240074 SE VM8 / VM6 - 75 Years Since the Nakba (2025S)

The seminar will be taught through a mix of lectures, readings, and group assignments and discussions and will be concluded with an individual paper by each student. Literature will be made available through the University’s learning platform. Subject to refinement once the proposal is accepted in principle, the seminar will include the following sessions:
1 History of Palestine and its people: Palestine from the Ottoman Empire to what became the most protracted conflict and (belligerent) occupation of modern time, and the Palestinian people ‘a nation in exile’.
2 A Distinctive regime within the International Refugee Framework, part I: The institutional setting: Palestinian refugees’ vis-à-vis other refugees: a distinctive normative and institutional regime in context (UNRWA, UNCCP and UNHCR).
3 A Distinctive regime within the International Refugee Framework, part II: The normative setting: Article 1D and its normative value and implication: a detailed, verbatim analysis (including the meaning of continuity of protection, descendants, etc).
4 The value of international law as a whole in protecting the Palestinians:
Palestinians need protection as ‘people in exile’, made of refugees, largely stateless persons, often internally displaced and caught up in conflict or under occupation: the interplay of different legal regimes and the need for overcoming ‘legal scholarship compartmentalization’.
5 Palestinian dispersal: part I Palestinian dispersal in the Arab world: Zooming into the reality of Palestinians in UNRWA’s area of operation.
6 Palestinian dispersal: part II Palestinian dispersal in the rest of the Arab world: between needs and politics, legal features and political dynamics.
7 Palestinian dispersal: part II Palestinians outside the MENA region: Americas, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe, the expanding frontiers of a 70+ year old exile: legal features and political dynamics.
8 Specific rights of Palestinian refugees in focus, Part I self-determination: Legal and political aspects in light of history and doctrinal debate.
9 Specific rights of Palestinian refugees in focus, Part II Right of return, compensation & restitution: Legal foundations, origins of the right and evolution of international law, from UNGA res 194 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the international human rights framework.
10 Specific rights of Palestinian refugees in focus, Part III ‘other’ human rights: The relevance of non-refoulement, the prevention of torture, as well as other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, including the right to family unity.
11 Negotiating solutions for Palestinian refugees: From the UN’s to regional and bilateral peace efforts, the ebbs and flows of a political process which has so far been unable of delivering justice.
12 Developments since October 2023 and their impact on Palestinian refugees and UNRWA: The 7 October attacks and the war on Gaza; proliferation of the war to Lebanon and beyond; Israel’s attacks of and ban on UNRWA; implications for the global refugee regime and the international humanitarian system.
13 From the current stalemate toward a new paradigm for protection and solutions:
Obstacles, challenges, opportunities to advance protection and solutions. A comprehensive response framework for Palestinian refugees: approaching solutions anew using a state-of-the-art 21st century toolbox.
14 Assignment on Comprehensive Response Framework for Palestinian Refugees
15 Closing Panel: Panel discussion with invited (online and in person) guests.