Section 11 of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 supports the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees. It seems that the Arab nations should support this (since it would get the many Palestinian refugees in their countries to go back). Yet, the six Arab League nations (Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen) voted against the resolution. Why? Is it because of some other part of the resolution that they disagreed with? Does it have to do with the the Eastern bloc countries, that also voted against this resolution (whereas Western bloc countries voted for it)?
EDIT: It's the United Nations General Assembly. Thank you /u/ghostofherzl
Hi there.
You named it as the "United States General Assembly Resolution 194". Just as a heads up, this is the UN, not US.
This resolution stated the following about right of return:
Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;
This does allow a return of refugees during a time of peace, which Arab states might have preferred. But there are a few problems with this for Arab states. For example, Section 8:
Resolves that, in view of its association with three world religions, the Jerusalem area, including the present municipality of Jerusalem plus the surrounding villages and towns, the most eastern of which shall be Abu Dis; the most southern, Bethlehem; the most western, Ein Karim (including also the built-up area of Motsa); and the most northern, Shu'fat, should be accorded special and separate treatment from the rest of Palestine and should be placed under effective United Nations control;
The Arab world did not want a Jerusalem under international control. This was a huge point of contention for them. It's worth noting that Resolution 194 has shifted from being something Arab states oppose, to something cited approvingly in resolutions Arab states have voted for. See, e.g. A/RES/51/128 (link here):
Recalling its resolutions 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, 212 (III) of 19 November 1948, 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949 and all subsequent related resolutions,
Of course, that resolution contains things the Arab states do want, but the point is, this hasn't remained something necessarily opposed, particularly since the 1967 war altered the situation on the ground, and Israel's military superiority grew while some Arab states made peace with it (i.e. Egypt in 1979).
You can see some of the original debate over 194 here. There, you can see that Soviet opposition was not to the right of return, but more towards the composition of the conciliation committee, and the lack of an order to remove all foreign troops. This is distinctly separate from the reason the Arab states opposed the resolution that I mentioned above. In fact, the Soviets supported a Jewish state at this point, and emphasized as much in that record, while the Arab states opposed one clearly. So the dispute went beyond "East vs. West" in this case.