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There Is No Palestinian Right of Return

(Jerusalem Post) Ruth Gavison, Yaffa Zilbershats and Nimra Gore - International law does not obligate/recognize the legal right of Palestinian refugees to settle in Israeli territory. A close examination of General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) from 1948, as well as later ones, reveals that these resolutions do not grant Palestinian refugees the right of return to Israeli territory. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 also does not obligate Israel to allow the entrance of Palestinian refugees who were never Israeli citizens or residents. International citizenship law, refugee law, humanitarian law, and international criminal law do not place any obligation on Israel to admit Palestinian refugees, or grant them citizenship. A new ruling by the European Court of Human Rights rejected claims of Greek refugees exiled from northern Cyprus in 1974 that they should be allowed to resettle in their homes. Ruth Gavison, an Israel Prize winner and law professor, is president of the Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanist Thought. Yaffa Zilbershats, an authority on international and constitutional law, is deputy president of Bar-Ilan University. Nimra Goren-Amitai is a research scholar at Bar-Ilan.
2011-07-05 00:00:00
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