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The Palestinian Refugee Lie

(Israel Hayom) Amb. Dror Eydar - At the end of World War II in 1945, around one million Jews lived in Arab countries. They had resided in the region for around 2,500 years. Approximately one million Jews were expelled from Arab countries following the establishment of the State of Israel and its subsequent wars. The UN did not assist the Jewish refugees; instead, the young state of Israel, with its minimal resources, managed to absorb them. Following the outbreak of war after Israel's establishment on May 14, 1948, many Palestinian Arabs heeded their leaders' calls to leave the land for a few weeks until the Jews were slaughtered and the land was "cleansed." The UN Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East recommended resolving the Palestinian Arab refugee issue by resettling them in Arab countries through integration into industrial and agricultural projects. This is how the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was born. The UN has two refugee agencies. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) deals with refugees worldwide, while UNRWA deals exclusively with Palestinian refugees. The 20th century witnessed hundreds of millions of people displaced and resettled elsewhere. But unlike refugees in the rest of the world, for Palestinians, refugee status is inherited, even for those absorbed into other countries. Thus, the number of refugees has grown from around half a million in 1948 to 5-6 million today. This stems from the desire to fuel hatred against Israel and sustain the Palestinians' dream of flooding Israel and destroying it through what they call the "right of return." The UN is responsible for this disgrace. UNRWA has not and will not solve the refugee problem. Were it not for the desire to harm the Jews, after a generation, the Palestinian refugees would have been absorbed into their new homes and forgotten. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to Italy.
2024-09-08 00:00:00
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