Public Lecture on Palestinian Refugee Problem

The Forced Migration and Refugee Unit (FMRU) at the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies (IALIIS), in collaboration with the Tawasol forum, which is funded by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), conducted a public lecture on Saturday June 15th 2013, on the “Palestinian Refugee Problem.” The lecture targeted the foreigner students who are studying Arabic at Birzeit University, and was presented by Dr. Rana Barakat, the assistant professor at the department of history at BZU.

Dr. Barakat covered a historical reading of what was been described in its contemporary sense as “The Palestinian refugee problem.” Using the term “problem,” however, is an inaccurate, incomplete and a-historical means of describing the settler-colonial process that has defined modern Palestinian history, including the refugee aspect of this past and present. Without comprehending this complex colonial process, Dr. Barakat argued, neither Palestinian refugees, in particular, nor Palestinian narratives, in general, can be understood.

Dr. Barakat added that Palestinian refugee studies have often focused on the post-1948 period for obvious reasons – that is, when Palestinians were made into refugees. Meanwhile, The lecture covered both the “colonial colony” (the British mandate era pre 1948) and what has been succinctly described as the “post-colonial colony” (post 1948). By presenting the historical process within its context as a direct product of European colonialism, Dr. Barakat explored the contradiction inherent in confining a discussion of refugee rights to human rights law (international law). That is, by understanding that the on-going colonial process that is solely responsible for the attempted erasure of Palestine and the forced expulsion of nearly three-quarters of its population, we put the question of Palestine in its proper historical perspective. Moreover, the question of refugees can be read through a more organic context: within Palestinian history of constant and continuous colonial conquest, which of course includes a discussion of international law, but as a part of a much larger and more complex story.