Towards International Protection for Palestinian Refugees

Reinterpreting the Status of Palestinian Refugees International Law"
Kalandia Camp, 24 March 2000

Some twenty activists in Palestinian refugee organizations and national institutions, many of them members of the BADIL Friends Forum, met at the office of the Union of Youth Activity Centers (UYAC) in Kalandia Camp to discuss a BADIL proposal for a renewed joint effort aimed at obtaining international protection for Palestinian refugees.

Susan Akram, Refugee Law expert at Boston University, presented the legal framework underlying this proposal. Her reinterpretation of international refugee law (1951 Refugee Convention and UNHCR Statutes) was met with much interest, and participants confirmed the urgent need for the inclusion of Palestinian refugees in the international refugee protection regime.

 

 Dr. Nafe' al-Hassan (international law expert) noted that the exclusion of Palestinian refugees from international protection is rooted both in politically biased international decision making and in the fear, by Palestinian political forums, that the application of international refugee law would transform the Palestinian refugee case from a political issue to a humanitarian case. Dr. al-Hassan argued that such fear is not justified and reported about previous efforts at mobilizing for a Palestinian demand for international protection. He stated his belief that it is not too late to launch a renewed effort now, although Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations are already taking place.

He emphasized the need to revive and re-structure the PLO Refugee Department in order for this forum to take an active role in strategizing for the protection of refugee rights and to make the Palestinian refugee question an issue of international concern. Jamal Shati (Head of the PLCRefugee Subcommittee) noted that mobilization for Palestinian refugee rights must not remain limited to awareness-raising about international law, because the refugee community has become quite familiar with its rights as defined by international law and UN Resolutions. He stated the urgent need for the establishment of a mechanism, Palestinian, Arab, and international, which can be
employed in order to pressure for their implementation.

Refugee grass-roots activists expressedtheir concern about the weakness of the current regime for protection and assistance composed of UN Resolution 194 and UNRWA, as well as their fear of a future abolition of UN Resolution 194 as a result of combined US-Israeli-European pressure. They encouraged BADIL to explore, in conjunction with Palestinian and international experts, appropriate international forums (UNHCR, European Human Rights Court, War Crimes Tribunal, etc.), and to organize additional workshops on this topic in order to build a broad basis of refugee support for this initiative.
The legal analysis subject of this workshop is available as BADIL - Information & Discussion Brief, No. 1 and No. 2.

Pope Visits Deheishe Refugee Camp
Address to Deheishe Camp (excerpts)

 "You have been deprived of many things which represent basic needs of the human person: proper housing, health care, education and work. Above all you bear the sad memory of what you were forced to leave behind, not just material possessions, but your freedom, the closeness of relatives, and the familial surroundings and cultural traditions which nourished your personal and family life."

"The degrading conditions in which refugees often have to live; the continuation over long periods of situations that are barely tolerable in emergencies or for a brief time of transit; the fact that displaced persons are obliged to remain for years in settlement camps: these are the measure of the urgent need for a just solution to the underlying causes of the problem. Only a resolute effort on the part of leaders in the Middle East and in the international community as a whole-inspired by a higher vision of politics as service of the common good-can remove the causes of your present situation. My appeal is for greater international solidarity and the political will to meet this challenge. 

Palestinian refugees world-wide rally for support of their right of return - Sign on to their petitions and declarations:
Petition for the Palestinian Right to Restitution:
launched in Palestine in March 1999 by BADIL, the petition will be presented to the European Union in May 2000 in the framework of a joint Palestinian-European NGO briefing on Palestinian refugee rights (www.badil.org; [email protected];) Petition for the Palestinian Right to Repatriation and Restitution:
launched in the United States in January 2000 by the Council for Palestinian Repatriation and Restitution (CPRR), the petition aims to achieve  maximum international media attention to the rights and demands of Palestinian refugees.
(www.rightofreturn.org/petition/ index.html; [email protected]); Statement for the Palestinian Right of Return:
launched in Switzerland in January 2000 by the International Observatory for Palestinian Affairs (IOPA): Ahmad Benani,
e-mail: [email protected] Declaration of the Right of Return: announced in the press in March 2000 in Arab captials, Europe and the United States by a committee of sponsors composed of Palestinian public figures (Edward Said, Salman Abu Sitta, Ibrahim Abu Lughod, Bilal Al-Hassan, Faisal Darraj, Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Wakim Wakim, a.o.).
The declaration aims to gather broad Palestinian support and will be presented to the PLO, Arab and western governments, and UN institutions. Salman Abu Sitta, e-mail:[email protected]