World Refugee Day 2007: UNRWA marks 40 years since "the second flight"

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Date: 20 / 06 / 2007 Time: 13:39

Jerusalem - Ma'an -

June 20th is World Refugee Day. Today, countries all over the world hold special days and even weeks to focus on the worldwide predicament of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). For UNRWA, the UN agency dedicated to the Palestine refugee problem, it is an opportunity to promote extra awareness about the plight of the Palestinian exiles and IDPs.

This year, 40 years after the Six Day War, UNRWA is especially concentrating on those Palestinians who were driven from their homes during the "second flight" in 1967. On Wednesday evening, in the Palestinian National Theatre (Al Hakawati), in East Jerusalem, UNRWA is hosting a special event featuring a photo exhibition, short films, and until now unheard first-hand accounts. UNRWA hopes to present the voices of refugees and aid workers and their experiences during and after the 1967 exodus.

At the end of 2006, 70% of the Palestinian population worldwide, almost 7.5 million in total, was either classified as refugees or internally displaced persons. According to BADIL, the Bethlehem-based Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, six million of these Palestinian refugees are as a result of the events of 1948, and approximately one million more have become refugees since 1967.

Another 450,000 Palestinians are classified as internally displaced persons in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, BADIL says in a press release issued to mark World Refugee Day.

The legal status of another 400,000 Palestinians is unclear, BADIL adds, having likely been forcefully displaced from the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967 due to Israeli policies. Now, with Palestinians fleeing from Gaza because of the Hamas takeover, it is possible that the number of Palestinian refugees and IDPs is increasing.

As the Palestinian refugee problem has now become "the largest and longest standing unresolved refugee case in the world", BADIL urges all parties to seek "durable solutions."

Up to this day, no even-handed or rights-based solution has been sought, BADIL says, leaving the Palestinian refugees and IDPs, except for aid by various dedicated organisations such as UNRWA, to fend for themselves.

"Addressing and resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees and IDPs in accordance with international law is, however, central to building a just and lasting peace," BADIL asserts.

The refugee and IDP crisis is not limited to the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. Palestinian refugees are located the world over, with the majority found in Jordan, Syria and Jordan, in addition to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Approximately 20% of the Palestinian population lives in UNRWA-registered refugee camps, BADIL says.

In Lebanon, heavy fighting around the Palestinian Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, in the north of the country, between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam, a militant Islamist group, has resulted in the displacement of an estimated 6,140 families. As of June 18th, only 100 families, out of an original population of at least 31,000, remained inside the camp, UNRWA reported. All of the UNRWA staff had left the camp.

Palestinian refugees fleeing the fighting in Iraq since 2003 are also particularly vulnerable.

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