(Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs) Tirza Shorr - Israeli intelligence estimates about 1,200 UNRWA workers are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives. Around 6,000, nearly half of the UNRWA workforce in Gaza, have immediate family that are members of these terrorist groups. Perpetuating a unique and inherited "refugee" status, handed down from one Palestinian generation to the next, the number of Palestinian refugees has increased from about half a million in 1948 to about 6 million today. As the numbers of refugees in Lebanon unequivocally prove, UNRWA has been presenting false figures to the world for decades. According to the UN, 97,000 "Palestine refugees" reportedly fled to Lebanon in 1947-1949. By 2017, the Lebanese Central Bureau of Statistics, in partnership with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, reported the number of "Palestine refugees" in Lebanon as 174,422. In that same year, UNRWA reported "469,555 Palestine refugees in Lebanon...registered with the Agency." The writer is a senior researcher and program coordinator at the Jerusalem Center.
2024-11-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive