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Palestinian refugees

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Palestinian refugees
Total population: 4.9 million[1] -- 4.375 million[2] (includes descendants and re-settled)
Regions with significant populations: Gaza Strip, Jordan, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria
Languages: Arabic
Religions: Sunni Islam, Greek Orthodoxy, Greek Catholicism, Other forms of Christianity

Palestinian refugee is a term used to refer to those individuals, predominantly Arabs, who fled or left Palestine as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The term originated during the first Palestinian Exodus (Template:Lang-ar, Nakba, "catastrophe") during the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency defines a Palestinian refugee as a person "whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict". There would not be many original survivors of the period still alive today.

"UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948" [3] regardless of whether they reside in areas designated as "refugee camps" or in established, permanent communities.[4] Based on this definition the number of Palestinian refugees has grown from 711,000 in 1950[5] to over four million registered with the UN in 2002. This is a major exception to the normal definition of refugee. Descendants of Palestinian refugees under the authority of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are the only group to be granted refugee status on that basis alone. [6]

Some displaced Palestinians have resettled in other countries, where their situation is often precarious. Many have remained refugees and continue to reside in the refugee camps.

The Scale of the Problem

Palestinian refugees in 1948

The number of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War is contentious.

Estimates of the numbers who fled in 1948 range from 367,000 to over 950,000. The final UN estimate was 711,000,[5] but according to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the number of registered refugees was 914,000 by 1950. [7] The UN Conciliation Commission attributed this discrepancy to, among other things, "duplication of ration cards, addition of persons who have been displaced from area other than Israel-held areas and of persons who, although not displaced, are destitute", and the UNRWA additionally attributed it to the fact that "all births are eagerly announced, the deaths wherever possible are passed over in silence", as well as the fact that "the birthrate is high in any case, a net addition of 30,000 names a year". Also, the UNRWA figures included descendants of the Palestinian refugees born after the Palestinian exodus up to June, 1951. By June, 1951 the UNRWA had reduced the number of registered refugees to 876,000 after "many false and duplicate registrations weeded out." [8]

During the period mid-1948-53 between 30,000 and 90,000 refugees (according to Benny Morris) made their way from their countries of exile to resettle in their former villages or in other parts of Israel, despite Israeli legal and military efforts to stop them (see Palestinian immigration (Israel)). At the Lausanne Conference of 1949, Israel offered to let in up to 75,000 more as part of a wider proposed deal with the surrounding Arab countries. The Arab countries rejected the offer, and Israel withdrew the proposal in 1950. Others emigrated to other countries, such as the US and Canada; most, however, remained in refugee camps in neighboring countries.

Palestinian refugees in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, 1956.

Current Palestinian refugee counts include:

Further information: Palestinian refugee camps

The Israeli government passed the Absentee Property Law, which cleared the way for the confiscation of the property of refugees. The government also demolished many of the refugees' villages, and resettled many Arab homes in urban communities with Jewish refugees and immigrants.

The situation of the Palestinian Arab refugees is one of the world's largest and most enduring refugee problems. Discussions to allow them to return to their former homes within Israel, to receive compensation or be resettled in new locations have yet to reach a definite conclusion.

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UNRWA definition of a "Palestinian refugee"

Whereas most refugees are the concern of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), most Palestinian refugees - those in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan - come under the older body UNRWA. On 11 December 1948, UN Resolution 194 was passed in order to protect the rights of Palestinian refugees. Resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949, set up UNRWA specifically to deal with the Palestinian refugee problem. Palestinian refugees outside of UNRWA's area of operations do fall under UNHCR's mandate, however.

