The first time I went to Gaza, I stood with a resident of Jabaliya camp as he explained that not one resident of Jabaliya town had ever married a refugee from Jabaliya camp. That may have changed in the intervening decades, but it revealed the division between the people who stayed and those who fled–the awkwardness of refugees, who make up more than 70% of the population of Gaza. The women dressed differently and refugees still had the expectation of returning home, mostly to the coastal villages south of Tel Aviv. Life was peaceful, a sleepy community more like Egypt than Dubai.

Today, Jabaliya is destroyed, so when it is rebuilt it will be designed for all its surviving former residents–the refugees and townspeople. The idea of refugee camps for Palestinians who are actually living in Palestine–but not in their original place of residence–is outdated and does not match the terms of negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians who are living in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem are at most internally displaced, not in their place of origin but still within the future state of Palestine. This is a new beginning for Gaza as the cornerstone of a Palestinian state, one that integrates its refugees.

Some unforeseen future event could lead Palestinians to try to return to their homes in the Palestine that existed before Israel, but today, others are living on that property. Peace talks have agreed a........

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