Sometimes you can unearth gems even in the cesspool of Electronic Intifada.
In an article about how some Palestinian Arabs are biased against their "refugee" brethren, it says:
Ghassan Weshah, head of the history and archaeology department at the Islamic University of Gaza, says the role of institutions supporting refugees should not be reduced to simply providing relief. UNRWA, he notes as an example, plays an important relief role, especially as the general economic situation has deteriorated in Palestine. But its function is more than economic.
“The responsibility of UNRWA is to help refugees, but it must also continue this work to remind the world of the refugee issue and the right of return. If UNRWA goes, the refugee issue is over.”
In two sentences, Weshah accurately describes UNRWA's real purpose - not to help refugees but to perpetuate them.
If it would disappear or merge with UNHCR, the UN organization for all the other refugees in the world, then the refugee issue would go "poof."
The article mentions how the Palestinians resent their UNRWA-supported fellows:
Such social stratification is not unusual in Palestinian society. It is mirrored across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip where refugees wound up with their UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) ration cards, poverty and homelessness. As a sense of shared Palestinian kinship competed with, and often came out second to, traditional ties to village and town, refugees came to be seen as outsiders to be treated with “a mixture of pity and contempt,” according to George Bisharat, a lawyer and commentator on Palestinian affairs. Every city in occupied territory has refugee camps attached to it, and these often organize themselves in parallel to the city. Refugees have their own schools – run by UNRWA, which was originally set up as a stopgap measure until refugees could return – often their own soccer teams and it is common for people to speak of themselves as being from either the camp or the city.
UNRWA's very existence has caused a decades-old rift in Palestinian society. Instead of helping their brethren, they resent them for getting free food and medical care and schooling. SO they look down on them.
UNRWA didn't do anything to integrate Palestinians with their fellow Arabs, within or without the Mandate area. As a result, UNRWA has helped ensure that they are perpetual outsiders - who therefore need more UNRWA help.
The exact opposite of what a refugee agency is supposed to do.
Normal people want to solve refugee problems. Getting rid of UNRWA is the simple formula to do so.
I've been giving specific ideas on how to dismantle UNRWA for years. most recently last summer. Now we know that even the Palestinians themselves know that UNRWA's only real purpose is antithetical to human rights and refugee rights.
(h/t Andrea)
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A Palestinian refugee receives a budget four times larger than a Syrian, Iraqi or African refugee, this according to a study conducted by the Abba Eban Institute of International Diplomacy at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya.
At the end of last week, UNRWA released its annual financial report, which stated that in 2016 the organization spent an average of $246 for each of the 5.3 million Palestinians it defines as refugees, while UNHCR spent only a quarter of that, $58 per refugee.
In addition, the data show that UNRWA employs some 30,000 people, while the World Refugee Agency, which handles tens of millions worldwide, employs only 10,000 people.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor heads the Abba Eban Institute, which formulated a plan of action for structural changes that will improve the treatment of refugees around the world by merging UNRWA into the UNHCR.
"Consolidating the budgets and manpower of both agencies will lead to better treatment of refugees," Prosor said. "In Jordan, for example, there are 44 clinics that treat refugees from the civil wars in Syria and Iraq, out of 233 clinics that are required for this mission. Alongside them are 25 UNRWA clinics that ignore Syrian refugees and care only for Palestinian refugees.
"Uniting the resources of the two agencies will enable more quality and efficient assistance, and contribute to a solution for what that the UN itself has defined as the most serious refugee crisis in history."
Prosor will present these results to the UN, which explains why he is calling the people getting aid from UNRWA "refugees."
In fact, they aren't, a fact that is obvious when you consider that no Palestinian Arab has ever successfully applied for and received official asylum from other countries as a refugee from Israel (or "Palestine.") The few who have received asylum get that status because they are fleeing persecution by Syria or Hamas, not Israel.
So in reality it isn't that Palestinian refugees are getting quadruple the aid per capita, and about 30 times the manpower per capita, as other refugees.
