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The Arab States and the Refugee Issue: A Retrospective View

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Israel and the Palestinian Refugees

Part of the book series: Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht ((BEITRÄGE,volume 189))

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  1. According to the PLO Department of Refugee Affairs, in 1999 the total number of Palestinian refugees worldwide amounted to 5.2 million (1.8 million resided in Jordan, 0.38 million in Lebanon and 0.4 million in Syria). 3.6 million were registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The Palestinian Refugees Factfile. Department of Refugee Affairs (PLO), Jerusalem/Ramallah, April 2000. The number of refugees currently registered with UNRWA amounts to 4.2 million, 62.1 per cent of whom are registered in the Arab states, outside Palestine: 42 per cent in Jordan; 9 per cent in Lebanon and 10 per cent in Syria. See: UNRWA, Figures. as of 31 December 2004, Public Information Office, UNRWA Headquarters (Gaza), April 2005.

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  2. See E. Zureik, Palestinian Refugees and the Peace Process, 1996; L. Takkenberg, The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law, 1998; Constructing order: Palestinian Adaptations to Refugee Life, (coll.), FAFO Report 236, 1997, 19 et seq.; and B. Kodmani-Darwish, La diaspora palestinienne, 1997. Most of these studies highlight the more or less unsatisfactory situation of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab host countries.

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  3. This refers mainly to the differences between Jordan, which sought to annex the West Bank of the Jordan River and to secure access to the Mediterranean Sea, and Egypt, that opposed Jordan’s designs. Following informal talks, the delegations agreed that Jordan would postpone its territorial claims, while Egypt committed itself to lend its support to the Jordanian claims at any appropriate time. See “E. Sasson (Lausanne) to M. Sharet”, 8 May 1949, in: Israel State Archives (ISA), Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel, May–December 1949, 1949 (companion volume), No. 12, 10 et seq.

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  4. The Arab states suggested on 18 May that repatriation schemes should firstly benefit the main Arab economic actors in Palestine, namely the landowners and their personnel, the religious authorities and all those refugees eligible for family reunification schemes. A week later, they demanded the immediate repatriation of all those refugees who lived in the regions of Palestine attributed to the Arab State in the Partition Plan (A/RES/181 (II) of 29 November 1947, in addition to Israeli defense force withdrawal from these regions. See “Editorial note: Memorandum on the refugees by the Arab delegations and by the Conciliation Commission”, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No.26; and “W. Eytan to C. de Boisanger”, 25 May 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 35, 27; and “Third Progress Report [of the CCP]” (A/RES/927), 21 June 1949, para. 17.

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  5. Proposal put forward on 15 August 1949. See “Fourth Progress Report [of the CCP]” (A/RES/992), 22 September 1949, para. 10.

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  6. In September 1949, the Economic Survey Mission of the United Nations (ESM) estimated the refugee population in Syria at about 75,000. Gaza’s refugee population was estimated at 200,000; Iraq’s at 4,000; Jordan’s at 70,000; Lebanon at 97,000; and the West Bank of the Jordan River at 280,000. See “First Interim Report of U.N. Survey Mission for Middle East” (A/RES/1106), 17 November 1949, 1 et seq.

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  7. On the Syrian resettlement designs (as promoted by Zaïm, the French-speaking Syrian leader and France), see “Meeting: M. Fischer — R. Busson (Paris, 3 June 1949)”, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 54, 91. On Syria’s territorial and financial claims, see: “The Minister in Switzerland (Vincent) to the Secretary of State”, 9 May 1949, in: Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) 1949, Vol. VI, 989; and “Sasson (Lausanne) to M. Sharett”, 8 August 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 188, 113 et seq.

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  8. Jordan’s territorial claims were presented throughout and after the Lausanne Conference by the Jordanian representatives; see for example: “The Minister in Lebanon (Pinkerton) to the Secretary of State”, 1 October 1949, in: FRUS 1949, Vol. VI, 1416.

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  9. See “Memorandum by the Coordinator on Palestine Refugee Matters (Mc Ghee) to the Secretary of State”, 22 April 1949, in: FRUS 1949, Vol. VI, 935 et seq. All the members of the Jordanian government did not share the King’s views. Doubts were raised as to whether Jordan would be able to absorb, from an economic and political perspective, such a number of refugees. Besides, Jordan had no assurances that Israel would accept its territorial claims. See S. Mishal, West Bank/East Bank — The Palestinians in Jordan, 1947–1967, 1978, 27 et seq.

