Hamzeh N.

04.10.08 @ 7:55 pm

I think we are knocking on the wrong door here. The Palestinian refugees in camps other than the ones established after the Iraq war at the Eastern border of Jordan all fall under the umbrella of the UNRWA, not the UNHCR.

If you read some of the UNHCR’s documents, you will find that there is a paragraph 7(c) of the UNHCR’s statute that says its mandate “excludes persons who continue to receive from other organs or agencies of the United Nations protection or assistance.”

Now I think this is an organizational flaw. A Palestinian refugee is a refugee nonetheless, and I think the UNRWA should be under the umbrella of the UNHCR.

Maybe this is something that the Arab members of the UN can push for.

Iman

04.11.08 @ 12:06 am

Hi Hamzeh,
Good point … It didn’t even occur to me to look into it before…

I did a bit of research after reading your comment, and here is a bit more detail:

UNHCR’s mandate does not extend to the majority of Palestinian refugees by virtue of Paragraph 7 (c) of the organization’s Statute which excludes persons who continue to receive from other organs or agencies of the United Nations protection or assistance. A similar provision excludes these refugees from the scope of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Article 1D of the Convention provides that it ’shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.’

For more…

But this petition should deliver a message nonetheless… Thanks for the info and thanks for signing (I assume you did!)

Haitham Sabbah

04.11.08 @ 1:41 am

Dear All,

The point here is not UNHCR or UNRWA, but refugees. Quoting my post:

The UNHCR does not recognize the Palestinian refugee camps in the Occupied Palestinian Territories all together as “refugee camps who needs emotional understanding”, so they are not one of the “major displacement crises,” thus do not require “the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims”! We understand that UNHCR mandate is to take care of refugees all around the world, but not those inside Occupied Palestinian Territories, UNRWA does that. However, one of UNHCR’s mandates is to offer refugees to return to their home country, an act that is rejected by Israel. Hence, this does not justify the UNHCR to wash its hands of Palestinian refugees under occupation and not mention them altogether. They are still refugees no matter if they have been able to make the best of a horrible situation, and they all should be represented.

It is disturbing to see such a horrible mistake (intentional or unintentional, we need to know) spread by a UN agency which claims to be taking care of refugees all around the world. The UNRWA lists the name of all the refugees camps in West Bank (19 camp) and Gaza (8 camps) and their population (West Bank 486,479, Gaza 478,272, total 964,751). Not only that, but they also have location maps for these refugees camps on their website.

Thanks for signing the petition.

Hamzeh N.

04.11.08 @ 10:53 am

Hi Haitham, I don’t think you can go very far with the argument that you highlighted in bold, because it contains two statements that contradict each other:

1- “We understand that UNHCR mandate is to take care of refugees all around the world, but not those inside Occupied Palestinian Territories, UNRWA does that.”

2- “one of UNHCR’s mandates is to offer refugees to return to their home country, an act that is rejected by Israel. Hence, this does not justify the UNHCR to wash its hands of Palestinian refugees under occupation and not mention them altogether.”

In (1), we already acknowledge that this is not a UNHCR matter, but strictly an UNRWA matter, and this is why I said I believe we are knocking on the wrong door.

Instead of waisting time doing that, I suggest you contact the UNRWA and ask them to do for the refugees that are under their mandate what the UNHCR is doing for the ones under theirs.

Qwaider قويدر

04.11.08 @ 11:12 am

Hi all, with all due respect to everything said, and everyone here, I’m with Sabbah on this one. I think the Palestinian refugees need to get the same status from both UN bodies.
At least, acknowledging the refugees as refugees, and referring to additional content on the UNRWA.

It’s illogical that one body views them as refugees, while the other just washes their hand and throw the responsibility on the first. It’s like a form of discrimination if you ask me and it should be amended

Thanks Iman/Sabbah for bringing this issue up.

Hamzeh N.

04.11.08 @ 12:43 pm

Qwaider, I think you miss the point. Both UNHCR and UNRWA acknowledge all Palestinian refugees as exactly that, but the UNHCR is not responsible for doing anything towards the majority of Palestinian refugees because the UNRWA is. Both of them are UN bodies. You can’t have one refugee benefit from the resources of two UN bodies, while another only benefits from the resources of one. It’s not fair.

So you cannot say that only the UNRWA views Palestinian refugees as refugees, while the UNHCR simply “washes its hands from them.”

Qwaider قويدر

04.11.08 @ 1:13 pm

You might be right, Hamzeh. I’m not sure why there are two organizations to begin with. How can they deal with the overlap.

So back to square one. Lets ask the right question here. “Who should we direct our attention to have the Palestinian refugees included in Google’s tour”?
My gut feeling calls on Google.

(Thanks again Iman for hosting this valuable discussion)

Iman

04.11.08 @ 1:28 pm

Who should we direct our attention to have the Palestinian refugees included in Google’s tour”?

This “Bird’s Eye View of a Refugee’s World” is a UNHCR initiative …and its mandate does not extend to Palestinian Refugees who are receiving assistance from other UN agencies … What can you/we do?

Hamzeh mentions 2 points:

1)

A Palestinian refugee is a refugee nonetheless, and I think the UNRWA should be under the umbrella of the UNHCR.Maybe this is something that the Arab members of the UN can push for.

so perhaps we can send letters/start petition to get Arab members of the UN to address the above

2)

contact the UNRWA and ask them to do for the refugees that are under their mandate what the UNHCR is doing for the ones under theirs.

Hamzeh N.

04.11.08 @ 2:08 pm

This might shed some light on why the notion of putting the UNRWA “under the umbrella” of the UNHCR might be a scary idea for Arabs and especially Palestinians almost all of whom support the right of return.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1129540611749

Don’t take it as a reference for what the reality is, but as a peek at what arguments Arabs might have to face if they start calling for combining the two. The article definitely makes it sounds like the Arabs were opposed to the idea from the beginning.