The term Palestinian refugee as used by UNRWA was never formally defined by the United Nations. The definition used in practice evolved independently of the UNHCR definition, which was established by the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. UNRWA definition of refugee is as a 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,"[11] This definition has generally only been applied to those who living in one of the countries where UNRWA provides relief. The UNRWA also registers as refugees descendants in the male line of Palestinian refugees, and persons in need of support who first became refugees as a result of the 1967 conflict. The UNRWA definition in practice is thus both more restrictive and more inclusive than the 1951 definition; for example it excludes persons taking refuge in countries other than Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, yet it includes descendants of refugees as well as the refugees themselves (though UNHCR also provides support for children of refugees in many cases).

Persons receiving relief support from UNRWA are explicitly excluded from the 1951 Convention, depriving them of some of the benefits of that convention such as some legal protections. However, a 2002 decision of UNHCR made it clear that the 1951 Convention applies at least to Palestinian refugees who need support but fail to fit the UNRWA working definition.[12] UNRWA records show about 5% "False and duplicate registration"[5]: Today, about a 1/3 of those registering with the UNRWA as Palestinian Refugees are living in areas designated as refugee camps[6].

Critics of UNRWA say that the present definition give Palestinian refugees a favored status when compared with other refugee groups, which the UNHCR defines in terms of nationality as opposed to a relatively short number of years of residency.[7] Historians, such as Martha Gellhorn and Dr. Walter Pinner have also blamed UNRWA for distortion of statistics and even of sheer fraud. Pinner wrote in 1959 that the actual number of refugees then was only 367,000.[13]

The right of return dispute

Main article: Palestinian right of return

Palestinian refugees claim a right of return, based on Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which declares that "Everyone has the right to leave any country including his own, and to return to his country." They also cite United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, which "Resolves that the 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 the property of those choosing not to return [...]."[14]

The Palestinian National Authority supports this right, although its extent has been a subject of negotiation at the various peace talks; Mahmoud Abbas promised in November 2004 to continue working towards it if elected president.

Ruth Lapidoth of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs notes that Resolution 194, as a General Assembly resolution, is non-binding, and further outlines a recommendation that refugees be allowed to return, and not a right of return. She adds that the 1951-1967 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees does not explicitly mention descendants in its definition of refugees, and that "humanitarian law conventions (such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War) do not recognize a right of return." Lapidoth does maintain, however, that refugees have a right to compensation for their property.[15]

Treatment in Arab countries

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After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Arab governments claimed that their great concern was for the fellow Arab refugees and that Israel stood in the way of helping the refugees. Critics argue the Arab governments could easily have provided the refugees with new homes, just as Israel resettled Jewish immigrants and refugees from foreign countries. It was not done, nor did Arab states provide funds to improve the conditions in refugee camps.[16] Some parties find the lack of Arab effort to relieve the refugee crisis as a way of using the Palestinian Arabs as political pawns, to exploit as tools against Israel, and/or to promote anti-Israel sentiment.[17][18]

In 1957, the Refugee Conference at Homs, Syria, passed a resolution stating that "Any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestine problem which will not be based on ensuring the refugees' right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as a desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason (Beirut al Massa, July 15, 1957)."[19]

The Arab League issued instructions barring the Arab states from granting citizenship to Palestinian Arab refugees (or their descendants) "to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland".[20]

Syrian Prime Minister, Khalid al-Azm, wrote in his 1973 memoirs:

Since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of the refugees [...] while it is we who made them leave. [...] We brought disaster upon [...] Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure to bear upon them to leave. [...] We have rendered them dispossessed. [...] We have accustomed them to begging. [...] We have participated in lowering their moral and social level. [...] Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson, and throwing bombs upon [...] men, women and children-all this in the service of political purposes.

Jordan is the only Arab country which uniformly gave citizenship rights to Palestinian refugees present on its soil. Other countries, especially Lebanon, gave citizenship to a fraction of the refugees[citation needed]. However, there remain a huge number of refugees living in camps in Jordan, and in fact it has the largest such population with over 1 million such refugees. [21]

Jordan

After the 1967 Six-Day War, during which Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, Palestinian Arabs living there continued to have the right to apply for Jordanian passports and live in Jordan. Palestinian refugees actually living in Jordan were considered full Jordanian citizens as well. In July 1988, King Hussein of Jordan announced the severing of all legal and administrative ties with the West Bank. Any Palestinian living on Jordanian soil would remain and be considered Jordanian. However, any person living in the West Bank would have no right to Jordanian citizenship.

