Abstract
Palestinians are the world’s largest and longest-standing refugee population.1 Yet peacemaking under the terms of the Oslo Accords has upheld that a Palestinian compromise of the refugees’ right to return is required as a quid pro quo for peace with Israel and that solutions in line with international legal standards and best practice are ‘not realistic’ for Palestinian refugees. Moreover, internationally-sponsored efforts for Palestinian development, which have accompanied peacemaking, have excluded Palestinian refugees living outside the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, although they represent almost half of the Palestinian nation.
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Notes
See, for example: S. Hickey and G. Mohan, ‘Relocating Participation within a Radical Politics of Development’, Development and Change 36, 2005, pp. 237–262;
G. Williams, ‘Evaluating Participatory Development: Tyranny, Power and (Re)politicization’, Third World Quarterly, 25(3), 2004, pp. 557–578.
OHCHR, ‘Frequently Asked Questions on a Human Rights-based Approach to Development Cooperation, United Nations’, New York and Geneva, 2006.
See (www.unhcr.org), in particular: UNHCR, ‘Handbook on Voluntary Repatriation: International Protection’, 1996. Also:
S. Leckie, Housing and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons: Laws, Cases, and Materials, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
K. Long, ‘Voting With Their Feet: A Review of Refugee Participation and the Role of UNHCR in Country of Origin Elections and Other Political Processes’, UNHCR (PDES), September 2010.
In 2008, 7.1 million of the 10.6 million Palestinians were estimated to be refugees or internally displaced persons (IDP). Population estimates cited from: Badil, ‘Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internationally Displaced Persons 2008–2009’: Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, 2010 (hereafter: Badil Survey 2008), Chapter 2.
The Middle East Quartet (US, EU, Russia and the UN), ‘Performance-based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’, 2002.
See, for example: Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (CPSR), refugee opinion polls, 2003, at: (http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2003/refugeesjune03.html); also: Geneva Initiative, ‘Geneva Accord’, Chapter 7 — Refugees.
See, for example: A. de Soto, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, ‘End of Mission Report’, May 2007; Also: ‘EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem’, December 2010.
R. Brynen and R. El-Rifai (eds.), Palestinian Refugees, Challenges of Repatriation and Development, London, New York: I.B. Tauris and the International Development Research Center, 2007, pp. 1–2.
A. Le More, International Assistance to the Palestinians After Oslo: Political Guilt, Wasted Money, London: Routledge, 2008.
Dalia Association, ‘An Appeal by Palestinian Civil Society to the International Community to Respect our Right to Self-determination in the Aid System’, Dalia Association: Ramallah, 19 April 2011;
K. Nabulsi, ‘The Statebuilding Project: What Went Wrong?’, in M. Keating, A. Le More and R. Lowe, (eds), Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of Palestine, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2005, pp. 117–128;
K. Nakhleh, The Myth of Palestinian Development: Political Aid and Sustainable Deceit, Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2004.
See, for example, UNDP, ‘Executive Summary’, Palestine Human Development Report, 2004, oPt: UNDP.
Palestinian National Authority, Homestretch to Freedom, Palestine — Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State, 13th Government Program 2010–2011, Ramallah, PNA, August 2010. See also:
MOPAD, ‘Millennium Development Goals Progress Report’, August 2010.
See: M. Qafshieh, ‘Genesis of Citizenship in Palestine and Israel: Palestinian Nationality during the Period 1917–1925’, Journal of the History of International Law, 11, 2009, pp. 1–36.
The Nakba (Arabic: catastrophe) designates the expulsion of 750,000–900,000 indigenous Palestinians and the destruction of the country of Palestine for the establishment of Israel in 1948. For findings on population transfer, See: G. Beckerman, ‘Top Genocide Scholars Battle Over How to Characterize Israel’s Actions’, Forward: The Jewish Daily, 25 February 2012. Available at: (http://forward.com/issues/2011-02-25/);
I. Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oxford: One World, 2006;
N. Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of ‘Transfer’ in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948, Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
A.S. Al-Khawasneh and R. Hatano, ‘The Human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer including the Implantation of Settlers’, Preliminary Report, Commission on Human Rights Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Forty-fifth Session, 2–27 August 1993, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/17 of 6 July 1993, para. 15 and 17.
On this conclusion, see the reports of UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights in the OPT, in particular: A/HRC/4/17, 29 January 2007 and A/HRC/16/72, 10 January 2011. For in-depth analysis, see: U. Davis, Apartheid Israel, Possibilities for the Struggle Within, London: Zed Books, 2003;
Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A Re-Assessment of Israel’s Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories under International Law, Capetown, May 2009.
UN General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV), ‘Declaration of Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations’, 24 October 1970.
International Court of Justice, ‘Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall on Occupied Palestinian Territory’, 9 July 2004, para. 149.
Chapter 1D of the Convention, which regulates the status of Palestinian refugees, is either not applied or misinterpreted in most countries. For detail and sources, see: Badil, ‘Closing Protection Gaps’, Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees in States Signatories of the 1951 Refugee Convention, 2005.
Filippo Grandi, UNRWA Commissioner General, ‘Statement to the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee of the General Assembly’, New York, 1 November 2010. See also: ‘The United Nations and Palestinian Refugees’, UNRWA & UNHCR, January 2007, available at: (www.unrwa.org).
Geneva Conventions, Common Chapter 1, 1949. Also: International Law Commission, ‘Chapters on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts’, UNGA Resolution 56/83, 12 December 2001. Population transfer and apartheid are crimes under international treaties, including the Geneva Convention IV (1949) and the Rome Statute of the ICC (2002).
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© 2014 Ingrid Jaradat Gassner
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Gassner, I.J. (2014). Palestinian Refugees: From ‘Spoilers’ to Agents of Development. In: Turner, M., Shweiki, O. (eds) Decolonizing Palestinian Political Economy. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137448750_6
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