Humanitarian Dilemmas for the Palestinian Refugees & the Question of Return

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.

Humanitarian Dilemmas for the Palestinian Refugees & the Question of Return

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.

The role of collective memory in solidifying identity : the case of Palestinian refugees

Through a critical review of scholarly literature on the role of collective memory as a resistance tool to memoricide, this research paper uses an analytical approach to examine the efforts exerted by Palestinian refugees in post 1948 Nakba (catastrophe of dispossession) to preserve and consolidate their national identity through the transmission of history of displacement and cultural heritage. With a specific focus on the fourth-generation Palestinian refugees living under occupation, and through studying cultural practices, oral history, and the Great March of Return Movement, this paper examines the role played by the collective memory in consolidating the Palestinians national identity in the post-Nakba era. The research argues that the collective memory constitutes a central anchor to preserving the Palestinian national identity and becomes an instrumental site for resistance, creating a generation of hope and rights, not despair and loss, as claimed by the recent literature. Key Words: Palestinian Refugees, Nakba, Collective Memory, Memoricide, National Identity, Oral History, Memory, Heritage, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Right of Return

The role of collective memory in solidifying identity : the case of Palestinian refugees

Through a critical review of scholarly literature on the role of collective memory as a resistance tool to memoricide, this research paper uses an analytical approach to examine the efforts exerted by Palestinian refugees in post 1948 Nakba (catastrophe of dispossession) to preserve and consolidate their national identity through the transmission of history of displacement and cultural heritage. With a specific focus on the fourth-generation Palestinian refugees living under occupation, and through studying cultural practices, oral history, and the Great March of Return Movement, this paper examines the role played by the collective memory in consolidating the Palestinians national identity in the post-Nakba era. The research argues that the collective memory constitutes a central anchor to preserving the Palestinian national identity and becomes an instrumental site for resistance, creating a generation of hope and rights, not despair and loss, as claimed by the recent literature. Key Words: Palestinian Refugees, Nakba, Collective Memory, Memoricide, National Identity, Oral History, Memory, Heritage, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Right of Return

Denying the Right of Return as a Crime Against Humanity

This article argues that there are firm grounds upon which to regard the act of denying a person's right of return to their country as a crime against humanity. To make its case, the article builds upon two justifications for the right of return: its grounding based on the human need to belong, and its purpose as a means of preventing rightlessness. The human interests underlying these justifications, the article contends, are similarly those reflected by the image of humanness ingrained within the law of crimes against humanity. Therefore, when the right of return is denied, it is also an assault against humanness as such – a crime against humanity. Recently, proceedings before the International Criminal Court (ICC), with regard to the situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar, have made this question highly relevant. Both the Court's Pre-Trial Chamber and Prosecutor have raised arguments in support of regarding the denial of the right of the Rohingya peoples to return to Myanmar a crime against humanity of other inhumane acts. Consequently, this article attempts to offer support for what might turn out to be an important doctrinal development in ICC jurisprudence.

Diaspora Mobilization for Palestinian Statehood

This chapter and the previous Chapter 6 are interconnected as they both discuss Albanian diaspora mobilizations. This chapter unpacks the typological theory through four causal pathways in the Palestinian field, one of them discussed twice as diaspora entrepreneurs were exposed to different non-state actors. All pathways occurred under host-state foreign policy divergence from the diaspora goals for Palestinian statehood, including refugees’ return. A non-contentious pathway exists but was rare when diaspora entrepreneurs acted under limited global influences. When lacking support from politicized homeland-based actors, diaspora entrepreneurs were less eager to launch contentious mobilizations on their own. Dual-pronged contentious mobilizations occurred: (a) when the homeland government was transnationally involved, under the PNA leadership, acting carefully while seeking to maintain international standing in difficult political circumstances; (b) when transnational left-wing movements were at play; many more diaspora entrepreneurs were on this pathway, seeking to counteract Israeli policies, quite often engaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign; and (c) when diaspora entrepreneurs related to transnational Islamic networks. Issues related to humanitarian charities and refugees’ right of return have been emphasized, even if they also have concerned others in the diaspora. The most contentious pathway occurred in response to critical violent events in the original homeland or adjacent fragile states, most notably due to the recurring warfare in Gaza since 2008. This pathway engulfed all four types of diaspora entrepreneurs.

Palestine in Visual Representation: A Visual Semiotic Analysis of the Nakba

Since its de facto creation, Israel has endeavoured to legitimize its existence and mystify the ethnic cleansing it perpetrated in 1948, systematically working to efface historic Palestine from the Arab and global public memory. Visual discourse plays a constitutive role in the construction and preservation of national themes. This paper, a critical discourse analysis of a corpus of visual representations, aimed to examine how visual representation serves to memorialize and reconstruct national themes, and so how this semiotic mode of representation can act as a form of counter-hegemonic discourse against attempts at the memoricide of the other and mystification of history. Using Kress and van Leeuwen’s(2006) grammar of visual design as a framework for visual analysis, this social semiotic research analyzed the visual structure of a number of Nakba images to examine the role of visual representations in the memorialization of key Palestinian national themes, and so the reconstruction of historic Palestine. The study shows how national themes visually represented, such as ethnic cleansing and Right of Return, serve as a constant reminder of the Nakba, stressing their sociopolitical and emancipatory role in shaping the Palestinian collective consciousness about their past, present and future. Exploration of further visual signs can reveal more the function of visual and multimodal communication in the preservation of important national themes and role in national liberation.