Palestinian Refugees
Palestinian refugees are Palestinians who among the Palestinian diaspora , have a special status of recognized refugees by UNRWA. Contrary to the status of refugee given since 1945 by the UN to other populations displaced during the conflicts in the world, the status of Palestinian refugees includes not only all the people who lived in Mandatory Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and who left their region following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949 , but also includes their descendants. And their number has multiplied by 5 to 50 years. The problem of Palestinian refugees arises for several decades, this population has not been absorbed in the population of the host country and in the absence of definitive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The "return" of this population in the territories now claimed by Israel is Palestinian leaders, while the Israelis refuse in their great majority, fearing a demographic imbalance in their country.
Summary |
Background information
Palestine according to the UN in 1947 (Partition Plan) and the events of 1948
After decades of conflict between Jewish nationalism ( Zionism ) and Arab nationalism Palestine, the UN decided in 1947 to share the Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state (55% of Palestine) and an Arab state (resolution 181 of the General Assembly the UN ).
The Arabs of Palestine refused sharing. By the end of November 1947 the first armed clashes erupt between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.
On 14 May 1948 , the State of Israel proclaimed its independence.
From the 15 May 1948 , the armies of five Arab states enter the territory of the former Palestine Mandate , and announced their intention to destroy the new state of Israel. The war is won by Israel, and concludes with a series of cease-fire (for the last in March 1949).
The year 1948 is for the Israelis, the year of the creation of a national state.
The Palestinian Arabs, meanwhile, will refer to as the Nakba, the catastrophe, symbolizing the separation of what they regard as their homeland, and the cause of their exodus.
War has affected regional and demographic
- On the territorial level, the Jewish state sees its area from 55% (UN plan) to 77% of the former Palestine Mandate. The remaining 23% did not give birth to a Palestinian state. The Egypt occupies indeed the Gaza Strip (excluding annexes), while Jordan annexed the West Bank. Palestinian nationalists also denounced what they see as collusion between Jordan and Israel to prevent the birth of their state.
- Demographically, 750 000 to 800 000 Palestinians take the road of exile, fleeing the Israeli army, or driven by it (see below).
Refugee camps are built in emergency:
- in the West Bank partial (part on the left bank of the Jordan , the territory of those doomed to be the Arab State in Palestine under the partition plan of 1947, and occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 and then by Israel since the Six Wars days.
- in the Gaza Strip (territory of those doomed to be the Arab State in Palestine under the partition plan of 1947, and occupied by Egypt from 1948 to 1967 and then by Israel since the War of the 6 days).
- in neighboring Arab countries ( plan ).
A UN agency responsible for assistance to refugees is created: UNRWA.
The return of Palestinian refugees are denied by Israel, while political asylum and citizenship were granted in dribs and drabs by Arab countries (except Jordan).
These refugees and their descendants are estimated in 2005 to 4 million, excluding the Arab Palestinians in the diaspora who have acquired foreign citizenship.
The Palestinians accuse Israel of being inflexible on the issue of refugees while Israel accuses the Arab countries to maintain hope for a right of return and to refuse a real standardization.
Controversy about the origin of the problem
Three versions of history compete today on this subject.
For a large part of Israeli historians, until the opening of state archives in 1988 , the departure of the Palestinians is mainly due to calls from local dignitaries, with a view to returning victorious at the end of the war. Some historians are still committed to this approach. The Israeli approach "classic" For the first "school", the Israeli government reportedly asked the Palestinians to stay home and said they would have full civil rights in Israel. As for the call of Arab leaders to local people, they insist on evidence that can be gathered on this subject: Interview with Mahmoud Darwish , Palestinian poet, directed by Farouk Nardam Bey and Elias Sanbar (Journal of Palestine Studies, No. 10, Winter l984) Extract from Bulletin of the REMP (Research Group for European Migration Problems January-March 1957) in The Hague (p. 10-it): Egyptian Evidence. (El-Yom, Cairo newspaper 12/04/1963): Extract from the Memoirs of Haled alAzrn (1973), Prime Minister of Syria in 1948 and 1949, published in Beirut: There were 900,000 Arabs who lived in areas that will be included within the boundaries established by Israel in 1948-1949 (73% of Mandate Palestine ). They were therefore more likely than Jews in 1948 (approximately 700 000 people). The Jewish state could exist only on the express condition that the expulsion of Palestinians. The " Plan Dalet "or" Plan D "adopted by the Jewish Agency and the Haganah in January and implemented from March 1948, provides for" operations against enemy population centers located within our defense system at or near to prevent their being used as bases by an active armed force. These operations can be conducted in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting them on fire, the dynamite and dropping mines in their debris), especially in the case of population centers are difficult to control, or in the amount of search operations and control according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and survey the interior. In case