THE PALESTINIAN RIGHT OF RETURN
A position statement by Palestine Information Project and Palestine Solidarity Committee/Seattle

In 1947-9 and in 1967, over one million Palestinians were driven out of their homes by force or threat of force. Currently, over four million Palestinian refugees and their descendants live outside the state of Israel. Of these, 1.2 million are in 59 refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and the Occupied Territories. 620,000 refugees live in the Occupied Territories. Another 250,000 Palestinians are internally displaced inside Israel, living in 100 unrecognized villages with no access to water or electrical services. Of these, only about 14,000 have received any compensation from the Israeli government for property loss.

Although the United Nations addressed their plight from the outset, the problem of the refugees continues to be a sticking point in all serious discussions about a resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict. Without resolving the problem of the refugees, chances for peace between the two nations are slim indeed. Only a very thoughtful approach to this conflict, taking into account both Palestinian and Israeli needs for homeland, security and independence, will allow progress on the entire host of related problems to take place.

THE RIGHT OF RETURN FOR PALESTINIANS DOES NOT MEAN THE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL.

Many people do not believe that any ethnic group has the right to guarantee an ethnic majority in a nation-state, and therefore do not believe that Israeli Jews have the right to demand a perpetual Jewish-majority state. However: even those who support a Jewish majority in Israel should be able to accept the Palestinian Right of Return, since acceptance of this right will not necessarily overturn the Jewish majority in Israel.

• While all refugees must be given the right to return, not all will choose to exercise that right.
• The two-state solution, supported by most Palestinians and Israelis, would allow many Palestinian refugees to resettle in inside the Palestinian state. Many other refugees would choose to stay where they are.
• Even if two million Palestinians from refugee camps returned to Israel, the total Israeli Palestinian population would still be a minority of some three million, with Israeli Jews a clear majority of almost five million.
• The right of return does not mean that individual Israelis must give up their homes. In other refugee return situations, the right of return has been interpreted to mean that, if a former home no longer exists or is occupied by an innocent third party, return should be permitted to the vicinity of the former home.

There are already several proposals for implementing the return of Palestinian refugees, including:

• 78% of Israeli Jews currently live on 14% of the land in Israel. The remaining 86% is largely the land of the Palestinian refugees and Israeli Palestinians. Palestinians could return to their original, now empty, villages, with minimal dislocation of Israeli Jewish population.
• Some small portion of what is now Israel, perhaps 5-15%, mostly unpopulated and contiguous with the West Bank, could be turned over to a new Palestinian state to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees expected to return.
• A gradual return could take place over several years, with Palestinians from refugee camps returning first.

Palestine Information Project does not take a position on which of the many proposals to implement. That is up to the parties to negotiate in good faith, once the right of return has been recognized.


THE RETURN OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES TO ISRAEL IS NOT AN ISSUE OF IMMIGRATION,
BUT RATHER OF UNDOING AN HISTORICAL INJUSTICE.

Israeli historian Benny Morris has documented 369 Palestinian villages that were eradicated in the war of 1947-9. At least 234 of those villages were destroyed by direct Israeli military action. At least 80 of these villages were outside the territory of the UN-defined Jewish state. Israeli towns were founded on many of the sites.
Some of the Palestinian refugees were forced elsewhere in Palestine; most were forced out of the country altogether. The United Nations set up refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and inside Israel. The acceptance of the newly-founded Israel into the United Nations was conditional on Israel's compliance with resolution 194, calling on Israel to allow the return or give compensation to these refugees. Israel refused to comply.

The new state of Israel spread the story that all these Palestinians had left under orders from Arab leaders, citing "Arab broadcasts" telling people to move away so that Arab armies could "operate without interference.” There has never been any evidence for this story. Both US and British intelligence services were monitoring all broadcasts during the period, and not a single "Arab broadcast" telling people to leave was recorded. In fact, several Arab broadcasts were recorded telling the population to stay put. Israeli forces, meanwhile, were using threats, violence, and murder to force many Palestinians out of their homes.
It is no longer the official line of the Israeli Foreign Office that Arab leaders ordered Palestinians to leave Palestine.
The State of Israel bears the primary responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem.


PALESTINIANS HAVE THE RIGHT OF RETURN UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW.

The general right of return is affirmed in numerous human rights and international law documents, including:

• the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 13(2): “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
• the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. 12 (4): “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” This allows those outside their own country to return for the first time, even if they were born elsewhere and would be entering for the first time, so long as they have maintained a "genuine and effective link" to the country and have not renounced their ties to it.
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. (Art. 5 ii)
• the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Art. 1.C), focuses on return as the preferred option for refugees by ending protection of refugees only once the refugees have voluntarily repatriated.
• The right of return is a general principle in international law and has been affirmed by the American and European Human Rights Conventions (Art. 22(5); and 4th Protocol respectively), and by the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosova, Uganda, and East/Central Europe.

Palestinians have a specific right of return according to the United Nations:

• UN General Assembly Resolution 194 III in 1948 provided that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return....” (Art. 11)
Resolution 194 has been reaffirmed more than 100 times by the General Assembly in other resolutions including 513, 2452, 2936, and 3236.

The international community has already recognized the Palestinian right of return.
There is no reason that this right should not be fully recognized by the State of Israel.


WHY DON’T THE ARAB COUNTRIES TAKE THEM IN?

While sharing some basic elements of language, religion and culture with the Arab Countries of the Middle East and North Africa, Palestinians have their own distinct, culture, traditions, dialect, and history. Palestinians are as distinct from Egyptians or Saudis as Poles are distinct from Czechs or Bulgarians. Arab countries have resettled and granted rights to many Palestinians, but most Palestinian refugees and most Arab governments have opposed permanent resettlement, assimilation and naturalization, preferring to adopt policies that preserve Palestinian identity and refugee status. Palestinians have received varied treatment in Arab host countries, often less than humane; but the great majority of Palestinian refugees, Arab people, and Arab governments are in agreement that the ultimate responsibility for the Palestinian refugee problem lies with the State of Israel.


Therefore, it is the position of Palestine Information Project and Palestine Solidarity Committee that:

• The State of Israel must acknowledge its responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem.

• The State of Israel must acknowledge the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees.

• Once these two conditions are met, Palestinians and Israelis should negotiate in good faith to find ways to implement the Right of Return so that self-determination and security for both peoples is not undermined. Ideally, each Palestinian refugee and his/her descendants would be offered the CHOICE of return, compensation, full integration into the current host country, or third-country resettlement.


some resources on refugees and refugee return:
Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice by John Quigley

www.alawda.org
www.badil.org
www.unrwa.org
www.hrw.org/campaigns/israel/return
www.un.orgs


palestine information project

palestinejustice@aol.com // (206) 633-1086