-determination in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,
Expressing its grave concern that the Palestinian people has been prevented from enjoying its inalienable rights, in particular its right
to self-determination,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter,
Recalling its relevant resolutions which affirm the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,
1. Reaffirms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including:
(a) The right to self-determination without external interference;
(b) The right to national independence and sovereignty;
2. Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced
and uprooted, and calls for their return;
3. Emphasizes that full respect for and the realization of these inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are indispensable for the
solution of the question of Palestine;
4. Recognizes that the Palestinian people is a principal party in the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East;
5. Further recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain its rights by all means in accordance with the purposes and principles
of the Charter of the United Nations;
6. Appeals to all States and international organizations to extend their support to the Palestinian people in its struggle to restore its
rights, in accordance with the Charter;
7. Requests the Secretary-General to establish contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization on all matters concerning the
question of Palestine;
8. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its thirtieth session on the implementation of the present
resolution;
9. Decides to include the item entitled “Question of Palestine” in the provisional agenda of its thirtieth session.
UN General Assembly Resolution 36/146 (C)
16 December 1981
RECOGNIZING THE RIGHT OF PALESTINE REFUGEES TO THEIR PROPERTIES AND THE REVENUES DERIVED THEREFROM.
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 35/13 A to F of 3 November 1980 and all previous resolutions on the question, including resolution 194
(III) of 11 December 1948,
Taking note of the report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, covering the period from 1 October 1980
to 30 September 1981,
Recalling that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the principles of international law uphold the principle that no one
shall be arbitrarily deprived of private property,
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Considering that the Palestinian Arab refugees are entitled to their property and to the income derived from their property in conformity
with the principles of justice and equity,
Recalling, in particular, its resolution 394 (V) of 14 December 1950, in which it directed the United Nations Conciliation Commission
for Palestine, in consultation with the parties concerned, to prescribe measures for the protection of the rights, property and interests
of the Palestinian Arab refugees,
Taking note of the completion of the programme of identification and evaluation of Arab property, as announced by the United
Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine in its twenty-second progress report, of 27 May 1964, and that the Land Office has
a schedule of Arab owners and file of documents defining the location, area and other particulars of Arab property,
1. Requests the Secretary-General to take all appropriate steps, in consultation with the United Nations Conciliation Commission
for Palestine, for the protection and administration of Arab property, assets and property rights in Israel, and to establish a fund for
the receipt of income derived therefrom, on behalf of their rightful owners;