The real story is that fake refugees are taking aid money away from real refugees.
Because only the fake refugees can claim that Jews are their persecutors. If it wasn't the Jewish state that was being blamed for the fake refugee problem, there wouldn't be an issue, and these people would have integrated into their surrounding Arab nations quietly and effectively decades ago.
Prosor is trying to do something noble but as long as the truth is being hidden, nothing can really be done. UNRWA should be dismantled but it must be done with honesty. Everyone knows the truth about Palestinian "refugees" but no one is willing to say it out loud.
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UNRWA tried to raise money on Refugee Day by sending out this message:
69 years since their original displacement in 1948, Palestine refugees are still refugees, awaiting a just and durable solution to their plight.
No, they are not refugees.
As I noted in February, there is only one definition of refugee in international law, in the 1951 Refugee Convention:
Any person who...owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
While Palestinian refugees were excluded under the Refugee Convention from protection by UNHCR, there is no additional definition to include them as refugees. UNRWA has a working definition of something they made up called "Palestine refugees" that have nothing to do with actual refugee status and is entirely for UNRWA to determine who is eligible to receive their services.
Today, nearly none of the original refugees (and some of them were refugees in 1948) are alive, and their descendants aren't refugees.
UNRWA knows all this, as I noted in the earlier article. UNRWA documentation almost never calls them "refugees" but only "Palestine refugees" which has its own definition that has nothing to do with actual refugee status. They cannot apply for asylum in Europe, for example, unless they are also truly refugees fleeing from Syria or Hamas.
And in this case, for this fundraising campaign , they are knowingly lying when they say "Palestine refugees are still refugees."
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[T]he reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East, either by repatriation or resettlement, is essential in preparation for the timewhen international assistance is no longer available, and for the realization ofconditions of peace and stability in the areaUnited Nations General Assembly Resolution 393 (V), December 2, 1950
The goal and purpose of UNRWA is simple and straightforward -- if not immensely challenging: to either repatriate Palestine refugees into what is now Israel or to resettle them elsewhere, while recognizing the obvious reality that there will come a time "when international assistance is no longer available."
Yet here we are, 67 years later. Those Palestine refugees have not been either repatriated nor resettled.
And that international assistance? Lo and behold: its being offered and provided. So what happened to the whole purpose of UNRWA?
Peter Hansen, former commissioner-general of UNRWA: "The agency's mandate has repeatedly been refined andshaped by other General Assembly resolutions, which have allowed it to shift itsfocus from reintegration efforts in its early years to human development projects through to this very day."
Basically, there was an admission that UNRWA failed in its mandate to find hosts for the Palestine refugees. But instead of replacing UNRWA with an agency that would deal with the new reality, UNRWA just replaced its mandate instead.It was able to do this because of its much-vaunted flexibility.In his article, The Mandate of UNRWA at Sixty Lance Bartholomeusz writes
As stated at the outset, in broad terms, UNRWA's "mandate" means what the Agency may or must do. We have seen that UNRWA's mandate is rarely expressed in terms of what UNRWA may not do. Even though the language used in some resolutions such as "directs", "instructs", "essential", and "necessary" might indicate a compulsory nature, considering the context - in particular that UNRWA is almost entirely voluntarily funded and its actual income has generally fallen far short of budgeted income - most of the Agency's operational mandate can be seen to be permissive, albeit strongly encouraged in parts....For almost sixty years, in response to developments in the region, the General Assembly has mandated the Agency to engage in a rich and evolving variety of activities, for many purposes and for several classes of beneficiaries. The Assembly has provided UNRWA with a flexible mandate designed to facilitate, rather than restrict, the Agency's ability to act as and when the Commissioner-General [of UNRWA], in consultation with the Advisory Commission as appropriate, sees fit. [emphasis added]
So, according to Bartholomeusz:
Its mandate gives UNRWA a lot of leeway.
Even when the language implies a "compulsory" obligation for UNRWA, most of the "operational mandate" is actually "permissive" (read: optional).
