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Solving the Middle East, Part V: The Right of Return

April 17th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Immigration, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Law, Palestine, Politics, Religion, Solving the Middle East, The Middle East

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Fifth in a series

In any negotiation, each side will have several "deal-breaking" points on which they will not compromise. The same holds true for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinians will never agree to a compromise that gives Israel absolute control over all of Jerusalem. (This is reasonable.) Israel will never permit all of the Palestinians who left in 1948 -- along with their descendants -- to return to and settle within the Jewish State because the resulting demographic mix would eliminate the country's Jewish majority. (This is also reasonable.) I will discuss the issue of Jerusalem in a future post, but for now I wish to address the "Right of Return."

Before and after Israel declared independence in 1948, millions of Arabs left their homes for the areas now known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as for neighboring Arab countries. But opinion is divided on why they left. Did Israel kick them out under threat of violence? Did the people who became known as Palestinians leave voluntarily to escape the warfare that erupted in 1948? Did Arab and Palestinian leaders ask or tell them to leave? We can never really know the entire truth.

(My personal opinion, based on Prof. Benny Morris' research, is that the Arabs left Israel for all of these reasons. In certain instances, they were forced to leave under threat of violence. Other times, they left voluntarily or at the recommendation of local Palestinian leaders. In essence, sometimes Israel was to blame -- and other times, it was not. It depends on the specific event.)

But the crux of the issue is that neither side can live in the past. What's done is done. Jews cannot invoke the Holocaust to justify any and every Israeli action. Palestinians and Arabs cannot cite atrocities committed decades ago -- and, yes, sometimes they did occur -- as a reason to murder civilians. For any progress to occur, all negotiations must start from the present reality on the ground. And the reality is that Israel -- whether rightly or wrongly -- will never allow all the Palestinians to return to Israel proper because the Jewish State wishes to remain, well, Jewish.

In the interests of peace, the Palestinians, therefore, must forgo their desire to return to Israel proper and instead demand the right to return to the future Palestinian state that will exist in the West Bank (and, most likely, Gaza).

Still, there is an element of hypocrisy in the demand for a Right of Return. The Palestinians were actually Jordanians before Israel -- following an attack by Jordan -- took the West Bank from that country in 1967 to defend against future aggression. But Jordan never allowed all of the Palestinians to settle in their former country. Israel, of course, has treated the Palestinians harshly (with some justification in specific contexts), but the neighboring Arab countries have treated them no better. Arab countries only pretend to care about the Palestinians when they can invoke their cause to raise anti-Israeli sentiment.

The world also seems to forget that many Jews in Israel and elsewhere can also claim a Right of Return: following Israel's declaration of statehood in 1948, millions of Jews in the Middle East were expelled from the Arab countries in which they lived. But, of course, no one seems to demand that they return as well. The idea of Right of Return also applies to American Indians. The United States, of course, took their land and decimated their populations. But the political reality is that the U.S. government will never give them back, say, the entire Old West. The same holds true for the Palestinians, as well as Jews from Arab countries and American Indians. In negotiations, one must be realistic. The Palestinians cannot demand a Right of Return to Israel proper as a condition for peace.

The entire series: Part VI: Israel and Syria; Part IV: The Palestinians Need a Viable State; Part III: Settlements and the Separation Barrier; Part II: Israel Needs Electoral Reform; Part I: Fix the Palestinian Authority

Now Available: E-Book download: "Let­ters from Israel: An Amer­i­can journalist’s adven­tures in the Holy Land."

