BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (2006-2007)
Egypt. In 2006, the Palestinian embassy and the Egyptian government agreed to increase the number of scholarships to postgraduate
Palestinian students, and to allow treatment of Palestinian students on par with Egyptian students.
Foreigners are allowed to constitute up to 10% of state schools and universities in Lebanon. Vocational training schools
and the Department of Education of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lebanon, which prepares teachers for
Lebanese secondary schools, do not accept Palestinian students. 146 Non-ID Palestinian children are left without access
to higher education, as only primary and limited high school education is offered by UNRWA in the camps.
Palestinian refugees were treated on par with Kuwaiti nationals until 1965, when the government limited the number
of non-Kuwaitis in government schools to 25%. The PLO was later given permission to operate its own schools with
teachers, buildings and furnishings supplied by the Ministry of Education. The programme included 22 schools
and lasted until 1976, when they were closed for financial and political reasons, and the students incorporated into
government schools. In the 1980s, due to overcrowding, the government decided that only children of expatriates
who had been in Kuwait since 1 January 1963 would be permitted to register in government schools. Other children
would have to enrol in private schools. The government subsequently moved to subsidize tuition for children affected
by this ruling by 50%. Ten per cent of places at the University of Kuwait are available for foreign students.
UNRWA school damaged, Burj Hamoud refugee camp, Beirut, Lebanon 1976. © UNRWA Archives.
g. The right to housing and property
f. The right to health
In Lebanon, Palestinians have limited
access to public hospitals or
other health services. Most health
services are provided by UNRWA, or
the Red Crescent and NGOs.
Since 2005, foreigners, including
Palestinian refugees, in Egypt have
access to health care on the same basis
as Egyptians. In practice, however,
most Palestinians use private clinics
and are often charged the same prices
as Egyptians. The Palestine Hospital
in Cairo provides medical care to
Palestinians, who are required to pay
between 10 to 25% of the costs.
The Casablanca Protocol does not address the right to property. In most Arab host states, except for Jordan and
(until recently) Iraq, Palestinian refugees are not permitted to own property on par with host state nationals. 147 The
situation in Iraq has deteriorated since the beginning of the US-led war in 2003, and many Palestinians have been
expelled from their homes and seen their property confiscated. 148 Palestinian refugees from the occupied Gaza Strip
who took up residency in Jordan during or immediately after 1967 are not permitted to own, rent or sell immovable
property without government permission. 149
Refugees in Syria and Egypt may own property, subject to restrictions. In Syria, refugees may not own arable land;
however, they may acquire a single home provided that they are registered with the General Authority for Palestine
Refugees (GAPAR). Palestinian refugees in Egypt have the same right to own immovable property as foreign
aliens; they can own a maximum of two buildings, and a business may be acquired in partnership with an Egyptian
national. 150 Foreigners are not permitted to own agricultural land or desert land in Egypt. 151