Summary
Author of Chapter 8 of Rethinking Statehood in Palestine, Palestinian Nationality and “Jewish” Nationality: From the Lausanne Treaty to Today, which argues that Palestinian nationality was formed under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1924, remains legally intact today, and grounds the Right of Return as a national’s right rather than only a refugee’s claim (Rethinking Statehood in Palestine, PDF p.211, p.228).
Details
- Akram’s central premise is that Palestinian nationality is not negated by the claim of a Jewish state in Israel or by an extraterritorial claim to Israel by Jews elsewhere in the world, because under international nationality law the territorial and direct “bloodline” connection, not a religious connection, determines national rights (PDF p.211).
- Palestinians are, on her account, stateless nationals — approximately twelve million worldwide — who remain nationals of Palestine but are effectively stateless because they were wrongfully deprived of their nationality in violation of international law (PDF p.213-214).
- Israel’s 1952 denationalization of Palestinians was, she argues, an illegal act violating the successor-state citizenship principle and the prohibition on arbitrary denationalization, and the extraterritorial grant of “Jewish nationality” is a continuing breach; there is no “Israel nationality”, as the Israeli High Court itself has confirmed (PDF p.220-222).
- The chapter’s conclusion holds that “The strongest claim for right of return is based on Palestinians as nationals, not as stateless persons and not just as refugees” (PDF p.229), and defines a Palestinian as all those who can claim nationality by jus sanguinis and/or jus soli as fixed on August 6, 1924 under Lausanne, and all their descendants; in a single state the “nationality” distinctions, the denationalization provision and the Nation-State Law would need repeal in its entirety (PDF p.229-230).
Related pages
Rethinking Statehood in Palestine, Palestinian nationality, Treaty of Lausanne, Law of Return, Citizenship Law (1952), Nation-State Law, Right of Return