War of Return

About War of Return

War of Return: The Battle over the Palestinian Refugee Problem, written by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf and published by St. Martin’s Press in 2020, examines the history and political implications of the Palestinian demand for a right of return to the State of Israel. The authors, Schwartz, a journalist and researcher, and Wilf, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, argue that the persistence of the refugee issue is the primary obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They trace the origins of the problem back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, analyzing how the status of these individuals has evolved over several decades.

A significant portion of the book focuses on the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Schwartz and Wilf analyze how UNRWA’s mandate differs from that of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which handles