Refugee Protection

There were no improvements in protection for Palestinian refugees during the second quarter of 2002. The absence of an international mechanism with a recognized mandate to provide protection for Palestinian refugees continues to have a negative impact on refugees in all areas of exile. The severity of the situation in the 1967 occupied territories where the lack of international protection is compounded by Israel's ongoing illegal military occupation understandably tends to detract from the broader systemic problems concerning protection. The latter issues will be addressed in more detail in the September issue of al-Majdal.

Since the end of March 2002 the majority of the Palestinian population in the West Bank has spent the majority of the time under military curfew. The hermetic closure of the Gaza Strip remained in place. As regards Palestinian refugees, statistical data continues to reveal a picture of a community that is particularly vulnerable to Israel's brutal  repression of the popular uprising (al-Aqsa intifada), especially in light of the absence of international protection as afforded to all other refugees.

As UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen noted in early April 2002: "You cannot go to a camp or to another exposed Palestinian habitat without hearing anguished cries of why don't we get protection and observers, let the world see what is going on here. The Palestinians are very keen to have in this instance as much transparency, openness, observation as possible of the situation. But as you know, the Israelis have denied and refused entry." (UN DPI, 5 April 2002)
Deaths and Injuries
Between 1 April and 30 June 2002, 361 Palestinians were killed by Israeli military forces (PRCS), only slightly less than the previous three month total of 372. The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the first 6 months of 2002 comprises 45 percent of the total number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the uprising in September 2000. Based on previous studies (See, BADIL Occasional Bulletin No. 8, September 2001), it is estimated that refugees continue to comprise the majority (60 percent) of Palestinians killed over the last three months. Camp refugees continue to be particularly vulnerable. While refugees in camps comprise approximately 20 percent of the Palestinian population in West Bank and Gaza Strip, camp refugees comprised nearly 30 percent of those killed during Israel's March-April military assault.
During the same period the total number of injuries decreased by about one-third, but the rate is still high at around 1,000 persons. In Jenin refugee camp, medical and emergency rescue crews recovered more than 50 bodies, including those of four women and a 10-year-old girl. According to fieldwork by Human Rights Watch, many of the civilian deaths in the camp amounted to unlawful or willful killings and could have been avoided.

This included Kamal Zgheir, a fifty-seven-year-old wheelchair-bound man who was shot and run over by a tank on a major road outside the camp; fifty-eight year old Mariam Wishahi, killed by a missile in her home just hours after her unarmed son was shot in the street; Jamal Fayid, a thirty-seven-year old paralyzed man who was crushed in the rubble of his home despite his family's pleas to be allowed to remove him; and fourteen-year-old Faris Zaiban, who was killed by Israeli fire as he went to buy groceries during a temporary lifting of the curfew. Some of the deaths also amounted to summary executions. Jamal al- Sabbagh, for example, was shot dead while obeying orders to strip off his clothes.

Refugee Camps and International Protection
Attacks on refugee camps and refugee-populated areas violate international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. Under the Fourth Geneva Conventions and the two Protocols to the Conventions, the Parties to a conflict, including the Occupying Power, must ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population.
Attacks on civilians, including refugees, are expressly prohibited (Article 51, Protocol I; Article 13, Protocol II).
Destruction of real or personal property by the Occupying Power is also expressly prohibited (Article 53, Fourth Geneva Convention). Destruction of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population is prohibited (Article 54, Protocol I; Article 14, Protocol II). It is important to note that the presence of an individual combatant within a civilian population, including refugee camps, does not deprive the population of its civilian status (Article 50, Protocol I).
Attacks on refugee camps also violate a host of basic rights protected under international human rights law. This includes those rights set forth in the International Covenant on Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living (Article 11) and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 12), among others. (See BADIL Report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 23 April 2001 for details).
Finally, attacks on refugee camps violate principles set forth in international refugee law. These principles have been elucidated in several Conclusions issued by the Executive Committee of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The Conclusions include No. 27 (XXXIII), adopted in 1982 in the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, No. 32 (XXXIV) 1983, No. 45 (XXXVII) 1986, No. 48 (XXXVIII) 1987, and No. 72 (XLIV) 1993. Attacks on refugee camps, which are considered to have an exclusively civilian and humanitarian character, are unlawful. States are called upon to investigate violations of the personal security of refugees and institute criminal prosecution against all perpetrators of such violations. States and international bodies are called upon to provide effective physical protection to refugees.

Unemployment
According to the PCBS Labor Force Survey results for the first quarter (January-March 2002), the total number of unemployed persons in the 1967 occupied territories reached 68 percent by the end of March 2002 (including persons who are part of the labor force seeking jobs and those not seeking jobs). The number of households who indicate that finding jobs is their first priority continues to increase (24 percent), preceded only by the number of households indicating that money (31 percent) is their first priority.

By April, however, the most recent Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva [IUED] survey found that 26 percent of respondents reported to be in need of food and 17 percent in need of money indicating that the population had become particularly preoccupied with basic needs for survival. Employment did not appear imp rtant on the list. Since the beginning of the intifada the economic dependency ratio in the 1967 occupied territories has increased by 42 percent (6.8 persons) (PCBS, April 2002). The rate of increase is even higher in the Gaza Strip (49 percent) where the economic dependency rate is 8.8 persons compared to 6.0 in the West Bank. In addition, 54 percent of those Palestinians who are employed receive monthly wages that fall below the poverty line (1642 NIS for a household of two adults and 4 children for 2001). On this page you can learn a rate of 0.001 btc to usd today.

Emergency temporary job creation programs cannot cope with employment needs as long as Israel's military closure, further entrenched through the imposition of a new permit system and the construction of fences and barriers around Palestinian towns and cities, and re-occupation of Palestinian population centers remains in place. According to World Bank analysis from March 2002, the unemployment situation is expected to worsen under these conditions. Camp refugees, in particular, have experienced greater difficulties in mobility over the past 19 months of the intifada and have far fewer opportunities for employment within the limited confines of refugee camps.