Nations protection or assistance.” This provision, coupled with Article 1(D) of the Refugee Convention, has been interpreted to place restrictions upon UNHCR’s scope in providing international protection to Palestinian refugees who already fall under the mandate of the UNCCP and UNRWA. However, Article 1(D) contains a parallel inclusion clause stating that “when such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitively settled in accordance with relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of the Convention.” While this norm could theoretically authorize UNHCR to assume responsibility for Palestinian refugees and IDPs,174 it has been narrowly interpreted by UNHCR itself as applying only to those persons “outside UNRWA’s area of operations”, and as such “no longer enjoy the protection or assistance of UNRWA.”175 A deficient system of protection for Palestinian Refugees and IDPs The displaced Palestinian population is therefore facing a substantial lack of protection. Israel, as the state exercising jurisdiction, is unwilling to provide Palestinians with any form of protection, causing and perpetrating their displacement and the continuing violation of their rights. In such cases, it is the duty of the international community to intervene and to provide the denied protection: as the UN General Assembly recognized in Resolution 319, “the problem of refugees is international in scope and in nature”.176 As also recognized by the Pinheiro Principles, the international community, especially the UN, has a general responsibility to act in order to enforce the realization of the right of return and restitution to refugees and IDPs.177 However, since the UNCCP has been unable to fulfil its mandate for decades, and only a small number of Palestinians are benefiting from UNHCR protection, there is currently no UN agency specifically mandated to provide legal protection and seek a durable solution (especially return and property restitution) for Palestinians. Instead of being administered by a UN custodian appointed to protect and manage refugees’ and IDPs’ land and properties (as was formerly proposed by Arab states’ delegations)178 in order to allow their legitimate owners to receive the 174 See the alternative interpretation of Article 1(D) proposed by Susan Akram and Terry Rempel in “Recommendations for Palestinian Refugees: a Challenge to the Oslo Framework”, The Palestine Yearbook of International Law, 11, No.1 (2000/2001): 27-36. 175 UNHCR, UNHCR Revised Statement on Article 1D of the 1951 Convention in relation to Bolbol v. Bevándorlási és Állampolgársági Hivatal pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union, October 2009, para 8, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4add79a82.html [accessed 27 Jul 2018]. 176 UN General Assembly, Resolution 319, supra note 171. 177 Pinheiro Principles, supra note 107, Section VI. 178 Fischbach, Records of Dispossession, supra note 122. 58