Image: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, poses with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations headquarters Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)
Written by Steve E. Zipperstein Published on Times of Israel Blogs:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-unrwa-citizens-of-palestine-cant-also-be-palestinian-refugees/
For the past 76 years, UNRWA has operated in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, serving Palestinian “refugees.” UNRWA defines Palestinian refugees as Palestinian Arabs who left their homes during the 1948-1949 war and their descendants – in perpetuity.
UNRWA also says it makes no difference whether Palestinians who left their homes in 1948-1949 relocated to third countries or simply moved from one part of Palestine to another part of Palestine. Thus, according to UNRWA, if someone relocated from Lod (inside the recognized borders of the State of Israel) to Ramallah in the West Bank, their refugee status is the same as someone who moved from Haifa to Lebanon.
But there is a conceptual problem with UNRWA’s definition of refugees as including people born and raised on Palestinian territory after 1949. The Palestinian Authority and the international community regard the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as the “State of Palestine.” If that is the case, then how can someone born and raised in Ramallah after 1949 be considered both a Palestinian citizen and a “Palestinian refugee”? Moreover, why is UNRWA operating inside Palestine in the first place?
