In 1949, UNRWA formally defined the term "Palestine refugee" to refer to any Palestinian citizen or the descendant of any male Palestinian citizen who—if their regular place of residence was located within Mandatory Palestine between 1 June 1946 and 15 May 1948—was found to have "lost both home and means of livelihood" during the 1948 Palestine war. While this definition originally included Arab Palestinians displaced from or within Israel as well as Jewish Palestinians displaced from Arab-controlled territory, it ceased to apply to Arabs and Jews who became Israeli citizens in 1952; Arab Palestinians who were displaced from their homes while ultimately remaining within Israeli territory were instead designated as "present absentees" and not subject to UNRWA's jurisdiction. In addition to more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled by Israel before the 1949 Armistice Agreements, another 285,000 to 325,000 Palestinians were displaced due to the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.
As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians were registered with UNRWA as refugees, of whom more than 1.5 million were living in UNRWA-run camps; UNRWA's assistance is limited to Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in the occupied Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip), Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. According to some estimates, as many as 1,050,000 to 1,380,000 people who are descendants of the displaced citizens of Mandatory Palestine are not registered under UNRWA or UNHCR mandates.
Palestinian refugees are the modern world's oldest unsettled refugee population, having been under the ongoing governance of various Arab countries following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the refugee populations of the West Bank under Israeli governance since 1967 and Palestinian Authority administration since the 1995 Oslo II Accord, and the Gaza Strip administered by Hamas since 2007.
Today, the largest number of refugees, over 2,000,000, live in Jordan, where by 2009 over 90% of UNWRA-registered Palestinian refugees had acquired full citizenship rights. This figure consists almost exclusively of West Bank–descended Palestinians; however, as of December 2021, Palestinians with roots in the Gaza Strip are also still kept in legal limbo. In 2021, Jordanian politician Jawad Anani estimated that roughly 50% of Jordan's population had West Bank–Palestinian roots.Menachem Klein, 'The Palestinian refugees of 1948: models of allowed and denied return,' in Dumper, 2006 pp. 87–106, . Another approximately 2,000,000 refugees live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, under Israeli occupation and blockade. Approximately 500,000 refugees live in each of Syria and Lebanon respectively, albeit under very different circumstances. While Palestinian refugees in Syria maintained their stateless status, the Syrian government during Assad's rule afforded them the same economic and social rights enjoyed by Syrian citizens; they were also drafted into the Armed Forces despite not being citizens. Citizenship or legal residency in some host countries is denied, most notably for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, where the absorption of Palestinians would upset a delicate confessional balance. For the refugees themselves, these situations mean they have reduced rights: no right to vote, limited property rights and access to social services, among other things.
On 11 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) adopted Resolution 194 which is understood by some parties to establish a UN position of Palestinian right to return, but this interpretation is contested.
Definitions
UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is an organ of the United Nations established in 1949 for the purpose of aiding those displaced by the Arab–Israeli conflict. It defines a "Palestine refugee" as a person "whose normal place of residence was Mandatory Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli conflict". The Six-Day War of 1967 generated a new wave of Palestinian refugees who could not be included in the original UNRWA definition. From 1991, the UN General Assembly has adopted an annual resolution allowing the 1967 refugees within the UNRWA mandate.Based on UNGA Resolution 46/46 C of 9 December 1991. UNRWA aids all "those living in its area of operations who meet its working definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance" and those who first became refugees as a result of the Six-Day War, regardless whether they reside in areas designated as Palestine refugee camps or in other permanent communities.
A Palestine refugee camp is "a plot of land placed at the disposal of UNRWA by the host government to accommodate Palestine refugees and to set up facilities to cater to their needs". About 1.4 million of registered Palestine refugees, approximately one-third, live in the 58 UNRWA-recognised refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The UNRWA definition does not cover final status. UNRWA's annual budget is approximately $600 million.
Registered descendants of UNRWA Palestine refugees, like "Nansen passport" and "Certificate of Eligibility" holders (the documents issued to those displaced by World War II) or like UNHCR refugees,http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/3ae6b3314.pdf "Thus, a holder of a so-called 'Nansen Passport' or a 'Certificate of Eligibility' issued by the International Refugee Organization must be considered a refugee under the 1951 Convention unless one of the cessation clauses has become applicable to his case or he is excluded from the application of the Convention by one of the exclusion clauses. This also applies to a surviving child of a statutory refugee." inherit the same Palestine refugee status as their male parent. According to UNRWA, "The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including adopted children, are also eligible for registration."
The UNHCR had counted 90,000 refugees by 2014.