Jordan still issues passports to Palestinians in the West Bank, but they are for travel purposes only and do not constitute an attestation of citizenship. Palestinians in the West Bank who had regular Jordanian passports were issued these temporary ones upon expiration of their old ones, and entry into Jordan by Palestinians is time-limited and considered for tourism purposes only. Any Jordanian citizen who is found carrying a Palestinian passport (issued by the Palestinian Authority and Israel) has his/her Jordanian citizenship revoked by Jordanian border agents.

More recently, Jordan has restricted entry of Palestinians from the West Bank into its territory, fearing that many Palestinians would try to take up temporary residence in Jordan during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. This has caused many hardships for Palestinians, especially since 2001 when Israel discontinued permission for Palestinians to travel through its Ben Gurion International Airport, and traveling to Jordan to fly out of Amman became the only outlet for West Bank Palestinians to travel.

Information from the Jordanian censuses which distinguishes between Palestinians and pre-1948 Arab-Israeli War Jordanians is not publicly available, and it is widely believed that Palestinians in Jordan (domiciled in Jordan and considered citizens) constitute the majority of the kingdom's population. However, in a 2002 television interview on a US network, King Abdullah II of Jordan assured that "Jordanians of Palestinian Origin" are only 40-45% of the Jordanian population, and that an independent survey would be conducted to settle the matter.[22]

Saudi Arabia

An estimated 500,000 Palestinians are living in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia as of December 2004. They are not allowed to hold or even apply for Saudi citizenship, as the new law passed by Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers in October 2004 (which entitles expatriates of all nationalities who have resided in the kingdom for ten years to apply for citizenship, with priority being given to holders of degrees in various scientific fields) has one glaring exception: Palestinians will not be allowed to benefit from the new law because of Arab League instructions barring the Arab states from granting them citizenship in order "to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland".

Lebanon

File:Nahr.jpg
Nahr el-Bared, Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon.

Lebanon barred Palestinians from 73 job categories including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. They are not allowed to own property. Unlike other foreigners in Lebanon, they are denied access to the Lebanese healthcare system. The Lebanese government refused to grant them work permits or permission to own land. The number of restrictions has been mounting since 1990.[23] In June 2005, however, the government of Lebanon removed some work restrictions from a few Lebanese-born Palestinians, enabling them to apply for work permits and work in the private sector.[24]. In a 2007 study, Amnesty International denounces the "appalling social and economic condition" of Palestinians in Lebanon [25]

Lebanon gave citizenship to about 50,000 Palestinian refugees during the 1950s and 1960s. In the mid-1990s, about 60,000 refugees who were Shiite Muslim majority were granted citizenship. This caused a protest from Maronite authorities, leading to citizenship being given to all the Palestinian Christian refugees who were not already citizens.[26] In 1940's, the Lebanese government registered most Palestinians as Arabs in order to get Arab funds from the Gulf states as well as UN grants to boost its corrupted economy and eliminate inflation. Noteworthy, according to official Palesitnian estimates, small minority within the Palestinian refugees from the Acre region of British Palestine were adhlers of the Shiite Islam of the Twelvers school, a majority being of Sunnite Islam of the Hanafite school, and some of non-Arab origins, including Turks, Azeris, Albanians, and Bosnians.

Kuwait

After the Gulf War of 1990-1991, Kuwait and other Gulf Arab monarchies expelled more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees[27]) in response to the PLO support of Iraq during the invasion of Kuwait.

