NEW YORK – At a small conference at the Harvard Club in Manhattan on Thursday, a host of dignitaries and experts, including Israel’s envoy to the UN Ron Prosor, addressed the UN’s classification of Palestinian refugees as the principal stumbling block to a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO.
The conference was the opening salvo in the direction of drafting of US legislation meant to end the automatic transmission of refugee status to the descendents of Palestinians that has been taking place since 1948, just as Filippo Grandi, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), prepared to hold a press conference on Monday on Palestinian refugees becoming a “forgotten population” in an increasingly turbulent region.
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a leading international expert on the Middle East, opened the conference, declaring that the Palestinian refugee situation is broken, sick, and detrimental to all involved. The current approach by UNRWA “creates a narrative of victimhood and leads to extremism,” said Pipes.
The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank where Pipes serves as president, organized the conference, titled Changing US Policy on UNRWA and the “Palestine Refugees.”
“No one will admit it… the real obstacle [to a two-state solution] is the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees,” Prosor said. The “refugees problem is the main obstacle to peace, not settlements.”
The return of Palestinian refugees “would cause Israel’s destruction,” Prosor said.
In 1950, there were some 700,000 Palestinian refugees. The current figure stands at more than 5.1 million, though that depends on who is counting.
Historically, refugees who become citizens of another country lose their status as refugees; a large percentage of Palestinians live in Jordan or Syria, though those in Syria are now experiencing an entirely new refugee crisis.
Many participants at the event asserted that double standards applied to Palestinian refugees, in sharp contrast to this general rule of thumb.
Prosor sees UNRWA policy to allow Palestinians to “transfer their refugee mileage to their children” as misguided. “Israel deeply opposes UNRWA’s political agenda, but supports its humanitarian agenda,” he said, adding that “not one Arab country appears on the top-10 list of UNRWA’s donor,” and that its funding comes mainly from Western countries.
Although Arab countries are “saturated with petro-dollars,” they are not donating adequately to UNRWA, he charged.
According to Prosor, the ration of staff to refugees at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which covers non-Palestinian refugees, is 1 to 4,400. UNRWA has a ratio of 1 to 172.
Former Labor and Independence MK Einat Wilf said it is important to debunk the widespread image of Palestinian refugees “huddled in tents.”
She cited an EU diplomat who told her: “Do not tell anyone – I know middle class families in Ramallah.”
She said the “EU says Palestinians know they won’t return to Israel” but urged to the EU “to start telling them that.”
Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, discussed the “manufactured refugee crisis” among the Palestinians and raised the question of whether UNRWA is a “pro- Palestinian organization,” because the organization is pushing back against reforms in Washington. He asked what a Palestinian state would look like, and whether Palestinians could sustain it.
Benjamin Weinthal is a European affairs correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
@ Michael D
good point
May I remind you all that in those times nobody spoke yet of “Palestinian Refugees” (not a single document mentioned them)they were called “Arab Refugees from Palestine”..
Why not refugee status for the Palestinians, the USA has given refugee status to “Mexican refugees”. Texas,Ariz, and CA are over run with them.
The real problem of Palestinian refugees is the elephant in the room of the Jewish refugees from the same conflict. The Elephant is being conveniently ignored by all, including Israel and jews. Israel should state that it can entertain no discussions on the subject which do not include proposals to mitigate the damage, and restore justice, to Jewish refugees. Con artists will always continue to play the sucker who keeps falling for the same con. Since Jews and Israel discuss this issue without discussing jewish refugees, why wouldn’t’ the others ignore it also? Furthermore, Israel should state that the unaddressed transfer of jews from the arab nations, under the auspices of the UN and GC,have created a precedent for transfer of enemy population in the same manner from Israel. That the continuing failure to address the cleansed jews will result in the transfer of pals from Israel to any nation of the belligerents of the wars which resulted in the transfers. Israels acceptance of the double standard is the prime cause of this ongoing charade. Never discuss pal refugees until jewish refugees are discussed. The only pal refugees I am interested in discussing are those that occupy Israel/YS. the others are the problem of their hosts who are the belligerents of the wars. If Israels arabs are transferred across the borders then the problem will have to be settled outside. Why is this considered unreasonable by those who have accepted jewish transfer?
Nor to children either. 😉
The main problem is 18 of the 20 top donors to UNRWA are Western countries.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are the only Muslim countries in the Top 20.
You might ask the West why in effect its subsidizing an organization that works for Israel’s destruction.