Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are the largest and longest-standing case of displaced persons in the world today. There are at least 7.7 million displaced Palestinians including 360,000 IDPs in Israel, representing 66 percent of the entire Palestinian population (12.1 million) worldwide. Among them are 5.0 million who are registered with and assisted by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).We've debunked the idea of 7 million Palestinian Arab refugees dozens of times, pointing out that no other group's refugee status is inherited forever.
But doing the same for "internally displaced persons" is new for me.
There were about 30,000 Arabs displaced by the War of Independence in 1948. Now, there are supposedly 360,000 IDPs in Israel, who won't have "justice" until the villages they lived in are rebuilt brick by brick and they can all move back.
It turns out that groups that have created this new category of "displaced persons" have been around since at least 1995. The Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel (ADRID) won a "human rights" award and $75,000 from the skin care company The Body Shop. This NGO has no website, no known board members, yet based apparently only on its name it can get tens of thousands of dollars from supposed "human rights" experts.
A similar group was started as far back as 1995.
The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights has research papers on this topic.
If you accept the absurdity that "internally displaced persons" is hereditary, then even Palestinian Arabs who "return" to Israel would still be considered IDPs unless they move to their ancestral homes. Since there are far more of them today than in 1948 and they couldn't physically fit in their homes even if they exist, then they are doomed to be "IDPs" forever.
Although, if Jews would be nice enough to evacuate the entire country, then perhaps they will reconsider their status as unending victims.
Jews should create a similar organization for people who were expelled from Gush Etzion and Jerusalem in 1948 along with their descendants and apply for funding. The rejection letters could make an entertaining book.
There are real IDPs and it is a real problem. Redefining Israeli Arabs as IDPs is another attempt to make Palestinian Arabs into the ultimate victims in every context.
