Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa have not been relatively few instances of a change of sovereignty over territory that have had significant or lasting effects in terms of statelessness.81 Neither the short-lived existence (1958-1961) and subsequent dissolution of the United Arab Republic, a political union between Egypt and Syria, nor the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990 appear to have generated problems for the enjoyment of nationality or led to statelessness. Nevertheless, there is one major exception in this regard, which relates to the situation of the Palestinians. The origins of their statelessness lie in the end of the British authorities mandate over Palestine, followed by the emergence of the state of Israel which was accompanied by massive population displacement and Israel’s implementation of a nationality policy to the exclusion non-Jews with links to the territory (Palestinian Muslims and Christians). All of this, of course, against the important back-drop of the nonemergence of a fully-fledged Palestinian state with a territory over which it can exercise sovereignty. Thus, in one sense, the root of Palestinian statelessness is an inadequate response to a situation of state succession – although the reality is far more complex 81 - By comparison, in Europe, for instance this has been a far more significant cause of statelessness, with large-scale problems arising after the dissolution of both the USSR and Yugoslavia. 66