Palestinian Refugee Repatriation

Global Perspectives

Michael Dumper

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781134173631
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Libertad política

The repatriation of Palestinians is a highly topical issue, and a critical component of any future peace process for Israel/Palestine. Until now, the mechanics of repatriation have not been dealt with in detail. This book explores the notion that the Palestinian refugee case is exceptional through the comparative study of refugee repatriation, and asks:

• To what extent can the Palestinian case be said to be unique?
• Where are the divergences, the overlaps and points of similarity with other refugee situations?
• What lessons can be drawn from these comparisons?
• How can these lessons inform refugee organizations, the donor community and policy makers?

The expert contributors examine the contextual and methodological field, reviewing the trends in forced migration and refugee studies as well as studying the historical and political background of UNHCR and the negotiations around the Palestinian refugee issue. Taking a comparative approach, the book incorporates case studies of specific refugee situations from around the world, revealing key issues in the formulation of repatriation programmes and highlighting lessons to be learnt.

1

Introduction

The comparative study of refugee repatriation programmes and the Palestinian case

Michael Dumper

Between 1992–3 and 1997–9, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other collaborating organisations repatriated some 400,000 people back to Cambodia. Following the completion of the programme in 2000, UNHCR commissioned a report into the lessons learnt from the programme. The purpose of the ‘lesson drawing’ was

not so much to evaluate what should have been done, but rather to look at each case in these terms: if staff knew then what they know now, what could they have done differently or similarly. Ultimately, no two refugee situations are alike, though some may resemble others more closely. The degree to which lessons learned from one situation can be applied to other contexts depends on the expertise, experience, and collective wisdom of staff.

(Ballard 2002: 10, emphasis added)

Given the enormous challenges UNHCR continues to face, the focus on learning from hindsight and feeding that knowledge into its policy and planning systems should be applauded. There is no doubt that over the years there has been an accumulation of expertise and a corpus of both policy and academic literature that has incorporated ‘lessons learnt’ from a wide range of UNHCR operations and programmes with refugees (Jamal 2000). The publication of two UNHCR handbooks on repatriation and resettlement and the ‘Convention Plus’ discussions in 2003–4 attest to this institutional learning process (UNHCR 1996; UNHCR 2003; Fagen and Rodicio in this publication).

The purpose of this book and the international workshop from which it emanated is to draw out the extent to which this international expertise and knowledge can be transferred to the Palestinian context. This chapter comprises four sections. First, it sets out the main contours of the Palestinian refugee situation in order to provide some essential background for those readers unfamiliar with the genesis and evolution of the Palestinian refugee issue. One focus of this section will be also to identify the key unique features of the Palestinian case. Second, it describes the purpose and main components of the overall comparative research project from which this study is derived. Third, it outlines the continuing relevance of the study in the light of recent political developments in the Middle East conflict. The chapter will conclude by introducing the contributions to this book and by indicating how they inter-relate in order to bring a broad perspective to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

What is the Palestinian refugee issue?

The Palestinian refugee issue is the most difficult of the outstanding problems in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. With a growth rate of approximately 3.1 per cent, the registered refugee population of over 4 million is increasing at approximately 124,000 per annum (UNRWA 2004). It is therefore an issue that will not fade away over time and delay only increases the magnitude of the problems to be solved. The personal suffering and political instability in the Middle East caused by the non-resolution of this issue is plain to see.

The Palestinian refugee issue began in 1948 as a result of fighting between Zionist Jewish settlers and the indigenous Palestinian Arab population and the surrounding Arab states. The causes of this conflict and the subsequent developments have been dealt with in great depth by a large number of writers and will not be covered in this introduction (Avineri 1981; Flapan 1987; McDowall 1994; Sayigh 1997; Rogan and Shlaim 2002; Kimmerling and Migdal 2003; Massalha 2003; Morris 2004). However, a few major events should be noted to provide some context for the following discussion.

Great Britain, authorised by the League of Nations in 1922 to be the Mandatory authority in Palestine, was unable to reconcile the conflicting aspirations of the two ethnic groups to self-determination. It handed the issue over to the newly formed United Nations who in 1947 passed Resolution 181 which declared that Palestine should be partitioned into an Arab and a Jewish state. The Palestinian side regarded the resolution as unjust and refused to accept it. In the ensuing hostilities they were defeated and over 85 per cent of the population forced to leave their homes (BADIL 2003: 23). The new Israeli state based on the borders in Resolution 181 also acquired land beyond the borders approved by the UN and quickly consolidated its position by transferring refugee land and property to state institutions. It embarked upon a rapid programme of immigration absorption in which Jews from Western Europe and the Arab world were encouraged to start new lives in the new state of Israel defined as a Jewish state. At the same time, the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes was accepted and supported by the United Nations in Resolution 194. However, the strategic goal of Arab states and the Palestinians to reverse the establishment of Israel and the refusal of Israel to accept significant numbers of refugees led to an impasse in which the region both refused to accommodate the creation of the new state of Israel but could not defeat it.

