There are over five million Palestinians hoping to return to their rightful homes
Ever since Motion 10, which is supporting the Right of Return of the Palestinian Refugees was put through, questions have arisen about whether a motion like this is relevant to members of LUU. But maybe if people knew exactly what happened in 1948 and the effect it has had on politics and people up until the present day their views will undoubtedly change.
1948 wasn’t the best of years for the Palestinians. In fact it is known as the ‘Nakba’ meaning “The Catastrophe’ in Arabic. It was a year when one nation celebrated their ‘independence’ whilst the other mourned the loss of their land and homes. Between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes in search for safety during the war. And as if 1948 didn’t create enough of a refugee crisis, the six day war of 1967 worsened the situation. Now, as stated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency: ‘There are a total of 4,618,141 registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East and an estimated 5.5 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, making them the largest refugee population anywhere in the world’.
Being away from their homeland is not the only thing Palestinian refugees have had to cope with for over 60 years. They have had to endure discrimination, political alienation, poverty and extremely dire living conditions. To add insult to injury, they’ve also had to live with false promises made to them about returning to their homeland every year. The UN resolution 194, which calls for the return of Palestinians who were displaced as a result of the existence of the state of Israel and passed in 1948, is reapplied and renewed every year with no action taken, followed with continuous refusal on the Israeli side to even take some responsibility for the problem.
However despite all this, the Palestinians have not lost hope. Even after 61 years many still have the keys to the houses they left, and the deeds and documents for their properties, waiting for the day they will return back to their rightful and legal home.
The refugee crisis is a humanitarian as well as a political issue. In order to achieve peace in the region the Right of Return must be acknowledged and recognized by all parties involved, just like recognizing the existence of a state is expected by all.
This crisis is one of the largest obstacles to peace, and not finding an appropriate and just solution for it will make it increasingly difficult to ever reach peace in the region.
What I find strikingly surprising is the fact that in any war, when a refugee crisis occurs everyone automatically recognizes their right of return without having to reapply and renew resolutions every year, so why is this not the case with the Palestinian refugees? Why is it that over 60 years have passed and it doesn’t even look like there is going to be a solution any time soon?
The question of the motions’ relevance to our union emerges once again. There is in fact a large population of Palestinian Students in our Union who under the UN resolution would be classified as refugees. Since we are all one union and one body, it is our duty to stand by our Palestinian students and support their Right of Return.

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