After sketching the historical background and reviewing conflicting estimates of the amount of property involved, the volume investigates U.S. and UN settlement proposals developed--behind closed doors--in the 1950s and '60s, and explains how the peace process from Camp David I to Camp David II and beyond has actually hindered a settlement of property claims.

Finding a solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees has remained the main hurdle for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. This book represents a comprehensive political analysis of the Palestinian refugee issue. It tackles the matter on four dimensions. First, the historical context of the Palestinian exodus in both 1948 and 1967 is reviewed. Second, the question is traced whether there exists a Palestinian right of return according to international law. Third, an examination is presented regarding how and why the issue of refugees has remained a stumbling block during the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Fourth, the main part of the book analyses potential solutions to the refugee question, complementing the existing proposals with models developed by the author. What are their implications for both sides? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each proposal to Israelis and Palestinians, respectively? What is the relevance of each proposal as a mutually acceptable solution? Finally, a set of recommendations and guide-lines for future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on refugees is presented. Overall, this study constitutes a valuable reference for anyone interested in a solution of the most intractable aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Placing a rights-based approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the centre of discussions over its peaceful resolution, this book provides detailed consideration of international law and its application to political issues. Contributions from leading scholars in their respective fields give an in-depth analysis of key issues, ranging from security, through legal and political frameworks to refugees and Jerusalem.

As one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel,Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies. Sandberg argues that Israel's identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel's most pronounced identity problems. Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel's modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the determination of land usage have been the consequences of explicit choices made in the context of competing and evolving concepts of national identity. Land Law and Policy in Israel will prove to be a must-read not only for anyone interested in Israel but also for anyone who wants to understand the importance of land law in a nation's life.

This volume highlights the ways in which the prospect of peace can generate anxieties and consequently set in motion social and political processes that reproduce and reactivate conflicts. In analysing this issue, the volume builds on the notion of ontological security and its recent applications to international relations theory. Although conflicts threaten the physical security of the parties involved, they also help settle existential questions about basic parameters of life, being, and identity, and thus over time become sources of ontological security. The prospect of peace, through the resolution or transformation of conflict, threatens to unsettle the stability and consistency of self-narratives, and their associated routines and habits at the individual, group, and state levels. The contributors argue two key points: 1) that ontological insecurity may set in motion political and social processes that reproduce and reactivate conflicts; 2) that coping with peace anxieties necessitates the formulation of alternative self-narratives at the individual, societal, and state levels that re-situate the Self in relation to Other and to the world at large. Consequently, the book analyses the ways in which, and the conditions under which, conflict resolution induces ontological insecurity, and the different ways in which ontological insecurity has prevented the successful culmination of peace processes in different conflict contexts, including Cyprus, Israel-Palestine and Northern Ireland. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies, social theory and IR in general.

Israeli national thinking on Palestinian statehood has gone from total rejection to broad acceptance. How will this evolving thinking play a role in restarting Israel-Palestinian negotiations?

7. Scope of the study

In this clearly written and balanced volume, longtime Middle East expert Don Peretz examines the current conditions and future prospects of the Palestine refugees and the members of the Palestinian diaspora. He reviews their demographics, living conditions, political identity, and perspectives on the peace process, including the Gaza-Jericho plan. He explores a variety of proposed solutions, including repatriation, compensation, and resettlement.