U.S. Policy and the Palestinian Refugees

This essay is part of a special issue Palestine 1948 of the Journal of Palestine Studies, volume 18, no. 1, Autumn 1988.

“For more than a year, between 1948 and 1949, Israel, an emergent country of less than a million people, and powerful America actively struggled over the future of the refugees. The United States believed substantial numbers of them should be repatriated to their homes, which had been taken over by Israel; Israel disclaimed any responsibility and adamantly refused the return of the refugees. In the end, Israel prevailed with a vivid demonstration of its influence in American politics. Today it is reaping the harvest of that ‘victory.'”

The full essay can be accessed at JStor.