Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies
UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees
stated that Bolbol overrules El-Ali; however, neither the UK nor any other jurisdiction has yet
adapted domestic law to the broader ruling of El Kott, so its impact on Palestinian refugee claims
remains to be seen.
The full meaning and scope of Article 1D are revealed in the Refugee Convention’s travaux
preparatoires. Although Article 1D is most commonly understood as an exclusion clause for
Palestinian refugees, it may be most accurately described as a contingent inclusion clause: its
first sentence operates to exclude Palestinians, but its second sentence re-includes them into the
Refugee Convention upon the occurrence of certain contingencies. The Arab delegates who
proposed the provision considered Palestinians to be different from all other refugees. First, they
claimed that ‘the existence of Palestine refugees . . . was the direct result of a decision taken by
the United Nations itself, with full knowledge of the consequences. The Palestine refugees were
therefore a direct responsibility on the part of the United Nations and could not be placed in the
general category of refugees without betrayal of that responsibility’ (UN GAOR, 1950, para 46).
Second, the Arab delegates viewed UNHCR and the new refugee treaty as essentially tasked
with resettlement. The Palestinians, however, demanded and were entitled to repatriation: ‘the
obstacle to their repatriation was not dissatisfaction with their homeland [as required by Article
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