Abstract

Palestinian Refugees in International Law, building on the seminal contribution of the first edition (Takkenberg, 1998), makes for an indispensable read to anyone who wishes to get a better understanding of the largest, most protracted, and most politically fraught refugee situation of the post-WWII era: the Palestinian refugee question. By unpacking the challenges and opportunities offered by international law in a clear and pragmatic fashion, Ms Francesca Albanese and Dr Lex Takkenberg’s new book offers a compelling call for renewed and informed debate around the question of Palestinian refugees and the need for principled action to realise their rights.

Join us on Zoom on 6 August at 4pm (SGT) as our moderator Dr Victor Kattan unpacks the book with co-authors Francesca and Lex. All are welcome to participate. An e-invite will be sent to you closer to the event date.

This event is free, however, registration is compulsory.

Image caption: Cover Art, Palestinian Refugees in International Law

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By Sukriti Kalra
Intern, Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore

Using the Palestinian refugee crisis as a lens, Palestinian Refugees in International Law shows how international law has evolved and tracks the UN’s response to refugees: from the interplay between Resolution 194 and the Declaration of Human Rights to the Geneva Convention.

While ad-hoc responses were normal in the past given the tens of thousands of refugees from Europe and Asia, authors Ms Francesca Albanese and Dr Lex Takkenberg said it was only through the various responses that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) became what it is today. However, they added that the Palestinian refugee crisis remains unique because it has not been politically resolved even after 70 years.

Unlike the first edition, which was written at a time when there was a sense of optimism about the Middle East peace process which anticipated that issues surrounding the Palestinian state and refugee crisis would be resolved soon, the second edition of the book comes after that optimism has fizzled out following two decades of aggressive encroachment by Israelis, settler violence against Palestinians, attacks by Israeli soldiers, the split between Fatah and Hamas, and the two Gaza wars among others, said Dr Lex Takkenberg.

The first edition was written by him in the 1990s when he was working as a lawyer for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). What this second edition, co-authored by Ms Albanese and Dr Takkenberg, hopes to lay out is what a paradigm shift might look like. It would entail the UN re-issuing responsibility for resolving refugee crises, especially long and protracted ones. The asymmetrical power balance between parties debating solutions to the crisis must end and the refugee issue must go back to the General Assembly of the UN where it used to be as it has principal responsibility for the issue.

International law must be the framework through which individual and collective aspects of the solution are devised. There should be no further questions about the rights to restitution, compensation and return; those questions have been settled to give Palestinians those rights. Additionally, with the establishment of the two new global frameworks for refugees, they should be utilised to their full potential to gain international support for Palestinian refugees and their situation and to create a durable solution, said the authors.

Ms Albanese said Palestinian refugees are in a unique position because they lack the backing of an independent state, making them an even more difficult constituency to protect. Additionally, compared to other refugees, they are stereotyped with assumptions that miss their complex realities. Some are recipients of international assistance while others languish in camps with the potential for radicalisation; they are all different but for one homogenous element: the sense of a loss of a homeland and the feeling of fragmentation due to exile. The rights of Palestinian refugees, not in political or security considerations but as individuals deserving of human rights need to be brought back to the centre of the negotiation table.

She explained the book can be thought of in three parts. The first is more factual and historical, detailing the different periods of mass displacement of Palestinians, who Palestinian refugees are, and examining the humanitarian and political responses from 1948 to the present day from the UN through regional and bilateral negotiations. The second part draws heavily from international law, and how it has evolved through the lens of the Palestinian refugee issue. Various branches of law from human rights law, humanitarian law, to international law have helped define a human rights-based approach to defining the cultural, civil and social rights of Palestinians. The third part examines the status and treatment of Palestinian refugees in over 50 countries. In the end, it looks at what extent international law is relevant to just solutions and analysis of the missed opportunities to bring justices to Palestinian refugees.

So who are Palestinian refugees? Ms Albanese elaborates they are people who have been displaced over the conflict over Palestine. They are refugees for the purpose of international law, and number around 7 million, including descendants as there has been no durable solution that puts an end to the question of their status. They live where they find refuge, however that is not a solution. For them, displacement has become a fact of life.

Refugee status extends to descendants because they share the same vulnerabilities and lack of legal status that the original refugees, most of whom are no longer alive, did. Additionally, concerning the protection of families, a key principle is the unity of the family. All members of the family of a refugee are treated equally, and UNRWA is not an exception in this domain, it is a common practice within the UNHCR. The main issue is the fact that two or three or even four generations of Palestinians have faced continual statelessness and the issue has not been resolved, which is why descendants are considered refugees as well.

This new edition, said Ms Albanese, aims to provide a clear picture of how the Palestinian diaspora has evolved, how the displacements evolved, and look into the waves of arrivals in various countries. To that end, they created a survey and circulated it through the UNHCR offices, collected legal documents, and established a network of those that were part of the Palestinian diaspora and legal NGOs across 50 countries.

Answering one of the questions posed by the participants on how the Trump administration’s policies have affected the issue and whether a Biden administration would make a difference, Dr Takkenberg said the Trump administration has initiated an attack on various fronts, from declaring that the UNRWA is artificially helping the Palestinians by treating descendants as refugees to departing from the long-established US policy of no longer even pretending to be even-handed when dealing with the Israel–Palestine conflict. It has openly supported a pro-Israeli agenda by opening up an attack of several permanent status issues like by moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, declaring it the capital of Israel and attacking the refugee issue.

Mr Trump’s decision to cut funding to UNRWA also came as a devastating blow to an organisation already suffering from structural underfunding as a result of the mismatch between the mandate the General Assembly had given UNRWA for providing basic social services and a gradual and stable increase in funding aligned with inflation and population growth, but also providing a voluntary funding structure for the foundation. UNRWA was able to overcome the dramatic funding cut, however, its emergency programmes still suffered quite severely as a result.

On a more positive note, UNRWA was an instrument of US and Cold War policy since its inception, and then as an instrument of continued engagement in the Middle East. The US exit invites new stakeholders to take charge of the administration and funding, which may provide new opportunities for engagement and efforts to support Palestinians. It is important to note that should Mr Joe Biden become president, he may reverse the decision to defund UNRWA since there is considerable pressure from Congress to do so, and he might choose to re-engage if he wins the election.

Tackling another question on annexation, Ms Albanese said it is not a valid solution because it is illegal under international law. It is an international crime and will lead to the perpetrators having to take criminal responsibility. It is already happening de facto and Israel is not being held accountable, so we should be criticising them for their actions rather than allowing them to continue further. The Palestinian people deserve to be free in exercising their right to self-determination, and it is up to the Palestinians to decide upon a one-state or two-state solution.