SEARCH Fact Sheets, Palestinian Refugees (October 2000)

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Many refugees who fled in 1967 were refugees for a second time, having first fled in 1948. As in 1948, the UN called for Israel to allow these refugees to return to their homes. In both cases, Israel allowed a few thousand refugees to return, but the vast majority are kept in exile. An Israeli offer in 1950 to take back 100,000 refugees was later withdrawn.

In the Camp David talks during July 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak reportedly offered to allow back only a small number (perhaps around 50,000) of refugees. Israel has also reportedly sought to limit the number who can be allowed to return even to any Palestinian State, that is, Israel seeks to control Palestinian immigration policy.

Today there are 3.5 million refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Over one million of them live in 59 refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. There are hundreds of thousands of others who live throughout the Middle East or elsewhere, but do not receive services from UNRWA.

Rights of the Palestinian Refugees

Under international law, the refugees have the right to return to Israel, to regain their property, and to receive compensation for loss of property.

International Support for Palestinian Refugees

The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 on December 11, 1948, a resolution which stated that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return. . . ." Resolution 194 has been reaffirmed almost every year since 1948.

•  Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted one day earlier by the UN General Assembly, on December 10, 1948, states that "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." Israel and the U.S. are signatories of the Declaration.
  
  
•  Article 9 of the Universal Declaration states that "no one should be subjected to arbitrary exile." Not only have the Palestinian refugees of 1948 and 1967 been arbitrarily exiled, but during the 52 years of Israel's existence, Israel has forced out various groups of Palestinians and Bedouin, both from Israel proper, from the lands occupied in 1967, and from the demilitarized zone on the Israeli-Syrian border.
  
  
•  Israel's actions have also violated Article 17 of the Universal Declaration which stipulates that "no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property."
  
  
• The Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) prohibits "individual or mass forcible transfers . . . regardless of their motive" and requires that evacuated persons be allowed home "as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased." (Article 49) Israel and the U.S. are signatories of the Convention.
  
  
• Amnesty International supports the Right of Return. Amnesty's report of August 1997 entitled, "Fear, Flight, and Forcible Exile: Refugees in the Middle East," says: "Amnesty International campaigns against forcible exile . . . even in cases where those outside the country may have fled (rather than being forcibly expelled), if the people concerned wish to return home and are denied the opportunity to do so, then they are still forcibly exiled."
  
  
• The Right of Return has been supported as well by many religious groups and leaders, most notably by the Episcopal Church (USA) at its 2000 Convention, and by 1,100 US religious leaders in a 1999 statement.