3. Realization of Self-Determination:
Palestinian People’s Inalienable Rights and
Customary Law as the Foundation
Bearing in mind that self-determination is a collective right with the Palestinian
people, as defined according to United Nations General Assembly Resolution
3210 and Resolution 3237,23 the subject of this right, Palestinian selfdetermination necessarily encompasses all Palestinians who were living
in Mandatory Palestine’s borders and their descendants, wherever they
are. Today, this consists of three groups: those living under occupation since
1967 in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem, those displaced during
the Nakba (1947-1949) and the war of 1967, as well as due to Israeli policies
of forcible displacement, who now constitute more than 9 million refugees and
IDPs, and Palestinians with an Israeli citizenship. These groups, encompassing
the Palestinian people in their entirety, are entitled to self-determination, implying
that self-determination only qualifies as such when it includes all Palestinians and
is exerted on Mandatory Palestine’s borders – contrary to the so-called Oslo
peace process and the international community’s framework.
Importantly, the external oppressive circumstances of displacement,
denationalization, and possession of Israeli citizenship that most Palestinians
have been subjected to does not deprive them from being a part of exercising
self-determination as they are still part of the Palestinian people, irrespective of
the long period of protracted displacement or acquisition of other citizenship(s).
Put simply, Palestinian refugees, including those who have acquired other states’
nationality due to their long-standing displacement, and Palestinians with Israeli
citizenship remain a part of the Palestinian people and still have the right to
exercise self-determination on the entirety of Mandatory Palestine, as do
Palestinians in the occupied territory. Upon considering the inalienable right of
return for Palestinian refugees and the customary prohibition of colonization
applicable to Mandatory Palestine, the following section outlines how Palestinian
refugees and Palestinians with an Israeli citizenship are to be practically included
in the realization of Palestinian self-determination.
23 UNGA, A/RES/3210(XXIX), in supra 18.
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