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UNRWA Condemns the Palestinians to Refugee Status in Perpetuity

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Alan Baker - According to the mandate of the "United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East" (UNRWA), refugee status extends to cover all future generations of Palestinians. With refugee status now applying to the fourth generation of Palestinians, this definition has exploded the number of registered refugees from 700,000 in 1949 to 5,000,000. Unlike UNRWA, the much more successful model for international refugee relief - the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - seeks to resettle refugees, not perpetuate their camp existence. The UNHRC operates on the basis of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which does not say a word about passing refugee status to descendants. Any attempt to reach a final Israeli-Palestinian peace must require a complete suspension of UNRWA funding and financing with a view to dissolving the agency and dismantling the refugee camps. New housing should replace them. Funding should be transformed into direct assistance to the appropriate agencies to carry out this task. If the goal is to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all, then UNRWA's current configuration makes a final peace impossible to achieve. Amb. Alan Baker, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center, served as legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2017-08-15 00:00:00
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