of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population expelled outside the borders of the state " Officially, the "Plan D" had limited objectives: securing the Jewish areas. It did not apply to the entire Palestinian territory, and the planned evictions were conditional (in case of resistance). But for the Palestinian historians, it clearly indicates that a policy of deportation was pending. For them, the "Plan D" is only the most famous of this policy. The intervention of Aharon Zisling, Minister of Agriculture to Cabinet on 17 November 1948 is also often cited "I could not sleep that night. What's going hurts my soul, my family and that of all of us (...). Now Jews too have behaved like Nazis and my entire being is shaken. " The school, whose first and most famous representative is Benny Morris , has wanted to work village by village, in: According to Benny Morris , of the 369 Arab villages of the Israeli state and the areas that came under Israeli control during the war: On these departures, we must add about 70,000 people, mostly members of the middle class and bourgeoisie, who left in the weeks that followed the outbreak of fighting (from late November 1947), and before the war it itself. They are left voluntarily, to await the end of fighting. Benny Morris and other historians have also denied the same current, following their research in radio archives, a general call for Arab authorities initially by radio. This appeal was affirmed by Israeli historians "classic." Benny Morris has released a "plus" in his landmark book (The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem) in 2003. He leans on new material, especially on the archives of the Israeli Defense Forces ( IDF ), opened after 50 years. In this new version, Benny Morris says he found evidence that "the Arab Higher Committee and the intermediate levels have issued orders to evacuate the children, women and old people from their villages." 1967, the Six-Day War In 1967 , after the Six Day War , Israel occupied the Sinai, Gaza, West Bank (including East Jerusalem ) and the Golan Heights. Approximately 300,000 additional Palestinians fled to Jordan. Some are refugees from 1948, others are recent refugees. The region of the Jordan Valley, in particular, neighboring Jordan, virtually emptied of its entire population. 100 000 Syrians leave the Golan Heights and took refuge in Syria. Source: the website of UNRWA (UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees). March 2005 estimates. These refugees are those registered with UNRWA, but there are also Palestinians, descendants of refugees who are no longer registered. They are found especially in the Persian Gulf countries. They would thus be 500 000 in Saudi Arabia , and 400 000 in Kuwait (estimated late 2004). There are also between 150,000 and 200,000 Palestinians in the U.S. and between 50 000 and 80 000 in Egypt (estimated in 2000) . Refugees from Jordan have Jordanian nationality. Those from other countries generally do not have the nationality of their country of residence and are known only as "Palestinian refugees". A period of political negotiations has emerged in recent years through the Oslo Accords in 1993 and their schedule in subsequent years. However, after the stalled negotiations in 2000, the conflict resumed violently throughout the Second Intifada. Indeed, in 2000, at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has proposed the creation of a Palestinian state on almost all of the West Bank, the return of 100 000 refugees and solutions for all other compensation. But Palestinian leaders have refused any concession on the right of return for refugees. In 2000, the Israeli government objected to this choice, fearing that the influx of refugees caused an economic crisis and the abandonment of the Jewish character of Israel. Beyond the historical debates on the conditions of the departure of Palestinians, the refugee situation has crystallized from the time the State of Israel has refused to return them to the new state guarantee a Jewish majority. This policy has been created shortly after the establishment of the State, in the middle of 1948 Palestine war. In December 1948 the law on "absentee property" allows the seizure of property of any person "absent." It defines an "Away" as a person who "during the period from November 29, 1947 September 1, 1948, was located somewhere else in the territory of Israel, or having attempted to prevent the establishment of the State of Israel or who fought after its creation. The ancient Arab villages are entrusted to the discretion of the Ministry of Finance: Ownership Act of absentees (1950). The Israeli legislator has given all rights on immovable and movable property in the Ministry of Finance (Section 2). The latter designates a Custodian (Administrator) which is supposed to manage (Article 7) and keep the property for the benefit of the absent (Article 9). Denying any claim of right of return, Israeli governments have paralleled the Palestinian refugee issue with other refugee crises in the twentieth century , including that of Jewish refugees fleeing Arab countries. No exodus of refugees has never resulted in a return. Generally opposed the return of refugees (Ben Gurion, however, propose to reacceptance 100 000), Israel will also make proposals for compensation under the peace accords. These proposals will be rejected. Arab countries refuse any integration of Palestinian refugees, preferring to park in the camps and let the wound bleed as an accusation against Israel alive. The thesis of the "new Israeli historians"
Current Status
Demographic Estimates
Places Living in camps Living outside camps Total Jordan 283 183 1 497 518 1 780 701 Lebanon 210 952 189 630 400 582 Syria 112 882 311 768 424 650 West Bank 181 241 506 301 687 542 Gaza Strip 471 555 490 590 961 645 Total 1 259 813 2 995 307 4 255 120 The Palestinian claims
The Israeli law on the return of refugees
See also
Bibliography
Filmography
References
External Links
Loading ...