| Publication |
2008-09.
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| Summary/Abstract |
For six decades the Palestine refugees and their descendants have suffered dispossession, exile, conflict and poverty. Many thousands have lived their lives in concrete shanties where opportunities are few and despair can be endemic. Their plight is unique in its longevity and intractability and so, in turn, a unique organization has catered for their needs.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) came into being in December 1949 and has been with the refugees as they faced conflicts and crises, periods of hope and long years of disappointment. It is a relationship unparalleled in the annals of humanitarian and development assistance.
The Palestinian flight from Mandate Palestine began in 1947, but the vast majority left between April and August 1948. The population from northern Palestine largely moved into Syria and Lebanon. From Jaffa and the south, the refugees crowded into the Gaza Strip. In all, some 200,000 refugees, including about 30,000 Bedouins from around Beersheba, went to Gaza, increasing the population of a dusty strip of dunes by a factor of three. The Arab population of the coastal plains, including some from Haifa and Jaffa, and most Arab inhabitants of Ramle and around Jerusalem sought protection in the hills of the West Bank - doubling its population in the process. In 1948 and again in 1967, tens of thousands were displaced into Jordan.
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