According to the United Nations a refugee is an individual who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
After the Six-Day War, on November 22, 1967, the United Nations passed UN Resolution 242 affirming the necessity of achieving a just settlement to the refugee problem in the Middle East. In referring to a “just settlement” without referring to Palestinian refugees specifically, the United Nations acknowledged that Jews who fled their home Arab countries where bona fide refugees entitled to be included in a just settlement of the Middle East conflict.
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c125.html
