for the Palestinian Side of the Joint Palestinian-Jordanian
Delegation
Ottawa, May 13, 1992
The Palestinian refugee problem has long been the human core of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its continued non-resolution has
constituted one of the main sources of instability in the region.
In our view, this insta¬bility is rooted in Israel's continued
refusal to implement U.N. resolutions relevant to the question of
Palestine, and in the silence of the world com¬munity over
this continued bypassing of international legality.
Not surprisingly, the Palestinian refugee camps have been the
cradle from where the Palestinian political claim to
self-determination has re¬emerged after the Catastrophe of
1948. The refugee camps, whether in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT), or in Exile, have been the embodi¬ment of
the unity of the Palestinian people, of its capacity to survive
while transcending the fragmentation imposed on it.
The international consensus which materialized in Madrid, at the
open¬ing of this process, has made it possible to undertake
the work of solving all at once the Palestinian refugee problem and
the wider issue of the Arab-¬Israeli conflict of which it
constitutes the very root, by satisfying the demands for
Palestinian self-determination while responding at the same time to
the Israeli demand for secure boundaries and recognition within the
Middle Eastern community of nations.
We have expressed, in Madrid as well as in Washington bilateral
nego¬tiations, orally as well as in written documents, our
position vis-a-vis the short- and long-term objectives of our
participation. We have entered this process on the basis of
specific terms of reference, which are contained in the letters of
invitation to the Peace Conference sent to the parties by the
co-sponsors, dated October 18, 1991. U.N. Security Council
Resolution 242, passed some weeks after the June 1967 war, which
stipulates the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by
war, and establishes the principle of "land for peace," is the
basic frame of reference for the whole peace process. Resolution
242 also explicitly requires the provision of "a just solution of
the refugee problem." The basis for this "just solution" lies in
the implementation of basic U.N. resolutions on Palestinian
refugees, in particular Resolution 194.
The Palestinian Refugee Problem
The uprooting and forcible displacement and dispossession of which
the Palestinian people have been the victim is undoubtedly one of
the greatest tragedies of the contemporary era. The Palestinian
refugee problem was created during the war of 1948, when the
majority of Palestinians, urban dwellers and peasants were uprooted
by force from their homeland. Part of them found refuge in what
later became known as the West Bank of the Jordan River and the
Gaza Strip, while others were dispersed over the neighboring Arab
countries and elsewhere. Tens of thousands also became refugees
inside Israel when their lands, their villages and even their homes
were seized and destroyed or confiscated by the nascent State of
Israel. It is important to note here that the vast majority of
those Palestinians were expelled in the period between November
1947 (the Partition Plan) and January 1949 (the Rhodes Armistice
agreement).
A second wave of refugees was created by the war of June 1967 in
which the remaining parts of Arab Palestine, in addition to the
Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, came under
Israeli occupation. An additional quarter of a million refugees
escaped, or were made to leave, from the newly occupied
territories, and they became a further burden on the strained
economies of the host countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
During the 25 years of Occupation, a systematic pattern of land
confis¬cation and economic hardships have resulted in
displacing thousands of Palestinians within the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (OPT), and from there to neighboring
countries. Much of the confiscated land was placed at the disposal
of Israeli Jewish settlers (and non-Israeli Jewish immigrants), in
the avowed design to prevent the return of their rightful owners. A
series of laws were enacted by Israel (including the Law on
Absentee Property and the Israeli Law of Return - which gives
privileged treatment to Jewish immigrants over those enjoyed by
Arab citizens of Israel and Arab refugees from Israel, and were
also meant to ensure that land and property thus acquired became
non-accessible to Palestinians).
We should here mention the fact that Israeli settlement activities
in the OPT, which have universally been recognized as illegal,
continue to con¬stitute an insurmountable obstacle to peace,
and that their immediate cessation is a condition for the success
of the peace process. Settlement activ¬ities, with their
double aspect of explosion and exclusion, of land and water
confiscation and apartheid, are indeed at the root of the whole
con¬flict, and of the refugee problem in particular. Hence the
centrality of the issue of Israeli settlement activities in all our
negotiations.
Basic Definitions
Let us examine who is included in the categories of those
Palestinians that can be designated as refugees, and thus are
entitled to demand the imple¬mentation of U.N. resolutions
concerning the Right of Return.
The Palestinian refugees are all those Palestinians (and their
descendants) who were expelled or forced to leave their homes
between November 1947 (Partition Plan) and January 1949 (Rhodes
Armistice agreement), from the territory controlled by Israel on
that later date. This, by the way, coincides with the Israeli
definition of "absentees," a category of Palestinians meant to be
stripped of its most elementary human and civil rights.
This definition does not apply only to camp-dwellers, and certainly
not only to those recognized refugees who enjoyed formal
registration by UNRWA, since the latter never exercised
jurisdiction over more than a seg¬ment of the total refugee
problem.
Such a definition does not include the emigrants who left Palestine
before 1947, but it includes all those displaced, even inside the
territory that became the State of Israel in the 1948-49 period. It
also includes all the 1967 and post-1967 displaced persons, for
whom we have already demand¬ed immediate and unconditional
return to the OPT within the framework of the establishment of the
Palestinian Interim Self-Governing Authority.
