Palestinians walk past a painted wall during a rally marking the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, the Arabic term used to describe the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. (AP/ Eyad Baba)What is the Palestinian right of return, anyway?
On Fox News this past week, GOP presidential hopeful and unconditional Israel supporter
Herman Cain fumbled over a question about the Palestinian right of return.
Asked by Fox's Chris Wallace where he stands on the matter -- one of the key "final status issues" if there is ever to be a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine -- Cain awkwardly fumbled, before saying that "it should be negotiated."
Watch, starting at around the 10-minute mark: VIDEO
The next day, Cain admitted that he had no idea what "right of return" even meant, but, after beefing up on the issue, he had concluded that it was not a "right" at all and he shared the official Israeli view on the matter.
That got us thinking: How many other presidential candidates could define the right of return and explain its history? How many members of Congress? The public?
I spoke to Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, to get answers on the basics of the right of return.
Who are the Palestinian refugees and how did they become refugees?
In approximately November of 1947, what was in effect a civil war broke out between the Jewish settler community and the Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine, which was still under British control. Between November 1947 and May 1948 there was a significant displacement of Palestinians. The first wave was largely Palestinians fleeing conflict zones with the expectation of return. After April 1948 the mainstream Jewish forces and some other militias went on the offensive, and then there were large-scale expulsions of Palestinians as well. In the conflict that followed -- with the withdrawal of the British, the declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948, and the intervention of five Arab armies -- there were additional people who fled and additional people who were forcibly expelled. Some Israeli leaders who participated in forced expulsions, like the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote extensively about the experience. In his memoirs he discussed his role as the commander of the forces that expelled tens of thousands of Palestinians... Continue reading
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