Teaching “The Right of Return” in UNRWA Schools

The essence of the Middle East conflict is the century-long struggle between Jews and
Palestinian Arabs over one piece of land stretching between the Mediterranean and the
River Jordan, which both parties regard as their historic homeland. The United Nations
Organization’s attempt in 1947 to solve the conflict by way of partition was rejected by
the Arab side, which opened a war against the Jews in December that year. The war
between the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs, to which five Arab armies joined in May
1948, lasted for sixteen months and ended in an Arab defeat. Both Jews and Palestinians
lost in the war one percent of their respective populations. One of the results of that war
was a mass exodus of Palestinians from areas taken over by the Jews, which later became
part of the nascent State of Israel. In subsequent years, a parallel number of Jews came to
Israel from the neighboring Arab countries, partly as a result of the deterioration of their conditions there following the war.

Teaching The Right of Return in UNRWA Schools