UNRWA's mandate is "rich" and "flexible"
UNRWA's Commissioner-General and the Advisory Commission are the final arbiter of what UNRWA's mandate actually is.
How has UNRWA exercised this flexibility?According to UN General Assembly Resolution 302, part of the UNRWA mandate is for "direct relief and works programmes." Yet 10 years later, the incoming UNRWA directorJohn Davis suggested a new focus, which emphasized a shift to education:
providing general education, both elementary and secondary
teaching vocational skills, and awarding university scholarships
offering small loans and grants to individual refugees who have skills and want to become self-employed
The new focus allowed UNRWA to increase from 64 schools, with 800 teachers instructing 41,000 students in 1950 -- to 699 schools, with 19,217 instructors and 486,754 students in the 2011-2012 school year.For all the good this may have done over the years, there are major concerns over the abuse this has led to, as documented by UN Watch in its latest report Poisoning Palestinian Children: A Report UNRWA teachers' incitement to jihadist terrorism and antisemitism:
This report exposes more than 40 Facebook pages operated by school teachers, principals, and other employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which incite to terrorism or antisemitism. The report is divided by region, and includes UNRWA staffers in Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and Syria. These cases are additional to the 30 cases of incitement revealed at the end of 2015 by UN Watch.The examples of incitement in this report include UNRWA teachers and staffers celebrating the terrorist kidnapping of Israeli teenagers, cheering rockets being fired at Israeli civilian centers, endorsing various forms of violence, erasing Israel from the map, praising Hitler and posting his photo, and posting overtly antisemitic videos, caricatures, and statements.
The results of this report were summarized in a video:
The report and video point to the growing problem of the unchecked influence that Palestinian Arabs have on the very agency that is supposed to be aiding them. In an email correspondence, Dr. Alexander Joffe, who has written extensively on various aspects of UNRWA, expanded on this issue and the growing threat it poses:
UNRWA basically shifted its entire operation towards education by the end of the1950s, ending any hopes of repatriation or resettlement. It then rode the anti-colonialism wave at the UN through the 1960s and 1970s (which saw the growth of the UN's immense pro-Palestinian infrastructure) and by the 1980s had become a full service health and welfare provider. But during the 1990s, especially the Oslo years, the concept of promoting Palestinian 'rights' and 'protections' grew, partially in response to Oslo and also as part of the global trend towards casting all claims in terms of legalisms and human rights. This advocacy role makes UNRWA a kind of competitor to the PA or at least a shadow foreign ministry. In short, the organization adapts to changing conditions. Because it is basically run by and for Palestinians (we've called this an example of 'regulatory capture') it reacts to its own needs, those of the Palestinian street which it serves and cultivates, especially through the educational system, and to changes in the rhetorical ecosystem of international organizations. Its promotion of the 'right of return' is a recent adaptation from the last decade or so. And everything it does is against the background of 'financial emergency,' which has been its stock response since the 1950s.
Currently, UNRWA is still remaking itself. In line with the advocacy role that Dr. Joffe describes, as early as 2007 UNRWA described itself in a report, UNRWA in 2006, as
a global advocate for the protection and care of Palestine refugees. In circumstances of humanitarian crisis and armed conflict, the Agency's emergency interventions - as well as its presence - serve as tangible symbols of the international community's concern, helping to create a stable environment. [emphasis added]
This is a far cry from the temporary agency with a mandate to help Palestine refugees resettle.The claim that UNRWA protects as well as cares for the refugees seems something of a stretch. In 2002, when US Representative Tom Lantos complained to then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that "UNRWA officials have not only failed to prevent their camps from becoming centers of terrorist activity, but have also failed to report these developments to you," Annan responded:
the United Nations has no responsibility for security matters in refugee camps, or indeed anywhere else in the occupied territory
UNRWA will have to make up its mind just how global -- or how limited -- their protection is going to be, and who they intend to protect from whom.Just how UNRWA intends to be a stable influence when it assumes a responsibilitythat overlaps with the Palestinian Authority on the one hand, while it encourages antisemitism on the other, remains to be seen.
