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Recommended books:

• The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by John Pilger
• Israeli Apartheid A Beginner's Guide by Ben White
• From Coexistence to Conquest International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949 by Victor Kattan

Palestinian Refugees

There are 4.7 million registered Palestinian refugees with UNRWA (United Nations Refugee and Work Agency). They are the victims and the descendants of the ethnic cleansing resulting from the establishment of Zionist State of Israel and the 1967 War. It is estimated that originally about 750,000 persons were expelled in 1947-50 and another 300,000 in 1967. They currently reside in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. These numbers do not include those families who have subsequently moved to other parts of the world.

How did they become refugees for over 60 years?

The simple answer is that they have not been able to “go home” which in all cases are located in the British Mandatory Palestine and the vast majority are located in what is now Israel. They are the indigenous people of Palestine, both Muslims and Christians.

Why haven’t they been able to “go home”?

Despite the numerous misleading arguments and broken promises made by Israel over the past 70 years, the Palestinian refugees are no different than other refugees. Their Right of Return to their homes is a natural outcome of international law and various UN documents including its Charter and the various resolutions. The Zionist Israel has provided innumerable obstacles in the paths of their eventual return and this position has been enunciated over decades.

A Few Quotes:

Joseph Weitz, former Jewish National Fund Director of Land and Forestry pointed out in 1937:
“the transfer of Arab population from the area of the Jewish state does not serve only one aim—to diminish the Arab population. It also serves a second, no less important aim which is to evacuate land presently held and cultivated by the Arabs and thus to release it for the Jewish inhabitants”.


Israeli historian, Benny Morris, writes:
“Above all, let me reiterate, the refugee problem was caused by attacks by Jewish forces on Arab villages and towns and by the inhabitants’ fear of such attacks, compounded by expulstions, atrocities, and rumours of atrocities—and by the crucial Israeli Cabinet decision in June 1948 to bar a refugee return. The policy was to prevent a refugee at all costs…In this sense, it may fairly be said that all 700,000 or so who ended up as refugees were compulsorily displaced or expelled”.


As early as in September 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte, UN Palestine mediator, who was assassinated by the so-called Stern Gang, wrote:
“It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine and indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees”.


Mohammed Bedjaoui, Minister of Justice, wrote in 1967:
“…every Jew in the world is regarded as having the right to settle in Palestine, which was deserted by his forefathers 2,000 years ago, while at the same time the Palestinian is not recognized as having a even the shadow of a right to return to the land which he was forced to quit a mere 20 years ago, or indeed a bare month ago, as a result of the present conflict. This is certainly a very peculiar line of reasoning”.

The Central Importance of the Right of Return:

In short, there can be no Justice and Peace in Palestine without the full exercise of this basic human rights. How it is exercised by a specific refugee either as physical return or financial compensation is up to the individual. However, that is for him/her to decide. CNRI firmly believes that the widespread education of this core issue is central to any significant step in moving forward for a peaceful and just resolution.