A further war in 1967 resulted in Israel occupying the remaining parts of historic Palestine, known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This situation lasted until the mid-1970s when the Palestinians under the leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization made tentative moves to recognise Israel. In turn, Israel realised it could not eliminate the PLO and finally, in what became known as the 1993 Oslo Accords, agreed to an interim stage of Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This set the scene for detailed discussions on final status issues including the refugee issue. However, the collapse of the transitional Oslo arrangements amid a welter of mutual recriminations regarding the failure of Palestinians to control their militants and the Israeli refusal to halt colonisation activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has suspended for the foreseeable future official negotiations on these issues.

As a result of these hostilities the Palestinian refugee population continued to live mostly in exile. One-third of the registered Palestine refugees, about 1.3 million, live in 59 recognised refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the West Bank and Gaza Strip (UNRWA 2004). They are administered by an ad hoc UN agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which was also made responsible for service delivery (UNGAR 303 (IV), 8 December 1949). Socioeconomic conditions in the camps are generally poor with a high population density, cramped living conditions and inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads and sewers. The other two-thirds of the registered refugees live in and around the cities and towns of the host countries, and in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, often in the environs of official camps. Although most of UNRWA’s installations such as schools and health centres are located in refugee camps, a number are outside camps and all of the Agency’s services are available to both camp and non-camp residents (UNRWA 2004).

Table 1.1 Registered refugees in UNRWA area of operations

Field of operations	Official camps	Registered refugees	Registered refugees in camps
Jordan	10	1,740,170	307,785
Lebanon	12	394,532	223,956
Syria	10	413,827	120,865
West Bank	19	665,246	179,541
Gaza Strip	8	922,674	484,563
Agency total	59	4,136,449	1,316,710

Figures as of 31 December 2003.

A number of indices, such as those of employment, poverty, mortality rates, health and education, will give an idea of conditions in the camps and among refugees. With regard to employment, a recent survey in 2003 has shown that the Palestinian refugee population is poorly integrated in the labour market. They are employed more within the private sector, have less job security, work for lower pay, and have access to fewer work related benefits than others (Jacobsen 2003: 58). Many camp dwellers are poor, with the proportion of people earning less than $2 per day per person ranging from some 25 per cent in Syria to 35 per cent in Lebanon. The very poorest families are those that do not qualify for UNRWA assistance and have no employed members. The refugees in Lebanon are worst off because they are excluded from the formal labour market and they have poorer health. They make up the highest proportion of families with no employed member and the remittances they receive do not compensate for this (ibid.: 9).

Infant mortality is generally in the range of 20–30 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is comparable to US rates in the late 1960s. Camps in Syria show particularly low rates, while the Lebanese rates are the highest. Maternal mortality rates are also highest in Lebanon (240 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) and lowest in Syria (75). In general, due to the special hardship programmes of UNRWA, there is little acute malnutrition among children. There is, however, more reported psychological distress as well as somatic illness among adults in camps than elsewhere, and most of this occurs in Lebanon (ibid.: 10).

A remarkable feature of the Palestinian refugee experience is the high level of education attained. Adult literacy is much higher among refugees than in the region as a whole, especially for women, and attests to the relative high quality of the UNRWA education system. Indeed, anecdotal evidence points to high-ranking non-Palestinian officials often attempting to obtain entry into UNRWA schools for their children. Female literacy is most marked in Syria where 90 per cent of refugee women over 14 years are literate, compared with 60 per cent in the national population. Enrolment of camp refugee children in school is about the same across all fields. Nearly all (97 per cent) attend school at secondary level. Nearly all children living in refugee camps go to UNRWA schools for elementary and preparatory education. The exception is the chronically ill and disabled children, who receive very little education. Refugees in Lebanon fare particularly badly in this (ibid.: 12).

As one would expect for a refugee case which has lasted over 56 years, most Palestinian refugees, even those in camps, live in permanent housing, and less than 5 per cent live in temporary dwellings. In general, infrastructure in the camps is the responsibility of the host governments, but UNRWA has played a large role in financing and introducing basic infrastructure. Nearly all camps have electricity, water and sewerage, but the stability of supply of electricity and drinking water in the camps is considerably worse than in surrounding areas. In Lebanon this is particularly so. Despite this, the indoor environment is poor, in terms of ventilation, humidity and temperature control. Crowding is higher in the camps than elsewhere, and around 30 per cent of the households have three or more persons per room. The camps in Jordan and Gaza Strip fare the worst, with 40 per cent of the households having three persons or more per room (ibid.: 13).

