The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

168 to grant Palestinian refugees, who reside inside their territory, citizenship and integrate them as soon as possible. The Palestinian refugees’ suffering, caused by the loss of identity and prolonged human rights violations, should lead world leaders to demand action. For over sixty years, the Palestinian’s fates have been a bargaining chip leaving many to an undesirable fate. Many of these Palestinians, who fled Israel in 1948, “left behind their belongings and expected to return to their homes within days or weeks” (Marx). When this did not happen, a “demoralizing process of pauperization” (Nachmias) occurred. A reversal of this process has not happened for many Palestinian refugees. Some have been doomed to a life “in squalid camps for decades” (Nachmias). This is not an acceptable human rights situation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 stated, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family” (Leckie 3); however, many Palestinians have discovered how easily neglected and manipulated the rights of those without a state are. Some Arab countries have promoted the idea that “improving Palestinian conditions and giving them basic rights would facilitate their full integration in the host society and thus weaken their Palestinian identity” (El-Abed 531). This would supposedly lead to the Palestinians abandoning their right of return. Actual fieldwork, conducted among Palestinians in Egypt, shows that the “major factors encouraging Palestinians to hide or even lose their sense of Palestinian identity, are the deprivation of basic rights and the uncertainties arising from their precarious legal status” (El-Abed 532). This denial of basic rights is demonstrated by the Lebanese government, who “assigned [Palestinian refugees] the legal status of foreigners, which has negatively affected their rights to health care, social services, education and property ownership” (Ibrahim 83). This has occurred despite the 1951 Refugee Convention giving refugees the right to provisions such as aid, employment, education, and the justice system (Holzer 842). Long-term refugee status has left Palestinians vulnerable to political manipulation, rights violations, and economic discrimination. In addition to this vulnerability, refugee status is creating a dangerous culture of short-term benefits that damages long-term solutions. The actions of refugees’ grandchildren are an example of this. Even those grandchildren who live in “relative comfort”