U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2002 - Gaza Strip and West Bank

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) registered 852,626 refugees in the Gaza Strip and 607,770 in the West Bank in 2001. After Jordan, the largest number of UNRWA-registered refugees lived in the Gaza Strip (22 percent), followed by the West Bank (15.7 percent). In the West Bank, only 27 percent of the registered refugees lived in camps. In the Gaza Strip, however, 54 percent of registered Palestinian refugees lived in eight camps. Palestinian refugees comprise about 50 percent of the population in the Occupied Territories.

About 20,000 Palestinians were internally displaced in the Occupied Territories in 2001, some 3,000 of whom were newly displaced during the year. At least 26,000 Palestinians left the Occupied Territories for Jordan and did not return between June 2000 and July 2001.

Failed Negotiations

The year began with a last-ditch effort by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government of Ehud Barak to reach a permanent peace agreement. In the run-up to the February 6 election for Israeli prime minister, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators met in Taba, Egypt to try to resolve the thornier issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including the status of Jerusalem, refugees, Jewish settlements, final borders, and water rights.

Although Palestinian and Israeli negotiators declared at the end of January that they had never been closer to reaching a comprehensive agreement, press reports indicated that significant gaps between the two sides remained on the core issues. Without an agreement, the two sides suspended talks on January 28, pending the outcome of the Israeli election, which Barak lost to Likud party leader Ariel Sharon by an overwhelming margin.

Upon taking office in early March, Prime Minister Sharon maintained that his government would not resume negotiations with the Palestinians until all Palestinian violence ceased. Although periodic cease-fire agreements between the two sides resulted in brief lulls in Palestinian-Israeli violence, the cycle of attack and counterattack reemerged throughout the year.

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Escalates

Following the suspension of final-status negotiations and the election of Ariel Sharon, the cycle of bloodletting between Israelis and Palestinians intensified significantly, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli deaths and in additional Palestinian displacement. Whereas during 2000 the violence was confined mostly to clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths armed with stones and Molotov cocktails, in 2001, the fighting escalated into near-open warfare, pitting Palestinian gunmen against Israeli tanks, helicopters, and fighter aircraft.

Civilians on both sides paid the price. Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen targeted civilians in Israel and Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories, resulting in more than 200 Israeli deaths during the year, often in horrific attacks on clearly civilian concentrations. Israel employed live ammunition, missiles, tanks, and aircraft to target Palestinians suspected of masterminding terrorist attacks in Israel; the Israeli strikes killed not only their intended targets, but also innocent bystanders. By year's end, the Palestinian death toll had climbed to more than 860 since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.

Israeli forces also responded to Palestinian fire on Jewish settlements and Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territories by demolishing scores of Palestinian homes (see Demolition of Palestinian Homes and Property below). Israeli curfews and closures further exacerbated the predicament of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Closures crippled the Palestinian economy, disrupted daily activities such as schooling for children, and at times prevented Palestinians from reaching hospitals for life-saving medical treatment (see Palestinian Economy and Travel Restrictions below). Palestinian-Israeli violence also appeared to add to the ranks of Palestinians displaced from the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 2001; more than 26,000 Palestinians reportedly left and did not return to the Occupied Territories between June 2000 and July 2001.

Population Zones

Israel controlled most land in the West Bank and substantial portions of the Gaza Strip during 2001 and made military incursions into parts of the Occupied Territories it had previously relinquished to Palestinian control, in violation of the 1995 Interim Agreement, known as Oslo II. Nevertheless, at least on paper, the patchwork of jurisdictions in the Occupied Territories created by Oslo II remained in place during the year.

Oslo II established three zones: Zone A, consisting of large Palestinian population centers where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is responsible for security and civil authority; Zone B, consisting of other Palestinian residential areas, mostly villages, where Palestinian police are allowed to operate but where Israel maintains overall control over security; and Zone C, which consists of Israeli settlements, strategic military sites in the Jordan Valley, and large tracts of sparsely populated rural land where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) maintain complete authority.

On paper, 39 percent of the West Bank was under full or partial Palestinian control in 2001 – nearly 18 percent in Zone A and 21 percent in Zone B. Some 96 percent of the West Bank Palestinian population lived in Zones A and B. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians fully or partially controlled 88 percent of the land – 69 percent in Zone A and 19 percent in Zone B.

At the end of the year, 61 percent of the West Bank and 12 percent of the Gaza Strip were in Zone C, where the IDF maintained complete authority. Rather than receiving contiguous pieces of land, Palestinian territory consisted of more than 200 separate enclaves surrounded by military checkpoints and bisected by a network of bypass roads – 350 meters wide for security reasons (1,050 feet) – that connected settlements.

Settlements

Since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Agreement, the number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank has increased from about 150 to more than 180. The building of settlements accelerated under the prime ministership of Ehud Barak and continued during the "Al Aqsa Intifada," the name Palestinians give to the uprising that began in September 2000. Some 380,000 Israeli settlers lived in the Occupied Territories in 2001, of whom about 180,000 lived in the East Jerusalem area.

Over the years, settlers have committed numerous attacks on Palestinians and destroyed Palestinian property, often with impunity, leading to widespread anger and violence among Palestinians. Settlements served as a flashpoint for hostility in 2001; violent acts perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians and by Palestinians against settlers occurred regularly throughout the year.

Although Israel maintains that the status of Jewish settlements is a political issue to be decided in negotiations, the settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring segments of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. In its March 16, 2001 report, the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) reaffirmed that settlements constitute "a major violation of international humanitarian law" and identified the settlements as a primary cause of conflict in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Travel Restrictions

In 2001, Israel imposed the most severe restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since the Israeli occupation began in 1967. Israel maintained its general closure of the Occupied Territories – in place since 1989 with respect to the Gaza Strip, and 1993 for the West Bank – preventing most Palestinians from traveling into Israel or East Jerusalem without specific travel permits.

In addition to the general closure, Israel imposed varying degrees of "external closure" during the entire year, including 210 days of total external closure (compared with 88 in 2000 and 15 in 1999), completely blocking access to Israeli territory and East Jerusalem from the Gaza Strip and West Bank. During the remaining 155 days of 2001, Israeli authorities imposed varying degrees of partial external closure. During periods of external closure, Israel revokes all Palestinian permits for travel to Israel. In the past, Israel had instituted external closures during holidays, elections, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, and in response to changing security conditions.

In addition to its general closure and external closures, Israel also imposed varying degrees of "internal closure" throughout the entire year. In the West Bank, Israel imposed 278 days of severe internal closure (compared with 81 days in 2000), preventing Palestinians from traveling between West Bank villages and towns, including within the areas under PA jurisdiction. Essentially, commerce, higher educational activities, and much health care ceased during internal closure. Israeli authorities also imposed limited internal closures in the West Bank during the remaining 87 days of the year. In the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed a limited internal closure for 361 days in 2001 and a severe internal closure on the remaining four days.

During periods of internal closure in 2001, only Israeli military personnel and Israeli settlers were permitted to use main roads in the West Bank. Israeli forces also regularly blocked north-south travel in the Gaza Strip. Internal closures were often imposed to divert Palestinian traffic away from Israeli settlements.

During the year, Israel also sealed off certain villages and areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in some cases for weeks at a time. Israeli forces also imposed curfews on Palestinians in the areas under its control, only permitting Palestinians to leave their homes for several hours each week. Palestinians in Hebron, for example, were subjected to a curfew for 143 days in 2001, while Israeli settlers in Hebron were free to come and go at will.

During the year, Israel also intermittently closed traffic at border crossings between Jordan and the West Bank and Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Air traffic to and from Gaza International Airport came to a standstill in February, and the airport remained closed for the rest of the year. On October 6, 2000 Israel also closed a free-passage route across Israel that connected the southern West Bank to the Gaza Strip and did not reopen it in 2001.

Israeli closures had a devastating impact on the economy (see Palestinian Economy below), health care, education, and other aspects of life in the Occupied Territories. Restrictions on movement prevented Palestinians from receiving medical care. Israeli forces' strict enforcement of internal closures reportedly contributed to at least 32 Palestinian deaths during the year by preventing would-be patients from reaching hospitals.

Israeli travel restrictions also hampered UNRWA's work by seriously curtailing the movement of UNRWA personnel and humanitarian assistance. In December, the agency's Commissioner General, Peter Hansen, reported that Israel was prohibiting UNRWA trucks from transporting relief supplies into the Gaza Strip. "Palestinians, including UNRWA area staff members," Hansen charged, "have been humiliated, threatened, and assaulted by members of the Israeli Defense Forces," when traveling though military checkpoints.

Palestinians rarely travel abroad for fear of being denied reentry to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. The Israeli authorities require all Palestinians residing in the areas under Israeli control to obtain permits before traveling to other countries. During 2001, Israel rarely issued permission for Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to travel abroad through Ben Gurion Airport. Although Palestinians could travel to and from the Occupied Territories via the Allenby Bridge and Rafah crossing points, both border posts were periodically closed during the course of the year.