And if it can't -- no problem.UNRWA can always remake its mandate.
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As a followup to my post about UNRWA and defining refugees, it looks like the reality is a bit simpler than I thought.
I asked an international legal scholar about UNRWA's definition of refugees, and he responded simply "There is only one treaty that defines refugees – the 1951 convention."
Reading the Refugee Convention more carefully, this is in fact the case. It doesn't say that Palestinians are or aren't refugees; it merely says that they are not eligible for protection under the Refugee Convention because UNRWA already existed. Their refugee status is simply not addressed in the Convention - because there is only one definition.
Any person who...owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
The first article of the Convention then lists people for whom the Convention doesn't apply, for example those who are guilty of war crimes or those who become citizens of another country. And Palestinian Arabs are excluded as well. This was done at the request of Arab countries. Since UNRWA was considered temporary, the Convention says that Palestinian Arabs will fall under the provisions of the Convention as soon as UNRWA no longer can be responsible for them. Then they would only be considered refugees if they fit under the Refugee Convention definition and not under the rest of its exclusions.
Likewise, in their carefully written policy documents, UNRWA doesn't define the people registered with UNRWA as "refugees." They refer to them almost invariably as "Palestine Refugees." sometimes with the word "refugees" capitalized, but that is nomenclature, not descriptive.
UNRWA also takes pains to say that they are using the term only for the purposes of determining who is eligible for services, not as a legal term. It is a working definition.
UNRWA is not trying to define the term "refugee," because it cannot do that: the Refugee Convention is the only place the term can be defined. All UNRWA can do is decide who they want to provide services to, and the main (but not only) category of those people is what they name "Palestine Refugees." It doesn't mean that they are real refugees any more than the UN calling Gaza "Occupied Palestinian Territory" means that Gaza is legally occupied - something the UN essentially admitted. It is simply a word game.
Persons who meet UNRWA’s Palestine Refugee criteria
These are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict. Palestine Refugees, and descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are eligible to register for UNRWA services. The Agency accepts new applications from persons who wish to be registered as Palestine Refugees. Once they are registered with UNRWA, persons in this category are referred to as Registered Refugees or as Registered Palestine Refugees.
Notice how UNRWA capitalizes "Palestine Refugees" but doesn't capitalize the "r" in "descendants of Palestine refugee males." This is because the descendants are also "Palestine Refugees" but they are not real refugees.
On UNRWA's website, capitalizing the R in refugees is not standard - but the phrase "Palestine refugees" is ubiquitous. Only rarely do they refer to "refugees" without a qualifier of "Palestine refugees" or "registered refugees." Once you are aware of that fact, it is honestly irritating to read their literature. They are trying hard to make the causal reader think that "Palestine refugees" are refugees, but as my lawyer friend points out, they cannot.
So for example this 2010 document that attempts to show the difference between UNRWA and UNHRC consistently says that UNHRC takes care of "refugees" while UNRWA takes care of "Palestine refugees" with the word "Palestine" italicized throughout. Once you understand that "Palestine refugees" is simply a phrase that has no legal meaning these paragraphs suddenly make much more sense.
Palestine Refugees as Defined by UNRWA
Anyone whose normal place of residence was in Mandate Palestine during the period from 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war qualifies as a Palestine refugee, as defined by UNRWA, and is eligible for UNRWA registration. Hence the reference to Palestine refugees, not Palestinian refugees, in UNRWA’s name and official documents.
Here they say explicitly that UNRWA defines what a "Palestine refugee" is but in no way are they saying that they are actual refugees - because only the Refugee Convention can do that.
On the other hand, when the same document refers to "Palestinian refugees" it refers to Palestinians who are real refugees under the Refugee Convention, and therefore (if they are outside UNRWA areas) they are eligible for UNHCR protection. Typically these are refugees from Syria or Iraq who happen to be of Palestinian descent.
