| Publication |
2006.
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| Summary/Abstract |
For the past 60 years Palestinians have been positioned in a liminal political zone in a global system of nation-states. Although the Palestinian refugee crisis is the oldest and largest in the world, Palestinians are also relegated to a liminal legal zone in that the UN-established institutions such as the unrwa to deal with the Palestinians' needs and demands through exceptional channels outside the jurisdiction of the UN's human rights regime. As a consequence, Palestinians' rights are always open to question and frequently violated, whether they are living under occupation, as second class citizens in Israel, or as refugees in surrounding Arab countries. Although the Palestinian diaspora is situated in a variety of countries, legally the Palestinians are nowhere. This article examines the liminal legal zone to which Palestinians have been exiled, particularly in regard to refugee rights, but also in the context of international humanitarian law and international prosecution of war crimes committed against Palestinians. In examining this liminal legal zone, the article also notes that in the age of the global 'war on terror', we are all at risk of becoming Palestinians as legal guidelines and guarantees are eroded.
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