In the wake of the 1948 War of Israeli Independence, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left. Some left on their own at the urging of Arab governments. Some left because they feared the Israelis - in large part because of exaggerated reports about the Deir Yassin Massacre. Many were driven out by the Israelis as they captured their areas. Nearly all of them expected to return quickly; some lucky ones were allowed back, but most wound up in refugee camps and they and their descendants remain there to this day. This is unprecedented in human history; there have been countless cases of large numbers of people being displaced by war; in nearly every other case, the affected population resettled elsewhere. Indeed, an equal number of Jews were displaced after the war by angry and vengeful Arab governments but while these people found a friendly government in Israel who welcomed them, the Palestinian Arabs were not so lucky.
Those who wound up in Jordan fared the best; they were offered citizenship. Lebanon, not wanting to upset it's very delicate ethnic balance, consigned them to refugee camps as did the Egyptians. Egypt could have easily absorbed them, but preferred to lock them in Gaza; stateless and with little opportunities. Some have wound up in other Arab coutnries, but large numbers were kicked out of Kuwait in the wake of the first gulf war in exchange for the Palestinian leaders supporting Saddam Husein and eventually the same fate awaited those in Iraq itself.
These refugees have something no other group of refugees has had before - an organization set up by the United Nations (UNWRA) to pay for their upkeep. If UNWRA were not there, the status quo would have been impossible to maintain for 60+ years. A large number of these refugees have indicated their desire to move back and regain the houses and properties that they lost in 1948.
I would go on for ages about the missed opportunities caused by Arafat. Probably one of the best articles ever written on the subject was published in The Atlantic: In a Ruined Country - How Yasir Arafat destroyed Palestine. One paragraph that struck me more than any other when I first read it was this:
"With three hundred, four hundred million dollars we could have built Palestine in ten years. Waste, waste, waste. I flew over the West Bank in a helicopter with Arafat at the beginning of Oslo, and I told him how easy we could make five, six, seven towns here; we could absorb a lot of people here; and have the right of return for the refugees. If you have good intentions and you say you want to reach a solution, we could do it. I said, if you have money and water, it could be comparable to Israel, this piece of land."
The man being quoted there is Munib al-Masri, the richest man in Palestine and one of Arafat's oldest friends. But there is no point now crying over spilled milk; people must plan for today, not worry about what might have been.
The Palestinian journalist I most enjoy reading is Daoud Kuttab. While he is clearly on the side of his countrymen, he is one of the few that will also call out the Palestinian leadership when they are screwing their own people. I always feel with him I am getting the truth from a Palestinian perspective; not just propaganda. When Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad started a policy of trying to build state institutions in anticipation of getting a state, Mr. Kuttab seemed to be one of the only people who got it. So happy was the Prime Minister with Mr. Kuttab's article that he actually called him up to say thank you in person. The two hardly knew each other and it left Mr. Kuttab quite impressed. As an independent journalist, he was used to being met with hostility by Palestinian officials.
So, where am I going with all this? Well, what I would like to see is massive building by Palestinians on the West Bank to resettle their refugees. There is no question that they have the building skills; they actually have done a lot of the construction in the Israeli settlements as well as the separation wall. Rather than have the UNWRA money go down a rathole of corruption and waste, let it go to build houses for the people who its supposed to be taking care of. Imagine the opportunities for employment among Palestinians that this would create and the results on the West Bank. The sad thing is, there are still refugees living in the West Bank itself.
Now, what will Israel's reaction to this be? First of all, in the short term to get the ball rolling, I would think it be prudent to only build in Area 'A' and possibly Area 'B'. I'm not saying they shouldn't eventually build in Area 'C' as well, but when trying to get something going, start with the path of least resistance. There is plenty of land between Nablus and Jenin to build on; in fact, Ariel Sharon had four small settlements evacuated from this area so there should be no issue. But here is the real sweetener for Israel; any refugee being accepting a home in this plan would have to sign something accepting that whatever claim he had from being displaced was now considered settled. Some won't do it of course; but many would jump at the chance to get out of those miserable camps. They deserve, at long last, a chance to start life anew.
The far right in Israel won't like this, but I believe that on this they will be overruled. Israel will also not want to let in any hardcore terrorist types; effectively that means that they will have to approve all those who come in; either that or provide a list of who is NOT acceptable. I'm sure people on both sides could find something to complain about, but to me, this is the sort of program that could get a lot of support from both moderate people on both sides as well as the world community. It would help the current Prime Minister if he is seen as the force behind this - those returning to Palestine will no doubt remember who helped them out. It even demonstrates a way forward to those in Gaza if Hamas decided it really wants to play ball.
I know it's optimistic, but it's the sort of thing I hope to see happen. One can dream, anyway.