The Palestine Question: Dealing with a Long-Term Refugee Situation

Abstract

The core of the post-1947 Palestine question has been transformed over time from a refugee question to one of self-determination. The process has been characterized by three stages: (1) a period in which Arab parties successfully resisted Israeli, Western, and U.N. efforts at Arab refugee resettlement; (2) a period in which violence by relatively independent Palestinian groups brought Palestinian claims of self-determination to the center of world diplomacy; and (3) a period lasting to the present in which Egypt, Israel, and the United States tried to resolve the Palestine question through the Camp David formula of Palestinian autonomy. The right of Palestinian self-determination has been recognized so widely and for so long that it is unlikely that peace in the Middle East can be obtained without the right's implementation in some meaningful form. Nevertheless Israel is justified in being skeptical about statements and claims by elements of the Palestine Liberation Organization regarding their satisfaction with a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza areas. It is difficult to see, however, how the Israeli policy of settling the West Bank with Zionist zealots can contribute to a peaceful resolution of this vexing problem. Even though Palestinians have had success in transforming the international community's view of their situation, their ultimate success in implementing the recognized right to self-determination remains unclear.