ABSTRACT
Do internationally sponsored conflict resolution programmes change the ways that young Palestinian people think about their right to return to their properties in historic Palestine? In this chapter, I argue that such programmes will not make significant headway in changing young people’s social and political attitudes while the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians remains active. To justify this claim, I will use a case study that focuses on young refugees who live in the Gaza Strip. The study will assess the impact that services delivered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have on the attitudes and behaviours of young refugees in relation to the right of return. Large populations in Gaza are looking to return to historic Palestine, where their parents and grandparents used to live and own property before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Young Palestinians have inherited the status of refugees from their ancestors who were expelled from their homes inside Israel’s Green Line, which demarcated its pre-1967 borders. As a result, these young refugees are entitled to numerous UNRWA services either in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), which includes the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, or in the neighbouring countries of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
