What is Israels position regarding the Palestinian claim of a ight of return?
The Palestinian refugee problem did not spring from a vacuum. Its immediate cause was the Arab refusal to accept UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (the Partition Plan) in 1947 and, their subsequent invasion of the new State of Israel, which initiated the Arab-Israel war of 1948. 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 fate 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) made sure 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 live in poverty and despair, and as a deliberate policy, no attempt has been made to absorb them into society or to provide for their
