As mentioned, the Palestinians and UNRWA try very hard to pretend that a significant number of worldwide refugees are Palestinian.
But when you dig only a little bit beneath the surface, you see that no one really believes it, and the only reason that Palestinian "refugees" are recognized as refugees by anyone is because the UN insists that they are.
Exhibit A, from a statement on World Refugee Day by the EU:
We call on all partners to strengthen the international framework for refugee protection and resettlement through global responsibility-sharing and solidarity.
Resettlement? No one is calling for Palestinians to be resettled! But if they are refugees, shouldn't they be included in the massive worldwide push to resettle refugees? Why aren't they?
Exhibit B, from the UNHCR annual report (which tries hard to include the pretense that Palestinians under UNRWA's definition of refugee are real):
True, this is a list of people under UNHCR's mandate; But look at the categories and how they apply to "Palestine":
They would claim to have about 2.5 million "refugees." But how many are seeking asylum? The question doesn't even make sense for Palestinians under PA control, it is only relevant to real refugees.
In fact, UNCHR says there are some 3.2 million refugees seeking asylum elsewhere. But virtually none of them are Palestinian, and the very few who do seek asylum are refugees from Syria or Gaza, escaping death from ISIS or Assad or Hamas - real refugees, not the fake ones who claim to be refugees from pre-1948 Palestine.
The very definition of asylum is "the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee."
Refugees naturally want to seek asylum, right? But Palestinian "refugees" don't! So why are there essentially no UNRWA "refugees" seeking asylum elsewhere?
In fact, European countries would never consider "refugees" under UNRWA's definition to be eligible for asylum. Their rules for accepting asylum are specific and apply only to those who are real refugees, e.g., those who have "a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group." - in other words, not Palestinians.
World Refugee Day is a wonderful occasion to highlight how bogus the "refugee" status of Palestinians really is.
(h/t Irene)
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