Palestinians to Citizens

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asem Khalil
Keyword(s):  
State Solution ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Willingness To Accept ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
British Mandate ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
The Right

In this paper, I first argue that, since the British mandate, citizenship regulations in Palestine contributed to dispossession of the rights of Palestinians, thus laying the seeds of the Palestinian refugee problem and its eventual consolidation. I then argue that citizenship regulations in host countries were exclusionary towards refugees in general, and Palestinians in particular, making it impossible for Palestinians to integrate in host societies. The so-called “Arab Spring” did not bring about any change in that sense. Finally, I argue that the narrative of statehood, although often separated from that of the “right of return”, constitutes but one narrative, and one from a completely different angle than the narrative of a “right of return”, where the ‘just solution’ creates the possibility of establishing a homeland for Palestinians where they, and in particular the stateless refugees, can be converted into full citizens. What was part of the problem for refugees is presented as part of the solution. This discussion is very important in today’s Palestine, which was just recently accepted by the un General Assembly as a non-member observer state. The importance of that move is the official Palestinian insistence on the need for a state on the 1967 borders, and the willingness to accept the formula of a two-state solution. Discussion related to citizenship and refugee status, and the right of return, are all back at the center of political and legal discussions.

Memories for the Return? Remembering the Nakba by the First Generation of Palestinian Refugees in Syria

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anaheed Al-Hardan
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Oslo Accords ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Way

The 1948 Nakba has, in light of the 1993 Oslo Accords and Palestinian refugee activists' mobilisation around the right of return, taken on a new-found centrality and importance in Palestinian refugee communities. Closely-related to this, members of the ‘Generation of Palestine’, the only individuals who can recollect Nakba memories, have come to be seen as the guardians of memories that are eventually to reclaim the homeland. These historical, social and political realities are deeply rooted in the ways in which the few remaining members of the generation of Palestine recollect 1948. Moreover, as members of communities that were destroyed in Palestine, and whose common and temporal and spatial frameworks were non-linearly constituted anew in Syria, one of the multiples meanings of the Nakba today can be found in the way the refugee communities perceive and define this generation.

scholarly journals Humanitarian Dilemmas for the Palestinian Refugees & the Question of Return

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Smoum
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
The Right ◽  
Palestinian Population ◽  
Palestinian Nationalism ◽  
Refugee Experience

This paper examines the situation of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Arab host countries as a result of the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. Although their right of return was recognized by the UN Commission on Human Rights, 7 million refugees and 450,000 internally displaced Palestinians continue to live under unfavourable conditions, constituting about seventy percent of the entire Palestinian population worldwide (10.1 million) (BADIL, n.d, para1). During the refugee experience, Palestinians have suffered from all kinds of human rights violations in different countries. However, they considered the denial of their right of return as the most significant source of grievance. The right of return has become a major political goal and mobilizing influence of Palestinian nationalism. In this paper, I will use Iraq as a case study to demonstrate the continued instability and discrimination that Palestinians face in host countries and difficulties for stable settlement in exile. The experience of Palestinian refugees in Iraq between 1948 and 2008 indicates that even in countries where Palestinian refugees had seemingly favourable conditions, changes in political climate and their lack of citizenship rights make life in exile a perilous experience. Recognizing the issue of return as a legal and political matter, I will argue in this paper that based on the Palestinian refugees’ experience in various Arab host countries, securing the right of return should also be seen as a viable humanitarian solution. In the case of Palestinian refugees from and in Iraq, the right of return should be considered an emergency measure.

UNRWA and the Refugees: A Difficult but Lasting Marriage

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jalal Al Husseini
Keyword(s):  
Community Participation ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Political Constraints ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
International Donor ◽  
Donor States ◽  
The Right

Over the last sixty years, UNRWA's relationship to the Palestinian refugees it serves has undergone profound changes. Faced with the difficult task of adapting a humanitarian regime to a highly politicized environment, the agency has had to thread its way through the diverse and sometimes conflicting expectations of the international donor states, the Arab host countries, and the refugees themselves, who from the start were deeply suspicious of UNRWA's mandate as inimical to the right of return. Against this background, the article traces the evolution of the agency's role from service and relief provider to virtual mouthpiece for the refugees on the international stage and, on an administrative level, from a disciplinary regime to emphasis on community participation and finally to the embrace of a developmental agenda. Although UNRWA's presence, originally seen as temporary, seems likely to endure, the article argues that financial and political constraints are likely to thwart its new agenda.

