Forgotten Financial Rights of Palestinians: The File Unopened for 78 Years

In politics, there are rights seized by force, rights reclaimed by law, and rights lost because they are forgotten.

Over the past decades, Palestinians have fought battles of land, identity, refugees, prisoners, and settlements, but another question has remained in the shadows, as if outside the national agenda:

What happened to the Palestinian financial rights and assets that existed before 1948?

To some, the question might seem secondary given the occupation, siege, settlement, and aggression faced by the Palestinian people, but in reality, it is a question linked to the essence of national and historical justice. Peoples do not only lose their homelands; they can also lose their money, institutions, endowments, and economic rights when the state is absent and the legal structure protecting these rights disintegrates.

Before the Nakba, Palestine had an emerging economy, financial and administrative institutions, endowments, public assets, and funds deposited within the financial system that existed during the British Mandate. With the major political transformations in the region, much of the discussion about the fate of these rights and assets disappeared, and the file remained surrounded by more questions than answers.

The real problem is not the lack of definitive answers yet, but rather that we have not made sufficient institutional national effort to even ask the questions.

In the world of international law, narratives are not enough, political stances are not enough, and emotional speeches are not enough. What creates rights are documents, what preserves them is documentation, and what reclaims them is organized legal action.

Therefore, the issue should not begin with accusing this party or that, nor with making undocumented financial estimates, but rather with launching a comprehensive national project for research, investigation, and documentation.

The question that should be asked of Palestinian institutions today is not: What is the value of historical Palestinian assets?

But rather: Do we even have a unified national registry for these rights?

Is there a national database that collects information related to Palestinian funds, deposits, endowments, and public assets dating back to before 1948?

Is there a specialized legal committee working permanently on this file?

If the answer is no, then the problem lies not only in the loss of rights but also in the absence of a national structure capable of protecting them.

Recent international experiences offer important lessons. Many countries and peoples that were subjected to colonialism did not begin their battles by reclaiming money or property, but rather by first building accurate legal files based on archives, records, and historical documents.

Therefore, the first step required from Palestinians is not to file a lawsuit before an international court, nor to approach the United Nations, but to establish an independent national body to inventory and document historical Palestinian financial rights.

A body that includes historians, economists, lawyers, accountants, and specialists in international archiving, whose mission is to search Palestinian, British, Ottoman, Arab, and international archives, and collect everything related to Palestinian financial assets and rights before the Nakba.

This step alone is sufficient to move the issue from the realm of speculation to the realm of facts.

The second step is to protect any potential rights from future loss by establishing a sovereign fund for historical Palestinian rights.

Some might ask: How can we establish a fund for money that has not yet been recovered?

The answer is simple.

The fund is not just a financial container, but a legal and institutional framework to protect future rights and ensure their transparent and independent management if they are ever recovered.

History teaches us that some peoples succeeded in recovering their financial assets, but later failed to manage them, and the wealth was lost again, but in different hands.

Hence, thinking about managing funds should be part of thinking about recovering them.

The third step is to internationalize the issue within the framework of global colonial justice.

Today, the world is witnessing an increasing discussion about the responsibilities of historical colonial powers towards the peoples under their control. Demands are escalating for the return of looted property, artifacts, money, and historical rights in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

In this context, Palestinian financial rights should not be viewed as an isolated Palestinian file, but as part of a global issue related to historical justice and fairness among peoples.

Transforming the file into an international justice issue gives it broader legitimacy and removes it from the narrow political tug-of-war.

But before all that, we must acknowledge a fundamental truth:

The greatest danger to historical Palestinian rights is not only those who hold them or refuse to recognize them, but the possibility that they will erode due to forgetfulness, neglect, and the absence of institutional action.

Rights do not only expire legally by statute of limitations, but they can practically expire when there is no one to defend, document, and follow up on them generation after generation.

Therefore, I call upon the Palestinian Monetary Authority, the Ministry of Finance, academic institutions, and legal and economic research centers to launch a national initiative to establish the first comprehensive Palestinian registry of historical financial rights and assets.

For there may be something worth searching for among the forgotten archives, and there may be something in neglected documents that reopens files closed decades ago.

Ultimately, it is not just a matter of money.

It is a matter of national memory.

And a matter of legal sovereignty.

And a matter of a people's right to know what they owned, what they lost, and what they can reclaim.

For what is documented is not lost, and what is legally protected remains alive, even if it waits for many decades to return to its owners.

M. Ghassan Jaber