Voices from Palestinian Exiles
Learn about our project and our objectives.
About
The project Voices from Palestinian Exiles (VOPE) brings together universities, students, graduates, young academics, and researchers from seven Arab countries and Germany in an intensive academic and personal exchange and a confrontation with themselves, with the group, with academia and practice, and with their own and foreign perspectives and values.
The situation of Palestinian refugees is considered the most protracted, most complex, and most sensitive in the world. Obtaining reliable figures is a challenge. Estimates for 2018 put the total number of Palestinians worldwide at 14 million with 5.3 million living in the occupied Palestinian territories, namely 3.2 million in the West Bank and 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics: 2021).
At the heart of VOPE is the right of return or compensation of displaced persons. It is owed under the fundamental duty of international law to provide reparation in its basic forms of restitution and compensation.
Stories
Selected individual stories of Palestinian refugees as well as of protagonists of institutions and social work working with Palestinian refugees will be filmed and presented here.
Interview with Elias Habib | Christian Palestinians, Identity, and Dbayeh Camp
Elias Habib, Director of the Joint Christian Committee in Dbayeh Camp, reflects on faith, identity, and what it means to be a Christian Palestinian refugee in Lebanon's only Christian Palestinian camp.
How NAVTSS Was Founded During Crisis | Norhan Hammoud Interview
Norhan Hammoud, Project Coordinator at NAVTSS, traces how the organization was founded during a moment of crisis and the work it continues to do for Palestinian refugees today.
Inside Nahr El Bared - Conversation with Nadine Baroud
Nadine Baroud, Associate Partner at HRW, shares a personal account connected to Nahr El Bared camp, one of Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee communities.
Layla Al Ali on the History of the Social Relief Association
Layla Al Ali, Executive Director of the Social Relief Association, recounts the history and founding of the organization and its long-standing work supporting Palestinian refugee communities.
Beit Atfal Al Soumoud NGO
This testimony traces the founding of Beit Atfal Assumoud in the aftermath of the Tel al-Zaatar and Jisr al-Basha massacres, and how the organization built its family-based model of care for Palestinian refugee children.
Findings
A Summary of the pojects findings willl be published here
Conference
The conference “Voices from Palestinian Refugees” at Yarmouk University in early May 2026 will summarize the project’s initial findings and contrast them with perspectives from additional experts.
Online Module “Palestine and Palestinian Refugees“
An online module will be developed providing the historical, sociological, political and legal background for VOPE. It will introduce the participants of the project to its context, bringing everyone to the same page. After having been further developed and evaluated during the entire project period, it will be made accessible to the public as open educational resource.
Country Facts
Get a comprehensive snapshot of each participating country including key demographic data, political background, development programs, migration trends, and refugee contexts. These fact sheets offer valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of national and regional dynamics.
Publications
Project findings, country reports, perspectives from external experts and contributions to the workshops and conference are supposed to be published open-access in the „Quarterly on Refugee Problems – AWR Bulletin“. Summaries will be available through the project’s website and utilized for the online module “Palestine & Palestinian Refugees”.