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There Is No International Law Demanding a Palestinian ‘Right of Return’
US President Joe Biden addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar
The so-called “right of return” has been a fundamental Palestinian demand ever since the initial effort to eliminate the nascent state of Israel failed 76 years ago.
In recent days, however, the Associated Press (AP) upgraded the unfulfilled aspiration into international law.
In their Oct. 31 article, “Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says,” AP’s Baraa Anwer and Sara El Deeb invented: “International law gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes.”
An Oct. 29 AP article by Joseph Krauss, Julia Frankel, and Melanie Lidman also erred, citing a non-existent Palestinian right under international law to return to their 1948 homes: “Palestinians say refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million, should be allowed to exercise their right under international law to return home” (“Israel approves two bills that could halt UNRWA’s aid delivery to Gaza . . .”)
In fact, there is nothing in international law which gives Palestinian refugees and their descendants “the right to return to their homes.”
The non-binding UN Resolution 194, passed by the United Nations General Assembly, does not “give” Palestinians “the right to return to their homes.” Moreover, its language — “should be permitted” — denotes a suggestion, not a guarantee. The section of the resolution dealing with refugees states:
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 by the Governments or authorities responsible;
INSTRUCTS the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;
As CAMERA’s Alex Safian has previously detailed, the resolution conditions the return of refugees (Palestinian refugees are not specified, and therefore the resolution equally applies to Jewish refugees from Arab countries) on their willingness to “live at peace with their neighbors,” a condition that was not accepted by the Palestinian leadership or the vast majority of the refugees themselves who invoked Resolution 194.
Furthermore, the resolution placed repatriation, resettlement, and compensation on equal footing; meaning that return is one of several possible options.
Finally, the main part of the resolution called for the establishment of a Conciliation Commission, which convened in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1949. While both the Arab states and Israel attended, the former declined to negotiate directly with the Jewish State and rejected any agreements.
In the past, the AP has accurately reported that Palestinians demand a right of return, or that they believe they have a right of return.
Examples of accurate AP coverage careful not to misreport that Palestinians have a right of return include:
Aug. 29, 2024: “Palestinians believe they have the right to return to their pre-1948 homes.”
Jan. 29, 2024: “The Palestinians say the refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million across the Middle East, have the right to return to their homes.”
Nov. 30, 2021: “The Palestinians say the refugees and their descendants have a ‘right of return’ to their homes in what is now Israel, a position supported by host countries.”
June 3, 2019: “Symbolically, Palestinians see UNRWA as sustaining their core demand that refugees have the ‘right of return’ to their lost homes in what is now Israel – a prospect that Israel rejects.”
Oct. 8, 2018: “It accuses the agency of perpetuating the conflict by helping promote what it considers an unrealistic Palestinian demand that refugees have the “right of return” to long-lost homes in what is now Israel.”
[emphasis added in all]
In short, while it’s entirely accurate to state that Palestinians demand a “right of return,” or Palestinians believe they have a “right of return,” it is completely false to say that international law gives Palestinians a “right of return” to homes some of them had in 1948.
CAMERA contacted AP to request a correction. As of this writing, no correction has yet appeared, suggesting a commitment to factual accuracy somewhat lagging behind the steadfast Palestinian insistence on the “right of return.” Stay tuned for any updates.
Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.
The post There Is No International Law Demanding a Palestinian ‘Right of Return’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
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