issue 26 August 2006 Palestinian displacement: a case apart? Published by the Refugee Studies Centre in association with the Norwegian Refugee Council. Forced Migration Review Corinne Owen from Forced Migration Review provides a forum for the regular exchange of practical the experience, information and ideas between researchers, refugees and internally editors displaced people, and those who work with them. It is published in English, This issue of FMR was planned long before the humanitarian crisis which has Spanish, Arabic and French by the Refugee displaced 20% of the Lebanese population. Articles look beyond the current events Studies Centre, University of Oxford. to what most international observers regard as the root causes of conflict and displacement in the Middle East. The protracted nature of the displacement, the Editors complexity of the means used to dispossess Palestinians and the apparent double Marion Couldrey & Dr Tim Morris standards of the international community do indeed make this a case apart. From high points in the West Bank it is possible to see across Israel/Palestine Editorial Assistant – from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean. The articles in this issue discuss how Musab Hayatli displacement from this tiny sliver of land has had and continues to have far-reaching global consequences. The great majority of the seven million Palestinian refugees still Assistant live within 100km of the borders of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where Sharon Ellis their homes of origin are located. They are refugees because Israel – committed to a permanent Jewish majority and granting citizenship to any member of the Jewish diaspora – denies Palestinians their basic human right to return to their homes of Forced Migration Review origin. Palestinians may be the world’s largest refugee population, yet hardly any of Refugee Studies Centre them register on the global refugee tally kept by UNHCR as their initial displacement Department of International Development predates the 1951 Geneva Convention and the establishment of the refugee agency. 3 Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK Email: [email protected] The fact that the Palestinian refugee crisis continues to fester represents perhaps Tel/fax: +44 (0)1865 280700 the gravest failure of the UN since its foundation. The international community Skype: fmreview has not exerted sufficient political will to advance durable solutions consistent with international law and Security Council resolutions requiring Israel to withdraw Copyright and disclaimer from occupied Palestinian territory. Durable solutions for displaced Palestinians Opinions in FMR do not necessarily reflect the have been discussed without reference to the legal norms applied in other refugee views of the Editors or the Refugee Studies Centre cases. Refugee rights, entitlements to compensation or restitution and the rights or the Norwegian Refugee Council. Any FMR print to protection of those Palestinians living under continued military occupation were or online material may be freely reproduced, not central to the now-moribund Oslo peace process – nor are they part of the provided that acknowledgement is given to the source and, where possible, the FMR URL and/or subsequent US-sponsored ‘Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two- the article-specific URL. We welcome comments State Solution’. In the absence of progress towards a durable solution, creeping on the content and layout of FMR – please email, annexation continues unchecked. Upon completion of Israel’s Wall, Palestinians in write or use the form on our homepage. the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be restricted to a series of non-contiguous enclaves which constitute an eighth of the area of historic Palestine. Despite pro-democracy Website rhetoric, Western response to the internationally-validated Palestinian legislative www.fmreview.org elections in January 2006 has sparked a politically-induced crisis and crippled the Palestinian economy. Ordinary Palestinians are suffering as donors freeze funding Designed by required to maintain humanitarian assistance and development programmes. Art24 (www.art-24.co.uk) It has been considerably harder than usual to raise funds for this FMR – even before the Lebanon emergency. We are therefore all the more grateful for financial Printed by support from the A M Qattan Foundation, Interpal, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Save the Children (UK), the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme on Lazergraphic (PVT) Ltd, Sri Lanka Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in the Middle East, the Sultan of Oman and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) . ISSN 1460-9819 We owe a debt of gratitude to all the authors, especially those who found time to Front cover photo: write for us and consider our editing suggestions whilst responding to humanitarian crises in Gaza and Lebanon. This issue – and the funding which has enabled us to The eight-metre-high concrete Wall surrounds the West Bank town of Qalqilya. get this copy to you – would not have been possible without assistance from Jennifer Paul Jeffrey/ACT International Loewenstein, Abbas Shiblak, Angela Godfrey-Goldstein and Elizabeth Cabal. The theme of the next issue of FMR – to be published in English in November Free CD-ROM: – will be ‘Sexual violence in conflict and beyond’. The April 2007 issue will include a feature section on ‘Strengthening Southern protection and assistance capacity’. Regular readers of FMR See www.fmreview.org/forthcoming.htm. We would welcome articles on Lebanon. will receive, with this issue, a Guide to International Human Rights Some of you may be receiving FMR for the first time. We publish in English, Arabic, Mechanisms for IDPs and their Advocates, Spanish and French. If you would like to receive future issues – or to receive more courtesy of the Brookings-Bern Project on copies – please contact us (using details opposite or the form on the back cover). Internal Displacement. For more copies, email [email protected] With our best wishes Marion Couldrey and Tim Morris Editors, Forced Migration Review contents Civil society responds to protection gap Palestinian displacement by Vivienne Jackson ....................................................................... 42 Lebanon: civilians pay the price European aid to vulnerable Palestinians Tomas C Archer ................................................................................ 4 by Daniela Cavini ............................................................................44 Who are Palestinian refugees? Reparations for Palestinian refugees by Terry M Rempel ............................................................................ 5 by Lena El-Malak ............................................................................ 46 Stateless Palestinians The politics of Palestinian refugee participation by Abbas Shiblak ............................................................................. 8 by Juliette Abu-Iyun and Nora Lester Murad ................................ 47 UNRWA: assisting Palestine refugees in a Negotiating checkpoints in Palestine challenging environment by Sheerin Al Araj ........................................................................... 49 by Greta Gunnarsdóttir .................................................................. 10 Policing thought on Palestine ..................................................... 50 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon What future for young Palestinians in Jordan? by Sherif Elsayed-Ali .......................................................................13 by Jason Hart .................................................................................. 51 No freedom, no future: undocumented Palestinian refugees in Lebanon by Cynthia Petrigh ..........................................................................15 General articles Immobile Palestinians: ongoing plight of Gazans in Jordan Clarifying local integration by Oroub el Abed ............................................................................ 17 by Sarah Meyer ............................................................................... 52 Is Gaza still occupied territory? UNHCR’s observations to the High-Level Dialogue by Iain Scobbie ...............................................................................18 on International Migration and Development ........................... 53 Can Palestinian refugees in Iraq find protection? Mediterranean migration: by Gabriela Wengert and Michelle Alfaro ..................................... 19 the need for a comprehensive response by Erika Feller .................................................................................54 Territorial fragmentation of the West Bank by David Shearer ............................................................................ 22 The false panacea of offshore deterrence by James C Hathaway .................................................................... 56 Identity and movement control in the OPT by Jennifer Loewenstein ................................................................ 24 Rule of law in Sudan’s Three Areas by Sebastien Gouraud ................................................................... 58 ‘Quiet transfer’ in East Jerusalem nears completion by Elodie Guego .............................................................................. 26 Right to education in South Darfur by Katherine Reid ........................................................................... 60 The message of the bulldozers by Jeff Halper