UNHCR has a world-wide mandate to protect, assist, and seek durable solutions for refugees as well as for other people in need of international protection. UNHCR’s mandate covers Palestinians who are refugees within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which could include Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA. UNHCR normally takes up the case of Palestinian refugees only when they are outside UNRWA’s area of operations.
Notice how the document distinguishes between "refugees within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention" and "Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA." Only the former are real refugees under international law, because only the 1951 Refugee Convention defines what a refugee is. Only real refugees can apply for asylum in other countries, not "Palestine refugees" (again, unless they are fleeing persecution for other reasons.) UNRWA merely defines who is eligible for their services and, for most of them, they call the "Palestine refugees." They could call them Blurpies - it would be just as meaningful.
Other UN agencies will not be so particular and will mix up "Palestine refugees" with real refugees. Sadly, even UNHCR - which has an interest in inflating the number of refugees worldwide - will count UNRWA's "Palestine refugees" as real refugees in their annual reports and ignore the definitions in the Refugee Convention. Over the decades, the UN has happily pushed the myth of a growing number of Palestinian refugees - but UNRWA knows better by insisting on calling them "Palestine refugees." The media, of course, is often complicit with this.
The term "Palestine refugees" is meant to deceive. And UNRWA has done a brilliant job in doing exactly that.
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Hundreds of employees of UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for providing services for some five million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, went on strike on Monday in the organization's main offices in Gaza City, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, protesting the UNRWA adminstration's failure to meet their demands regarding wages and unfilled job vacancies.
Head of the employee's union Suheil al-Hindi told Ma’an that about 1,000 employees who work in the main headquarters in Gaza City went on strike Monday, adding that the "biggest protest" would take place on Tuesday as local employees in all UNRWA's office in the northern Gaza Strip would go on strike and would take to the streets.
Talks between the union and the UNRWA's administration have been frozen, he noted, and more protests would come if the demands of the union were not met.
Hundreds of UNRWA employees launched a one-day strike and protested last week in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City over the same unmet demands.
Al-Hindi has previously accused the UNRWA administration in the past of not filling in hundreds of vacant positions, claiming the UN agency "deliberately puts off hiring employees in order to win some time and save money at the expense of refugees."
The union, according to al-Hindi, has also demanded that UNRWA increase salaries to reflect the high cost of living and to stop reducing services the organization offers to Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA's director of operations in the Gaza Strip, Bo Schack denied on Oct. 17 that UNRWA had reduced any services to Palestinian refugees despite the severe funding shortage.
"UNRWA is exerting huge efforts in Gaza and there have been no reductions in services at all," Schack said during a news conference at UNRWA's headquarters in Gaza City, when he claimed that the total number of UNRWA employees had in fact increased.
If you follow the Twitter accounts of spokesperson Chris Gunness, the aforementioned Bo Schack, UNRWA head Pierre Krahenbuhl, UNRWA-USA and even UNRWA itself, you would have no idea that UNRWA employees have been striking on and off for two weeks.
This is the "transparency" that UNRWA shows the world that has given it billions of dollars.
The bigger issue, of course, is that UNRWA cannot possibly continue to get funding indefinitely as long as its definition of refugees ensures that the number of people it supports will forever grow with no possibility for those refugees to become non-refugees, even when they become citizens of other countries. UNRWA was intended to be a temporary agency that would exist only until refugees found a permanent home, but Arab refusal to make them citizens coupled with UNRWA's acquiescence to Arab demands to use the refugees as anti-Israel pawns has turned the agency into a huge waste of money with generations of Arabs who feel entitled to free services for their own descendants, forever.
In fact, that is the reason UNRWA doesn't want to talk about the strikes or other protests that erupt regularly from the people that get free aid and jobs from the agency. If anyone looks too closely, they see that the agency cannot survive without their annual begging for "emergency "funds. Something is going to break, but rather than address the problem, UNRWA wants to keep sweeping it under the rug for as long as it can keep raking in the cash.
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We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
UNRWA issued a press release against a planned demolition of a home where a terrorist lived.
