ABSTRACT
The refugee issue is perhaps the most enduring and painful part of this insoluble conflict. For, the initial tragedy of the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their land and their dispersal throughout the world, has kept only increasing since 1948 to mammoth dimensions and driven to an impasse. The problem has been maintained as long as no solution is produced to the conflict. Arab countries, save Jordan, which itself is constituted in its majority by Palestinian nationals, have usually refused to absorb the refugees in their midst and to integrate them in their societies, "fearing" that the refugee issue, with which they can whip Israel internationally, would have thereby dissolved. Palestinian representatives at the UN have prepared a draft resolution seeking to declare that the settlements are not only illegal, but they constitute an obstacle to peace.