2. Calls upon the Governments concerned to render all facilities and assistance to the Secretary-General on the implementation of
the present resolution;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-seventh session on the implementation of the present
resolution.
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Index
Index
1948 war – 8, 10-11, 14-15, 32-33, 37, 86, 92-93, 96, 116,
128-129, 135, 163, 165, 171
–
Plan Dalet – 8
1967 war – 3, 15-16, 32-33, 37-38, 117, 119, 120-121, 123,
163
Bedouin – xiii, 13, 50, 138-139
-Baqara and Ghanamah - 52
Beersheba - 11
Beirut – 14, 44, 68, 69, 100, 132, 158
Abbas, Mahmoud - 168
Beirut Declaration – 170, 172
Akka - 10
Beit ‘Awa - 16
‘Abasan - 158
Beit Marsam - 16
‘Aqbara - 13
Beit Nuba - 16
‘Arrabeh - 40
Belgium – 125, 126
Amman – 44, 163
Bernadotte, F. - xii
Anjar - 158
bilateral negotiations – 165-166
Aqbat Jabr - 68
al-Birwa - 40
Armistice Agreements of 1949 – 11, 149
–
Egyptian-Israeli General Armistice
Agreement – 11
–
Jordan - 11
Black September - 14
Armistice Lines of 1949 (also see Green Line) – vii, viii, 13,
19, 52, 129-130, 160, 172
British Mandate – (see Palestine)
Bureij - 43
al-Burj - 16
Ashqelon (see Majdal) - 13
Burj al-Barajneh - 43
asylum – vii, 39, 52, 124-126, 128
–
Jewish - 12
–
law – 124-126
–
seekers – viii, 124-126, 128
–
statistics - 52
al-Buss - 43
Australia – 125-126
Canada – x, xv, 166, 173
Austria - 125
Casablanca Protocol (see Protocol on the Treatment of
Palestinians)
Baghdad – 49, 137
Balad ash-Sheikh - 40
Balfour, A.J. - vii, 4
Balfour Declaration – vii, 4, 6, 7
Basra – 49
Cairo Declaration - 123
Camp David Accords - 168
citizenship – ix, 121
–
Arab host states – 121
–
dual - 120
–
Egypt - 118
–
Israeli – 14, 18, 124, 128, 138
–
Jordan – 120
–
Kuwait – 121
–
Lebanon – 118, 122, 138
–
Palestine – 6, 128
191
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
–
Syria - 121
colonization (also see Jewish settlements) – vii, ix, 3-4, 6, 8,
12
compensation – x, 135, 139, 148-149, 152, 154-156, 158,
161-162, 165, 171-172
Convention Concerning Specific Aspects of Refugee
Problems in Africa – 87, 117
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees – vii, ix, xiv,
86-88, 116-117, 120, 123-128, 131, 139, 157
Article 1D – 124-127, 131
Convention refugee – vii, 120,
126-127, 131
Convention on United Nations Privileges and Immunities – 103
Council of Europe – xiv, 52, 172
country of origin – 33, 36, 93, 123, 151, 155, 157
Custodian of Absentees’ Property – 124, 130
Damascus - 44
Dawayima - 10
Dayr Yassin - 8
demolition (homes and property) – viii, xiii, 4, 16, 19, 33,
38, 52, 69, 77, 135-136, 138-139
denationalization – 14, 19, 152
Denmark – 102, 125-126
education
-
attainment – 58, 70
enrollment – 58, 69, 70, 105
literacy – 58, 69, 71-72
Egypt – vii, x, 4 11, 13, 15, 16, 36-37, 87, 92, 94-96, 117123, 131, 133-134, 138, 156, 163, 166-168
refugee camps
employment of
Office of the Military Governor - 87
Ein Ghazal - 40
Ein al-Hilwe - 43
Ein as-Sultan - 68
employment
labor force participation – 59, 95, 61-62, 76
unemployment – xiii, 58, 62-63, 75-76, 78-79, 81
income – 13, 36, 58-59, 63-65, 76-77, 81, 89,
102-103, 106, 160, 171
European Union – xi, 102
Ex-Gazan – viii, 119
expropriation – viii, 3, 12, 19, 33, 103, 135, 139, 152, 170
expulsion – 11, 13, 19, 36, 94, 135, 148, 150-152
Faluja - 11
family reunification – x, 32-33, 36, 127, 130, 135-136, 138139, 163, 166
deportation – 16, 32, 33, 36, 125, 127, 135, 148, 150
final status talks – x, 163, 166-169
Taba proposals – 167, 169
disengagement – xv, 170-171
Finland – xiv, 125
durable solutions
right of return – xv, 44, 105, 127, 148-152,
155,-157, 166-170, 172-173
restitution – viii, x, 4, 19, 139, 148-149, 152155, 157, 159, 160, 165-166, 171