Look at the wording they use:
The demolition orders were given for stabbing attacks perpetrated by individual members of the families outside Jaffa gate, Jerusalem Old City on 23 December 2015. Two Israeli civilians died during the attack while a third civilian was seriously wounded. The perpetrators were shot dead by Israeli Security Forces.
Israelis just happen to die by coincidence when they are involved, somehow, in stabbing attacks. But Palestinians who are involved in those same attacks are "shot dead."
The United Nations has repeatedly condemned all attacks against Israeli or Palestinian civilians, including in statements by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
This seems to imply that the stabbers were civilians who were "shot dead" by Israel. The only other interpretation is that UNRWA is trying to minimize the targeting and stabbing of Israeli civilians by saying, hey, both sides have people dying. The UN simply cannot condemn an attack on Jews without watering it down.
On 16 November 2015, during a punitive demolition in the same refugee camp, 19 Palestine refugees were displaced and 46 persons were affected. Two Palestine refugees were also killed during the clashes that erupted during the operation.
Again, Palestinians who are in the act of throwing rocks are "killed" but Israelis who are stabbed simply "die" during attacks. The passive voice is used to minimize Jewish deaths and Palestinian responsibility while the active voice is used to emphasize Palestinian deaths as well as Israeli culpability.
Following the killing by Israeli forces of a leading Palestinian militant on 14 January in Tulkarm, another wave of violence began. Six Israelis died in a suicide attack in Hadera on 17 January, and Israel responded the next day with air attacks against Tulkarm. One Palestinian was killed and 60 were reported injured in the raids.
The writers of UNRWA press releases don't do this with malicious intent. They try very hard to ensure that they are seen to be even-handed. But the wording betrays their subconscious bias that Israeli terror victims are somehow culpable for their own deaths while Palestinians are wantonly killed for no reason.
Deep down, they are against the very existence of Israel and they regard the Jewish residents of the land as invaders who do not belong. UNRWA teaches this to generations of students. They try to stifle their true feelings when writing press releases and speaking to the media, but they cannot stop their subconscious feelings.
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UNRWA together with the American University of Beirut released a 240 page report on the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon, both the population that has been there since 1948 and the more recent refugees from Syria.
While it correctly mentions the institutionalized discrimination against them, it obscures one important point:
More than 67 years after their initial
presence in Lebanon, Palestine refugees
are still considered as foreigners under
Lebanese law, which does not grant them
any special legal status and deprives
them from basic rights enjoyed by the
Lebanese. This prolonged foreigner
status mainly stems from the strong
rejection by the Lebanese authorities of
the naturalization of Palestine refugees,
which is sometimes used as justification
for the various discriminatory policies
against them. On a political level,
Palestine refugees have also opposed
naturalization. Accordingly, despite their
longstanding presence in the country as
refugees, PRL remain excluded from key
aspects of social, political, and economic
life. They face legal and institutional
discrimination; they are denied the right
to own property and face restrictive
employment measures such as a ban from
some liberal and syndicate professions.
Palestine refugees in Lebanon (PRL)
face one of the worst socioeconomic
conditions in the region, and these have
been deteriorating given the country’s
weakening socioeconomic situation and
the prolonged Syria crisis. A little short of
two thirds of the PRL population is poor,
a proportion that has not changed since
2010, and the discriminatory laws against
them hinder their ability to improve
their living conditions and livelihoods.
Decaying infrastructure, a dearth of
recreational spaces, insufficient access
to roads, deteriorated water and sewage
treatment systems, contaminated water,
and jerry-rigged electrical wires along
with open drainage ditches paint a
gloomy picture of camps where over
63 per cent of PRL reside.
UNRWA is not being entirely truthful when it says "On a political level, Palestine refugees have also opposed naturalization." Yes, self-appointed leaders keep saying that they don't want to become citizens in order to keep the dream of destroying Israel through "return" alive, but in reality Palestinians in Lebanon are clamoring to become citizens and whenever a loophole opens up, tens of thousands of them apply.
