Thursday, June 21, 2007

Intl. Refugee Day

Today is International Refugee Day, proclaimed by the UN High Commission for Human Rights. They estimate that this year the number of refugees in the world has increased, and now stands at ca. 40 million. This includes refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur/Sudan. However, there is one mistake in the calculation, since it includes 4 million so-called Palestinian "refugees." But, the vast majority of these people are not refugees at all.
According to international law and UNHCR regulations, refugees are those who leave their country of origin because of war or persecution. The definition does not include their subsequent offspring. Children born once the refugee is safely in another country are NOT refugees themselves, with ONE EXCEPTION, the Palestinians! The UN Work and Relief Agency was established in 1949 specifically to deal with Palestinian refugees, and according to its own unique definition, all subsequent offspring of the original Palestinian refugees are themselves refugees. So you can see how UNWRA is acting to perpetuate this conflict, since the Palestinains are able to remain in the limbo of being refugees forever! The only way they can stop being refugees is if they are given the "right of return" to their original homes. No refugees in fact have this right under international law except by the agreement of the sovereign country which they left.
Another difference between the UNHCR and UNWRA in regard to refugees is the amount given by UNWRA to their Palestinian dependents. The Palestinians receive from 2-10 times more per capita in aid (money and food) than any other group of refugees in the world. Although we are often told that the Palestinians live in "desperate" poverty, in fact they are well off compared to all other refugees and even most other Arabs living in Arab countries.
Now Pres. Bush has made the situation worse. In order to stave off a major humanitarian disaster in Gaza, Pres. Bush announced yesterday that the US will channel m$40 for Gaza relief through UNWRA. Now in Gaza there are 1.5 million people, and ca. 40% of them are UNWRA dependents (i.e. "refugees" in their definition) or 600,000 people. (Question, how much aid did the US send initially for the relief of the millions of inhabitants of New Orleans?) By channeling this aid thru UNWRA the US is only accepting that all of these people are in fact refugees. However, it is understandable, since the whole world has accepted this special status for the Palestinians for 60 years, and the US cannot transfer aid directly to Hamas in Gaza.
It is about time the Palestinians stopped having this special status, especially since the original refugees have all but died out. It is about time, as part of the reform of the UN, that UNWRA was abolished and all Palestinian refugees remaining came under the care and responsibility of UNHCR, like everyone else.

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