Palestinian refugees see all of Israel as their “homeland” to which they have a “right to return”
Official PA TV is perpetuating the demand for a "right of return" to cities and towns inside Israel, teaching successive generations of refugees that Israel itself is their "homeland."
The program features interviews with Palestinian refugees living in the Al-Amari refugee camp who recount their experiences from 1948, the conditions they experienced in the refugee camps, and their experiences in the periods that followed, such as during the first Intifada.
Refugee Fatma Ramadan: "[My mother-in-law] would always tell us about those days [in 1948], how when they left their village, they left everything and took only the house key. They said: ‘Maybe it'll be for two or three days, or a week, and then we'll come back," but to this day, they haven't returned. …"
Refugee Ghazi Al-Sharqawi: "It's impossible that one day we'll forget that I'm Palestinian and from Ramle… Same with my other children. I'd take the girls on trips and show them the village of 'Ana (i.e., Kiryat Ono), Jaffa, and Ramle… We took our generation, the children, there and told them: 'Your village is the village of 'Ana, your village isAl-'Abbasiyya (i.e., Yehud), your village is Daniyal, and your city is Ramle.'"
Refugee Umm Hussein: "We went to Lifta and we went to Malha [in Jerusalem]. Even if you just sit there under a tree, the smell has a different feeling. It's the smell of your land, soaked with the sweat of our ancestors… They took us to Lifta, to the park. They sat us down and said: 'These are the lands of Lifta...' It breaks the heart to see your homeland, those trees, all of this... and to see a stranger living in your house. That is, that I'll leave, and the stranger will remove me by force from the house, against my will."
Refugee Ghazi Al-Sharqawi: "When they gave us the right to receive this [refugee] certificate, it's as if they said: 'Keep wandering aimlessly across the face of the earth and from country to country.' We said: ‘This is our homeland.' Wherever you go, the refugee certificate will stay with you. You can grow old in Europe, in China, or in America, but the certificate is supposed to provide you with a 100% guarantee to the right of return… After all, they said it'd be a temporary situation that would last maybe two, three, or four years."
Refugee Fatma Ramadan: "We left our homeland, and instead they gave us this [refugee] certificate." …
Umm Hussein: "They want to erase us as refugees. But as long as this certificate is in our hands, it indicates that this (i.e., area near Ramallah) is not our homeland. We have a homeland! We have a homeland! We have a homeland! This isn't our place. Our parents taught us that we have another land, and this isn't our land. We teach our children, and our children will teach their children, that this is not our homeland." …
Ghazi Al-Sharqawi: "[Israel] wants to abolish the very concept of 'the right of return' and to erase the term 'refugee.' … This is because, for them, as long as the main Palestinian issue is the refugee issue, if the right of return is canceled and the word 'refugee' is erased, then the Palestinian issue ends… Today they are working to redefine who is a refugee. When [US President] Trump took office, he said: 'We want to conduct a census of the refugees.' However, [this means that] only the refugees who left in 1948 and are still alive today are considered refugees." …
Umm Hussein: "I swear by Allah, that even if only one Palestinian child remains, he will keep saying: 'I am Palestinian, I am a refugee.' They will not succeed in erasing the word 'refugee' from the living conscience!"
[Official PA TV, July 12, 2026]
Name: Fatma Ramadan, wife of Ghazi Al-Sharqawi
Date of birth: 1961
From the deserted village: Al-Sawafir, Gaza sub-district
Current refugee camp: Al-Amari
Defined as: Witness [to the Nakba] that is transferred from father to son
Name: Umm Hussein
Date of birth: 1948
From the deserted village: Malha, Jerusalem sub-district
Current refugee camp: Al-Amari
Defined as: Witness [to the Nakba] that is transferred from father to son
Name: Ghazi Al-Sharqawi
Date of birth: 1957
From the deserted village: 'Ana Jaffa sub-district
Current refugee camp: Al-Amari
Defined as: Witness [to the Nakba] that is transferred from father to son