Palestinian Refugees

Refers to Palestinians who lost their homes and lands as a result of the creation of the State of Israel, the War of 1948 as well as the War of 1967. Not including descendants, the recorded number of Palestinian refugees depends on the source: 520,000 according to Israeli sources, 726,000 according to United Nations (UN) sources and over 800,000 according to Arab sources. Including descendants, Palestinian refugees registered with the UN in 2010 numbered more than 4.3 million, with many of these refugees living in UN-administered refugee camps in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. The rights of and future solutions for Palestinian refugees have been a sticking point in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with Israel stating original refugees must relinquish claims to lands they resided in pre-1948 and 1967 and the Palestinians claiming some right of return for these refugees and/or formal acknowledgement from Israel that the Israeli state pushed these Palestinians off of their lands. UN Resolution 194 stipulated that refugees be allowed to return to their homes and lands and that the responsible governments should compensate all refugees for any destroyed property or for properties the refugees do not choose to return to; for the most part, Israel has ignored this resolution. See also Al-Nakba and Right of Return. See “The Palestinian Refugees.” MidEast Web for Coexistence. 11 July 2011. http://www.mideastweb.org/refugees1.htm; and Asser, Martin. “Obstacles to Arab-Israeli peace: Palestinian refugees.” BBC. 2 September 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11104284http://www.justvision.org/glossary/palestinian-refugees