For decades, the Palestinian leadership has demanded a right of return for all refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. The United Nations recognizes that there are 5 million refugees around the world, but a separate organization, the United Nations Relief Works Agency, is designed to assist Palestinian refugees. No other organization like this exists to help specific refugee groups.

The right of return works as a bargaining chip to use against Israel, as part of Palestinian leadership efforts to forgo the peace process. The underlying goal of the so-called right of return is a Palestinian majority state from the river to the sea, and no Jewish state.