Ami Isseroff has written an important article which argues strongly that the Palestinian Right of Return is always going to be a blockage to any peace negotiations because it is an uncompromising view that all Palestinians and their descendants across three generations should have the right to return to their homes in Israel as part of a final peace deal.

The so-called Right of Return, should it ever be implemented, would clearly mean or strongly threaten Israel’s existence as a Jewish state because the demographics would be firmly tilted toward an eventual Palestinian majority or at the very least a very large minority. And this is precisely the intention of a no-compromise stance on this putative right; the Palestinian leadership knows full well that Israel will never agree to it and can use this refusal to further demonise Israel by claiming it breaches UN Resolution 194 (which is a misrepresentation of 194 and that’s another story and I recommend the discussion here).

But let’s for a moment dwell on the practicalities of allowing a couple of million ‘returnees’ into Israel:

  • How does the original UN Partition Plan ideal and the idea of a two-state solution square with a policy which will effectively lead to three majority Palestinian states: Jordan, Palestine and Israel?
  • How will a claim for former residency be proved?
  • What if the original property no longer exists?
  • How can Israel ensure that those ‘returning’ are not inimical to the State of Israel?
  • What is the effect of such an influx on the Israel economy and all its citizens?
  • If compensation is offered will Jews and their descendants expelled from Arab lands in 1947-8 just for being Jews be compensated similarly?
  • Would Jews expelled from East Jerusalem in 1947 and Hebron in 1929 after the massacre be likewise allowed to return to their homes and remain unmolested?

In Ami Isseroff’s article he demonstrates that the majority of Palestinians see the Right of Return as not negotiable.  Not just the leadership, but ordinary Palestinians hold this view. So the idea of a two-state solution is not even viable if half of that solution want to be a majority in both states.

Perhaps the greatest irony could be that Palestinians cling to the Right of Return because they actually DO want to live in Israel like almost 2 million other Palestinians because it would give them a better life. There is already strong evidence that Arab East Jerusalemites do not want to be part of a Palestinian state because the benefits they receive in Israel trump any nationalist ideals.

Facts and realities on the ground are always more complex than newspaper headlines and political soundbites would lead us to believe.