It also includes the residents of "border villages" in the West
Bank, who lost their agricultural lands in the war of 1948, and
therefore the source of their livelihood, but remained in their
villages. It includes residents of the Gaza Strip refugee camps,
who were either relocated to the Rafah side of the Egyptian border,
or who found themselves separated from their fami¬lies and kin
as a result of border incarceration after the Camp David Accords
between Israel and Egypt. It finally includes Palestinian Beduins
who were forcibly removed from their grazing lands within the State
of Israel, as well as those who were induced to abandon the West
Bank and relocate in Jordan.
Although some of the above categories may not be regarded as
refugees in the technical sense (for example, deportees, or
residents of "border vil¬lages") they nevertheless share the
hardships and fate of most refugees who fall in the first
categories. At the core of their status is alienation and the
denial of return to their country.
The State of Israel has been, and continues to be, responsible for
the process through which the refugee problem was crafted (through
violence against civilian populations in times of war, and through
expropriation of their lands and homes after the war). Yet Israel
persists in disclaiming responsibility for these acts, and in
denying the right of the Palestinians to return to their homeland
(including the right of return to the territories occupied in
1967).
A Just and Lasting Settlement of the Refugee
Problem
The fundamental legal framework for a just solution to the
Palestinian refugee problem is the U.N. General Assembly Resolution
194. Its strength is derived essentially from its consensuality:
the fact that in 1949, the US. and even more so Israel (at that
time eager to be admitted to the U.N. as a full member-state),
voted in favor of that resolution. In fact, both the Partition Plan
[Resolution 181], which asserts the principle of
self-determi¬nation, and the return of refugees [Resolution
194] constituted the founda¬tions for the State of Israel
itself, for their implementation was a condition for Israel's
admittance into the community of nations [Resolution 273]. Hence
the strong and special Israeli obligation towards these two
resolu¬tions in the spirit and letter of international
law.
Without the solemn recognition of the refugees' right of return,
the refugee problem will remain unsolved. Such a recognition is
also necessary to alleviate the impact of prolonged refugee
presence in the host countries, and thus to facilitate harmonious
relations with the latter during the period of forced exile.
It must, however, be clear that our people have consistently
refused all the schemes of resettlement and naturalization into the
host countries, and have expressed in all possible ways their will
to solve their problems with¬in the context of a national
solution of the Palestinian people as a whole.
The current condition of Palestinian refugees, whether inside or
outside refugee camps, cannot be ameliorated by "humanitarian"
projects aimed at improving the condition of their living (although
we fully favor upgrading their health, welfare and educational
standards). What is more needed, more urgently today than ever, is
a comprehensive political settlement based on the recognition of
the right of return and self-determination. Refugees are not merely
slum dwellers who need an improvement in the quality of life. The
refugee question is a national question. Its humanitari¬an
aspects are a consequence of the refugee status, not its
essence.
Improvement of the refugees' living conditions is a moral
obligation for the world community, in addition to the core of the
political aspect of the conflict and the urgency for a just and
durable political settlement. It is an inherent human right, not a
subject of quid pro quo, nor the subject of nego¬tiation. The
right of the refugees cannot be exchanged for any political
advantage.
To contribute to a lasting and just settlement, the world community
is invited to support a settlement based on the application of the
U.N. reso¬lutions pertaining to this issue and which:
- Guarantees the implementation of international legality, that is
to say allows the exercise of the refugees' right of return as
embodied in U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194, and all
subsequent relevant internation¬al resolutions.
- Expresses the political aspirations of the parties concerned. The
refugees' basic aspiration to live in dignity indicates their
fundamental demand, which they share with the rest of the
Palestinian people: self¬-determination.
Conclusion
The logic of racial, religious or ethnic homogeneity, or "purity,"
often used to justify the denial of the Palestinian right of
return, is repugnant to the ethics of our age. It mocks the very
concept of coexistence which motivates our present endeavors.
Peaceful coexistence among the people and states of the Middle East
cannot be built on societies which find plurality intoler¬able
or threatening.
To conclude, I would like to appeal directly to the Israelis. We
know they are listening to us, even though their delegation has
decided to boy¬cott this session, because of the mere fact of
our presence.
To the Israelis we shall say that the real condition of sustainable
peace is to achieve, beyond the treaties and agreements between
states, reconcil¬iation between peoples. This requires that
men and women, at given cru¬cial moments of their history,
have the courage to take a look at themselves in order to be able
to see, and at last understand the adversary.
To the Israelis we shall say that reconciliation passes through the
moral recognition of the immense injustice inflicted upon our
people 44 years ago.
To the Israelis we say: Is it not clear that the security which you
claim to pursue will not come from your military might and
territorial assets, but from a just peace based on the recognition
of the rights of the Palestinian people?
To the Israelis we also say: In order for us to offer you the
solution of the two states, mutually recognized and accepted, the
people of Palestine have had to inflict a great violence upon
themselves. Indeed, for unlike war, peace is always a tormenting
victory of one's own self. And the time has come for you to take
this decisive step and recognize the rights of our people.