Palestinian Refugee Compensation and Israeli Counterclaims for Jewish Property in Arab Countries

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Fischbach
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Compensation Claims ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
International Fund ◽  
The Right

Unlike its demands for Holocaust reparations, Israel's compensation claims for properties that Jews left behind in the Arab world have aimed not to provide individual financial reparations, but rather to counter and offset Palestinian refugees' claims for restitution and the right of return. In U.S.-sponsored negotiations in 2000, Israel announced it would drop its counterclaim policy and agreed with the Palestinians that individual compensation would be paid out to all sides from an international fund. More recently, however, a new counterclaim strategy has emerged, based not on financial reparations, but rather on an argument that a fair population and property exchange occurred in 1948. By pursuing this strategy, Israel and international Jewish organizations risk exacerbating tensions between European Jews who have received Holocaust reparations, and Arab Jews angry that their claims are held hostage to diplomatic expediency.

scholarly journals Palestinian Refugees: Host Countries, Legal Status and the Right of Return

Refuge ◽  
2003 ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
Wadie E. Said
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Lasting Peace ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Precarious Legal Status

Given the Palestinian refugees’ precarious legal status in their host countries, recognition of the Palestinian right of return is not only legally viable, but also crucial for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. That racially driven demographic considerations have been employed up until now to derail binding and directly applicable laws and practices, as well as keep the refugees in a state of legal limbo in their host countries, cuts to the heart of the fundamental injustice currently plaguing the Middle East. No amount of obfuscating the facts and the law can tarnish the applicability and relevance of the right of return, and Palestinian refugees and their advocates remain in both a strong moral and legal position to continue to call for the recognition of that right.

scholarly journals The Threat of Destitution as a Deterrent against Asylum Seeking in the European Union

Refuge ◽  
2006 ◽  
pp. 81-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie Da Lomba
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

The problematization of asylum has detrimentally impacted on the provision of support for asylum seekers in host countries. The threat of destitution has become instrumental in restrictive asylum policies and is increasingly used as a deterrent against asylum seeking. The EU experience reveals acute tensions between the EU asylum agenda and the EU Member States’ obligations under international refugee and human rights law. The provision of support for asylum seekers challenges narrow approaches to the realization of socio-economic rights for “others” and to host countries’ duties in that respect. The EU Reception Conditions Directive, which aims to set out standards for the reception of asylum seekers across the Union, exemplifies this predicament. Yet international refugee and human rights law provides a legal framework that establishes minimum standards critical to dignified living for asylum seekers and the protection of the right to seek refugee status in the EU and beyond.

Imagining a Solution: Final Status Arrangements and Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rex Brynen
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
The Social ◽  
West Bank And Gaza ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Right ◽  
Palestinian Population ◽  
Research And Policy

Possible final status arrangements for the Palestinian refugee issue are explored, with emphasis on their consequences for the Palestinians in Lebanon. It is suggested that the right of return will be limited largely to the West Bank and Gaza, where it will be shaped by local economic conditions. Available compensation funds may be inadequate. Greater research and policy planning are needed in these areas. Moreover, because Lebanon will continue to host a significant Palestinian population for many years to come, both Palestinian-Lebanese dialogue and improvement in the social, economic, and legal status of the Palestinians are imperative.

scholarly journals The Implications of the Acquisition of a New Nationality for the Right of Return of Palestinian Refugees

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-386
Author(s):  
Mazen MASRI
Keyword(s):  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Legal Consequences

This paper examines the legal consequences of the acquisition of a new nationality for the right of return of Palestinian refugees. The paper argues that since the right of return is independent of refugee status, the cessation of the latter should not necessarily abrogate the former. By examining the underpinnings of the right of return to one's own country, especially the link between the individual and her territory, this paper argues that this link is somehow weakened in a situation of naturalization in a different country. However, this weakening of the link should not automatically lead to the deprivation of rights. The circumstances that lead refugees to leave their country of origin, the circumstances preventing their return, and the decisions made by the individuals in view of their available options, should be examined.

scholarly journals Humanitarian Dilemmas for the Palestinian Refugees & the Question of Return

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Smoum
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
The Right ◽  
Palestinian Population ◽  
Palestinian Nationalism ◽  
Refugee Experience

This paper examines the situation of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Arab host countries as a result of the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. Although their right of return was recognized by the UN Commission on Human Rights, 7 million refugees and 450,000 internally displaced Palestinians continue to live under unfavourable conditions, constituting about seventy percent of the entire Palestinian population worldwide (10.1 million) (BADIL, n.d, para1). During the refugee experience, Palestinians have suffered from all kinds of human rights violations in different countries. However, they considered the denial of their right of return as the most significant source of grievance. The right of return has become a major political goal and mobilizing influence of Palestinian nationalism. In this paper, I will use Iraq as a case study to demonstrate the continued instability and discrimination that Palestinians face in host countries and difficulties for stable settlement in exile. The experience of Palestinian refugees in Iraq between 1948 and 2008 indicates that even in countries where Palestinian refugees had seemingly favourable conditions, changes in political climate and their lack of citizenship rights make life in exile a perilous experience. Recognizing the issue of return as a legal and political matter, I will argue in this paper that based on the Palestinian refugees’ experience in various Arab host countries, securing the right of return should also be seen as a viable humanitarian solution. In the case of Palestinian refugees from and in Iraq, the right of return should be considered an emergency measure.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document