The term return is used in the English texts of contemporary Palestinian political authors writing on the Right of Return of Palestinians to their homes and homeland. The first part is dedicated to a semantic analysis of return as a radial category with a core meaning and extensions. Then the meanings of return in these texts are discussed, as used in the discourse of Palestinian maximalists versus pragmatists. It is shown that (1) different meanings of return are selected according to whether the writer is a maximalist or a pragmatist, and (2) a reality that harmonizes with these meanings is narratively constructed.
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