With two-thirds of the Palestinian people still living as refugees, the sense of injustice at being evicted from their land pervades Palestinians' national consciousness and has defined their struggle, even more than the desire to establish an independent state.

A solution that appeared to ignore the demands of the refugees would be inherently unstable. It would have questionable legitimacy, would undermine the new Palestinian state, and - most alarming from an Israeli perspective - would leave open the prospect that a sizable number of Palestinians would decide to carry on the struggle.