BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

164
Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (2006-2007)
Preface
Politics and the Question of Palestinian
Refugees and IDPs
Resolving the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons in accordance with international law has become an integral
part of peace agreements. A rights-based approach to refugees and IDPs includes acknowledging the right to return, property
restitution and compensation, and has been recognized as one of the pillars of just and durable peace.
However, peace negotiations between Israel and Arab states, and later the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
have not followed a rights-based approach. Official efforts to find a solution to the Palestinian refugee question have been
politically driven, and this has sidelined Palestinian refugees and IDPs, as well as their rights to return, restitution and
compensation.
A first round of official negotiations on the question of 1948 Palestinian refugees was facilitated by the United Nations
(1949–1952) and based on UN Resolution 194. A second round was conducted under the sponsorship of the United States
and based on the 1993 Declaration of Principles (Madrid-Oslo process 1991–2001). The issue of 1967 Palestinian refugees
was raised during the peace negotiations between Egypt and Israel in the late 1970s (at Camp David), as well as during
the interim negotiations of the Madrid-Oslo process. Internally displaced Palestinians in Israel and the OPT, considered an
internal matter by those taking part in the discussions, were not explicitly addressed during the negotiations of the Madrid-
Oslo process.
These politically-driven efforts, however, have failed to bring about Israeli-Palestinian peace or indeed durable solutions for
Palestinian refugees and IDPs. The gap between the positions of the negotiating parties has remained unbridgeable, as Israel
rejects refugee return and restitution as a principle or right, so as to safeguard a Jewish majority among its population and
retain control over land confiscated from Palestinian refugees. Regardless of persistent demands by Arab states and the PLO,
no mechanism for enforcing international law, including UN Resolution 194, has been established in peace negotiations
with Israel, due to the lack of political will on the part of powerful Western states, most recently the United States and the
European Union within the framework of the United Nations Security Council and its “Quartet” .
In the absence of effective protection of their rights to return, restitution and compensation, Palestinian refugees and IDPs have
attempted to protect these rights themselves. During the 1990s, marginalization by the Madrid-Oslo process set in motion
a renaissance of organizing and protest by Palestinian refugees, exiles and civil society. This in turn created a Palestinian
constituency for the right of return that could no longer be dismissed by Palestinian negotiators or ignored by the international
community. In 2005, Palestinian refugee and IDP community organizations joined in a broad Palestinian civil society call
for a strategic campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complied with international law
on the right of return, including the right to return to homes and properties in Israel.