Fisking an @UNRWA propaganda tweet

UNRWA tweeted:

Palestine refugees did not choose to be refugees.

Until a just and durable solution to their plight is found, 5.7 million #PalestineRefugeesAtRisk will continue to need access to health care, education, protection and emergency assistance.

UNRWA must be there to provide it. pic.twitter.com/H48TWmuBEF

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 7, 2020

There are a lot of layers of propaganda in this short tweet.

"Palestine refugees did not choose to be refugees."

They aren't refugees according to the definition in the Refugee Convention. Even UNRWA admits it. 

And the reason many of them are stateless today is because of Arab bigotry against them - and UNRWA helps keep that status quo in place by its very existence. 

"Until a just and durable solution to their plight is found..."

UNRWA tells its dependents that the only solution is for them to "return" to Israel. Even the ones with Jordanian or Palestinian citizenship. Which means UNRWA will continue to exist as long as a Jewish state exists. 

"5.7 million #PalestineRefugeesAtRisk"

How did 650,000 displaced Arabs become 5.7 million "refugees"? Because UNRWA is a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that has no rules to take anyone off the "refugee" rolls - ever. And no one in the UN is pressuring Arab nations to naturalize Palestinian residents who would love to become full citizens of the nations they were born in. 

"will continue to need access to health care, education, protection and emergency assistance. "

Comparing UNRWA's and UNHCR's work is always enlightening.

UNHCR protects over 20 million actual refugees and tens of millions of other internally displaced and stateless people who do not fit the definition of refugee. 

Those millions of people also need health care, education and protection. But UNHCR doesn't run a network of schools or medical centers like UNRWA does.

It partners with governments and NGOs to coordinate and provide services. 

UNRWA gives Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority an excuse to avoid their national responsibilities of providing services towards non-citizen residents. So instead of helping the so-called refugees, UNRWA hurts them by keeping them in limbo - and not lifting a finger to help find a permanent solution. 

"UNRWA must be there to provide it.."

No, UNRWA must be demolished and its funding redirected towards an actual solution to the problem of stateless Palestinians. Everything it does makes the problem worse, generation after generation. 

 

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