KICK-STARTING THE REFUGEE
ISSUE: THE PEACE PROCESS AND TRACK II
Source: speaking notes, International Development
Research Center (Ottawa), 17 June 1997. by Donna
E. Arzt
I'm delighted to be here this morning, though I've
been told repeatedly that I should have come in May,
during the Tulip and Juniper Festivals. In some respects,
this is one of the worst possible moments to give
a presentation about the refugee aspects of the Arab-Israeli
peace process, as the prospects for serious negotiations
have never seemed dimmer. But in other respects it
is the most crucial time, as over a year has gone
by since the Final Status talks were to have begun,
as the refugees in Lebanon are more desperate than
ever, and as the pressure is on to get negotiations
back on track before the process gives way to unending
violence, demoralization and irreversible corruption.
What I thought I would do this morning is to give
a short summary of my book and then throw out some
ideas for some Track II-type projects that could help
inject some new energy into the peace process generally
and the refugee issue particularly. For the latter
I'm particularly indebted to Rex Brynen and his cyberspace
think tank, the FOFOGNET listserve and the Palestinian
Refugee Research Net, for not only keeping us all
up to date but for prodding us to keep the ball in
the air.
My
book starts from the premise that the refugee
question is the key to permanent peace in the region,
and that permanence requires individual and national
dignity for both Palestinians and Israelis. Citizenship,
which means rights and obligations, identity and inclusion,
is the hallmark of that dignity. (This of course is
no novel idea in Canada, where multiculturalism is
not just an academic buzzword, as it is in the U.S.,
but a constitutional principle.) Only with citizenship
will the refugees no longer serve as pawns and bargaining
chips for the other parties to the conflict.
A derivative premise of the book is that no real
peace is possible until the average Palestinian can
see a resolution of her fate (a permanence of her
status) through a sovereign state that can grant formal
Palestinian citizenship, and concomitantly, the average
Israeli can be assured that her home (and her own
homeland) will not be taken away from her. That will
require a commitment to principled yet pragmatic compromises
on all sides, including the regional states who share
an interest in, if not a responsibility for, the end
of the conflict.
My book goes into three aspects of the background
or framework: the historical, the demographic and
the legal. My approach is to avoid relitigating old
battles by separating out the historical and demographic
facts that can be reasonably be agreed on from those
that cannot and probably never will, such as who caused
the refugees to flee in 1948 and how many were there.
Moreover, the rhetorical discourse concerning legal-sounding
terminology and authorities is often misused, misquoted
or taken out of context. You are all quite familiar
with all this and I understand that many of you have
read Chapter Four, which is intended only to offer
some suggested guidelines, targets and procedures,
not because I think I have the definitive solution
but simply to start the dialogue going on realistic
terms. So instead of dwelling on the specifics of
the regional absorption targets I propose (which are
summarized in the hand-out), passports, compensation
commissions and the like, let me talk about some of
the basic principles that I believe are crucial to
any meaningful dialogue on these topics, and then
discuss the question of where do we go from here.
In order to achieve a practical yet equitable settlement
of the refugee question, four basic principles must
be adopted by negotiators:
- As already mentioned, discussion
of the issue must be forward, not backward-looking,
so that age-old battles over fault and causes of
dislocation of the Palestinians will not be relitigated
for the upteenth time.
- Wherever possible, obligations of
the parties to the negotiations must be made reciprocal
and regionally balanced.
- International normalcy, that is,
how responsible, peaceful states and their citizens
are expected to behave and interact, should be the
standard.
- The parties must recognize that each people,
both Palestinians and Israelis, has equal rights
to land, statehood, security and survival.
So, what can be done now to facilitate the process
of formal negotiation on these questions? I divide
the work that needs to be done into three parts: data,
dialogue and development.
DATA: Much work has been
done already, in part due to the efforts of the Refugee
Working Group and its database shepherd, Norway, to
collect demographic information about the numbers,
conditions and legal status of the refugees. What
is needed now is some informed, unbiased, realistic
and responsible projections of numbers concerning
who wants to repatriate, to where, and whether they
can fulfill a fair and practical set of criteria for
doing so (e.g. security in Israel, economic viability
in the West Bank and Gaza). Similarly, pragmatic estimates
are needed of compensation and loans amounts, both
to individual families and for community-wide absorption
projects. Most importantly, these cannot be kept secret
any longer. (Rex and I both know about the relevant
tables and statistics that UNRWA, for instance, allowed
me to see when I was researching my book, but refused
to give me permission to publish.) The estimates --
and that's all they should be described as being --
must be put forward for public consumption, not only
to bolster Palestinian hopes that the topic of return
is indeed on the table, but also to ease Israeli fears
that "return" implies the effective disappearance
of their state.
DIALOGUE: Many conferences,
lectures and workshops on the refugee question have
occurred in the U.S., Canada, England, and other places
outside of the Middle East, involving Palestinians
and Israelis as well as other Arabs and Westerners.
But what has been missing so far is dialogue that
takes place between all these parties in the region
itself. I propose that a three-day traveling workshop
be held in Tel Aviv, Ramalleh and Amman [or as was
suggested by a cybernaut, a simultaneous teleconference,
but I'm not sure if the infrastructure is ready for
that] that would involve not only presentations by
academics, NGO and government speakers, but an audience
made up of the public who would be split into dialogue
groups composed of diverse representatives of different
population and professional groups. It should be videotaped
for wider dissemination.
Personally, I believe that one of the important
topics to be discussed is what are the realistic possibilities
that dual citizenship can be granted to Palestinians
who do not return to the West Bank and Gaza as citizens
of the state of Palestine. Dual citizenship, like
bilingualism, is important to the maintenance of individual
and group pride and to avoid the imposition of an
assimilated identity. If the refugees are granted
Palestinian passports, will Jordan and Israel, which
already grants single citizenship to Palestinians,
allow them to have dual passports? And will Syria,
Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and other states where
Palestinians now reside, and may reside in the future,
do the same? Only when the public begins to feel comfortable
talking about subjects such as this can the formal
peace negotiators begin to put them on the table.
FINALLY, by DEVELOPMENT I mean much more of the
material, on-the-ground projects that can immediately
increase the tangible benefits to the refugees, so
that they can know that the peace process is helping
them and not just the entrepreneurial and bureaucratic
elites who have benefited to date. I understand the
difficulty of balancing projects which improve living
and economic conditions without compromising the legal
and political claim to return and compensation. But
as the Refugee Working Group has already realized,
one important objective of these projects is to demonstrate
"doability" -- to show that absorption of
refugees can be accomplished in a way that will result
in stability, identity and dignity.
I've been speaking on this topic for about four
years, and have done so in all sorts of audiences,
some more or less supportive and many, more or less
combative. So I'm willing to throw the floor open
for comments, criticisms and hopefully dialogue.
Donna E. Arzt
Associate Professor of Law
Syracuse University College of Law
Syracuse, N.Y. 13244 USA
dearzt@law.syr.edu
Tel. 315-443-2401
Fax 315-443-5394
"Justice, justice thou shalt pursue." -
Deut. 16:20 |