Right Of Return Essay

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Since the creation of Israel in 1948, a long and arduous conflict has existed between the Israelis and Palestinians. Despite several attempts at negotiating a final peace agreement, all efforts have been fruitless. Two specific issues remain at the core of the inability to obtain a final peace agreement-the issues of Jerusalem and the question of Palestinian refugees. Both matters are highly contentious, emotional and political, and as a result have necessitated a substantial amount of deliberation over years. In the following, I will argue that in order to reach a final peace agreement, the issue of Palestinian refugees and the ‘right of return’ will be harder to solve than the issue of Jerusalem. To further my position, I will draw from …show more content…

In the case of Israel, it would experience demographic concerns. For instance, demographic concerns have been constantly portrayed as an existentialist threat for the state of Israel. If the ‘right of return’ is observed in accordance with international law and human rights, specifically UN Resolution 194, which grants refugees the autonomy to return to their homeland or be compensated, would vastly affect the demographics of Israel. It is often argued that a massive return of Palestinian refugees to locations within the State of Israel would be contrary to the interests of Israeli nationals. Some opponents of the ‘right of return’ argue that if all or a large majority of Palestinian refugees and their descendants would return it would make Arabs the majority within Israel and the Jewish populace an ethnic minority, thus endangering their physical existence. Israeli novelist Amos Oz is among those who have argued that the enactment of the Palestinian ‘right of return’ would make Arabs the majority in Israel. In Oz's view, such a step would amount to abolishing the Jewish people right to self-determination. Oz further claims that Palestinian leaders assert a right of return while cynically ignoring "the fate of hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews who fled and were driven out of their homes in Arab countries, during the same war. Consequently, within a short period of time Israel would exist, but no longer as a Jewish State. To a certain extent, it cannot be denied that a massive return would significantly change the demographic composition of the Jewish population. Therefore the likelihood of Israel willing to accept the ‘right of return’ is

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