What We Talk About When We Talk About the Right of Return: "... they [Palestinians] have a legal right to return to Gaza, now, or in the future. And under international law, the 1.6 million 1948 refugees and their descendants in Gaza also have a right to resettle on the land taken from them and their families three-quarters of a century ago, and to benefit from the housing, infrastructure, services, schools and universities in the land that is now Israel that they have been unlawfully denied."

 "Given the staggering physical, social and economic destruction that the Israeli military has wreaked on Gaza, the obstruction of humanitarian aid and the likelihood of continued hostilities even if the parties reach a cease-fire, many Palestinians in Gaza will want to relocate away from the strip, at least temporarily. But they have a legal right to return to Gaza, now, or in the future. And under international law, the 1.6 million 1948 refugees and their descendants in Gaza also have a right to resettle on the land taken from them and their families three-quarters of a century ago, and to benefit from the housing, infrastructure, services, schools and universities in the land that is now Israel that they have been unlawfully denied." 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/opinion/palestinians-right-of-return.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Guest Essay by Sari Bashi,  an Israeli American Jew.  Ms. Bashi is a former program director at Human Rights Watch and the author of the forthcoming book “Upside-Down Love.”

What We Talk About When We Talk About the Right of Return

July 28, 2025, 1:00 a.m. ET