After more than 70 years, the Palestinian refugee issue remains unresolved. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) now counts some 5.3 million registered Palestinian refugees.

Although the vast majority of third- and fourth-generation Palestinian refugees know the villages of their grandparents and great-grandparents only from mythical tales, the so-called "right of return" to Israel's heartland remains to this day a major political demand of all Palestinian factions and thus a serious challenge to constructive peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinian representatives.

This recently published brochure of the German-Israeli Friendship Association (DIG) asks about the history, the present meaning and the future of the so-called "right of return" and combines different approaches and perspectives. It is intended as a contribution to the debate on what is probably one of the most difficult questions of the Middle East conflict, which not only affects relations between Israelis and Palestinians, but also has to take into account many other states and actors in the region as well as international organizations and developments. The authors of the booklet, including many experts from the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB), hope to provide their readership with a basic overview of the topic and exciting insights, as well as to send out critical impulses to German Middle East policy.