Demolition of Palestinian Homes and Property

Israeli forces demolished more than 460 Palestinian homes between September 2000 and the end of 2001, rendering homeless more than 3,300 Palestinians living in camps in the Gaza Strip, most of them refugees from 1948 and their descendants. Based on various reports, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) estimates that more than 20,000 Palestinians have been left homeless by Israeli housing demolitions between 1987 and the end of 2001.

During the year, Israel implemented a policy in the Occupied Territories of demolishing homes and other Palestinian property on security grounds in areas near Israeli settlements, along bypass roads that connect settlements, and near Israeli military positions, primarily in the Rafah refugee camp along the Egyptian border. After the Israeli military razed 26 Palestinian homes in Rafah in July (one of several large-scale house demolitions carried out during the year), USCR expressed its concern for those left homeless in a July 23 letter to the Israeli government. USCR urged the Israeli government to stop the demolitions, saying that Israel's actions violated the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from destroying private property "except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations."

In response, Israel's ambassador to the United States, David Ivry, told USCR that Israel razed the homes because of "overriding security concerns." Echoing other official explanations given for the house demolitions in Rafah and elsewhere in 2001, Ivry said the demolitions were necessary to deny cover to Palestinian gunmen and to prevent arms smuggling through tunnels from Egypt.

However, various human rights and international organizations rejected the Israeli position, arguing that the impact of the demolitions on civilians was unjustifiable and challenging Israel's contention that overriding security concerns necessitated the demolitions. Based on field research conducted in the Occupied Territories in February, the UN Commission on Human Rights reported that it "found it difficult to believe that such destruction, generally carried out in the middle of the night without advance warning, was justified on grounds of military necessity."

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, known as B'Tselem, argued that even if Israel acted out of military necessity, its destruction of Palestinian property was excessive and disproportionate, a violation of the fundamental principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law. "One of the primary requirements of proportionality," B'Tselem asserted, "is that actions that will injure civilians may be taken only after alternative acts, whose resultant injury would be less, are considered and rejected because they will not achieve the necessary military advantage. Israel ignores this rule and uses means whose injury to civilians is extremely severe."

Throughout 2001, Israel also demolished Palestinian homes on the grounds that the owners did not obtain building permits, particularly in East Jerusalem. Although the Israeli government argued that such demolitions were the result of a building policy that is applied equally to Arabs and Jews, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations reported that Israeli officials enforce the rules in a discriminatory manner, strictly denying construction permits for Palestinian homes while allowing the construction of Israeli settlements to proceed.

Refugee Status

UN General Assembly resolutions that define the nature of the Palestinian refugee problem and solutions for Palestinian refugees – most adopted prior to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention – create a unique treatment for Palestinian refugees that differs from the approach found in the UN Refugee Convention.

The key General Assembly resolution, Res. 194, provides only two solutions: repatriation for those refugees "wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors," or compensation for those choosing not to return. In Res. 302 (IV), the UN General Assembly created UNRWA and assigned the agency the task of caring for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA defined Palestinian refugees as persons who resided in Palestine two years prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1948 and who lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of that war.

When the UN adopted the Refugee Convention and established the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, it excluded those falling within the UNRWA mandate from coverage under UNHCR's mandate. In effect, this has meant that UNHCR does not concern itself with (or count) Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, or the West Bank and Gaza Strip, although the agency assists Palestinian refugees outside the UNRWA-mandate area. Although unintended, the effect has been that Palestinian refugees have enjoyed fewer protections than other refugees because UNRWA only has a mandate to provide Palestinian refugees with humanitarian assistance, and, unlike UNHCR, does not have a specific protection mandate.

Since the current Palestinian uprising began, however, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, and some independent refugee experts have argued that the fact that many Palestinian refugees lack effective protection should trigger the applicability of the UN Refugee Convention to Palestinians in the UNRWA mandate area. These organizations and individuals cite Article 1D of the Refugee Convention, which effectively states that whenever protection or assistance for Palestinian refugees has ceased for any reason before their situation is resolved in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, they shall "be entitled to the benefits of this Convention." Proponents of this view contend that UNHCR should have begun to exercise its protection mandate for Palestinian refugees long ago when it became clear that the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, which was concerned with protection for Palestinians, was unable to carry out its responsibilities.

