OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

FFF: Property Rights and the “Right of Return”

The Israeli government has been taking the position that any hope for a permanent peace settlement with the Palestinians must be preceded by a number of preconditions. One of the leading preconditions is that the Palestinian authority reject any claim for a “right of return.”

What this refers to is the fact that, during the 1948 war for Israeli independence against the surrounding Arab countries, thousands of Palestinian Arab families left those parts of Palestine controlled or occupied by Israeli military forces. Some of these families left because they found themselves in the line of fire. Others left out of fear of living under Israeli rule. And still others left because of appeals by surrounding Arab governments to clear out of the way of their advancing armies