Reinterpreting the Historical Record: The Uses of Palestinian Refugee Archives for Social Science Research and Policy Analysis

This volume contains the first attempt to systematically analyze the contents of all the major and publicly available archival records pertaining to Palestinian refugees and to social science research and policy analysis. Collectively, these records cover the formative years of refugee registration (1948-1950); the administrative and family files of UNRWA; the computerized individual and family databases of UNRWA; and the property and map locational databases of Palestinian refugee property inside Israel. The seven chapters of the book, written by experts in their fields, deal with the uses and limitations of these records and with their relevance and utility to the ongoing negotiations on refugee repatriation, rehabilitation, restitution, and compensation.