Egypt

During Egypt's occupation of the Gaza Strip, Egypt denied the Gaza Strip's residents citizenship rights and did not allow them to move to Egypt or anywhere outside of the Strip. From 1949-1967, The Gaza Strip was used by Egypt to launch 9,000 attacks on Israel from terrorist cells set up in refugee camp.[citation needed] Egypt today abides by the instructions of the Arab League concerning Palestinians of not granting them citizenship.

Iraq

Palestinians in Iraq have come under increasing pressure to leave since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. Hundreds of Palestinians were evicted from their homes by Iraqi landlords following the fall of Saddam Hussein. 19,000 Palestinians, over half the community's number in Baghdad, have fled since that time, and remaining Palestinians regularly face "threats, killings, intimidation, and kidnappings". Several hundred refugees are trapped on the border with Syria, which refuses to grant them entry.[28][29]

Notes

  1. ^ www.un.org,
  2. ^ registered with UNRWA[1], Mar. 2006
  3. ^ "Who is a Palestinian refugee?", UNRWA, retrieved August 1, 2006.
  4. ^ [http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp485.htm LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE QUESTION Ruth Lapidoth 1 September 2002]
  5. ^ a b General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the Period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950
  6. ^ Publications/Statistics, UNRWA, update as of 31 March 2006
  7. ^ UNRWA
  8. ^ Report of the Director of the UNRWA, 28 September 1951
  9. ^ CIA Factbook
  10. ^ UNRWA: countires and areas (PDF)
  11. ^ [2] UNRWA's Frequently Asked Questions under "Who is a Palestine refugee?" begins "For operational purposes, UNRWA has defined Palestine refugee as 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." Palestine refugees eligible for UNRWA assistance, are mainly persons who fulfil the above definition and descendants of fathers fulfilling the definition."
  12. ^ High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Note on the Applicability of Article 1D of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian refugees 10 October 2002
  13. ^ Pinner, Dr. Walter. How many refugees? London: McGibbon & Kee, 1959, The Legend of the Arab Refugees. Tel Aviv: Economic and Social Research Institute, 1967.
  14. ^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. United Nations General Assembly. December 11, 1948. [3].
  15. ^ Legal Aspects of the Palestinian Refugee Question, Ruth Lapidoth. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
  16. ^ David Bamberger (1985, 1994). A Young Person's History of Israel. USA: Behrman House. p. 182. ISBN 0-87441-393-1. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ History in a Nutshell
  18. ^ European Coalition for Israel | Documentation
  19. ^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/refugees.html
  20. ^ A Million Expatriates to Benefit From New Citizenship Law by P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News. October 21 , 2004. Accessed July 20, 2006
  21. ^ Palestinian refugees and the right of return, cnn.com, accessed 5/30/07.
  22. ^ Transcript of interview with HM King Abdullah at the Charlie Rose Show. May 7, 2002
  23. ^ Poverty trap for Palestinian refugees By Alaa Shahine. 29 March 2004 (aljazeera)
  24. ^ Lebanon permits Palestinians to work June 29, 2005 (Arabicnews)
  25. ^ Exiled and suffering: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, 17 October 2007 web.amnesty.org
  26. ^ Simon Haddad, The Origins of Popular Opposition to Palestinian Resettlement in Lebanon, International Migration Review, Volume 38 Number 2 (Summer 2004):470-492. Also Peteet [4].
  27. ^ Mahmoud Abbas has apologized for the Palestinians' support of Saddam Hussein during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait 12 December, 2004 (BBC
  28. ^ Palestinians Under Pressure To Leave Iraq The Washington Post, January 25, 2007.
  29. ^ More Palestinians fleeing Baghdad arrive at Syrian border Reuters Alertnet, January 26, 2007.

References

  • Gelber, Yoav (2006). Palestine 1948. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1-84519-075-0.
  • Morris, Benny (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521009677
  • Seliktar, Ofira (2002). Divided We Stand: American Jews, Israel, and the Peace Process. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-97408-1

See also

External link, video

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