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  10. See “E. Sasson (Lausanne) to M. Sharett”, 4 July 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 121, 64.

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  11. See “Forth report [of the UNCCP] on the evolution of the situation” (A/RES/992), 22 September 1949, para. 10. The Egyptian territorial claims were very clearly put forward by the Egyptian delegate, Abdel Mu’min, to his Israeli counterpart, E. Sasson. They include the South of the Negev and the enlargement of the Gaza Strip until the Beersheba-Majdal (Ashqelon) line. See “E. Sasson (Lausanne) to M. Sharett”, 4 August 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 178, 106.

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  12. On that, see for instance A. Plascov, The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan 1948–1957, 1981, 73 et seq. and 87 et seq.; Y. Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State — The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993, 1997, 58 et seq.

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  13. For a US appraisal of the USSR’s influence in the region, see “Policy Statement Prepared in the Office of Near Eastern Affairs”, 28 December 1950, in: FRUS 1950, Vol.V, 272.

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  14. See “The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Egypt”, 25 June 1949, in: FRUS 1949, Vol. VI, 1181. A few years later, in 1955, Nasser declared to American diplomats that most refugees would not wish to return to Israel, if they saw the living conditions of the Arabs who lived there. He also revealed that it would be very difficult for any Arab leader to take a stance that would deprive the refugees from their right of return; see: “Telegram From the Embassy in Egypt to the Department of State”, in: FRUS 1955–1957, Vol. XIV, 807.

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  15. In: “W. Eytan to M. Sharett”, 1 July 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 113, 193.

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  16. E. Sasson, the Israeli delegate in charge of the informal talks with the Arab delegations, ascribed the failure of the Lausanne Conference to the uncompromising stand adopted by the Israeli government: “Firstly, the Jews believe that it is possible to achieve peace without paying any price, maximal or minimal. They want to achieve a) Arab surrender of all the areas occupied today by Israel, b) Arab agreement to absorb all the refugees in the neighbouring states, c) Arab agreement to rectification of the present frontiers in the center, south and Jerusalem area in favour of Israel only;” see “E. Sasson (Lausanne) to S. Divon”, 16 June 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 81, 47 et seq.

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  17. “Note by the Conciliation Commission to the Israeli Delegation in Lausanne”, 12 September 1949, in: ISA 1949 (companion volume), No. 281, 456.

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  18. See “The Minister in Lebanon (Pinkerton) to the Secretary of State”, 18 October 1949, in: FRUS 1949, Vol. VI, 1442 et seq.

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  19. See “First Interim Report of the U.N. Survey Mission for Middle East”, see note 9.

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  20. The ESM was also supposed to facilitate repatriation. It did not do so, probably “because Israel will not admit them,” idem.

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  21. Refer to the “Mc Ghee plan” in: “Memorandum by the Coordinator on Palestine Refugee Matters (Mc Ghee) to the Secretary of State”, see note 12, 935 et seq.

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  22. See “United States of America, France, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Turkey: draft resolution”, 1 December 1949 (A/RES/AC.31/L.46/Rev.1), para. 7.

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  23. See “Egypt: amendment to the draft resolution presented by the United States...” (A/RES/AC.31/L.48/Rev.1), 2 December 1949, para. 4; see also the discourse by the Iraqi delegate at the 4th session of the Special Political Committee (A/RES/1060, A/RES/1060/Add.1, A/RES/1106), para. 117.

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  24. Ibid., paras 1, 2 and 7.

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  25. Ibid., para. 5. The Advisory Committee consisted of representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey and three other western states. Its mission was to advise and assist UNRWA’s Director (para. 8, Resolution 302 (IV)).

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  26. See “Egypt: amendment to the draft resolution presented by the United States...”, see note 26, para. 6.

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  27. In: Report of the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (Director of UNRWA), 1 July 1952–30 June 1953, Suppl. No. 13(A/2470), para. 18.

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  28. The Jordan Valley/Yarmouk agricultural project, concluded by an agreement between UNRWA and Jordan in March 1953, was expected to lead to the resettlement of 100,000–150,000 refugees. The Sinai project, about which Egypt and UNRWA signed an agreement in June 1953, was expected to lead to the resettlement of about 70,000 refugees. See “UNRWA Experience with Works Projects and Self-Support Programmes: An historical Summary (1950–1962)”, UNRWA Reviews, Information paper No. 5, Beirut, September 1962.