While the issue of UNHCR responsibility for Palestinian refugees raises many questions – particularly regarding what durable solutions would apply to Palestinians were UNHCR to become involved – the consequences of lacking an agency dedicated to the protection of Palestinians were evident during 2001 in the Occupied Territories. The UN Commission on Human Rights reported that refugees residing in camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank endured hardships exceeding those of the general Palestinian population, and that UNRWA staff felt unable to raise issues of a protective nature with the Israeli authorities.

Durable Solutions

With Israeli-Palestinian violence escalating into near-open warfare by the end of 2001, the two parties appeared farther apart than ever on any settlement for displaced Palestinians. Even before the Al Aqsa Intifada, the question of solutions for Palestinians displaced from Israel-proper in 1948 and Palestinians displaced from the Occupied Territories during and after the 1967 war was among the most contentious facing negotiators.

With respect to the 1967 displaced, the parties have not been able to agree on who should be considered for return, much less the modalities for their actual return. The gap in the parties' positions on the 1948 refugees is even wider. Arabs insist on the "right of return" as proclaimed in UN Res. 194, with its choice of either repatriation or compensation for refugees not wishing to repatriate.

While Israeli negotiators from the former Barak government reportedly agreed in the course of negotiations to the return of small numbers of refugees to Israel-proper under the rubric of family reunification, Israel continued to reject UN Res. 194 as a basis for discussion in final-status negotiations, saying that the "right of return" is incompatible with Israel's right of self-determination. Israel also insists that any discussion of compensation be based on the principle of reciprocity, taking into account Jews who were expelled from Arab countries as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel.

Nevertheless, three UN human rights treaty committees have found key aspects of Israel's nationality, citizenship, and land legislation – which effectively bar Palestinian refugees from exercising their right of return – to be incompatible with the rights codified in relevant human rights conventions.

Palestinian Economy

Studies conducted in 2001 by the UN Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories (UNSCO), UNCHR, and the World Bank all pointed to the devastating impact of Palestinian-Israeli fighting on the Palestinian economy, mostly resulting from Israeli closures and military conflict.

Beginning in October 2000 and continuing into 2001, Israeli closures of the West Bank and Gaza Strip prevented more than 100,000 Palestinian workers from reaching their jobs in Israel, thereby depriving them of their income, according to UNSCO. The closures instantly raised the unemployment rate from 11 to 30 percent in the Occupied Territories. By the fall of 2001, Palestinian unemployment was estimated at 37 percent (32 percent in the West Bank and 48 percent in the Gaza Strip).

In sum, Israeli closures resulted in a significant increase in economic hardship for Palestinians. The World Bank estimated that poverty rates in the Gaza Strip and West Bank rose by 50 percent between October 2000 and early 2001. UNRWA reported that Israeli closures had a particularly devastating impact on Palestinian refugees; by October 2001, UNRWA estimated that 64 percent of all registered refugees in the Occupied Territories were below the poverty line, a figure that rose to 80 percent in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip.

Emergency Relief

As closures and fighting affected growing numbers of Palestinian refugees during 2001, UNRWA stepped up its efforts to fill the gap with emergency relief. Between October 2000 and the end of 2001, UNRWA issued three emergency appeals for the Occupied Territories, totaling $153.2 million, of which it had received $106.8 million by the end of 2001. UNRWA used most of the money to provide food aid, medical assistance, and emergency job opportunities. Despite the generous response of donors to UNRWA's emergency appeals, the agency continued to suffer from budgetary shortfalls for its regular programs during the year.

In 2001, UNRWA provided basic food rations to some 217,000 impoverished refugee families and a small number of nonrefugee families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The agency also provided emergency cash assistance to several hundred refugee families who had lost their income or whose homes had been destroyed in Israeli attacks or demolition exercises.

UNRWA also channeled emergency funding to meet burgeoning health-care needs, most connected either directly or indirectly to Palestinian-Israeli fighting. UNRWA health-care facilities treated hundreds of Palestinians injured in various clashes during the year, while an increasing number of Palestinians who had previously relied on private clinics turned to UNRWA for medical services because Israeli closures prevented them from going elsewhere. UNRWA also reported a substantial increase in refugee patients seeking assistance for psychological trauma caused by the violence, as well as an increase in patients needing rehabilitation from conflict-related injuries.

To ameliorate the effects of income losses to Palestinian refugee families, UNRWA started a job-creation program in 2001. During the year, the agency hired thousands of the poorest refugees, typically to work on construction projects in the refugee camps of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

UNRWA also used emergency funding to provide trauma counseling for children injured or otherwise affected by fighting and extra schooling for children who missed a significant number of school days because of closures or injuries they suffered.