By Samar Assad
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http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/informationbrief.php?ID=164.
Overview: In 2000, the United Nations adopted a resolution that designated June 20 as World Refugee Day. Of the 20.8 million refugees world-wide, or "people of concern" as categorized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Palestinian refugees constitute one of the largest refugee populations in the world and the longest standing unresolved situation of displacement.
Palestinian Refugees
According to the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, approximately 800,000 Christian and Muslim Palestinians were expelled or forced to flee their homes in Palestine prior to, during and after the 1948 war that created a Jewish homeland in Palestine. These original refugees made up 75 percent of the Arab population of what became Israel. They are referred to as the "1948 refugees."
When Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, the UN reported that approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes. They and their descendents are referred to as the "1967 displaced persons." Approximately 95,000 of the 1948 refugees became second-time refuges in 1967.
Today, the original refugees and their descendents are estimated to number more than 6.5 million. According to BADIL, the Palestinian Resource Center for Residency and Refugees' Rights, the 6.5 million refugees consist of:
1. 4.3 million 1948 refugees who are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). According to UNRWA, one-third, or 1.3 million of the registered Palestinian refugees live in 59 U.N.-run camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. Two-thirds live in and around the cities of host countries and in the West Bank and Gaza;
2. 1.5 million 1948 refugees who are not registered by UNRWA;
3. 773,000 persons displaced in 1967; and
4. 263,000 internally displaced refugees (IDRs). This term, IDR, applies to Palestinians who left their homes in 1948 but remained within the borders of what became Israel. According to BADIL's statistics, approximately 32,000 Palestinians became internally displaced in 1948. Despite the fact that they are Israeli citizens, Israel never allowed them to return to their homes or villages which were either given to Jews or demolished.
Right of Return
During a July 2005 Palestine Center symposium, Susan Akram, associate professor of law at Boston University, explained that the legal basis for a refugee's Right of Return (ROR) is established in three main bodies of law: the law of nationality and state succession, human rights law, and humanitarian law. In all three, ROR, is both a "rule of customary international law and codified international treaties." According to Akram, Israel as the state entity responsible for creating the Palestinian refugees, is thus held responsible for the implementation of Palestinians' ROR.
Palestinians' ROR is spelled out under international law through the following documents.
1. U.N. Resolution 194 (passed 11 December 1948), which states "the [Palestinian] 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 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.
2. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights [Article 13(2)], which states "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his country."
3. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [Article 5 (d)(ii)], which states that "State parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination on all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, color, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of...the right to leave any country, including one's own, and to return to one's country."
4. The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights [Article 12(4)], which states that "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country."
Israel and the Right of Return
Despite what international law articulates with respect to the rights of Palestinian refugees, Israel, which defines itself as a Jewish state, refuses to abide by international consensus.
At the 2000 US-sponsored Camp David Summit, Israel refused to discuss the refugee issue. Israeli officials argued that Israel did not cause the Palestinian refugee problem and thus was not responsible for its resolution. Israel continues to disregard Palestinians' ROR, claiming that it threatens Israel's "Jewish character."
Samar Assad is the Executive Director of The Palestine Center. This information brief may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center. The above text does not necessarily reflect the views of The Jerusalem Fund.
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