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  29. In: “The Ambassador in Egypt (Caffery) to the Department of State”, 7 February 1951, in: FRUS 1951, Vol.V, 1982, 578. See also the research conducted by Avi Plascov on the basis of Jordan’s police secret records: Plascov, see note 15. The study shows how the Jordanian authorities alternatively played the refugees against UNRWA and vice versa.

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  30. See “Savingram from British Middle East Office (BMEO) to Foreign Office”, 12 January 1951, in: The Arab League: British Documentary Sources 1943–1963, Vol. 7, 1951–1953, 34 et seq. The same concerns were aired in Syria (see “The Chargé in Lebanon (Bruins) to the Department of State”, 31 August 1951, in: FRUS 1951, Vol. V, 847) and in Jordan (see “The Chargé in Jordan (Fritzlan) to the Department of State”, 3 April 1952, in: FRUS 1952–1954, Vol. IX, part 1, 910 et seq.). Among the rare Arab policy-makers who advocated “enlightening the refugees” is Samir Rifa’i (Jordan) who declared to a UK delegation that the Arab League should reeducate the refugees to the idea that they would never be readmitted in Israel; see “Message from the delegation in Amman to the Foreign Office, 15 January 1951”, in: The Arab League: British Documentary Sources 1943–1963, Vol. 7, 1951–1953, 36.

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  31. As reported in UNRWA’s annual reports: See Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1952–30 June 1953, Suppl. No. 12(A/2470), para. 35; Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1953–30 June 1954, Suppl. No. 12 (A/2470), para. 35; Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1953–30 June 1954, Suppl. No.12 (A/2470), para. 35; Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1954–30 June 1955, Suppl. No. 15 (A/2974), para. 34; Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1953–30 June 1954, Suppl. No. 12 (A/2470), para. 35; Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1955–30 June 1956, Suppl. No.14 (A/3212), para. 66.

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  32. See “The Chargé in Lebanon (Bruins) to the Department of State”, 10 August 1951, in: FRUS 1951, Vol. V, 1982, 829 et seq.; “The Problem of the Rectification of the UNRWA Relief Rolls”, UNRWA Reviews, Information paper No. 6, Beirut, September 1962, 9.

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  33. See Report of the Director of UNRWA, 1 July 1954–30 June 1955, Suppl. No. 15(A/2978), paras 34–35.

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  34. See “UNRWA Experience with Works Projects and Self-Support Programmes: An Historical Summary (1950–1962)”, see note 33, 8, 11.

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  35. The current number of UNRWA employees is about 25,500; UNRWA, see note 1.

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  36. Since the early 1950s, the Arab states had informed the State Department of the United States that emigration within the Arab world would not be considered as resettlement (see “The Chargé in Lebanon (Bruins) to the Department of State”, 10 August 1951, see note 38, 830). A Conference gathering the host states in September 1956 confirmed that approach; see al-Difâ’, 12 September 1956, 7.

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  37. See resolutions of the Arab League No. 708 of 27 January 1954 (R/708/20/8) and 760 of 5 April 1954 (R/760/4/21).

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  38. The Secretary-General recommended that US$ 1.7 billion be gathered so as to employ up to 500,000 refugees by 1970. That plan was embedded within a larger US$ 12 billion Middle-East development programme targeting the Middle-East region at large. See “Proposals for the Continuation of United Nations Assistance to Palestine Refugees” (A/4121), 15 June 1959.

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  39. See: Recommendations by the Committee of Arab Experts to the Proposals of the U.N. Secretary-General Regarding the Continuation of U.N. Assistance to the Palestine Refugees; M. Khalil (ed.), The Arab States and the Arab League: A Documentary Record, Vol. II, International Affairs, 1962, 654 et seq.

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  40. See “The refugees of Lebanon reject the Hammarskjoeld recommendations”, al-Difâ’, 13 July 1959, 1.

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  41. See H. Elnajjar, “Planned Emigration: The Palestinian Case”, International Migration Review 27 (1993), 34 et seq.

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  42. According to UNRWA’s registration figures (which do not represent the total Palestinian refugee population): 2.7 per cent in Syria, 11.5 per cent in Lebanon, 32.6 per cent in Jordan; 84.5 per cent in the Gaza Strip, and 34.8 per cent in the West Bank (UNRWA, see note 1). The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian refugees are Muslim. For a comprehensive survey of the status of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab states, see Takkenberg, see note 2, ch. IV, 131 et seq.

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  43. See: Report of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, 1 July 1959–30 June 1960, Suppl. No. 14(A/4478), paras 8–10.

