Editorial
The issue of Palestinian refugees is at the core of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and an agreement on this core issue
is central to the survival of any political settlement to the
conflict. Palestinian refugees lived for more than six decades
after the 1948 war with the dream that one day they would go back
home. Although realities on the ground are changing and the picture
etched in their memory or inherited from their fathers and
grandfathers has changed, for any Palestinian refugee what matters
in essence is the right of return. It is highly probable that the
Palestinian houses do not exist anymore, or are inhabited by Jewish
families that were told that now they have become the owners of
these houses; yet, in the hearts and minds of the Palestinian
refugees, these houses are still there, exactly as they were when
their owners were forced to leave them. The same applies to the
fields and the orchards - the paradise of orange groves. Many
Palestinian refugees still carry the hea
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