What is Israels position on the Palestinian claim to a ight of return?
• The Palestinian demand to unconditionally exercise a self-declared ‘Right of Return’ is nothing less than a demand to eliminate of the State of Israel. The Palestinian refugee problem did not spring from a vacuum. Its immediate cause was the refusal of the Arab world to accept UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (the Partition Plan) in 1947 and, the subsequent Arab invasion of the new State of Israel. During that war, many Arabs living in the battle zones abandoned their homes, whether following calls from the Arab leaders, out of fear of the fighting, or in apprehension over their future in a Jewish state. If the war had not been forced upon Israel by the various Arab countries and the local Arab population, the refugee problem would not exist. The Arab states (with the exception of Jordan) were determined to perpetuate the refugee problem and to exploit it in their struggle to destroy Israel. From 1948 to the present day, the refugees have been confined to crowded camps, where they