Readers not familiar with the Palestinian–Israeli conflict should be reminded that although most refugees live in host countries, that is Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, over one-third are residing in the rump of historic Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, also known as the occupied Palestinian territories (OPTs). Here they comprise nearly 15 per cent of the worldwide Palestinian population. They are refugees from the areas that became Israel in 1948 and following a peace agreement would aspire either to return to their homes in Israel or to be compensated. Although fully integrated in the OPTs, in the sense that they have been treated by the Israeli occupying authorities in exactly the same way as other Palestinians under occupation, there are some differences, in addition to their residence in camps, which in itself casts them as a separate category. For example, unemployment in the refugee camps is 4 per cent higher than the rest of the OPTs, 21.5 per cent compared with 17.5 per cent. An official census reveals that in the camps for every 100 economically active persons there are 590 dependants compared with 530 for the rest of the population. In addition, 32.8 per cent of Palestinians living in refugee camps are classified as poor, that is earning 1,460 New Israeli Shekels (less than $2) or below per day. In 1998, despite being only 15 per cent of the population, they constituted one-quarter of the poor in the Palestinian Territory. Nevertheless, as one would anticipate after three generations of exile, there is some accumulation of wealth and consumer goods. Most refugee families own a refrigerator, gas cooker, television set and washing machine, although only 12 per cent of families own a private car (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2002).

To some extent these indices of low employment, poverty, fragile health systems, high infant mortality, high literacy rates can be replicated in other refugee situations such as the Afghani refugee camps in Pakistan and Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand. However, a closer study of the Palestinian refugee issue suggests at least five aspects in which the Palestinian case can be regarded as particular or unique: its longevity, number, legal complexity, nature of the conflict and lack of territoriality.

Perhaps the most striking uniqueness of the Palestinian refugee situation is its sheer longevity. As we have seen Palestinian refugees were created as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 – 57 years ago – and is the longest running refugee case in the world. The Palestinian case is thus a multigenerational one with a fourth generation of descendants of the original displaced Palestinians currently being born. The only equivalent cases can be drawn from other postwar partitions such as those of Germany and India where a political settlement has since been reached although individual refugees still nurse a sense of loss and grievance. In the case of Germany and German refugees from Eastern Europe, legal attempts are taking place. This longevity produces specific dynamics of exile. On one hand there are greater opportunities of integration and economic and social ties being established with the host community. On the other hand, there can be a greater forging of nationalist consciousness as communal solidarities are maintained in a foreign environment. It is clear that in the Palestinian case, while a degree of political and economic integration has been permitted in Syria and Jordan (but not in Lebanon), there has been a strong growth in nationalist feeling and Palestinian self-identity.

The second aspect is to do with demography. The exact number of people displaced by the 1948 war is disputed. Estimates range from 600,000 to 957,000 but the long duration has meant that the numbers have multiplied. At the end of 2002, it is estimated that there were more than 7 million Palestinian refugees and displaced persons. This includes Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and registered for assistance with UNRWA (3.97 million); Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 but not registered for assistance (1.54 million); Palestinian refugees displaced for the first time in 1967 (753,000); internally displaced Palestinians in Israel (pre-1967 borders) (274,000); and internally displaced Palestinians in the areas occupied by Israel in 1967 and since the end of the war (150,000). (These figures are compiled by the BADIL Resource Centre for Residency Rights and Refugee Research, and there is a full breakdown of their calculations in Appendix 2.) This makes the Palestinian refugee and displaced persons population the largest refugee and displaced persons population in the world. It is more than the combined total for all refugees in Asia under responsibility of UNHCR (UNHCR 1997: 287). What is important to remember is that the proportion of refugees to the total Palestinian population is significantly higher than in most other refugee situations. In total, the Palestinian refugee and displaced population comprises nearly three-quarters of the entire Palestinian population worldwide of approximately 9.3 million.

A third aspect is the legal framework of refugee status and protection. Most Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA and not UNHCR. This occurred partly for historical reasons in that the creation of UNRWA preceded UNHCR by a few months and the mandate of UNHCR specifically excluded the Palestinian population under the mandate of UNRWA. It was also partly geographical in that UNRWA was given responsibility for Palestinian refugees in four locations: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Finally, it was partly political in that the legal protection mandate was given to another specialised agency for Palestinians, the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) (whose activities fell into abeyance), leaving UNR...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Palestinian Refugee Repatriation
• Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: the comparative study of refugee repatriation programmes and the Palestinian case
• PART I Trends and patterns in refugee repatriation: overview and the Palestinian case
• PART II Case studies
• PART III Lessons learnt
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Bibliography
• Index