Palestinian Refugees and the Question of Return

Name: Date:

For 12th grade Modern Middle East Studies students. Complete each question using specific historical dates, resolutions, and balanced policy arguments.

Identify the year UN General Assembly Resolution 194 was passed and summarize the condition set out in Paragraph 11 for refugee return.
How does the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) define a Palestinian refugee, and how does its registry handle descendants?
Compare the legal status of Palestinian refugees living in Jordan with those living in Lebanon.
Summarize the core demographic argument that the State of Israel presents against implementing a full right of return.
Explain the argument Palestinian advocates make when asserting that the right of return is an individual rather than collective right.
Read the following statement: 'Refugees must be absorbed where they live, just as Jewish refugees from the Middle East were absorbed in Israel after 1948.' Explain whose diplomatic position this reflects and on what basis.

Personal AI lessons and practice, from preschool to university

Answer keylessoons.com

Palestinian Refugees and the Question of Return

Answer key

Identify the year UN General Assembly Resolution 194 was passed and summarize the condition set out in Paragraph 11 for refugee return.
Resolution 194 was passed in December 1948. Paragraph 11 stated that refugees should be permitted to return if they were willing to 'live at peace with their neighbours' at the earliest practicable date.
How does the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) define a Palestinian refugee, and how does its registry handle descendants?
UNRWA defines a refugee as someone whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1, 1946, and May 15, 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood. Unlike UNHCR standard practices, UNRWA also registers the direct patrilineal descendants of original refugees.
Compare the legal status of Palestinian refugees living in Jordan with those living in Lebanon.
Jordan granted full citizenship and passports to the majority of Palestinian refugees, integrating them into civic life. Lebanon has withheld citizenship, severely restricted property ownership, and barred refugees from practicing in numerous syndicated professions.
Summarize the core demographic argument that the State of Israel presents against implementing a full right of return.
Israel argues that absorbing millions of registered refugees and descendants would create an Arab majority, thereby eliminating Israel's defined identity as a sovereign Jewish homeland.
Explain the argument Palestinian advocates make when asserting that the right of return is an individual rather than collective right.
Palestinian legal scholars argue that the right to one's property and homeland is an individual human right under international law, meaning political leaders cannot surrender or negotiate it away on behalf of individuals without their consent.
Read the following statement: 'Refugees must be absorbed where they live, just as Jewish refugees from the Middle East were absorbed in Israel after 1948.' Explain whose diplomatic position this reflects and on what basis.
This reflects the Israeli diplomatic position. It frames the 1948 war as having triggered a reciprocal population exchange between Arab Palestinians and Jewish communities displaced from Arab countries, arguing host states bear responsibility for integration.