Palestinian Refugee Visits to Their Former Homes

This article compares Palestinian refugees and exiles’ written accounts of their visits to their places of origin in present-day Israel. The discussion is based on texts published by educated, upper-middle-class Palestinians living in the diaspora or in the West Bank, who made their visits as private citizens. After surveying the existing literature on refugee visits their homes in other post-conflict zones, the article discusses an aspect of Palestinian visits that previous studies have left untouched: the encounter between visitors and present occupants.