‘I Must Be from Somewhere. I’m Not from the Moon’ By and large, the PRS’s situation in Syria was relatively good, especially when compared to the situation of Palestinian refugees in neighbouring Lebanon. While they or their descendants could not acquire Syrian citizenship or political rights, they occupied a position of ‘quasi-parity’ with Syrian citizens in terms of social and economic rights as well as duties and responsibilities. 12 This socio-economic parity with Syrian citizens was based on the establishment of the legal status of Palestinians in Syria in 1957. 13 However, as a consequence of the deteriorating situation within the country, between 2011 and 2017 over 120,000 PRS sought refuge in other states. 14 Of those Palestinian refugees who remain in Syria, the vast majority have been internally displaced. 15 For those who crossed an international border, a process of re/delabelling began. To better understand how the stateless and refugee labels are conceptualised by the interviewees and how this understanding itself is a site of knowledge about the socio-political struggle within the new asylum bureaucracies, we must first consider the exceptionalism of Palestinian refugees under international law. PALESTINIAN REFUGEES UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW Most Palestinian refugees do not receive international protection under UNHCR’s refugee and/or statelessness mandates due to the ‘exclusion clauses’ within the Refugee Convention and 1954 Statelessness Convention. 16 This exclusion from protection under the Refugee Convention was specifically targeted at the Palestinians who were receiving assistance from UNRWA or its predecessor, the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (‘UNCCP’), when the Refugee Convention was drafted. 17 Given that the Refugee Convention and 1954 Statelessness Convention are sister conventions, one being drafted with the other in mind and mirroring each other in many ways, it could be argued that the exclusion clause in the 1954 Statelessness Convention was similarly targeted at the Palestinians. 18 This exclusion stemmed from the idea that Palestinian refugees should be categorised as distinct from other stateless persons and/or refugees, as the Palestinian issue was too politicised, complicated or unique — or that it required 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Jalal Al Husseini and Riccardo Bocco, ‘The Status of the Palestinian Refugees in the Near East: The Right of Return and UNRWA in Perspective’ (2009) 28(2–3) Refugee Survey Quarterly 260; Sari Hanafi, ‘Rethinking the Palestinians Abroad as a Diaspora: The Relationship between the Diaspora and the Palestinian Territories’ in André Levy & Alex Weingrod (eds), Homelands and Diasporas: Holy Lands and Other Places (Stanford University Press 2004) 97. The legal status of Palestinians living in Syria was established under Law No 260 of 10 July 1957 (Syrian Arab Republic). See also Szydzisz (n 10); ‘Syria Crisis’ (n 11). UNRWA, Syria: A Humanitarian Snapshot February 2018 (Report, 20 March 2018) <https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/syria-unrwa-humanitarian-snapshot-february2018>. ibid. 1951 Refugee Convention (n 1) art 1(d); 1954 Convention (n 1) art 1(2)(i). Susan Akram, ‘UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees’ in Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al (eds), Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (Oxford University Press 2014) 227. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons: Implementation within the European Union Member States and Recommendations for Harmonisation (Report, UNHCR 2003) <https://www.refworld.org/docid/415c3cfb4.html>. 333