Palestinian refugees
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of 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, and make up a large proportion of the Palestinian people. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
In 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East 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 Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians were registered with UNRWA as refugees, of which more than 1.5 million live in UNRWA-run camps. The term "Palestine refugee" does not include internally displaced Palestinians, who became Israeli citizens, or displaced Palestinian Jews. According to some estimates, as many as 1,050,000–1,380,000 people, who descend from displaced people of Mandatory Palestine are not registered under UNRWA or UNHCR mandates.
During the 1948 Palestine War, around 85% of the population or 700,000 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. 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. 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 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. 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 adopted Resolution 194 which affirmed the Palestinians right to return to their homes.
Definitions
UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency 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. 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 or like UNHCR refugees, 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". The Palestine Liberation Organization, 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'. 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 700,000 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. 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. 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. When the Haganah and then the emerging Israeli army 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. Expulsions took place in many towns and villages, particularly along the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road and in Eastern Galilee. About 50,000–70,000 inhabitants of Lydda and Ramle were expelled towards Ramallah by the IDF during Operation Danny, and most others during operations of the IDF in its rear areas. During Operation Dekel, the Arabs of Nazareth and South Galilee were allowed to remain in their homes. 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. 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. 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.
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.Palestinian exodus from Kuwait (Gulf War)
The Palestinian exodus from Kuwait took place during and after the Gulf War. During the Gulf War, more than 200,000 Palestinians voluntarily fled Kuwait during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait due to harassment and intimidation by Iraqi security forces, in addition to getting fired from work by Iraqi authority figures in Kuwait. After the Gulf War, Kuwaiti authorities forcibly pressured nearly 200,000 Palestinians to leave Kuwait in 1991. Kuwait's policy, which led to this exodus, was a response to alignment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization with the dictator Saddam Hussein, who had earlier invaded Kuwait.Prior to the Gulf War, Palestinians numbered 400,000 out of Kuwait's population of 2.2 million. The Palestinians who fled Kuwait were Jordanian citizens. In 2013, there were 280,000 Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin in Kuwait. In 2012, 80,000 Palestinians lived in Kuwait. In total, there are 360,000 Palestinians in Kuwait as of 2012–2013.