Visitors to Palestinian towns often return with a souvenir, a large iron skeleton key that resembles a ceremonial “key to the city,” except this one looks old and rusted. For Palestinians the key symbolizes the key to the homes they were forced to leave in 1948, when war created the modern state of Israel. That year the United Nations passed a resolution stating that Palestinian refugees displaced by the war “wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.” Palestinian families kept keys to their old homes, waiting for the time when their “right of return” would be honored, but it never was. Now a New York real estate developer wants to move millions out of Gaza while it is rebuilt as a tourist Riviera and a home for Middle Easterners. There was no mention of Palestinians’ right to return, but that wouldn’t matter now. History explains why Palestinians, and their allies around the world, will be reluctant to accept any such plan. – Fletcher Farrar, editor
This article appears in The Wedding Issue 2025.
