Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons 2013
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BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Editorial Team: Residency and Refugee Rights is an independent, human rights non-profit BADIL Nidal al-Azza, Amaya al-Orzza organization mandated to protect and Survey of promote the rights of Palestinian refugees Copy Edit: and internally displaced persons. Our “The BADIL Biennial Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons is such Simon Reynolds vision, mission, programs and relationships an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this situation, providing an authoritative and are defined by our Palestinian identity fact-based comprehensive overview, as well as a sensitive appreciation of the deep roots of Palestinian Refugees Research Team: and the principles of international law, in the refugee ordeal. Underlying Palestinian suffering is the dismal and inexcusable failure of Brona Ni Uigin, Manar Makhoul, Amaya al- particular international human rights law. the international community to find a fair and sustainable solution to the underlying conflict, Orzza, Katrien De Bock, Ricardo Santos, and in the interim, to at minimum make Israel accountable for upholding its most fundamental We seek to advance the individual and Wassim Ghantous, Halima El-Obaydyia, and obligations under international law that would include desisting from the expansion of its unlawful Surveyand of collective rights of the Palestinian people settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. This Survey should be read with admiration by Medhini Kumar on this basis. anyone concerned with global justice, as well as used as an indispensable resource by those of Palestinian Refugees us acting in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for rights throughout the world.” Forewords: BADIL Resource Center was established in Richard Falk Internally Displacedand Persons Richard Falk, Riccardo Bocco and Jeff January 1998 based on recommendations Handmaker issued by a series of popular refugee Professor of International Law and Former Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Internally Displaced Persons conferences in the West Bank and Gaza 2013 - 2015 Demographic Statistics: Strip. BADIL is registered with the Mustafa Khawaja Palestinian Authority and legally owned 2013 - 2015 by the refugee community represented by Layout & Design: a General Assembly composed of human “The 8th Survey of Palestinian Refugees and IDPs confirms BADIL’s strong commitment to an Volume VIII Survey ofSurvey Atallah Salem rights defenders and activists in Palestinian international law and human rights-based approach to a just, permanent and durable solution to Volume VIII civil society, national institutions and the plight of two thirds of the Palestinian population worldwide. refugee community organizations. The volume should be of utmost interest for those, among international donors and political decision makers, who claim taking into account the needs and views of aid beneficiaries and Refugees Palestinian local stakeholders. Since perceptions command behaviours, an added value of the 8th Survey resides in the results of the opinion polls conducted among Palestinian refugees from Gaza, the BADIL has consultative status with UN West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon (including a sample of Palestinian refugees who fled Syria).” ECOSOC (a framework partnership Cover photo: Riccardo Bocco A Palestinian woman looks from the window of agreement with UNHCR), a member Professor of Political Sociology at The Graduate Institute, Geneva. her 67-year old shelter in the al-Shati refugee of the PHROC (Palestinian Human camp in Gaza City, 15 May 2015 (©Mohammed Rights Organizations Council), PNGO Abed/BADIL). (Palestinian NGO Network), OPGAI (Occupied Palestine and GolanHeights Advocacy Initiative), Global Palestinian “It is striking that the BADIL Survey explicitly engages with international law, confirming BADIL’s and All rights reserved Refugee Network, Al-Awda Right longstanding position that legal frameworks are crucial to resolving the decades-old impasse © BADIL Resource Center Internally Displaced Persons to Return Coalition, HIC-Habitat between Israel and the Palestinian people. The Survey notes that numerous efforts to find peace for Palestinian Residency International Coalition, CRIN (Child on the basis of ‘discovering common ground’ have failed miserably, and with bloody consequences. and Refugee Rights Rights Information Network), ICVA As the Survey vividly shows, these efforts have failed primarily because of the unwillingness of (International Council of Voluntary peacemakers to recognize massive legal, social and economic inequalities, revealing a highly P.O.Box: 728, Bethlehem, Palestine Agencies), ICNP (International unprincipled approach to peace-making that abandons basic international law principles.” Tel-Fax: +972-2-274-7346 Coordinating Network on Palestine) and Jeff Handmaker Website: www.badil.org the ECCP (the European Coordination Senior lecturer in Law, Human Rights and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies of of Committees and Associations for Erasmus University Rotterdam and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Law, University of the Palestine). Witwatersrand. BADIL Resource Center 2013 - 2015 for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights BADIL has consultative status with UN ECOSOC BADIL بـديــل المركز الفلسطيني Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights لمصادر حقوق المواطنة والﻻجئين i BADIL has consultative status with UN ECOSOC BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons Vol VIII 2013-2015 184 Pages, 30 c.m. ISSN: 1728-1679 Editorial Team: Nidal al-Azza, Amaya al-Orzza Copy Edit: Simon Reynolds Research Team: Brona Ni Uigin, Manar Makhoul, Amaya al-Orzza, Katrien De Bock, Ricardo Santos, Wassim Ghantous, Halima El-Obaydyia, and Medhini Kumar Forewords: Richard Falk, Riccardo Bocco and Jeff Handmaker Demographic Statistics: Mustafa Khawaja Layout & Design: Atallah Salem Printing: Al-Ayyam Printing, Press, Publishing and Distribution Conmpany Cover Photo: A Palestinian woman looks from the window of her 67-year old shelter in the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, 15 May 2015 (©Mohammed Abed/BADIL). Aknowledgment: BADIL would like to thank all field coordinators and researchers who contributed to the production of this survey. BADIL would also like to appreciate all the advisory comments provided by members of BADIL’s network of specialists and experts. All rights reserved © BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights P.O.Box: 728, Bethlehem, Palestine Tel-Fax: 972-2-274-7346 Website: www.badil.org ii ABOUT THIS SURVEY BADIL Resource Center for Residency and Refugee Rights (BADIL) has published the Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons since 2002. This edition of the Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (Volume VIII) focuses on Palestinian refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the period between 2013 and 2015. Unless stated otherwise, statistical data and estimates of the size of this population have been updated in accordance with figures from the end of 2014. This edition of the Survey is unique as it addresses Palestinian refugees’ perceptions and knowledge of international protection of refugees, and that of Palestinian refugees in particular. Protection encompasses “all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of the relevant bodies of law (i.e. human rights law, international humanitarian law and refugee law)”.1 With respect to refugee protection in particular, protection activities must also include the pursuit of a durable solution to the refugee plight; a solution which amounts to voluntary repatriation, or - where repatriation, being the optimum solution, is impossible - local integration or resettlement. Furthermore, measures to ensure the physical security of refugees must be accompanied by measures which aim to ensure their legal security. However, a separate and, ultimately, deficient framework of protection applies to those Palestinian refugees who are registered with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and who account for the majority of Palestinian refugees worldwide. This system has resulted in a ‘protection gap’ being experienced by Palestinian refugees, characterized by the continued failure of Israel, individual third states and the international community as a whole to ensure the provision of comprehensive standards of protection to which Palestinian refugees are entitled. This publication will thus explore the substantive elements of displacement and the methods employed in the displacement of Palestinians – both historically and contemporarily – as well as the international framework of protection for refugees in general, with a particular focus on the framework uniquely applicable to Palestinian refugees. Further, the ‘protection gap’ and its consequent impacts on Palestinian Refugees will be explored throughout the survey, conducted on a sample group of over 3000 refugees from 24 refugee camps. The need to consider and contextualize Palestinian refugees and IDPs and their protection (or lack thereof) - 67 years since the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) and 48 years since Israel’s belligerent occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip - is derived