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Related posts:

  1. Solving the Middle East, Part VI: Israel and Syria
  2. Solving the Middle East, Part IV: The Palestinians Need a Viable State
  3. Solving the Middle East, Part I: Fix the Palestinian Authority
  4. Solving the Middle East, Part III: Settlements and the Separation Barrier
  5. Solving the Middle East, Part II: Israel Needs Electoral Reform

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7 Comments so far ↓

  • Maryam in Marrakesh

    Very mea­sured and good post. Thank you.  (Quote)

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  • Jeff

    Fair enough, yet, are the neig­bor­ing Arab coun­tries to blame for not absorb­ing all the refugees? Are the refugees to remain in the “camps” for­ever? These peo­ple are now caught in the mid­dle of high-level pol­i­tics and nego­ti­a­tions, while eking out, mean­while, a pretty mis­er­able exis­tence. It’s clearly not rea­son­able to expect them all to “return” to the West Bank and Gaza — the lat­ter is already over­pop­u­lated. I would like to see you address the refugee issue more in depth.  (Quote)

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  • smithofthelongfield

    Another great post. I enjoy read­ing your blog. Keep up the good work.  (Quote)

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  • Samuel J. Scott

    Jeff,

    I would say that Jor­dan should have accepted any and all refugees from the West Bank once Israel took con­trol of that area in 1967 — espe­cially since Jor­dan causes the cri­sis by invad­ing Israel.

    After all, the Pales­tini­ans were — and are? — Jor­da­ni­ans. Imag­ine if Mex­ico took con­trol of Texas, but the U.S. gov­ern­ment would not allow Tex­ans to come to other parts of the United States. (The anal­ogy is not per­fect, but you get my point.)

    Since Jor­dan did not step up to its respon­si­bil­ity, then neigh­bor­ing Arab states should have taken more — if not all — refugees. But other Arab states never put their money where their rhetoric is. They have always claimed to sup­port the Pales­tini­ans, but they actu­ally do lit­tle to help them.

    I’d be the first to state that the Pales­tini­ans’ cur­rent stan­dard of liv­ing is mis­er­able. That’s why I advo­cated in a prior post for a large influx of for­eign assis­tance — from Israel, the United States, the UN, the World Bank, the Red Cross and oth­ers — in order to build infra­struc­ture and cre­ate a viable state.

    I don’t remem­ber the total num­ber of Pales­tini­ans world­wide. Could every­one not cur­rently in the West Bank fit in the West Bank? I don’t know. That’s why I think they should all have a choice between build­ing a state in the West Bank/Gaza and return­ing to, say, Jor­dan.  (Quote)

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  • Jeff

    First, I agree that Arab states have his­tor­i­cally been less than will­ing to absorb their Arab brethren. But, the issue is not that simple.

    Pales­tini­ans, while shar­ing some his­tory with Jor­da­ni­ans, are not Jor­da­ni­ans. Still, Jor­dan already absorbed many of those who fled there, and Pales­tini­ans in Jor­dan are known as some of the most suc­cess­ful cit­i­zens there.

    Regard­less of his­tory, too, there are hun­dreds of thou­sands (mil­lions?) of Pales­tin­ian refugees. To allow them all to be absorbed into Jor­dan would ruin the econ­omy there. Where will they get jobs? How will they buy food to eat? No county in the Mid­dle East is big enough to absorb the pop­u­la­tions of mis­er­ably poor Pales­tini­ans liv­ing in camps. Nor was any coun­try ever, prob­a­bly. There­fore, it’s ridicu­lous to expect that Jor­dan offer a “right of return,” as well as being rather beside the point.

    Finally, you said your­self that the West Bank lacks resources. How will it sup­port even MORE peo­ple than it already does? For­eign aid is one thing, but a lack of jobs and a lack of hope will only lead to more mis­ery and more sui­cide bombers.

    I’m not sure you have a clear pic­ture of the his­tory here, but it’s clear that your “solu­tion” for the refugees is unten­able. It’s not cer­tain there is a solu­tion, but here’s a proposal:

    Israel can­not solve the refugee issue on its own and nor can any future Pales­tine. Many gen­er­a­tions now have been born in refugee camps, and these peo­ple are a desta­bi­liz­ing influ­ence, they are poor, and they are also pawns of Pales­tin­ian negotiators.

