A/HRC/40/74 B. Return of refugees 18. Some 75 per cent of Gazans are registered refugees, living in or outside one of eight cramped cinderblock refugee camps in Gaza. They are among the descendants of the 750,000 Palestinians who, during the 1948 conflict, fled or were expelled from their previous homes in today’s Israel, in what Palestinians call the Nakba (“catastrophe”). In 1948, the General Assembly, in its resolution 194, recognized that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property. Following the hostilities of 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, the Assembly reaffirmed in 1974, in its resolution 3236, the “inalienable right” of return of Palestinian refugees from both the 1948 and 1967 hostilities. In its resolution 242 (1967), the Security Council affirmed the necessity of a “just settlement” of the refugee problem. 19. While Palestinians have since urged the implementation of General Assembly resolutions 194 and 3236, Israel opposes their return, arguing that “the influx of millions of Palestinians into the State of Israel would threaten the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, obliterating its basic identity as the homeland of the Jewish people and a refuge for persecuted Jews worldwide.”5 20. The return of refugees was among the “final status” issues that the negotiations held in 1993 leading to the Oslo Accords set out to solve within five years. Some 25 years later, the issue remains unresolved and the Accords unimplemented. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the construction of settlements and a separation wall deemed unlawful by the International Court of Justice has contributed to what the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process called a “growing risk of a one-state reality of perpetual occupation”.6 21. On 6 December 2017, the Government of the United States of America announced its decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem, thereby reducing hopes for a two-State solution further and sparking new demonstrations across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The “great march of return and breaking of the siege”: background and principles C. 22. On 7 January 2018, Ahmed Abu Artema, a 34-year-old Palestinian poet and journalist, posted on Facebook the idea of a non-violent march at the separation fence, to draw attention to General Assembly resolution 194 and to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In the post, ending #GreatMarchofReturn, he wrote, “what if 200,000 demonstrators marched peacefully and broke through the fence east of Gaza and entered a few kilometres into the lands that are ours, holding the flags of Palestine and the keys to return, accompanied by international media, and then set up tents inside and established a city there.” 23. The idea evolved into a movement of Palestinians. Within weeks, Abu Artema, civil society activists and other stakeholders drew up a charter of 12 principles, envisaging a national march by Palestinians of all ages, genders, political and social groups. 24. A higher national committee and 12 subcommittees were subsequently established to organize and oversee the planning of the march. Its members came from all sectors of Palestinian society, including civil society, cultural and social organizations, student unions, women’s groups, eminent persons and members of clans. Representatives of several political parties, including the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were 5 6 4 See https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/FAQ/Pages/FAQ_Peace_process_with_ Palestinians_Dec_2009.aspx# Refugees1. See https://unsco.unmissions.org/security-council-briefing-situation-middle-east-includingpalestinian-question-2.