documenting around 1.5 million individual holdings.167 Digitization of this database was completed in the late 1990s. The UNCCP also examined means and principles for the implementation of compensation, recommending that compensation should be paid primarily to individuals (not governments), and should be handled through the Commission or another international body. The UNCCP also made several interventions with Arab states to secure resettlement spaces for Palestinian refugees choosing not to exercise their right to return to their original homes inside Israel. At the time, the governments of Jordan and Syria agreed to resettle those refugees choosing not to return to their homes, provided that Israel gave refugees the choice to return.168 In addition, the UNCCP established the Economic Survey Mission to “examine the economic situation of the countries” affected by the conflict, and recommend to UNCCP an integrated program to, inter alia, […]facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation pursuant to the provisions of paragraph 11 of the General Assembly’s Resolution of 11 December 1948, in order to reintegrate the refugees into the economic life of the area on a self-sustaining basis within a minimum period of time.169 As illustrated by the above, the UNCCP undertook numerous steps to provide protection to Palestinian refugees in the early years of its mandate. Many of these UNCCP activities were similar to protection functions carried out by UNHCR in other refugee situations, such as: • • • • • Intervention with state parties to promote and safeguard the internationallyprotected rights of the refugees; Promotion of measures to improve the situation of the refugees; Collection of basic information to facilitate both protection and implementation of a durable solution; Promotion of measures for restitution of refugee properties; and, Promotion of options for a durable solution based on refugee choice. However, UNCCP’s efforts were to be thwarted by a mismatch between a global consensus which pledged full repatriation, and Israel’s refusal to offer, initially, no 167 30 UNCCP, “Working Paper Prepared by the Commission’s Land Expert on the Methods and Techniques of Identification and Valuation of Arab Refugee Immovable Property Holdings in Israel,” April 28, 1964, UN Doc.A/AC.25/W/84, http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/e11790721615c5aa05 2565f600543580?OpenDocument.See Also Fischbach, Records of Dispossession, and Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights And Losses In 1948, First Edition (London: Saqi Books, 2001). Estimates of the value of these properties as of 1998 range from US$23-150 billion. BADIL, Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2008-2009, 11. 168 UNCCP, “Historical Survey of Efforts of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine to Secure the Implementation of Paragraph 11 of General Assembly Resolution 194(III), The Question of Reintegration by Resettlement,” October 2, 1961, para. 31, UN Doc. A/AC.25/W/82/Rev.1. 169 UNCCP, “Fourth Progress Report (For the Period 9 June to 15 September Inclusive),” September 22, 1948, UN Doc.A/992, Annex 1. Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees