BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (2006-2007)
property and lands in the villages of origin. The programmes were guided by two basic criteria: preservation
of the demographic changes that took place during the 1948 war; and preservation of Jewish control of
Palestinian land temporarily abandoned during the war.
Wadi el-Na’am Palestinian unrecognized village in Israel (© Source: bustan.org).
Israel has continued to use “assistance” as a way to impose a durable solution on Palestinian IDPs. In 1958, for
instance, the Israeli government launched a construction programme aimed at improving housing conditions
in “shelter communities” and villages with high IDP concentrations, and to counter the phenomenon of “illegal
construction” in Palestinian communities. Lands for the housing construction programme were allocated by a
Permanent Land Commission from among state lands (including “absentee property”) and confiscated Palestinianowned
lands. Some 700 loans and grants were issued to individuals in some 80 villages. 21
Assistance to the population of the occupied Palestinian territory, including IDPs
Since 1967, Israel is obliged, as the occupying power, to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the
OPT. Under international humanitarian law, “the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and
medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and
other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.” 22 Provision of assistance also means that if
Israel’s supplies are inadequate, it must agree to relief provided by outside sources and is obliged to allow the free
passage of objects necessary to the survival of the civilian population. 23 Despite Israel’s responsibility to provide
humanitarian assistance, it has generally failed to provide and allow humanitarian assistance to both refugees and
non-refugees, or delayed such provision. (See box on humanitarian access.)
Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, administration of civil affairs was transferred to the newly established Palestinian
Authority in the OPT, and Israel was partly released from the financial burden of providing public services and
humanitarian assistance to the population under occupation, including Palestinian refugees and IDPs. Due to
Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization and the 2006 international boycott of the Palestinian Authority, the
latter has been unable to provide basic services and assistance to the population of the OPT.
UNRWA is the main provider of services to Palestinian refugees in the OPT. There is no agency providing assistance
to IDPs, although UNRWA does provide ad-hoc emergency assistance to IDPs or those living under siege on
an exceptional basis. 24 However, no steps have been taken towards applying the UN Collaborative Approach to
situations of internal displacement to IDPs in the OPT. In addition to UNRWA, a number of United Nations
agencies (including the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund)
contribute relief and services to Palestinian refugees in the OPT. The three main sources of international humanitarian
assistance to Palestinians in the OPT in 2006 were UNRWA, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Social Affairs and
relatives. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the majority are refugees, required the most UNRWA assistance.