The Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon. The right of return and its limitations

Abstract

This article aims to study the Right of Return and analyse the elements that limit in any way the Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon from exercising this right internationally and explicitly recognised in Resolution 194 of the UN General Assembly. It is intended to demonstrate through an exhaustive documentary search and a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with five Palestinian refugees from Lebanon during the year 2021 that their situation, the insufficient and inadequate assistance of UNRWA and the policies of Israel and the Palestinian Authority undermine this right. The Palestinian Question has been one of the issues that has been particularly relevant on the international political and humanitarian agenda for decades and, in particular, since the operation of the Palestinian resistance on 7 October 2023. However, despite the number of actors and means allocated to solve this problem, years later it remains unresolved. One of the main reasons is the dispute over the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugee population in 1948 - which has its origin in the so-called Nakba or "catastrophe" and where more than 750,000 native Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes - considered a red line for both Israel and Palestine. On the one hand, Israel has systematically denied it since its creation to date; on the other hand, Palestine, supported by a multitude of resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly and UNRWA, urges Israel to allow the exercise of this right, which the Palestinian people consider inalienable.