That solution will involve two things that the international community does NOT want to provide: visas and money. The human problems of the Palestinian people cannot be solved unless hundreds of thousands and quite possibly more than a million people have the opportunity to emigrate to countries where they will enjoy full economic, social and citizenship rights. None of the other mass refugee problems of the 1940s (in India, Pakistan, Germany, Poland and many others) was solved without giving refugees full citizenship and economic rights and the ability to build new homes and new lives for themselves. This one won’t be solved without that either.
Some think that integrating Palestinians should be the responsibility of the Arab or Muslim worlds alone. This is wrong. The whole international community helped cook up this stew, and the whole international community must help make things right. Self-righteous Europeans will have to interrupt their Israel-bashing to make room for some new Palestinian immigrants who will have the full right to become citizens.
Money also matters. There has been much talk about refugee compensation even in the conventional peace process, but much more remains to be done. Money is important for two reasons. First, the Palestinians need and deserve the recognition and justice that monetary compensation affords. The dignity of the Palestinian people needs to be recognized and their suffering acknowledged. Some of the money needs to come from Israel, but the international community as a whole must also make good — and also assume responsibility for any further financial claims. (I also believe that Jewish refugees from the Arab world should be compensated at the same time and to the same measure; this would not only do justice, but it would create support for peace and concessions in Israeli politics.)
Second, Palestinians need money to start new lives.
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