Press Releases

Since 1948, the Palestinian people have been exposed to systematic and ongoing forcible displacement and transfer. This forced displacement and transfer is coupled with the denial of the right to reparations. As such the mechanisms, policies and practices employed by Israel have created, maintained and augmented the displaced Palestinian population. Currently, Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) constitute 8.7 million[1] - 67 percent of the Palestinian people. This dilemma is exacerbated by an ever-expanding protection gap resulting from a deterioration in and absence of existing protection mechanisms and the unwillingness of the international community to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities towards the Palestinian people.  
 
Israel has and continues to use both types of force to continually displace and dispossess the indigenous Palestinian population: the force derived from armed/violent conflict and the creation of coercive environment. Mass ethnic cleansing of large Palestinian populations occurred in 1948 and 1967. Alternatively, the creation (and maintenance) of a coercive environment is perpetrated by multiple policies that deny fundamental human rights and results in continuous and almost invisible forcible displacement and transfer of smaller groups.[2]
 
Israeli displacement and transfer are coupled with the ongoing denial of the right to reparations[3] (i.e. voluntary repatriation, property restitution, compensation and guarantees of non-repetition) either directly or indirectly. For example, hundreds of Palestinian villages and localities were demolished between 1948 and 1952, in order to prevent and impede Palestinian return. And since its creation, the Israeli Knesset has issued numerous legislation to impede and outright deny Palestinian return.[4]
 
This ongoing denial of reparations generates a particular vulnerability in Palestinian refugees to further displacement and emboldens Israel’s policies of forcible transfer.[5] This can be seen with Palestinian refugees displaced from Syria, often identified as the most vulnerable group affected by the conflict,[6] and in the oPt where forcible transfer continues unabated. The protection gap is further exacerbated by the absence of effective protection[7] for Palestinian refugees experiencing secondary displacement, such as those in the oPt, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait and Yemen.
 
While the United Nations mandated two agencies to provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees and IDPs; both have struggled and/or failed to ensure basic and inalienable rights, resulting in a broadening protection gap. The United Nations Conciliation Committee on Palestine (UNCCP), established by UNGA Resolution 194 and tasked to ensure the right to reparations, was quickly relegated to a nominal and dysfunctional agency.
 
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), created in 1949 and assigned to administer basic needs and services, suffers from structural deficiencies that include the lack of a sustainable funding mechanism, a needs-based rather than a rights-based definition of  ‘Palestine’ refugee, and limitations in its legal and geographic mandate. Compounding UNRWA’s shortcomings are the recent systematic attacks against the Agency by the administrations of the United States of America (USA) and Israel.[8] These attacks aim to cripple the Agency’s ability to fulfill its mandate by undermining its funding, further limit the refugee definition, and transfer international responsibility for Palestinian refugees to host and Arab states.
 
Obligations of Third Party and UN member States
In situations in which states are unable or unwilling to provide protection, it is incumbent on third party and UN Member States to intervene and provide protection.[9] It is clear that, as the ongoing Nakba enters its 72^nd year, Israel continues to shirk its obligations as the occupying power, and its international responsibilities as a Member State of the UN, which are dictated in numerous international conventions and UN resolutions.[10] These same conventions and resolutions define intentional responsibilities and obligations of other states towards the Palestinian people.
 
Recommendations
In recognition of World Refugee Day, which indicates the international community’s acknowledgement and recognition of its responsibilities towards displaced populations and groups, and, as Palestinian refugees and IDPs constitute the world’s largest and most protracted displaced population,[11] the Global Palestinian Refugee Network (GPRN) calls on third party and UN Member States to hold Israel accountable and demands fulfillment of their obligations according to international law. 
 
This includes to take any and all measures to fortify UNRWA, as the only active international, UN-mandated agency servicing Palestinian refugees. These measure should maintain UNRWA’s international character, and provide the needed structural revisions and financial inputs to ensure and enhance its mandate.