Palestinian refugees
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In 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations. Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village, or house during the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) defined Palestinian refugees to refer to the original "Palestine refugees" as well as their patrilineal descendants. However, UNRWA's assistance is limited to Palestine refugees residing in UNRWA's areas of operation in the Occupied Palestinian Territoriy, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.[1][2]
During the 1948 Palestine War, around 85% of the population or 700,000[fn 1] Palestinian Arabs, living in the area that became Israel fled or were expelled from their homes, to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and to the countries of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.[3] They, and their descendants who are also entitled to registration, are assisted by UNWRA in 59 registered camps, ten of which were established in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967 to cope with the new wave of displaced Palestinians.[4] They are also the world's oldest unsettled refugee population, having been under the ongoing governance of Arab states following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the refugee populations of the West Bank under Israeli governance since the Six-Day War and Palestinian administration since 1994, and the Gaza Strip administered by the Islamic Resistance Movement (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;[a] 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.[b][5][6][7][8] 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 afforded them the same economic and social rights enjoyed by Syrian citizens;[9] they are also drafted into the Armed Forces despite not being citizens.[10][11] 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.
Places and populations
| District | Number of depopulated villages | Number of refugees in 1948 | Number of refugees in 2000 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beersheba | 88 | 90,507 | 590,231 | |||
| Beisan | 31 | 19,602 | 127,832 | |||
| Jenin | 6 | 4,005 | 26,118 | |||
| Haifa | 59 | 121,196 | 790,365 | |||
| Hebron | 16 | 22,991 | 149,933 | |||
| Ramle | 64 | 97,405 | 635,215 | |||
| Safad | 78 | 52,248 | 340,729 | |||
| Tiberias | 26 | 28,872 | 188,285 | |||
| Tulkarm | 18 | 11,032 | 71,944 | |||
| Acre | 30 | 47,038 | 306,753 | |||
| Gaza | 46 | 79,947 | 521,360 | |||
| Jerusalem | 39 | 97,950 | 638,769 | |||
| Nazareth | 5 | 8,746 | 57,036 | |||
| Jaffa | 25 | 123,227 | 803,610 | |||
| Total | 531 | 804,766 | 5,248,185 | |||
| Demography of Palestine | ||||||
The number of UNRWA registered Palestine refugees by country or territory in January 2015 were as follows:[12]
| Jordan | 2,117,361 |
| Gaza Strip | 1,276,929 |
| West Bank | 774,167 |
| Syria | 528,616 |
| Lebanon | 452,669 |
| Total | 5,149,742 |
Related pages
- Nakba
- Palestinian refugee camps
- 1948 Palestinian exodus
- Gaza Strip evacuations
- Palestinian Exodus 1949 to 1956
- 1967 Palestinian exodus
- Gaza genocide
- Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus
- Palestinian exodus from Kuwait (Gulf War)
- Refugees of the Syrian Civil War
- Palestinian genocide accusation
- Refugee camp airstrikes in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Notes
- ↑ The exact number of refugees is disputed. See List of estimates of the Palestinian Refugee flight of 1948 for details.
References
- ↑ Susan Akram (2011). International law and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taylor & Francis. pp. 19–20, 38. ISBN 978-0415573221.
The term 'refugees' applies to all persons, Arabs, Jews and others who have been displaced from their homes in Palestine. This would include Arabs in Israel who have been shifted from their normal places of residence. It would also include Jews who had their homes in Arab Palestine, such as the inhabitants of the Jewish quarter of the Old City. It would not include Arabs who lost their lands but not their houses, such as the inhabitants of Tulkarm
- ↑ "Consolidated Eligibility and Registration Instructions" (PDF). UNRWA.
Persons who meet UNRWA's Palestine Refugee criteria These are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict. Palestine Refugees, and descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are eligible to register for UNRWA services. The Agency accepts new applications from persons who wish to be registered as Palestine Refugees. Once they are registered with UNRWA, persons in this category are referred to as Registered Refugees or as Registered Palestine Refugees.
- ↑ Morris 2001, pp. 252–258.
- ↑ UNRWA: In the aftermath of the hostilities of June 1967 and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ten camps were established to accommodate a new wave of displaced persons, both refugees and non-refugees.
- ↑ Davis, Hanna (18 December 2021). "Jordan: Palestinian refugees struggle amid UNRWA funding cuts". Al-Jazeera English.
- ↑ James G. Lindsay (January 2009). "Fixing UNRWA" (PDF). Policy Focus (91). The Washington Institute for Near East Policy: 52 (see footnote 11). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 July 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
- ↑ Brynen, Rex (2006). Perspectives on Palestinian repatriation. Palestinian Refugee Repatriation: Global Perspectives. Taylor & Francis. pp. 63–86 [66, 80]. ISBN 978-0415384971. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
- ↑ Menachem Klein, 'The Palestinian refugees of 1948: models of allowed and denied return,' in Dumper, 2006 pp. 87–106, [93].
- ↑ "Treatment and Rights in Arab Host States (Right to Return". Human Rights Watch Policy. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
Unlike Jordan, Syria has maintained the stateless status of its Palestinians but has afforded them the same economic and social rights enjoyed by Syrian citizens. According to a 1956 law, Palestinians are treated as if they are Syrians "in all matters pertaining to...the rights of employment, work, commerce, and national obligations". As a consequence, Palestinians in Syria do not suffer from massive unemployment or underemployment
- ↑ "Profiles: Palestinian Refugees in SYRIA". BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
- ↑ Bolongaro, Kait (23 March 2016). "Palestinian Syrians: Twice refugees - Human Rights". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
- ↑ "UNRWA in figures" (PDF). UNRWA.