US Policy with Respect to the Palestinian Refugee Issue during the Presidency of Bill Clinton (1993 - 2001)

This thesis examines the substance of US policy with regard to the Palestinian Refugee issue during the presidency of Bill Clinton (1993 - 2001). It highlights the factors that contributed to the formation of policy, and the elements it constituted of, as reflected in the detailed parameters, put forward by President Bill Clinton at the Camp David negotiations towards the end of 2000. The problem of the thesis lies in identifying the changes occurred in Clinton's position concerning the Palestinian Refugee issue compared with the traditional American policy of the previous US administrations. The thesis utilizes the historical analysis approach, and the content-analysis research method, where the two are commensurate to the nature of the subject under study, in terms of its historical dimension and the need to examine and analyze available data and references. The thesis is built on the hypothesis: that one main unstated reason for President Clinton to approve the establishing of an independent Palestinian state was to absorb the bulk of Palestinian refugees. What made that policy relatively different from previous U.S. administrations' is its general framework that had been built on the principle of establishing that independent State. Nevertheless, the general framework of President Clinton's policy concerning the refugee issue, had maintained a high degree of harmony with the traditional American policies adopted by most previous administrations. The thesis concludes with confirming its hypothesis that says: Clinton's policy towards solving the refugee issue is distinguished from the traditional U.S. policies, in the sense that it offers a political solution to the refugee issue, based on the establishing of an independent Palestinian state. That state is to be set up within the context of a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The thesis, furthermore, outlines President Clinton's plan, which includes five options for the refugees to exercise their right of return to: 1) the State of Palestine. 2) Israeli territories, which will be transferred to the Palestinian sovereignty in the context of land exchange. 3) Arab countries hosting the refugees. 4) third States. 5) the State of Israel. The thesis highlights that the factors contributed in forming Clinton's policy could not be departed from the developments occurred in Palestinian political thinking, especially after launching the Palestinian peace initiative in Algeria in 1988, through which the Palestinian leadership had agreed to settle the refugee issue in the context of a comprehensive and final settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and within the framework of the United Nations Charter, the international law and the U N resolutions. The thesis elaborates further, that President Clinton's theory for resolving the refugee issue had adopted a needs-based approach, rather than a rightsbased approach; considering the Palestinian needs as symbolic, while considering the Israeli's as practical, with accompanying security dimensions. According to Cinton's theory, a possible and appropriate approach to resolve the refugee issue should be based on the political negotiations among the conflicting parties and not on the international law or the relevant international resolution