It was imposed on us by force and fear. We do not accept that our children continue to be refugees. We seek a permanent and just peace, not a temporary one. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and their land. Many came from the 531 Palestinian towns and villages that were depopulated and destroyed.
Refugees make up about two thirds of the entire Palestinian population.
Palestinians are scattered all around the world. The refugee population is concentrated mainly within the area of British-era Mandate Palestine and in neighboring Arab states. About one million of these refugees live in refugee camps. Over 1.7 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan. Jordan is the only state to have given citizenship to Palestinian refugees, though there remain hundreds of thousands of 1967 refugees from Gaza who do not possess Jordanian passports.