Refugee Protection

The issue of international protection for the Palestinian people in the 1967 occupied territories, including Palestinian refugees who comprise over 50% of the population in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, has continued to be a focal point of refugee mobilization and lobbying. Under international law, all refugees have the right to international protection to ensure access to the full panoply of basic human rights including those associated with durable solutions - i.e., right of return, restitution and compensation - as affirmed in international law. International protection is particularly crucial for refugees when host states are unable or unwilling to protect the rights of refugees.

 Numerous statements and letters issues byPalestinian institutions and community organizations, as well as institutions in and beyond the Arab world, continue to demand international protection for  he Palestinian people in light of Israel's continued military (including the use of F-16 fighter bombers) and economic policies designed to crush the al-Aqsa intifada, the popular uprising that broke out in the occupied Palestinian territories in September 2000.

 During the past three months, approximately 119 Palestinians have been killed (1 April - 24 June 2001) by Israeli military forces, while nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been injured (Data from Palestine Red Crescent Society). During the same period 38 Israeli civilians were killed. (Data from Btselem) Based on research of available data by BADIL 354 out of 514 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces (28 September 2000 - 11 June 2001) are refugees. In its third emergency appeal issued in June 2001, UNRWA estimated that over 50% of those killed and injured are refugees. A study by the University of Geneva cited in the UNRWA report indicates that 59% of Palestinians killed and injured are refugees.

Israel's continued economic siege of the occupied Palestinian territories, and the inability of the Palestinian people, including refugees, to exercise basic economic rights, has had a devastating impact on the Palestinian economy in general and on the livelihood of Palestinian households. Palestinian refugee households (as well as Gaza poor) have been hit even harder, as documented by UNRWA and other international organizations. More than 50% of Palestinians living in camps are now living below Parts of Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza was reconstructed the poverty line.

A recent survey conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) between mid- March and early April 2001 illustrates the devastating impact of Israel's economic siege on Palestinian households in general. The median monthly income has dropped by some 50% from 2300NIS

Impact of Israeli measures on Palestinian refugees 83.5% of refugees in camps stated that lack of mobilitywas a major problem 24% of refugees lost a relative during the crisis 46% of refugees have a relative who is injured18% of refugees have had family property damaged 46% of refugee businesses have suffered Source: University of Geneva Poll, January 2001, cited in UNRWA, Emergency Appeal, Progress Report 5 (1 October 2000 - 30 April 2001). 80% of refugee respondents report a change in children's' behavior as a result of the crisis compared to 67% of non-refugee respondents Source: Birzeit University Poll, cited in UNRWA, Emergency Appeal, Progress Report 5 (1 October 2000 - 30 April 2001).

to 1200NIS putting some 65% of Palestinian households below the poverty line (1,622NIS for a household of two adults and 4 children) for 2000.

Around 11% of households surveyed reported that they had lost their income as a result of the intifada with some 50% reporting a loss in half their income. The number of households in camps under the poverty line was substantially higher at 78.7%. Moreover, some 40% of camp households' income had decreased by more than 75%.

The call and urgent need for international protection assumed heightened relevance in between April and June 2001 as Israel initiated even heavier military attacks on Palestinian refugee camps which are expressly prohibited under international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. Even in cases where a combatant in a conflict is within a refugee camp, it does not deprive the refugee camp of its civilian character.

 alestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been subjected to indiscriminate and targeted attacks by Israeli military forces since the beginning of the al- Aqsa intifada. An attack on Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in early April (known as "Operation Enjoyable Song") resulted in the destruction of some 30 refugee shelters leaving some 50 families homeless. In the early morning hours of 2 May at least 17 homes were demolished when Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered Brazil quarter, a refugee neighborhood near Rafah Camp in southern Gaza.

In both attacks Palestinian refugees, including children, were killed and injured. In the early morning hours of 23 June, the Israeli military destroyed three Palestinian homes in central Gaza and some 15 homes in Rafah in the south, displacing around 19 families.
Due to ongoing absence of physical protection and the heavy damage sustained by refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as reported in the last issue of al-Majdal, UNRWA has increased provision of resources towards emergency shelter assistance and repair.

As of 31 March 2001, the Agency had identified some 250 refugee shelters in Gaza that had been damaged as a result of Israeli shelling. In the West Bank, some 424 refugee families have received assistance from the Agency to repair damaged shelters. In mid-March the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) started distributing non-food assistance to families whose homes were destroyed by Israeli military forces in the Gaza Strip since October 2000. The ICRC's House Destruction Relief Programme, was intensified and systematized in March to cope with homeless families and provide them with tents, blankets and other essential household goods.

These attacks on refugee camps, orchestrated by the government of Ariel Sharon and carried out by the Israeli military, follow in a long line of attacks lead by Sharon against Palestinian refugees. These include a 1953 attack on Bureij refugee camp in Gaza in which as many as 43 refugees were killed, the mass demolition of refugee shelters in Gaza in the early 1970s which left around 900 refugee families homeless, and the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut in which several thousand refugees were killed.

