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For Mideast Peace, Solve the Palestinian Refugee Problem

(Ynet News) Ben-Dror Yemini - In order to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is a need to drain the conflict's biggest swamp - the refugee problem. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has dealt with the integration and rehabilitation of 50 million refugees, none of whom are refugees today. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) started off with 711,00 refugees and today their number is 5.3 million. The Arab states set up UNRWA for the Palestinians because they wanted a body which wouldn't deal with integration or rehabilitation. They wanted a body that would perpetuate the refugee problem. From 1950 to 2018, the international community has allotted sums to UNRWA which are today worth $40-45 billion - about $500,000 per family. Had the international community invested this huge capital in buying an apartment and a car and a farm for each family, a huge sum would have been left for investments in infrastructure, industry, welfare and education. Anyway, most of those registered by UNRWA are no longer in refugee camps or don't even exist. Only 177,000 of the 450,000 people registered in Lebanon are actually in Lebanon. Many others are Jordanian citizens or residents of the Palestinian Authority, and others have moved to Europe with the refugees from Syria. In 1950 the UN created the Korean Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA) to handle the reconstruction of Korea and 1 to 3 million penniless refugees. This body operated until 1958 when the refugee problem disappeared. The Palestinians are the only ones perpetuated as refugees. The international community has invested more in the Palestinians than in any other refugees, but the more they invested, the bigger the problem became.
2018-07-06 00:00:00
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