The Problem Of Palestinian Refugees In The Middle East Peace Process

The problem of Palestinian refugees is one of the major difficulties in solving Palestinian issues, and also one of the problems to be solved through negotiations during the Middle East peace process. After World War Two, Palestine and Israel have been at war for many times, in which the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967 had to take the main responsibility for the refugees. Territory of Palestine totally occupied by Israel, the Palestinians had to leave their homes and led a vagrant life in other countries from then on. Nowadays about 4.1 million Palestinian Refugees mainly scattered along the west bank of Jordan, Gaza and the neighboring Arab countries. The problem has moved from being primarily a humanitarian problem to a political issue, dominating the Middle East peace process and, on occasion, world politics, and it has become an increasingly serious barrier in the Middle East peace negotiations.Madrid Conference started in 1991 was a milestone indicating the formal startup of the Middle East peace process. The series of Palestinian issues including the problem of Palestinian refugees have therefore become the important topic of the peace talks between Palestine and Israel. However, in the following negotiations, because of the two countries' fundamentally different standpoints about the Palestinian issues, and due to Israel's advantageous position during the peace talks and the traditionally biased Middle East policy in favor of Israel implemented by U.S., though some substantial fruits were continually produced, the problem has had little development and become a sticking point in Middle East peace course.This paper endeavors to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the Palestinian refugee problem in the Middle East peace process through the review and analysis of the particularity and complexity of the problem itself, and therefore carry out a reasonable forecast of the settlement for it.