The Palestinian right of return[a] is the political position or principle that Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees (c. 30,000 to 50,000 people still alive as of 2012[update])[3][4] and their descendants (c. 5 million people as of 2012[update]),[3] have a right to return and a right to the property they themselves or their forebears left behind or were forced to leave in what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories (both formerly part of the British Mandate of Palestine) during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight (a result of the 1948 Palestine war) and the 1967 Six-Day War. As of 2024[update] this right does not exist.
The right of return was initially formulated on 27 June 1948 by United Nations mediator Folke Bernadotte.[5] Proponents of the right of return hold that it is a human right, whose applicability both generally and specifically to the Palestinians is protected under international law.[6] This view holds that those who opt not to return, or for whom return is not feasible, should receive compensation. Proponents argue that Israel's opposition stands in contrast with its Law of Return that grants all Jews the right to settle permanently, while withholding any comparable right from Palestinians.[7]
Opponents of the right of return hold that it is an unrealistic demand with no basis in international law and that if Israel were to absorb approximately five million Palestinians with an already existing large Arab population, it would lead to the demise of the Jewish state.[8] The government of Israel does not view the admission of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel as a right, but rather as a political issue to be resolved as part of a final peace settlement.[9][10][failed verification – see discussion]
[U.S.] Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides (..) affirmed the State Department's view on the number of Palestinian refugees (..) that the UN and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) "provides essential services for approximately 5 million refugees," (..) Middle East Forum founder Daniel Pipes recently noted in an op-ed for Israel Hayom that only 1 percent of the refugees served by UNRWA fit the agency's definition of "people whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict." The other 99 percent are descendants of refugees.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency – the main body tasked with providing assistance to Palestinian refugees – there are more than 5 million refugees at present. However, the number of Palestinians alive who were personally displaced during Israel's War of Independence is estimated to be around 30,000
As indicated earlier, the formulation of the right of return first appeared in Count Bernadotte's proposal of 27 June 1948... Bernadotte, who can correctly be viewed as the father of the right to return... But the murder of Bernadotte froze any further discussions on formulating a policy of resettlement.
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