Euroviews. Is World Refugee Day in 2024 merely symbolic or about real human rights?

For seven decades, Palestinian children have been born and raised as refugees.

While many 18-year-olds in Europe are finishing their secondary studies and heading off to university, 18-year-olds in Gaza have lived through six different wars (2008-2009, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2022, and 2023).

Since October, schools in Gaza have been used as shelters to house the displaced, and even many of those have been targeted by bombardment. In the face of extremely limited humanitarian access to Gaza over the past eight months, community-led groups, NGOs, and humanitarian organizations are persevering in providing education to young people despite the challenging circumstances.

However, due to the scarcity of supplies, efforts are hampered. For older children, those on the brink of adulthood, there will be no final exams this summer and no school graduations.

Every single one of Gaza’s universities has been destroyed, and prospects for higher education in Gaza no longer exist.

Each year, World Refugee Day on 20 June prompts global reflection on the plight of refugees. It is promoted as a celebration of resilience and an opportunity to urge policymakers to act.

World Refugee Day began in 2001 to commemorate the adoption of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, outlining rights and protections for refugees.

However, Palestinian refugees' displacement predates this convention. For over 75 years, Palestinian children have grown up as refugees, and in the last 8 months, more than 1.7 million Palestinians have again been displaced from their homes in Gaza.

Starting in 1946 and culminating in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcefully expelled from their homes during the establishment of the state of Israel,