compensation - x, 135, 139, 148-149, 152,
154 - 156, 158, 161-162, 165, 171-172
resettlement – viii, x, xiii, 3, 12, 69, 96, 106,
138, 148-149, 158, 163, 165, 167, 172
France – 125-126, 129, 156, 166
Dura - 13
Green Line (see Armistice Lines of 1949)
eastern Jerusalem (See Occupied Palestinian Territories)
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement – 86-87, 116,
127
Economic Survey Mission (See UNCCP)
192
Gaza Strip – (See Occupied Palestinian Territories)
Geneva Initiative – 172
Germany – 125-126
Great Revolt - 7
Index
Haifa – 10, 39, 173
health
-
illness and disability – 38, 58, 64, 73, 75, 8889, 99
children’s health – 75
mothers health – 74-75
Hebron – 10, 39, 173
Herzl, T. - 3
Italy – 125, 166
Jaffa – 10-11, 163
Ja’una - 13
Jericho – viii, x, 15, 68, 156, 158, 168
Homs - 158
-
Law of Return - ix, 14
military government – 14, 16
Nationality Law – 14, 124, 128
Refugee Rehabilitation Authority - 93
Jenin – 44, 69, 104, 106
Hittin - 90
housing
-
-
crowding 44, 65-66
destruction – 10, 68, 72, 78, 105, 117, 119,
122, 135, 139, 152, 154, 156, 168, 170
infrastructure – 91, 100, 65-67, 79, 87
Human rights law – 53-54, 150-154
Humanitarian law
Occupying Power – xiv, xv, 94, 105, 154, 170-171
Protecting Power, 135
Hungary – xiv, 125, 139
ICRC – 43, 135, 163
Jerusalem (also see eastern Jerusalem)
Moroccan quarter – 16
Western Wall - 16
Jewish National Fund – ix, 12, 14, 122, 124
Jewish settlements (colonies) – ix, xv, 6, 12-13, 18, 39, 170-171
Jiftlik - 16
Jisr al-Basha - 68
Johnson, Joseph E. - 159, 165
Jordan
-
Department of Palestinian Affairs – 87, 90
Imwas - 16
al-Judeideh - 40
interim agreements
Agreement on the Gaza Strip and Jericho Area - 168
Declaration of Principles – viii, x, 155, 163,
166, 168
Quadripartite Committee - x, 156, 168
Kufr Qassem - 14
intifada – viii, 3, 38, 50, 59, 62, 69, 72, 75, 100, 102-103,
132, 134-136, 138
Khisas - 13
Iraq
-
Coalition Provisional Authority – 14, 36
Department of Palestinian Affairs – 87
Ministry of Displacement and Migration - 137
Iraq al-Manshiya – 11-12
Irbid - 90
Israel
-
Absentees’ Property Law – vii, x, 159, 166
Comay-Michelmore agreement - 94
Israel Lands Law - 14
Jewish state – ix, xv, 3-4, 8, 12, 123-124, 128, 170
Khan Younis - 104
Khirbet Ikhza’a - 158
Kuwait – 2, 14, 39, 93-94, 118-123, 133-134
Latrun - 16
League of Arab States – xiv, 87, 103-104, 116, 123, 129,
132-133, 165, 172
Beirut Declaration – 170, 172
Conference of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs
– 87, 133
Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior - 133
Council of Ministers – 104, 132
League of Nations – ix, 6, 7
Mandate System – ix, 6, 7
193
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
Lebanon
-
Directorate General for Palestinian Affairs – 87
Libya - 2-3, 14, 36, 93, 131, 133-134
‘Little Triangle’ - 11, 13
Lubya - 40
Lydda - 10
M’ascar - 43
Ma’ilya - 13
Majdal (Ashqelon) - 13
Marshall Islands - xiv, 171
massacres – 8, 10, 14, 100, 132
Micronesia – xiv, 171
Mi’ar - 40
Middle East Peace Process – 167, 169
Mosul – 49, 92
multi-lateral negotiations
Refugee Working Group – x, 166
Nabatiya - 68
Nablus – xv, 44, 172-173
Nahr al-Bared - 43
Nakba (also see Arab-Israeli war of 1948) – ix, xv, 2, 4, 8,
169, 173
Naqab (Negev) – 11, 13, 39, 138
Nazareth - 39
Neirab – 43, 91
Netherlands – 125, 139
New Zealand -125
Non-aligned Movement – xiv, 172
Norway – viii, xiv, 102, 125, 166
Nu’man - 137
194
Nuseibeh-Ayalon Initiative - 172
Nuweimeh - 68
Occupied Palestinian Territories
Gaza Strip - – vii, viii, x, xv, 2-4, 13-16, 18, 3640, 43-44, 47, 49, 52, 62-63, 69, 74-76, 78, 88,
90-91, 95-98, 100, 102-105, 117, 119-121, 125,
128, 130, 135, 138, 148, 150, 156, 158, 163-165,