The report also admits that UNRWA inflates the figures of "refugees" in Lebanon, keeping hundreds of thousands on its rolls who no longer live in Lebanon:
Some 495,985 Palestine refugees are registered with UNRWA
in Lebanon.58 However, it is estimated that the actual number
of Palestine refugees who still reside in the country ranges
between 260,000 and 280,000 following the results of the 2010
socioeconomic survey conducted jointly by UNRWA and AUB.
UNRWA has no mechanism to remove people from its list of "refugees" so even the ones who live permanently in Europe are considered "refugees" - phantoms who are still useful in agitating against Israel.
The report issues no recommendations as to how to fix the situation. Lebanese discrimination and apartheid is considered normal and not worth making a stink about. Because Lebanon might respond by making things worse.
Unlike other UNRWA reports, this one has barely been mentioned in the media and certainly hasn't been publicized much by UNRWA. Mostly because Israel cannot be blamed for Lebanese discrimination against Palestinians.
So this report will sink into obscurity, and do nothing to help the actual lives of actual Arab who remain as pawns between their leaders, Lebanese leaders, the Arab world, UNRWA and the anti-Israel Westerners who claim to care about Palestinians but whose concern doesn't go beyond blaming everything on Israel.
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This is the pinned photo that has been on the top of the Twitter feed of Raquel Marti, UNRWA's executive director in Spain, for months. She captioned it "Bath time in Gaza:"
June 26, 2015 . Salem Saoody, 30, is getting his daughter Layan (L) and his niece Shaymaa 5 (R) in the only remaining piece from their damaged house, which is the bathing tub. They now live in a caravan near the rubble.
One minor question: Where did the water come from?
There is no rain in Gaza in June. The house does not appear to have running water. There is no hose visible in the picture.
What are the chances that Salem Saoody takes his daughters out of their mobile home and they carry over 100 liters of clean water with them to their former home to take a bath?
Emad Nassar saw the chance for a dramatic photo, so he staged it to win awards. And the girls were happy to play in a mini-pool on a summer day. So, it appears, Nassar and Saoody spent a morning carrying water to the old bathtub for the perfect photo.
The idea that the Saoodys are forced to give their girls a bath in their old bathtub does not pass any sanity test.
Last June, when this photo was taken, I noted that Hamas had turned the Shujaiyeh neighborhood into a showpiece to bring foreign reporters to show Israel's evil - even though thousands of Gaza homes were being repaired, Hamas left Shujaiyeh untouched. There were a series of such obviously staged photos published by Hamas-leaning and duped photojournalists. And while the terror group kept the neighborhood as a zoo for gaping Westerners, it was building tunnels underneath the very same area.
UNRWA has something in common with Hamas. Both groups wanted to keep families in Shujaiyeh homeless, and the rubble uncleared, for as long as possible so they could maximize its propaganda value and get more funds from credulous Westerners. UNRWA actually made an entire film of such staged scenes in the neighborhood last year,
Of course, if you want to paint Gazans as eternal victims and implicitly blame Israel at every opportunity, this staged photo and inaccurate caption is perfect for you - and perfect for UNRWA and its lackeys. UNRWA created an entire film of such staged scenes in this neighborhood and told kids there to act in ludicrous scenes such as creating a makeshift see-saw in the middle of rubble.
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It is certainly true that Palestinians in Lebanon are living in squalor and treated like dirt by the government. Plus they are exposed to regular outbreaks of violence between various factions in the camps. They cannot move away from the overcrowded camps and they cannot build new buildings within the camps.
There are only two ways out for them.
One is to leave and go to Europe or Gulf states - and over 200,000 of them have done exactly that, even though UNRWA still counts them as being "registered" in Lebanon so they can raise more money. (UNRWA doesn't have a way to un-register Palestinians.)
The other chance is for them to become Lebanese citizens so they can gain full rights.
