Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, wrote an open letter to “Palestine refugees.”
Most of the letter is whining about how UNRWA’s budget is stretched too thin and services are starting to be impacted.
This is the direct result of UNRWA’s working definition of a “Palestine refugee” which contradicts the definition of refugee used in the Refugee Convention and guarantees that the number of “Palestine refugees” will continue to increase by the millions forever.
Somehow he doesn’t consider the fact that UNRWA’s definition of refugees might have something to do with their budget woes. Unless there is a way to take “refugees” off the rolls, nothing will happen to solve the problem.
In the letter, he writes,
But some decisions to decrease or stop support to the Agency are political. Since 2018, the Agency and its mandate have come under increased political attacks. These attacks aim at harming the reputation of the Agency. These attacks are based on the foolish and wrong idea that by closing UNRWA they will erase 5.8 million Palestine refugees. Let me reassure you that your rights, including your right of return and compensation, are enshrined in international law and UN resolutions and have nothing to do with the UNRWA mandate.
There is no “right to return” under international law. Period.
Practically all “Palestine refugees” aren’t real refugees, so any international law about refugees do not apply to Palestinians. That is why they cannot apply for asylum in other countries like real refugees can. Everyone knows this but no one wants to say it out loud because the #1 rule in international relations is “don’t piss off the Palestinians.”
UNRWA needs to be dismantled. There is no reason to consider millions of Jordanian citizens to be refugees, or for them to have a separate school and medical system. There is no reason for Palestinians living in Lebanon for seven decades to not have a path to citizenship. There is no reason why Palestinians who live in Palestine, under Palestinian rule, should be considered refugees.
None of this makes sense until you realize that UNRWA’s official policy to solve the problem is to force Israel to take in millions of “refugees.” The UN intends to force Israel to commit national suicide.
This is why UNRWA needs to be dismantled and Arabs who pretend to care about Palestinians should take responsibility for keeping them stateless.
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