Ghassan Salameh is the chair of UNRWA USA, the American fundraising arm of UNRWA.
He himself was born in Lebanon and attended UNRWA schools there. He made his way to the US:
Ghassan came to the United States when he was 20 years old and received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the California State University-Sacramento and an MBA, focusing on marketing and finance, from the University of San Francisco. From there, he rose through the ranks of Booz Allen from Associate to the coveted position of Senior Partner. Since retiring from Booz Allen, he has held senior management positions at top global companies and is currently the Chairman and CEO of Rubix Holdings, a technology and investment company that has just launched its first two global social media platforms, with more on the way.
This successful American businessman is considered, according to UNRWA’s definition, to be a “Palestine refugee” – today.
And so are any of his children and grandchildren, born and raised in the US.
If Salameh would decide to move back to Lebanon, he would be eligible for UNRWA services as a refugee. His American citizenship is not a factor in determining what UNRWA considers refugee status.
This is just one of the absurd stories about UNRWA’s definition of “refugee” that the media does not cover. If UNRWA’s definition would be in line with that of the Refugee Convention, then the number of “Palestine refugees” would plummet from millions to thousands. And places like Lebanon and Saudi Arabia would feel more obligated to actually give these people a path to citizenship instead of pretending that they will one day go “back to Palestine.”
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