For more details on the protection of refugee camps see BADIL Occasional Bulletin No. 6 archived on the BADIL website, www.badil.org/ Publications/Bulletins/Bulletins.htm

Protection and the UN
While there is increasing recognition of the severalgaps in international protection for Palestinians, including Palestinian refugees, considerable work remains to be done in identifying specific protection gaps, geographical areas in which the gaps are most prominent, design of mechanisms to respond to the protection needs not currently covered by the international community, and, importantly, political mobilization in order to pressure the international community to take immediate action.

During its 57th spring session in Geneva, the UN Commission on Human Rights adopted several resolutions condemning the indiscriminate and excessive use of force by Israel in the 1967 occupied territories and urged the United Nations to consider urgently the most effectively ways to ensure international protection for the Palestinian people (See, for example, E/CN.4/RES/2001/7, 18 April 2001).

The report of the UN Committee of Inquiry (Falk/ Dugard/Hussein Committee) and resolutions issued by the UN Commission on Human Rights remain without follow-up. Despite the dramatic increasein Israel's military and economic siege of the occupied Palestinian territories, no further initiatives for international protection forces have been brought before the Security Council since the United States veto of a draft resolution (S/2001/270) in March 2001.

 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) continues to provide a level of protection within its mandate through its Closure Relief and House Demolition Relief Programs. In May 2001 the head of the ICRC delegation based in Tel Aviv, briefing foreign diplomats acknowledged openly that settlements were grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore considered as war crimes. The comment provoked a heated backlash from Israel and pro-Israel congressmen in the United States leading the President of the ICRC Jacob Kellenberger to issue a partial apology.

Israeli settlements have been referred to as war crimes since the early 1970s by the UN Commission on Human Rights. (See, for example, Resolution No. 3, XXVIII, 22 March 1972) While UNRWA does not have a formal protection mandate, the Agency continues to play a role, particularly in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, in providing protection of basic social and economic rights through its emergency assistance program.

A March survey conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (See the PCBS website: www.pcbs.org) revealed that some 60% of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories were receiving assistance from UNRWA. See Refugee Assistance for more on UNRWA The issue of international protection and Palestinian refugee rights was also raised at the 25th Session of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Geneva in late April and early May 2001.

The Committee meets three times annually in order to monitor state compliance with obligations assumed under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. BADIL prepared and submitted a second followup report to the Committee. BADIL's November 2000 submission to the CESCR identified three main Israeli violations of Covenant-protected rights of Palestinian refugees, i.e., obstruction of the right of return, obstruction of the right to restitution, and obstruction of the right of self-determination.

In its follow-up submission to the Committee in April- May 2001, BADIL supplied the Committee with additional information and requested the Committee: 1 ) To strengthen its 1998 Concluding Observations regarding Israel by clearly identifying Israeli violations of the three core, foundational rights of the Palestinian refugees as breaches of the Covenant; 2) To identify appropriate remedies required for Israel to come into compliance with its Covenant obligations, namely: annulment/ amendment of Israel's discriminatory Nationality Law (1952) in order to grant effective right of return and citizenship status to all Palestinians exiled from areas under Israel's sovereign control; annulment of all illegal Israeli land confiscation laws and restitution of properties to their rightful owners; return and restitution, as well as the immediate cessation of Israel's military occupation in the 1967 occupied territories, as a condition for the exercise of the Palestinian people's right to selfdetermination enshrined in Article 1 of the Covenant; 3) To identify specific Covenant mechanisms for implementing the above-mentioned remedies, namely: to inform other UN organs, especially ECOSOC [spell out] and the Commission on Human Rights, about the graveness of Israel's Covenant breaches; and to request UN organs with an enforcement mandate to take action for the international protection of Palestinian rights enshrined in the Covenant.

It was argued that by violating these core foundational rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced Palestinians, Israel completely violates the remaining set of Covenant-enumerated social, economic, and cultural rights of Palestinian refugees. A joint letter with other NGOs was submitted to the Committee regarding Israel's violation of the Economic, Social and Cultural rights of the Palestinian people in Israel and in the occupied.

A joint letter with other NGOs was submitted tothe Committee regarding Israel's violation of the Economic, Social and Cultural rights of the Palestinian people in Israel and in the occupiedterritories while individual committee members were lobbied. The Committee underlined its deep concern over Israel's gross violations of the economic, social and cultural rights of Palestinians under Israel's jurisdiction by taking action on two levels.

First, the Committee issued a letter to the Israeli Mission in Geneva stating its grave concern over Israel's violation of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and the expropriation and devastation of Palestinian lands. The Committee declared Israel's argument that jurisdiction, and thus obligations, have been transferred to the Palestinian Authority as "not valid from the perspective of theCovenant, particularly in view of Israel currently besieging all the Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967." Israel was informed that its compliance with the Covenant would be re-examined in the Committee's next session scheduled for August
2001.

Secondly, in an unprecedented move, the Committee alerted the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the main UN supervisory body on human rights issues, of Israel's violations. The Committee drew attention to the fact that it "remains limited in the enforcement aspect required to maintain the integrity of the Covenant in such a situation" and that enforcement action was necessary from other bodies of the internationalsystem. The Committee underscored the need for