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  44. The Department of Palestinian Affairs, Five Decades of Responsibility in the Refugee Camps of Jordan, 2000, 62. The host authorities, including the PNA, also contribute little amounts to UNRWA’s regular budget. Their contributions for the period 1 January 2000–31 December 2000 amounted to US$ 482,461 (out of a total of US$ 354,850,253). Report of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, 1 July 2001–30 June 2002, Suppl. No. 13 (A/57/13), Table 10.

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  45. The Arab press relayed the Arab League’s declarations and condemned the “arabisation” of UNRWA that was taking place through the shelving of Resolution 194 (III) and the constant reductions of UNRWA’s services. See for instance “The Arab leaders aware of the plot and refuse to ‘arabize’ the refugees issue....”, Al-Hayat (Jordan), 29 March 1997, 1.

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  46. The idea that the right of return should be implemented with flexibility, and mostly as a repatriation process limited to a Palestinian state was first publicly endorsed at the level of the PLO by Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad), in: S. Khalaf, “Lowering the Sword”, Foreign Policy 78 (1990), 92 et seq.; and the supplement of this article in the form of an interview by Foreign Policy with Abu Iyad, “Questions and Answers with Abu Iyad”, 102 et seq.

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  47. See for instance D. Arzt, From Refugees to Citizens: Palestinians at the End of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Council of Foreign Relations, 1997; or for a summary of US plans: “American Proposals to Tranfer Lebanon’s Palestinians”, Middle East Intelligence Bulletin 2 (2000); and L. Drake, “The Future of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon”, in: J. Ginat/E.J. Perkins (eds), The Palestinian Refugees: Old Problems-New Solutions, 2001, 203 et seq.

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  48. See for instance “Jordan rejects resettlement of Palestinians”, Jordan Times, 10 February 2001; or “The Lebanese President: We refused an international offer of US$ 20 billion in exchange for the resettlement of the refugees”, Al-Quds, 16 August 2000. During the Camp David talks of Summer 2000, compensation funds for host states were articulated, whereby Jordan and the PNA would receive US$ 40 billion each, Syria and Lebanon over US$ 10 billion each.

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  49. See for instance Jordan’s former Prime Minister’s statements in “Abou Ragheb: Jordan ‘pillar of peace’”, Jordan Times, 28 August 2000, 1. In future, one may expect a showdown to take place between the Jordanian government and the PLO over the political representation of the refugees residing in Jordan. These refugees are de jure Jordanian citizens.

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  50. See for instance extracts of Mr. Abu al-Ragheb’s statements in al-Ra’i, 11 January 2001, 1. Regarding UNRWA, its general fund budget as of 31 December 2004 devoted US$ 76 million for Jordan, US$ 55 million for Lebanon, US$ 28 million for Syria and US$ 164 million for the occupied territories (US$ 57 million in the West Bank and US$ 107 million in Gaza). UNRWA, Figures as of 31 December 2004, Public Information Office, UNRWA Headquarters (Gaza), April 2005, see above note 1.

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  51. See the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs’ interview in al-Safir (Lebanon) in 1994, as mentioned in: P. Mattar (ed.), Encyclopedia of Palestine, 2000, 261. As various sources have it, whereas the number of refugees registered with UNRWA amounts to about 400,000 people (UNRWA, see note 53), the actual number still residing in the state is estimated by various informal sources at around 200,000–300,000.

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  52. See H. Khashan, “Palestinian Resettlement in Lebanon: Behind the Debate”, Palestinian Refugees (Background Papers), Centre d’études pour le développement (Canada), Alternatives, March 1995, 56 et seq.; and A. Shiblak, “Palestinians in Lebanon and the PLO”, Journal of Refugee Studies 10 (1997), 270 et seq.

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  53. See A. Abu Odeh, Jordanians, Palestinians & the Hashemite Kingdom in the Middle East Peace Process, 1999, 235 et seq.

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  54. The initiatives taken by the owners of the Wihdat and the Hussein camps’ land in 1996 and 1998 were brought up in the press; see newspaper Al-Quds, 11 February 1998.

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  55. See “Jordan First national campaign aims to prepare society for a better future”, The Daily Star (57th Anniversary of Independence Feature Supplement), 27 May 2003, 4.

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  56. Idem.

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  1. Jalal Al Husseini
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Eyal Benvenisti Chaim Gans Sari Hanafi

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Al Husseini, J. (2007). The Arab States and the Refugee Issue: A Retrospective View. In: Benvenisti, E., Gans, C., Hanafi, S. (eds) Israel and the Palestinian Refugees. Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, vol 189. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68161-8_17

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