    There are two main rights issues with refugees: the “right of return” and the rights that cit­i­zens of coun­tries enjoy that Pales­tini­ans, espe­cially those in refugee camps, do not (such as jobs, free­dom to travel, etc.) Any solu­tion to the refugee issue must address these two ele­ments. Thus:

    1. Israel should offer the right to a home in Israel to any per­sons for­merly res­i­dent within the cur­rent bound­aries of Israel. This eases the demo­graphic prob­lem, as these peo­ple are bound to be old and few and not really need jobs (though they will need a form of social secu­rity). It also is a lit­eral inter­pre­ta­tion of the right of return. A more gen­er­ous offer would be to allow those per­sons and their imme­di­ate off­spring (sons & daugh­ters only) to return with them. Or, some com­bi­na­tion thereof.

    2. For the rel­a­tives of those who move back, Israel must allow the right to visit.

    3. Future Pales­tine should allow any­one who wishes to become a cit­i­zen of Pales­tine to be a cit­i­zen of Pales­tine. This fact should be obvi­ous, as ciiti­zen­ship is a prin­ci­ple of state­hood. To deny Pales­tine the right to decide who is or isn’t a cit­i­zen is to deny full statehood.

    4. Arab states should, as much as pos­si­ble, step up to the plate to inte­grate Pales­tini­ans fully into their soci­eties. This will not be easy in the least, and it’s extremely unlikely, but it would cer­tainly be help­ful. It would also be a nice ges­ture for other coun­tries to wel­come Pales­tini­ans who would like to emi­grate.  (Quote)

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  • Samuel J. Scott

    Jeff,

    it’s ridicu­lous to expect that Jor­dan offer a “right of return,” as well as being rather beside the point.

    I’ll grant that — as long as we agree that the sur­round­ing Arab coun­tries should offer to take in many more Pales­tin­ian refugees in general.

    Finally, you said your­self that the West Bank lacks resources. How will it sup­port even MORE peo­ple than it already does? For­eign aid is one thing, but a lack of jobs and a lack of hope will only lead to more mis­ery and more sui­cide bombers.

    My prior post said that the entire inter­na­tional com­mu­nity — the United States, Israel, sur­round­ing Arab coun­tries, the World Bank, the United Nations, the Euro­pean Union, the Red Cross, pri­vate vol­un­teers, experts in agri­cul­ture and urban plan­ning, et cetera — should pour mas­sive amounts of mon­e­tary, phys­i­cal and infra­struc­tural aid into the West Bank and Gaza. This would be a good start.

    1. Israel should offer the right to a home in Israel to any per­sons for­merly res­i­dent within the cur­rent bound­aries of Israel.

    In the­ory, I would sup­port this, but there are some prob­lems: 1.) How does one prove they lived in land that would become Israel sev­eral decades ago? 2.) All res­i­dents of the State of Israel would have to swear loy­alty to the coun­try and (like the Druze and oth­ers) serve in the army. 3.) The num­ber of income res­i­dents can­not tip the bal­ance so that Jews would be a minor­ity or close to one. 4.) I doubt any descen­dents could live in Israel — that would negate num­ber 3.

    2. For the rel­a­tives of those who move back, Israel must allow the right to visit.

    3. Future Pales­tine should allow any­one who wishes to become a cit­i­zen of Pales­tine to be a cit­i­zen of Pales­tine. This fact should be obvi­ous, as ciiti­zen­ship is a prin­ci­ple of state­hood. To deny Pales­tine the right to decide who is or isn’t a cit­i­zen is to deny full statehood.

    4. Arab states should, as much as pos­si­ble, step up to the plate to inte­grate Pales­tini­ans fully into their soci­eties. This will not be easy in the least, and it’s extremely unlikely, but it would cer­tainly be help­ful. It would also be a nice ges­ture for other coun­tries to wel­come Pales­tini­ans who would like to emigrate.

    I agree with all of this.  (Quote)

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