Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[harrypothead]

Palestinians in Jordan: The Truth!

The Exodus:

http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menupalestinian.html

At the aftermath of the United Nations General Assembly's vote for the partition of Historical Palestine in November 1947, the destiny of the Palestinian people was reversed. The resolution 181 II to create Jewish and Palestinian parts on Historical Palestine resulted in the main sparkle for the on going Arab Israeli war. Palestinian and Jewish clashes proliferated with Jewish para military forces operating more freely as British forces started their withdrawal and Jewish forces taking control of an area larger than the envisioned by the UN plan. Sabotage, attacks by Jewish military guerrillas continued against Palestinian villages and residents in the cities of the coast. As the British government announced to terminate the Mandate on May 15,1948, Jews proclaimed the State of Israel.
More than 700.000 Palestinian Arabs were evicted or fled" as a result of the operations of the Jewish irregular forces. They killed unarmed Palestinians in villages, intimidated them by the force of arm and conducted some human razing massacres as Tnatoura, Deir Yassin , Qibieh etc…
The Palestinian refugees found shelter in camps administrated by United Nations umbrella structure in surrounding host countries called UN Relief for Palestine Refugees (UNRPR), created to pay for the voluntary organisations, proclaimed the refugees' right to return home and be compensated for their losses. Eventually, it set up the Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC) was established as part of the UN resolution 194 which provisioned to negotiate regional peace. Late in 1949, after the voluntary organisations' announcements that they intended to end Palestine relief operations, the UN by the decision UNGA 302 created the UN relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWAPRNE) known as UNRWA to take over the voluntary organisations' temporary relief operations to aid the refugees and to undertake works projects that would improve the refugees' economic conditions until a peace settlement resolve their status.

Arrival to Jordan:

Jordan, had received the greatest number of Palestinians during the two Arab Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967. Hence, Jordan had to shape its potentials and organisations to shelter the flowing masses of refugees Palestinian refugees in Jordan represent the largest percentage of the grand total of UNRWA -refugees. The total of Palestinian refugees residing in Jordan, including the refugees-displaced is 1,574.438 according to UNRWA (March 2000) of which 105.962 are refugees-displaced. Only 18.3% of those refugees live in Camps supervised by UNRWA while the rest of the refugees (81.7%) take up residence in the various cities and towns of the Kingdom. According to UNRWA's records released in 2000, the number of Palestinian refugees registered with the Agency and who are presently residing in the ten camps which it supervises, has amounted to 278.678 refugees and displaced persons. The actual numbers of Palestinian refugees greatly exceed the figures released by UNRWA concerning those refugees registered in its own records. This is ascribed to the fact that when UNRWA had commenced its work in the region in 1950 it adopted a working definition of "refugees" who were entitled to be registered in its record.

( Persons whose normal residence was Palestine during the period of 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict and took refuge in one of the countries or areas where UNRWA provides relief and their direct descendants through male line ).

Thus that definition resulted in the exclusion of large number of Palestinian refugees who ended up in areas outside the five operations of UNRWA or where abroad when the war erupted and were not residing in Palestine at the time of the war. To mention, that the Palestinians who resided the West Bank before 1967 war and had to flee during the Israeli invasion on the West Bank, were considered as Refugee -displaced ( who had to leave for a second time towards Jordan) and displaced (those who left for the first time).

Conditions in Jordan:

Jordan has thirteen refugee camps in Jordan. UNRWA recognizes ten as Refugee camps. UNRWA provides health and social relief services. However, the government of Jordan takes care of what may concern the physical infrastructure of camps, Secondary schools, post offices, and other needed services. The Department of Palestinian Affairs is the government organ which takes care of the thirteen refugee camps in Jordan. The Department had various changes on its tasks and responsibilities over the last fifty years. (The slide of the historical evolution might be used here) Jordan endeavors to create proper environment for the refugees-citizens. DPA seeks to identify the needs and act upon them within the physical , social infrastructure but also within the legal status it endowed the Palestinians with since the beginning of the Arab - Israeli conflict. According to the Jordanian nationality law of the year 1954,


(… ) Any person with previous Palestinian nationality except the Jews before the date of May 14, 1948 residing in the Kingdom during the period from December 20, 1949 and February 16, 1954 is a Jordanian citizen.

Jordan continues its efforts to claim the full right of return for the Palestinians. Jordan calls for the implementation of Para. (11) of UN Resolution 194 .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jerusalem Post 26 August 2002

80,000 Palestinians emigrated from territories since beginning of year

KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Approximately 80,000 Palestinians have left the West Bank and Gaza Strip
since the beginning of the year, a rise of 50 percent compared to last
year, a senior Palestinian Authority official said Monday. The official,
who asked not to be named, told The Jerusalem Post another 50,000
Palestinians are now trying to leave through the Jordan River bridges and
the Rafah border crossing.

