Refugees into Citizens

This timely book offers a blueprint for resolving what is often called the most intractable--if not taboo--subject in the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations: a just and permanent solution to the problem of over 3 million Palestinian refugees. The refugee question has never before been treated as the keystone of regional peace and stability.In a hard-hitting, yet balanced and dispassionate analysis, Donna Arzt advocates that the end of the Middle East conflict can only be achieved when all Palestinian refugees are offered citizenship, compensation for lost property, and voluntary absorption options in either a future state of Palestine, other Arab states in the region, the broader international community, or, on family reunification grounds, repatriation in Israel.Comprehensive in scope, yet free of technical jargon, the book is both accessible to generalists and valuable to specialists in the fields of refugee studies, the Middle East conflict, human rights, and public international law. Drawing on the latest historiography, demographic data, and legal texts on the concept of "return," statelessness and minority rights, Refugees into Citizens avoids falling into the trap of relitigating old polemics and accusations by inviting the international community into a pragmatic, forward-looking dialogue on this most politically sensitive question.

A Council on Foreign Relations Book