Any effort to understand the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict must examine the matter of Palestinian refugees and their so-called “right to return” to the homes that the Jews allegedly seized from them without cause.

The refugee issue can be traced back to Israel’s creation in 1948. At the time of Israel’s birth, Palestinian Arabs lived on roughly 90 percent of that original Mandate -- in Transjordan and in the UN partition area, as well as in the new state of Israel itself (where 800,000 Arabs lived alongside 1.2 million Jews). If the Palestinian Arabs had been willing to accept this arrangement (which was highly favorable to them) -- and under which they benefited from the industry, enterprise and political democracy the Jews brought to the region -- an internationally recognized Palestinian state would have come into existence in 1948, eliminating the need for a bloody Middle East conflict.

But instead, the Arab League -- representing five neighboring Arab states -- launched a war of annihilation against Israel on the very day of its creation. During the fighting, an estimated 472,000 Arab civilians in Israel fled their homes to escape the chaos of war. They planned on returning after what they expected would be a quick Arab victory and the destruction of the Jewish state. Unexpectedly, however, the Jews repelled the Arab invaders.

In the aftermath of the war, the defeated Arab states, determined to carry on their campaign of destruction, remained formally at war with Israel. The Palestinians who lived in the Arab area of the UN partition did not attempt to create a state of their own. Instead, in 1950, Jordan annexed the entire West Bank. As a result of the annexation and the continuing state of war, the Arab refugees who had fled Israel did not return. Instead, they became refugees in foreign lands.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) defines Palestinian refugees as “persons 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 War.” The UNRWA provides facilities and services for these people in 59 recognized refugee camps in Jordan (10), Lebanon (12), Syria (10), the West Bank (19), and the Gaza Strip (8). It is important to note that the UNRWA does not itself run any of these camps; nor does it have police powers or administrative authority. Its camps house approximately one-third of the world's 4.3 million registered Palestinian refugees. (In 1950 the number of registered Palestinian refugees was 914,000.)

During the "Oslo" peace process -- when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) pretended to recognize the existence of Israel, and the Jews therefore allowed the creation of a "Palestinian Authority" -- the PLO waged war by other means by demanding a "right of return" to Israel on behalf of "5 million" Arabs. (This figure is more than ten times the number of Arabs who actually left the fledgling Jewish state in 1948.) More than 90 percent of the Palestinians who now reside in the West Bank and Gaza have never lived a day of their lives in territorial Israel. Thus their claim of a "right of return" is logically incoherent.

The incorporation of five million Arabs into Israel would render the Jews a permanent minority in their own country, and would thus spell the end of Israel. The Arabs fully understand this, and that is why they have made it a fundamental demand.


Adapted from "Why Israel Is the Victim and the Arabs Are the Indefensible Aggressors in the Middle East" (David Horowitz, January 9, 2002).