"We are seriously talking about transfer," the official added. "We are
holding urgent deliberations with the brothers in Jordan and Egypt to try
to stop the influx."

He estimated that at least half of those who have already left would
eventually decide to settle in another country. The figures, which do not
include Palestinian residents of Jerusalem who have Israeli-issued ID
cards, are based on data provided by several PA ministries, which issue
various travel documents for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.

Last week Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser revealed in an interview with the
Post that about 1,000 Palestinians from his town had left the country over
the past few months.

Thousands of Palestinians have been camping in the open air outside
Jericho, waiting for their turn to cross the Allenby and Adam bridges into
Jordan. Hundreds others are waiting near the Rafah border crossing.

According to the PA official, at one stage more than 40,000 would-be
entrants were gathered near Jericho. Many of them have been waiting for
weeks after Jordan decided to limit the number of West Bank Palestinians
entering the Hashemite Kingdom.

The Jordanian authorities say they do not want to help Palestinians leave
their homes for fear Israel will not allow them back. But Palestinians say
they believe the Jordanians are afraid a large number of Palestinians want
to live permanently in Jordan.

Under pressure from the PA and humanitarian organizations, some of which
have supplied the stranded Palestinian travelers with tents and food, the
Jordanian government earlier this month agreed to allow 1,000 people a day
to enter Jordan.

The move came after the Palestinians complained that Israel was preventing
them from returning to their homes in the West Bank.

A PA cabinet minister, who visited Jordan last month for talks with
Jordanian officials on the restrictions, said he could understand the
Jordanians' fears. "They fear that [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon wants to
expel the Palestinians to Jordan, where they would be able to establish a
substitute state," he told the Post yesterday. "This is understandable."

The minister added that top Jordanian government officials told him Israel
could seize the opportunity during an American military strike on Iraq "to
try and get rid of as many Palestinians as possible."

One of the measures currently being applied by the Jordanian authorities
requires each Palestinian to deposit a sum of 1,000 Jordanian dinars
($1,400) to ensure that they do not settle in the kingdom.

Khaled Khatib, a leader of the Palestinian Democratic Union, an offshoot
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, warned that tens of
thousands of Palestinians could be driven out of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip when the US launches a military offensive against Iraq.

"Israel might exploit the situation to mount a wide-scale military
operation to destroy the PA and expel tens of thousands of desperate
Palestinians," he said. "But this plot will not succeed because our people
have learned from previous mistakes."

In 1991 Jordan opened its borders to tens of thousands of Palestinians
expelled from Kuwait and other Gulf states in retaliation for PA Chairman
Yasser Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein.

"No one is opposed to Palestinians visiting Jordan," said Jordanian writer
and columnist Fahed Fanek. "But the fear is that many visitors do not want
to go back and are seeking a refuge, be it in Jordan, the United States,
Canada, Australia, or elsewhere."

"One cannot blame them as individuals, because life in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip is intolerable for both economic and security reasons," he
added. "But we have a national duty to Jordan, first, and to Palestine,
second, to block gradual transfer and prevent the Palestinian state from
being relocated outside Palestine, specifically to
Jordan."


Palestinian Refugees: An Overview

Estimates vary of the number of Palestinians refugees displaced from within what became the borders of Israel in 1948. In 1949, the United Nations Conciliation Commission put the number at 726,000; the newly-established United Nations Relief and Works Agency subsequently put the number at 957,000 in 1950. The Israeli government has in the past suggested numbers as low as 520,000, while Palestinian researchers have suggested up to 850,000. Of this population, approximately one-third fled to the West Bank, another third to the Gaza Strip, and the remainder to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or farther afield.

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/MEPP/PRRN/proverview.html

“The Palestinian Refugee Crisis,”
by Center staff

Who is a Palestinian Refugee?

14 July 1999—According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), created in 1948, the Palestinian refugees and their descendants include “any person whose normal place of residence was [British Mandatory] Palestine during the period of 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both his home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” Palestinian refugees outside of UNRWA’s responsibility include:

refugees from the 1948 war who fled to countries where UNRWA did not operate;

internally displaced Palestinians who remained in what became Israel;

residents of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their descendants who lost their homes for the first time in the 1967 war;

Palestinians deported from the Israeli-occupied territories after 1967;

Palestinians who were outside of Palestine when the 1948 or the 1967 wars began, and whom the Israelis would not allow to return;

Palestinians who left the Occupied Territories to study, visit relatives, work, etc., who were not permitted by the Israelis to return;

1948 Palestinian refugees who failed to register with UNRWA.



Number and Geographical Distribution:

In 1998 there were some 3.6 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, almost half of the estimated worldwide Palestinian population of some seven million. They include the 750,000 Palestinians driven from their land and homes during the 1948 war, as well as 400,000-500,000 additional Palestinians made refugees by the 1967 war.

The refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, densely populated and poor, have become permanent towns and villages. Most of the camp dwellers depend on the Israeli or Palestinian economies. All are stateless, i.e. they have no citizenship. Jordan has integrated its 1948 refugees into the local economy and has extended them Jordanian citizenship. In addition, it also hosts several hundred thousand “displaced persons” who were either expelled from Palestine in the 1967 war, or caught outside and not allowed to return, or lost their residence rights for other reasons.

Jordan wantsto return this group to the West Bank. When it signed the peace treaty with Israel in 1994, the Jordanian government insisted on the formation of a quadripartite committee in which Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians, and Egypt would negotiate the status of displaced persons.

Palestinian refugees in Syria remain stateless. They receive the same benefits as Syrian citizens, however, and have been integrated into the Syrian economy. The most desperate Palestinian refugees are those living in Lebanon’s refugee camps. All the Lebanese governments since 1948 have refused to grant them citizenship, to integrate them into the local economy, or to ease their lives in any material way, fearing that permanent settlement of the refugees, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, would upset Lebanon’s tenuous religious and sectarian balance. Lebanon insists that ultimately all the refugees within its borders must return to a Palestinian state or go elsewhere.



Competing Versions of History:

The Israeli version of history, deeply embedded in Zionist ideology, is starkly different from that of the Palestinians. Most Israelis blame the Arab states for creating the refugee problem by refusing to accept the UN partition of Palestine in 1947, declaring war on Israel, and urging the Palestinian population to leave until the Arab armies had defeated the Zionists. Few Israelis would agree with the Palestinian view that Israel itself was responsible for “ethnic cleansing,” and that in rescuing themselves from the tragedy of the Jewish holocaust they, in turn, created another tragedy of loss and exile for Palestinians.

The Palestinian version of history is now being confirmed by a new generation of Israeli historians. They argue that, although there may not have been a coordinated strategy to “transfer” the whole Palestinian population, Israel’s founding fathers recognized that a large Arab population could threaten the Jewish character of the emerging state. Then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and his contemporaries used specific acts or threats of force to terrorize Palestinians into evacuating their homes in large numbers. The outstanding instance of such use of force was the massacre of over 100 Palestinian civilians at the village of Deir Yassin on 9 April 1948, conducted by fighters of two irregular Jewish forces, the Irgun and Stern Gang.



Property Expropriation:

While the Israeli and Palestinian versions of history remain at odds with each other, there is no ambiguity about the massive forced transfer of property from Palestinian to Israeli hands. When Israel was established in 1948, Jews controlled only eight percent of the land; the British government held an additional six or seven percent.

Today the situation is nearly reversed, with 93 percent of the land in Israel being held by Israeli Jews. Much was seized from Palestinian refugees now living outside of Israel, as well as from some 230,000 Palestinian Israeli citizens remaining inside. Jewish immigrants quickly settled on the refugees’ land, sometimes occupying their homes, sometimes erecting new towns near bulldozed Palestinian villages. Additionally, some 97 percent of the West Bank and 40 percent of Gaza are physically controlled by the Israeli military.



International Legal and Political Response:

After Israel won the war in 1948, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 194 stating that Palestinian refugees should be permitted to return or receive compensation. Israel explicitly accepted this as a condition of membership to the UN. The U.S., in 1949, persuaded Ben-Gurion to accept a proposal to allow the return of 100,000 Palestinian refugees in exchange for peace by the Arab states and resettlement of all the other refugees in the neighboring Arab countries, but the Arabs rejected this, and Israel later reneged on it.

UNRWA has helped provide food, shelter, schools and clinics to the refugees living in the camps. By keeping the refugees together, UNRWA has helped the Palestinians preserve their identify and keep alive their hope for eventual justice.

The only Palestinian-Israeli exchanges on refugees in recent years have been through the multilateral working group on refugees that was created along with other such groups at the 1991 Madrid peace conference. The U.S., the European Union states, Canada, Egypt and, Jordan also take part in these groups. The refugee group, chaired by Canada, has worked on non-political and technical issues, reserving the core issues for the final status talks.



Fourth Generation Refugees:

Four generations of Palestinian refugees—some 3.6 million persons in all—continue to await resolution of their status as refugees. Most Palestinians now accept Israel’s right to exist and the need for peace through a two-state solution. While polls indicate that most desire to return to their homes rather than receive compensation, it is clear that a lasting resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict will require a just settlement of the refugee question.



This brief was compiled by Center staff.

This information first appeared in Information Brief No. 1, 14 July 1999.