168-171, 173
eastern Jerusalem – viii, 2, 4, 12, 15-16, 18, 52,
117, 148, 150
West Bank – vii, viii, x, xi, xiii, xv, xv, 2-4, 10, 14-16,
18-19, 36-40, 43-44, 47, 49, 52, 62-63, 68-69,
74-78, 92, 95-96, 98, 102-103, 105, 117, 119,
120, 122, 125, 128, 135-138, 148, 150, 163, 168173
Organization of the Islamic Movement – xiv, 172
Oslo – viii, 14, 16, 18, 95, 97, 165, 168-169
Ottoman Empire – 4, 6
Palau – xiv, 171
Palestine
-
British Mandate – 2-4, 7, 12, 128, 160, 162
Citizenship Order – 6, 128
Land (Settlement of Tithe) Order - 6
Partition Plan – 164-165
Shaw Commission - 7
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – viii, ix, 14, 87,
128, 131, 163, 169
assistance - 94
Department of Refugee Affairs – 87, 94, 123
Executive Committee - ix
National Council - 169
protection - 123
Red Crescent Society - 135
Palestine refugee – vi, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, 33-34, 43-44, 135,
153, 171
Palestine Right to Return Coalition - 105
Palestinian Authority (PA) – x, xiv, 87, 94, 101, 104-105,
135, 168-169
Palestinian Passport – 120, 133
Poland - 125
population transfer – viii, x, xv, 3, 10-11, 13, 15-16, 33, 3839, 135
retroactive transfer plan - 10
Index
poverty – xiii, 58, 64, 69, 75, 77, 99, 100, 101, 105
feminization of - 77
Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians – 86-87, 117-118,
120-121, 123, 133
Qalqilya – 16, 98
Qeitiya - 13
Qibya - 14
Quadripartite Committee – x, 156, 168
–
refugee definition – 129, 156
Sharon, Ariel – xv, 14, 168-171
Shatila – 14, 43, 100
Shfaram - 13
Shuafat - 43
Sidon - 44
Sour (Tyre) – 44, 69
Spain – 125-126
Stateless Conventions – 126, 128
Quartet - 170
statelessness - xi, 120, 125, 128
Rabin, Y. - 10
stateless persons – 120, 125-126, 128, 131
Rafah - 104
Sweden – 102, 125-126, 166
Ramallah – xv, 14, 16, 44, 163, 172-173
Switzerland - 102, 125-126, 166
Ramla -11
Syria – vii, ix, x, 4, 13, 15, 36-37, 39-41, 43-44, 49, 52, 59,
62-67, 69, 70-75, 77, 87-91, 94-96, 98, 102, 104106, 117, 119-122, 133-134, 138, 163, 166, 169
General Authority for Palestine Refugees – 87, 122
Rashidieh - 43
refoulement – viii, 33
refugee choice – 148-149, 157-158, 163
Refugee Working Group – x, 166
Registered Refugee – x, xiii, 33-34, 39, 41, 44, 49, 51-52, 96,
102, 120
residency – 16, 18, 32-33, 36, 117, 120-121, 123, 133, 136,
138, 148, 150
restitution (See Durable Solutions)
right of return (See Durable Solutions)
Road Map – xi, xiv, 136, 169-170
Rothschild, Lord – viii, 4
Sabra and Shatila massacre – 14, 100
Safad - 13
Saudi Arabia – vii, 36, 87, 93, 104, 117, 133
Separation (‘apartheid’) Wall – xi, xiii, xv, 52, 76, 78, 117,
119, 122, 136, 169, 170-171
Taba – 167, 169
Tal az-Za’ater - 68
Tarshiha - 13
al-Tira - 40
travel document – 117-118, 120, 123, 128, 131, 133-134
Tripoli - 44
Tulkarem – xv, 44, 88, 163, 172-173
Turkey - 129, 156
UNCCP
UNHCR
–
–
refugee definition – 127, 129-130, 149, 158,
165
Refugee Office – x, 160, 162
Technical Committee – 129, 158
Economic Survey Mission – 129, 130, 161
ExCom Conclusions – 132, 153, 155
mandate – 36, 116, 127-128, 131, 148, 156
UNRWA
195
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and
Internally Displaced Persons (2003)
-
areas of operation – xiv, 36, 128-129, 131
Comay-Michelmore agreement - 94
education program – 97-98, 100
emergency operations - 100
health program – 98, 102
humanitarian access - 103
mandate – 96, 103, 106, 135, 139
refugee definition - 34
relief program - 99
special hardship cases – 99, 100, 103, 105
micro-enterprise program – 102
Operations Support Officer Program - 138
protection – xiv, 125, 135-136, 139, 187
refugee camp definition – 43
Registration Division - 52
United Nations
Charter – 7, 103, 117, 150, 168
