“There is no Palestinian right of return”

On 11 December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 194 (III), paragraph 11 of which “resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours 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 and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good.” The resolution followed the recommendation of UN Mediator Count Bernadotte, who wrote that “no settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the right of the Arab refugee to return to the home from which he has been dislodged by the hazards and strategy of the armed conflict.” The Conciliation Commission for Palestine later interpreted paragraph 11 as giving each refugee a free choice between repatriation with compensation for losses, or resettlement elsewhere with compensation for abandoned property. The General Assembly has reaffirmed the resolution at virtually every session since 1948.

The right does not rest on one resolution alone. Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — a binding treaty ratified by Israel in 1991 — states that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.” After the 1967 war, Security Council Resolution 237 (14 June 1967), adopted unanimously, called upon Israel “to facilitate the return of those inhabitants who have fled the areas since the outbreak of hostilities,” and Resolution 3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974 reaffirmed the Palestinians’ “inalienable right” to return to their homes and property.

Two honest qualifications belong in the record. First, General Assembly resolutions are formally recommendations; the binding force of the Palestinian claim therefore rests on the human-rights instruments and customary law cited above, not on Resolution 194 alone. Second, when the General Assembly admitted Israel to UN membership in Resolution 273 (III) of 11 May 1949, it expressly recalled Resolutions 181 and 194 and took note of Israel’s declarations regarding their implementation — the Israeli representative had assured the Assembly that his government did not reject paragraph 11. Israel’s subsequent position that the refugees should instead be resettled in Arab states was stated openly at the time and has never been accepted by the General Assembly.

Sources

• The Right of Return of the Palestinian People — United Nations study (1978), with the texts of Resolutions 194 (III), 237, 273 (III) and the UDHR/ICCPR provisions
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13 — United Nations
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 12 — OHCHR