Palestinian definitions Palestinians make several distinctions relating to Palestinian refugees. The 1948 refugees and their descendants are broadly defined as "refugees" (laji'un). The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), especially those who have returned and form part of the PNA, but also Palestinian refugee camp residents in Lebanon, repudiate this term, since it implies being a passive victim, and prefer the autonym of 'returnees' (a'idun).Helena Lindholm Schulz, with Juliane Hammer, The Palestinian Diaspora: Formation of Identities and Politics of Homeland, Psychology Press reprint 2003 p. 130. Those who left since 1967, and their descendants, are called nazihun or "displaced persons", though many may also descend from the 1948 group.
Origin of the Palestine refugees
Most Palestinian refugees have retained their refugee status and continue to reside in refugee camps, including within the State of Palestine in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Their descendants form a sizable portion of the Palestinian diaspora.
Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Palestine War
During the 1948 Palestine War, some 700,000The exact number of refugees is disputed. See List of estimates of the Palestinian Refugee flight of 1948 for details. Palestinian Arabs or 85% of the Palestinian Arab population of territories that became Israel fled or were expelled from their homes. Some 30,000 to 50,000 were alive by 2012.
The causes and responsibilities of the exodus are a matter of controversy among historians and commentators of the conflict.Shlaim, Avi, "The War of the Israeli Historians." Center for Arab Studies, 1 December 2003 (retrieved 17 February 2009) While historians agree on most of the events of the period, there remains disagreement as to whether the exodus was the result of a plan designed before or during the war or was an unintended consequence of the war.Benny Morris, 1989, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949, Cambridge University Press; Benny Morris, 1991, 1948 and after; Israel and the Palestinians, Clarendon Press, Oxford; Walid Khalidi, 1992, All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies; Nur Masalha, 1992, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, Institute for Palestine Studies; Efraim Karsh, 1997, Fabricating Israeli History: The "New Historians", Cass; Benny Morris, 2004, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press; Yoav Gelber, 2006, Palestine 1948: War, Escape and the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Oxford University Press; Ilan Pappé, 2006, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld According to historian Benny Morris, the expulsion was planned and encouraged by the Zionist leadership.
According to Morris, between December 1947 and March 1948, around 100,000 Palestine Arabs fled. Among them were many from the higher and middle classes from the cities, who left voluntarily, expecting to return when the Arab states won the war and took control of the country.Benny Morris (2003), pp. 138–139. When the Haganah and then the emerging Israeli army (Israel Defense Forces or IDF) went on the defensive, between April and July, a further 250,000 to 300,000 Palestinian Arabs left or were expelled, mainly from the towns of Haifa, Tiberias, Beit-Shean, Safed, Jaffa and Acre, which lost more than 90 percent of their Arab inhabitants.Benny Morris (2003), p. 262 Expulsions took place in many towns and villages, particularly along the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem roadBenny Morris (2003), pp. 233–240. and in Eastern Galilee.Benny Morris (2003), pp. 248–252. About 50,000–70,000 inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle were expelled towards Ramallah by the IDF during Operation Danny,Benny Morris (2003), pp. 423–436. and most others during operations of the IDF in its rear areas.Benny Morris (2003), p. 438. During Operation Dekel, the Arabs of Nazareth and South Galilee were allowed to remain in their homes.Benny Morris (2003), pp. 415–423. Today they form the core of the Arab Israeli population. From October to November 1948, the IDF launched Operation Yoav to remove Egyptian forces from the Negev and Operation Hiram to remove the Arab Liberation Army from North Galilee during which at least nine events named massacres of Arabs were carried out by IDF soldiers.Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 245. These events generated an exodus of 200,000 to 220,000 Palestinian Arabs. Here, Arabs fled fearing atrocities or were expelled if they had not fled.Benny Morris (2003), p. 492. After the war, from 1948 to 1950, the IDF resettled around 30,000 to 40,000 Arabs from the borderlands of the new Israeli state.Benny Morris (2003), p. 538
Palestinian refugees from Six-Day War
As a result of the Six-Day War, 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from the territories conquered in the Six-Day War by Israel, including the demolished Palestinian villages of Imwas, Yalo, Bayt Nuba, Surit, Beit Awwa, Beit Mirsem, Shuyukh, Jiftlik, Agarith and Huseirat, and the "emptying" of the refugee camps of Aqabat Jabr and Ein as-Sultan.Gerson, 1978, p. 162.UN Doc A/8389 of 5 October 1971. Para 57. appearing in the Sunday Times (London) on 11 October 1970, where reference is made not only to the villages of Jalou, Beit Nuba, and Imwas, also referred to by the Special Committee in its first report, but in addition to villages like Surit, Beit Awwa, Beit Mirsem and El-Shuyoukh in the Hebron area and Jiflik, Agarith and Huseirat, in the Jordan Valley. The Special Committee has ascertained that all these villages have been completely destroyed Para 58. the village of Nebi Samwil was in fact destroyed by Israeli armed forces on 22 March 1971.
Palestinian exodus from Kuwait (Gulf War)