Department of Political Affairs - 129
General Assembly – xi, xiv, xv, 4, 7-8, 34, 96,
126-131, 148-149, 151-159, 164, 167, 169171
o Resolution 181 – 8, 127
o Resolution 194 – xiii, xi, xv,
96, 97, 104, 129-130, 148-149, 152-155,
157, 159, 164, 167, 170-172
o Resolution 302 - 96
International Conference on the Question of
Palestine - 150
International Court of Justice – xiv, 7-8, 103,
169-170
Mediator for Palestine – xi, 152, 154, 156-157
Secretary General – xiv, 34, 96, 128, 130, 135,
165, 170, 172
Security Council – xi, xiv, 148-151, 154, 164,
169-170
o Resolution 237 – vii, viii, 148, 150, 164
Special Committee on Palestine – 7-8
Temporary Trusteeship - 7
Human Rights Treaty Bodies - 139
United Kingdom - 125
United States - xii
Voluntariness (also see refugee choice) – xi, 148-149, 157
Wavel – 43, 158
West Bank – (see Occupied Palestinian Territories)
World Jewish Congress - 106
Yalu - 16
al-Yarmouk – 40, 44, 66-67
196
Zarqa – 43, 90
Zochrot - 173
Zionism – xi, 3, 6-7
Basle Program – xi, 3
British Zionist Federation – vii, 4
BADIL takes a rights-based approach to the
Palestinian refugee issue through research,
advocacy, Index
and support of community
participation in the search for durable
solutions.
BADIL was established to support the
development of a popular refugee lobby for
Palestinian refugee and internally displaced
rights through professional research and
partnership-based community initiatives.
BADIL was established in January 1998 and is registered with
the Palestinian Authority and legally owned by the refugee
community represented by a General Assembly composed
of activists in Palestinian national institutions and refugee
.community organizations
BADIL’s campaign unit facilitates partnership-based
initiatives with local Palestinian and international
organizations in order to strengthen refugee identity,
promote refugee unit, and empower initiatives of refugee
.self-organization for Palestinian refugee rights
BADIL’s research, information and legal advocacy unit
initiates research and documentation to provide accurate
information, raise awareness and furnish professional analysis
to support the local and international community-based
.campaign for Palestinian refugee rights
Persons 2002 graphically shows, once again, just how
197
cruel history has been to displaced Palestinians.
No
refugee group anywhere is larger, no refugee group has
stronger rights
return andRefugees
repossess
Surveyto
of Palestinian
and their homes and lands and no refugee group has so many extraordinary groups – like BADIL – working on
their behalf.
Sadly,Displaced
though,Persons
no refugee
Internally
((2003)group is so systematically prevented from enjoying the rights that are legitimately theirs, and that is why the
work of BADIL remains so vital. They have helped to keep the Palestinian refugee question on the top of political agendas and rightly continue to
demand a solution to the refugee question grounded in international law, human rights and justice for everyone who has faced the illegal theft of
“!their homes and lands. Bravo BADIL
(Scott Leckie, Executive Director, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE
The BADIL Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons for 2002 is the most comprehensive survey of its kind to date. It”
is an indispensable document for Human Rights Activists, Lawyers, NGOs and government officials who are committed to a just solution for
Palestinian refugees all over the world. This should be required reading for everyone and it should form the basis for all future discussions of
“.solutions to the Palestinian refugee issue
Dr. Jess Ghannam, Professor, University of California, San Francisco
198