Between Jordanian and International Law, 1948–53: UNRWA and Jordan’s Nascent Criminal Court System

This article examines Jordanian criminal cases involving Palestinian refugees and UNRWA in the district of Hebron between 1951 and 1953. The sources instantiate Palestinian refugees’ socioeconomic distress following the Nakba, as they were frequently arrested for attempted border crossings, theft, fraud, and forgery, among other crimes. They further demonstrate the legal precarity Palestinians faced following Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank in 1950, as well as the challenges the nascent Jordanian state experienced hosting an international body, UNRWA, that was mandated to serve the Palestinian population within its expanded borders. The article argues that although Jordanian officials disagreed with UNRWA on aspects of their foundational agreement regarding the Palestinian refugee population in the kingdom, and despite statutory sentencing guidelines, Jordanian courts often showed leniency and refused to impose severe penalties against Palestinians affected by forced expulsion and dispossession.