Palestinian refugees: empirical and qualitative considerations

This paper focuses attention upon the existence of a Palestinian refugee population in the land about and immediately adjacent to Israel. It considers both the creation and the continuation of the refugee state within the host communities and the growth occurring within the refugee populations themselves. Some attention will be directed to a consideration of the refugee population vis à vis the dramatic upsurge in the number of former Soviet-CIS Jewish immigrants into Israel, that create further and deepening pressures upon land and water resources and Palestinian refugee matters. The paper is in three main parts following upon a general introduction to refugee studies. Firstly, a quantitative assessment of the Palestinian refugee population incorporates an empirical presentation of base Palestinian population totals and distributions, directing particular attention to growth in the period 1974–90. Secondly, several perspectives are presented as a backcloth to understanding certain of the continuing and mounting tensions within the Middle East in general and among the Palestinian refugee population in particular. Personal experiences of the writer as fieldworker are presented to provide a more general appreciation and awareness of the particular refugee situation within the Occupied Territories. The third part considers the developing and extending yet increasingly fundamental political consciousness among the Palestinian refugees, and certain envisaged reactions, and speculates upon continuing frustrations that are seen to be leading on to dramatic, mounting and extending violence.