Preface The status and protection of Palestinians have been a matter of controversy since 1949-50, when the UN Third Committee first considered the scope of the Statute then being drafted for the High Commissioner for Refugees. Arab States, in particular, were concerned that Palestinians, to whom the United Nations owed a special responsibility, should not be subsumed and lost in the more general regime being set up for refugees. For this reason they argued successfully for the non-applicability of the UNHCR Statute and the 1951 Convention to refugees receiving protection and assistance from another UN agency, unless and until such protection or assistance ceased without an internationally accepted solution having been found. It is sometimes said that this means that Palestinians are ‘excluded’ from the Convention, but this does a disservice to the drafters, and can seriously compromise the goal of protection. None of the participants would have predicted that, over 65 years later, Palestinians would still be without a solution, or that their entitlement to protection would continue to be disputed, or that a Handbook such as this would be needed. It may be that the primary cause of this necessity is the manifest failure of the international community to reach a lasting political solution to the problem posed by the absence of a Palestinian State. But this is only part of the problem, and the status and protection of Palestinian refugees have also been frustrated by drafting inconsistencies in relevant texts, misinterpretation (at times, seemingly for political reasons), and even by abstruse academic readings. Indeed, a review of state practice does not leave one fully confident in the good faith interpretation and implementation of international obligations. Still, certain principles were always clear. The travaux préparatoires (“preparatory works”) of paragraph 7(c) of the UNHCR Statute and Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention confirm the intention of participating states not to exclude Palestine refugees. What was important to all participants was continuity of protection, and the non-applicability of the 1951 Convention was intended to be temporary and contingent, postponing or deferring the incorporation of Palestine refugees until certain preconditions were satisfied. Unfortunately, however, the wording of the UNHCR Statute and the 1951 Convention is far from clear. The UNHCR Statute limits the High Commissioner’s competence in regard only to a person “who continues to receive [...] protection or assistance” (UNHCR Statute, paragraph 7(c)). By contrast, those to whom the Convention is not to apply are those “at present receiving [...] protection or assistance” / “qui bénéficient actuellement d’une protection ou d’une assistance,” and only until such time as protection or assistance shall have ceased “for any reason,” without their position having been definitively settled in accordance with the relevant General Assembly resolutions. In those circumstances, these persons “shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Convention” / “bénéficieront de plein droit du régime de cette Convention.” ix