Israel has allowed 114,000 refugees to return to the territories for humanitarian reasons over the years, according to the Foreign Ministry's legal adviser, Alan Baker.
Some 70,000 refugees have been allowed to return to Israel proper, most of them in the framework of family reunions after 1948.
According to Palestinian sources, there are more than five million Palestinian refugees living in Diaspora and in camps in the West Bank and Gaza, whose right to return is stipulated in the UN Resolution 194.
However, the Knesset passed on Monday a bill put forward by the right-wing opposition aimed at making it harder for Palestinian refugees to return home in the event of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal – (Several Sources)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
