Palestinians

===Refugees===
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In 2006, there were 4,255,120 Palestinians registered as [[Palestinian refugees|refugees]] with the [[United Nations Relief and Works Agency]] (UNRWA). This number includes the [[Kinship|descendants]] of refugees who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war, but excludes those who have since then emigrated to areas outside of UNRWA's remit.<ref name="UNRWA" /> Based on these figures, almost half of all Palestinians are registered refugees. The 993,818 Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and 705,207 Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, who hail from towns and villages now located within the borders of Israel, are included in these figures.<ref>{{cite web|title=Publications and Statistics |publisher=[[UNRWA]] |date=31 March 2006 |access-date=30 May 2007 |url=https://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080713042517/http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/index.html |archive-date=13 July 2008 }}</ref>[[File:Palestinian refugees.jpg|thumb|left|Palestinian refugees in 1948]]UNRWA figures do not include some 274,000 people, or 1 in 5.5 of all Arab residents of Israel, who are [[Internally Displaced Palestinians|internally displaced Palestinian]] refugees.<ref name=Badil>{{cite web|url=http://www.badil.org/Publications/Monographs/Palestinian.IDPs.pdf |title=Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041214203922/http://www.badil.org/Publications/Monographs/Palestinian.IDPs.pdf |archive-date=14 December 2004 }}</ref><ref name=IDMC>{{cite web|author=Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) – Norwegian Refugee Council |url=http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/(httpEnvelopes)/F11200E8ECD83F71802570B8005A7276?OpenDocument |title=Internal Displacement Monitoring Center |publisher=Internal-displacement.org |access-date=22 April 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903022121/http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/%28httpEnvelopes%29/F11200E8ECD83F71802570B8005A7276?OpenDocument |archive-date=3 September 2006 }}</ref>

Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the West Bank are organized according to a refugee family's village or place of origin. Among the first things that children born in the camps learn is the name of their village of origin. David McDowall writes that, "[...] a yearning for Palestine permeates the whole refugee community and is most ardently espoused by the younger refugees, for whom home exists only in the imagination."<ref name=McDowall90>McDowall, 1989, p. 90.</ref>

Israeli policy to prevent the refugees from returning to their homes was initially formulated by David Ben Gurion and [[Joseph Weitz]], director of the [[Jewish National Fund]] was formally adopted by the Israeli cabinet in June 1948.<ref>Randa F arah, "The Marginalizastion of Palestinian Refugees", Niklaus Steiner, Mark Gibney, Gil Loescher (eds.) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HeLVLaS9yjUC&pg=PA161 Problems of Protection: The UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129193737/https://books.google.com/books?id=HeLVLaS9yjUC&pg=PA161#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=29 November 2023 }}'', Psychology Press, 2003 pp.155–178 p.161.</ref> In December of that year the UN adopted [[resolution 194]], which resolved "that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."<ref>UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III), "Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator", U.N. Doc.
A/RES/194 (11 December 1948), para. 11, cited Leila Hilal, ''[https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Brookings-Displacement-Palestine-CaseStudy-2012-English.pdf Transitional Justice Responses to Palestinian Dispossession: Focus on Restitution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305224813/https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Brookings-Displacement-Palestine-CaseStudy-2012-English.pdf |date=5 March 2023 }}'', Brookings Institution/LSE August 2012 p.8.</ref><ref name=MG>{{cite book|last=Gibney|first=Mathew|title=Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present|year=2005|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=9781576077962|pages=[https://archive.org/details/immigrationasylu00matt/page/469 469]–470|url=https://archive.org/details/immigrationasylu00matt|url-access=registration|quote=Israel refused to allow refugees to return to their homes 242.}}</ref><ref name=MM>{{cite book|last=Muslih|first=Muhammad|title=The Middle East in 2015 The Impact of Regional Trends on U.S. Strategic Planning|year=2002|publisher=Diane Publishing reprint. Originally published by National Defense University Press|pages=104–105|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzHXkqcz6jAC&q=Israel%20refused%20to%20allow%20refugees%20to%20return%20to%20their%20homes%20242&pg=PA104|isbn=9781428961005|access-date=29 November 2023|archive-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129193621/https://books.google.com/books?id=KzHXkqcz6jAC&q=Israel%20refused%20to%20allow%20refugees%20to%20return%20to%20their%20homes%20242&pg=PA104#v=snippet&q=Israel%20refused%20to%20allow%20refugees%20to%20return%20to%20their%20homes%20242&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite much of the international community, including the US President Harry Truman, insisting that the repatriation of Palestinian refugees was essential, Israel refused to accept the principle.<ref name=MM/> In the intervening years Israel has consistently refused to change its position and has introduced further legislation to hinder Palestinians refugees from returning and reclaiming their land and confiscated property.<ref name=MG/><ref name=MM/>

In keeping with an Arab League resolution in 1965, most Arab countries have refused to grant citizenship to Palestinians, arguing that it would be a threat to their [[Palestinian right of return|right of return]] to their homes in Palestine.<ref name=MG/><ref name=Jpost287479/> In 2012, Egypt deviated from this practice by granting citizenship to 50,000 Palestinians, mostly from the Gaza Strip.<ref name=Jpost287479>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=287479|title=Egypt grants citizenship to 50,000 Palestinians|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=30 January 2011 |access-date=29 November 2023|archive-date=7 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207131653/http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=287479|url-status=live}}</ref>

Palestinians living in Lebanon are deprived of basic civil rights. They cannot own homes or land and are barred from becoming lawyers, engineers and doctors.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/24/palestinian-refugees-lebanon-rights|title=Mired in poverty: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon see little hope in new law|newspaper=the Guardian|date=24 August 2010|last1=Hall|first1=Richard|access-date=29 November 2023|archive-date=13 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913230253/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/24/palestinian-refugees-lebanon-rights|url-status=live}}</ref>