The Situation of Palestinian Refugees - Research Paper Example

Lecturer: The Situation of Palestinian Refugees The Palestinian refugees refers to those Arabs and Jews who were displaced from Palestinian territory between 1946 and 1948 when the nation of Israel was being formed and had Jews from different parts of the world migrating into the now Israel territory. Many of the inhabitants of the place were Arabs and migrated to the West Bank and Gaza strip as others moved to Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The state of the Palestinian refugees has been extremely politically charged with no nation ever giving them citizenship and has therefore resulted in a second generation of refugees. As seen below the solution to this fifty-year problem is not a simple one. The history of Palestinian refugees can be traced back to 1948 during the period of the Israel–Arab war. The nation of Israel had been approved by the United Nation through a vote but was strongly voted against by the Arab community. This resulted in the Arab Israeli war which Israel won and thus expelled the majority Arab community that had lived in the area resulting in the original refugees. The Israel government has however never accepted that they expelled any Arabs insisting instead that they voluntarily fled the areas. This discrepancy in the origin story of the refugees is one of the problems that they face as no government has accepted responsibility over their plight (Morris 20). There is however documented proof that Muslims were expelled from the area however they were allowed to take their property as they left. Villagers in areas such as Samara and Nuqeib were pushed to move out of their villages through marginalization by the police and were also encouraged through economic incentives to move to Syria (Morris 513). The United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) began to focus on the plight of the Palestine refugees from 1950 estimating the refugees to be seven hundred thousand when they were expelled from Israel. Their attempts in the beginning were towards a possible reintegration of the refugees in other parts of the Arab world including Lebanon and Egypt. This however failed as the governments and the locals did not support the move. UNRWA thus focused on improving the living standards of refugees in Palestine and offered basic education and sanitation services. The UN was the only body that did put effort in improving the refugee situation with middle eastern nations stating that the refugees should go back to reintegrate with modern Israel (Milagny 80). The nation of Egypt was a prosperous nation in the 1940s – 1950s the nation had opened the Suez Canal and benefitted from the cotton trade to become one of the more prosperous nations in Africa. The wealthy Palestinians who arrived first were able to get themselves good housing in the more serene areas of Egypt through both legal and illegal means but the poor Palestines had to contend with living in the camps. Egypt was itself struggling with its overpopulation problem and so decided it would be better if a portion of the population would remain in Gaza which Egypt controlled and with themselves financing its upkeep (Oroub 40). The Egyptian government did not however respond positively to the new immigrants and enacted policies that prevented them from getting jobs and also prevented them from working altogether. The prevention from sources of income meant that even the wealthy Palestinians were soon unable to have a source of income and lost whatever savings they had. Egypt ensured that the Gaza strip was constantly under strict military rule while Jordan did the same with West Bank where it assisted with security. It wasn’t until in 1967 when Israel took control of the Gaza strip that the situation in it improved considerably (Oroub 41). These policies led to increased crime committed in Egypt by Palestinians for economic reasons and just as many were jailed for these atrocities. The hostility shown by the Syrian government towards the refugees and the hostility that the Arab world has shown to the Jewish communities living in them has been one of the sources of discontent for Israel more so since it was a condition to their repatriation to Israel in UN Resolution number 194. Countries such as Jordan have continued to expel Jews from the country and thereby resulted in a stalemate between it and the Arab world and Israel over the treatment of the Palestinians. Syria had made attempts to allow the refugees to have a decent life and to have access to as many economic activities as possible given their refugee status. This has however changed and as of 2011 there was evidence of unarmed refugees been shot at in camps even when attempting to escape. The fact that Syria has descended into civil war has also meant that it has refugees of its own and so Palestinian refugees have fled the country (Wallace 28). The Palestine refugees have yet to be reintegrated and face marginalization in Israel including the treatment of juveniles as shown in cases when children when taken to court are shackled like dangerous criminals as well as the fact that they are arrested over minor offences. Palestinians have now shifted their goals from seeking reintegration into Israel to having the state of Palestine gain international recognition .The state of Palestine has currently been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The state however has yet to be admitted to the United Nations due to lack of sufficient votes to accept its membership; its passports are also not yet recognized in any country (Effarah 420). The Palestinian refugees developed with their expulsion from Israel when the state was been formed. Since then they face persecution both in Israel and the Arab world where they are viewed as unwelcome immigrants. Palestinians have therefore changed their tact and instead focused on having the state of Palestine recognized albeit with some difficulty. The future does present some hope for a permanent nation as international bodies have acknowledged it as an independent state. Works Cited Effarah, Jamil. Think Palestine: To Unlock Us-Israelis and Arabs Conflicts, Volume 2. Bloomington: Authorhouse, 2013. Print. Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2004. Print. Milagny, Gabiam. In Order Not to Forget: Dignity and Development in Syria's Palestinian. Michigan: Proquest. 2009. Print. Oroub, El-Abed. Unprotected: Palestinians in Egypt Since 1948. IDRC Wallace, Cynthia. Foundations of the International Legal Rights of the Jewish People and the state of Israel. Florida; Creation house. 2012. Print. Read More