teddyearp,
et al,
The problem here is, that the "refugee" concept doesn't actually consider the "why" behind the flight (displacement or uprooting); other then in very broad strokes (a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster).
The official international definition of a refugee is a long page of --- if, thens, and whereas' --- in Article I, Section "A" of the
1951 Convention; but does apply to events occurring before 1 January 1951.
<snip>Only those family members that were displaced and uprooted. If you are born outside the State of Israel, you are not a Palestinian Refugee; you are a Palestinian Citizen. Refugee status doesn't grow and is not an inherited status. The only people that think that are Palestinians.
This is something I could buy into; and perhaps Israel as well . . . . however, I would have to still want to know exactly what their reasoning was for them to become displaced and uprooted. Meaning, was it the Arab League, or the 'plan dalet'?
(COMMENT)
One of the problems with this definition is that a refugee --- being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. It doesn't matter whether it was
(hypothetically) a result of "Arab League, or the 'plan dalet'" as you are considering. So that is the drawback on the Israeli perspective.
On the other hand, every Arab Palestinian in the West Bank at the time the Jordanians Annexed the West Bank and were citizen of Jordan, "acquired a new nationality, and enjoyed the protection of the country [Jordan] of his new nationality." [Article 1C(3) of the 1951 Convention, page 15] Thus, since the Arab Palestinians exercised their "right of self-determination" --- participated in the Jordanian Parliament --- accepted the Annexation, and enjoyed Jordanian Citizenship, ceased to be Arab Palestinian Refugees from Israel, and for all intent and purposes, are Arab-Palestinian Refugees from Jordan for a short period of time. Except that, in 1988, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), accepted by both the Arab League and the UN as the sole representative of the Palestinian People, declared independence. Thus they accepted Palestinian Citizenship.
So, anyone who is a Citizen of the State of Palestine
(or any other country for that matter) is not a Refugee from the territory formerly under the Mandate of Palestine and considered part of the State of Israel today.
Most Respectfully,
R