"Palestinians" aren't refugees.

A major myth that continues to persist thanks to the actions of Arab nations who use the "Palestinians" as political peons is the fallacy that the "Palestinians" are refugees. Under the UN definition of a refugee, there are no "Palestinian" refugees.

The reason a discrepancy exists today is due to a very simple problem; the United Nations has two agencies for refugees, each with its own definition. One refugee agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), deals solely with the "Palestinians". Every other refugee on the face of the planet is under the jurisdiction of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

The definition of a refugee is complex and filled with legalities. However, it can be boiled down. To the UNHCR, a refugee "is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion." The Conventions which establishes the definition of a refugee makes some exceptions. "(T)he Convention does not apply to those for whom there are serious reasons for considering that they have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, serious non-political crimes, or are guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. The Convention also does not apply to those refugees who benefit from the protection or assistance of a United Nations agency other than UNHCR, such as refugees from Palestine who fall under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Nor does the Convention apply to those refugees who have a status equivalent to nationals in their country of asylum."

Right there, the UNHCR applies a segregative policy towards the "Palestinians". Ignore that for a moment and consider what else is here. If you remove the segregative policy for the "Palestinians", not one single "Palestinian" is a refugee, for they all fall under a status that can be considered the equivalent of a national in Gaza or Judea and Samaria (Judea and Samaria are often incorrectly referred to as the West Bank).

The reason why the "Palestinians" are still considered refugees, despite the fact that they aren't, is due to the UNRWA definition of a refugee. According to the UNRWA, a "Palestinian" refugee is any person whose "normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." They also includes descendants of all those who fulfill the above definition.

Only the UNRWA considers descendants to be refugees. This special, apartheid definition, where "Palestinians" have one definition but all other people have a different definition, is what creates the problems today. If this definition were applied to Israel, almost the entire population of Israel would be considered refugees today. Potentially as many as 1,000,000 Jews were forced from their homes in Arab and Muslim lands due to the 1948 Independence War. In reality, "Palestinians" are not refugees. The Arab nations deliberately pushed to have a separate definition for "Palestinian" refugees to use as political leverage against the new Jewish State after the end of the Independence War in 1949.