Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees Resolution 181(II) recommended a division of Palestine into two states: a Jewish state with a 44% Palestinian population and an Arab state with a 1% Jewish population.iii On 15 May 1948, the Mandate over Palestine expired and the British withdrew. Israel declared its State on 14 May, while war broke out, and the native Palestinians were forced out or fled as Israeli forces consolidated territory. In response to the expulsion and flight of approximately 800,000 refugees who became destitute and at the mercy of the international community, the UN took several important actions. In 1948-1949, the UN established a special regime comprising two agencies, the United Nations Conciliation Commission on Palestine (UNCCP) and UNRWA, with shared but distinct international obligations towards the displaced Palestinian population. Consequently, the UN decided to exclude Palestinians from the ‘universal’ refugee regime incorporated in the 1950 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Statute and the 1951 Refugee Convention. Over time, the key protection of durable solutions has been severed from the refugee definition, relegating Palestinians to weak and widely disparate rights protections around the world. 2