that should have been adopted in 1948, pursuant to the law of state succession, as explained above. The history of the drafting processes of the UNHCR statute, the 1951 Convention, and the 1954 Stateless Persons Convention, during which the issue of Palestinian refugees was extensively discussed, demonstrates that UN Delegates then intended to create a special regime for Palestinian refugees. That regime consisted of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine’s (UNCCP) protection mandate and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s (UNRWA) assistance mandate,143 as will be explained below. The drafters believed that, because of the uniqueness of the Palestinian case, Palestinian refugees would get less protection than deserved, were they to be included in the system of the 1951 Convention alongside other refugees.144 That uniqueness derived from a consensus among UN delegates that the wholesale persecution suffered by Palestinian refugees rendered them the undoubted status of refugees under Article 1 of the 1951 Convention.145 In addition, it was also a unique case because “the obstacle to their repatriation was not dissatisfaction with their homeland [as required by Article 1], but the fact that a Member of the United Nations [i.e., Israel] was preventing their return;”146 consequently, “the UN body itself bore heavy responsibility for their plight.”147 In that context, Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention served, on the one hand, to institutionalize two separate regimes – i.e., one for Palestinian refugees and another one for refugees in general – by asserting that the 1951 Refugee Convention “shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.”148 At the same time, the second paragraph of Article 1D established an inclusion clause the purpose of which is “to ensure the continuity of protection”149 of Palestinian refugees by bringing them under the scope of the Convention whenever “such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason”150 – to serve as a safety net that would afford them adequate protection at all times and in changing circumstances. For a thorough analysis of the drafting history of Article 1D, refer to the 2005 edition of this Handbook.151 The role of Article 1D in relation to Palestinian refugees will be further addressed in Chapter Two. Susan M. Akram, “Temporary Protection Status and Its Applicability to the Palestinian Case,” BADIL Information & Discussion Briefs, no. 4 (June 2000): 4; Susan M. Akram, “Palestinian Refugees and their Legal Status: Rights, Politics, and Implications for a Just Solution,” Journal of Palestine Studies 31, no. 3 (April 2002): 39–40, doi:10.1525/jps.2002.31.3.36; Susan Akram and Terry Rempel, “Temporary Protection as an Instrument for Implementing the Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees,” Boston University International Law Journal 22, no. 1 (2004): 14. 144 Akram, “Temporary Protection Status and Its Applicability to the Palestinian Case,” 4; Akram and Rempel, “Temporary Protection as an Instrument for Implementing the Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees,” 14. 145 Akram, “Palestinian Refugees and Their Legal Status,” 40. 146 “Remarks of the Lebanese Representative,” UN GAOR, 3d Comm., 5th Sess., 328th mtg., para. 47, UN Doc, apud ibid. 147 Ibid. The Egyptian position stated at the twentieth meeting of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons also illustrates such understanding: “[n]o parallel could, however, be drawn between the problem of refugees in general and that of refugees from Palestine. The former was the result of national phenomena peculiar to each country, such as racial, political or religious persecution. […] The problem of the Arab refugees from Palestine, on the other hand, had actually arisen out of action taken by the United Nations, the various agencies and organs of which had been giving them protection and assistance since 1948.” UN General Assembly, “Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons, Summary Record of the Twentieth Meeting, 26 November 1951,” November 26, 1951, UN Doc. A/ CONF.2/SR.20, http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae68cde4.html. 148 UN General Assembly, “Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees,” July 28, 1951, Article 1D. 149 UNHCR, “2013 Note,” 2. 150 UN General Assembly, “Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees,” Article 1D. 151 BADIL, Closing Protection Gaps: A Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees in States Signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention, 77–83. 143 The Palestinian Refugee Problem: An Overview 25