Right of Return

Resolution 194, adopted eight months into the refugee crisis, resolves in its paragraph 11 that ‘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 or damage to property. The same resolution established the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, charged with facilitating repatriation, resettlement, and economic and social rehabilitation — a mandate it was never able to carry out.

Beyond Resolution 194, advocates ground the right in general international law: Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantee everyone’s right to return to their own country, and UNRWA’s registration of refugees’ descendants has recognized the refugee status as passing to succeeding generations. Palestinian negotiators have treated the file as a core final-status issue in every round of peace talks.

Israel has consistently rejected a mass return, arguing that it would alter the state’s Jewish demographic character and that Resolution 194 is a non-binding General Assembly recommendation whose conditions were never met. For Palestinians, the right remains non-negotiable and personal as much as collective — kept alive in the keys, deeds, and village names carried by refugee families, and in the annual marches and commemorations of return.

Sources

• UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III), full text (PDF) — United Nations
• Right of Return of the Palestinian People — United Nations, Question of Palestine