Dr. Nasser Al-Lahham, editor of the independent Ma'an Palestinian news agency, has been very honest lately about his antisemitism,
Now he is being honest about the purpose of UNRWA "refugee" camps under Palestinian Authority rule.
There is no definition of "refugee" that says that one can be a refugee while living in their own land. But there are roughly 1.4 million people called refugees in UNRWA camps in the West Bank and Gaza. No one ever demands that these camps be dismantled and the people become normal citizens of the Palestinian Authority.
And very few people ask why that is.
Nasser al-Lahham explains it, though. In his latest editorial, he says that Palestinian UNRWA camps are "the solution, not the problem."
He writes:
In the West Bank alone, there are about one million three hundred thousand refugees [actually, less than 900,000 - EoZ.] They paid the blood tax, carried the embers, and followed the path of the revolution four generations, generation after generation, without fatigue or boredom. And without giving up the demand for the right of return, no matter how long it takes.
If you don't quite get it, he is more explicit:
The camps are not a problem for anyone. It is always the solution. They are the tanks of the revolution and the ships of return. And whoever does not like that, this is his personal problem.
UNRWA refugee camps are weapons. They always have been. Their purpose is to keep Palestinian Arabs in squalid looking living spaces so that the media can sometimes take photos of them and say "poor people, all because of Israel." There is no desire to dismantle the camps because the misery of the residents is not a problem - it is the goal.
If the camps are weapons, the residents are cannon fodder.
This is what you need to understand about the Palestinian cause. It was never a nationalist movement. A nationalist movement would want all Palestinians to become citizens. A nationalist movement would do all they can to help all Palestinians have honorable lives. A nationalist movement would not tolerate keeping its own people in camps for decades when they are living in areas controlled by their own leaders.
No, the entire point is and always has been to destroy the Jewish state.
Al-Lahham should be thanked for saying this explicitly.