If a Palestinian can prove that his or her paternal ancestors were Lebanese citizens in 1921, and then further prove that they are not a danger to Lebanon (and Lebanon suspects all Palestinians of being dangerous), then they can become citizens.
This is a very difficult task. Even though many of them are descendants of people who lived in Lebanon a hundred years ago (the reason so many fled in 1948 to Lebanon is because their families were still there) it takes time and money to prove that one is really Lebanese to the satisfaction of the Lebanese authorities.
To do this, Palestinians in Lebanon need lawyers.
But does UNRWA provide legal services for that purpose?
Of course not. Because UNRWA doesn't exist to actually help so-called "refugees" become citizens of their host countries, but to keep them and their descendants refugees forever, or until Israel is destroyed, whichever comes first.
UNRWA indeed provides legal services that are needed by Palestinians whose few rights in Lebanon are always being reduced, to the absolute silence of the Arab world and Palestinian leadership. But the one service that could solve the problems of thousands of these so-called "refugees" whose great-grandfathers lived in Lebanon is not provided.
Imagine what a great investment it would be to provide those legal services. For probably the cost of feeding and housing a Palestinian for a couple of years, they could get off the dole and have jobs and rights. Everyone would win.
Except for UNRWA and the many others who are vested in the idea of keeping Palestinians miserable and teaching them it is all Israel's fault.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Robert Piper, UN Assistant Secretary General Development & Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine, tweeted this graphic today with the (corrected) caption "29.5% of West Bank refugees still live in camps."
The question that the UN leaves unasked is - why do these camps still exist some 68 years after the last refugees were created? (There were essentially no refugees by any definition created by the Six Day War.)
This graphic claims that life in the UN-administered camps is dangerous due to IDF operations. Of course, it doesn't bother to say that the reason that many operations occur in these camps is because they are hotbeds of terrorism.
70% of the so-called "refugees" (actually, descendants of refugees) live outside the camps - meaning that there is no legal impediment to integrating the "refugees" with the rest of Palestinian society.
The Palestinian Authority, recognized by the UN as the State of Palestine, can build as many houses as needed for these people in Areas A and B. And they have had this autonomy for nearly 20 years now.
Where are the infographics showing how successful the PA, with international aid, has been in dismantling these completely unnecessary and dangerous camps and mainstreaming the residents to become normal citizens?
They don't exist, because no such programs exist.
The PA doesn't want to dismantle the camps because they want to point to overcrowded, violence-filled ghettos as evidence of how Palestinians are still suffering from Israeli actions in 1948.
Jordan was happy to keep these camps around from 1948-1967 because the hundreds of million of dollars used to maintain the camps was money that Jordan didn't have to spend - even though the Palestinians were full Jordanian citizens.
The UN, which puts out reams of reports about how awful things are for Palestinians, has no interest in a single program to take vulnerable people out of these camps.
The graphic comes from a 33-page UN document that describes how many problems Palestinians have and all of the programs the UN has to help them. Yet these is not one program to mainstream camp residents into normal houses and apartments, going to normal non-UN schools and becoming self-sustaining members of society.
There is no reason that these camps should exist today. But the UN is complicit in keeping a second-class society of Palestinians in misery and insecurity, all while promising them a fairy tale that one day they will "return" and go back to their ancestors' houses that no longer (and in some cases never did) exist.
If the UN recognizes a "state of Palestine," isn't it time for the UN to help that entity to take responsibilities for its own citizens as every other nation does? We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
A new textbook study from the Germany-based Mideast Freedom Forum shows yet again that the Palestinian Authority textbooks - which are used by UNRWA - are teaching children that "resistance" is their highest aspiration, not peace.
From the preface by Michael Leutert, Member of the German Parliament:
When years ago for the first time as a Member of the German Parliament I had the opportunity to get a picture on the spot, the following scene happened in the Gaza Strip: Our delegation crossed a market place on our way to the next appointment. We MPs talked with the merchants and passers-by. A merchant posed the following question as a farewell: „Why did you not finish your job to the end?“ he said, obviously meaning the annihilation of the Jews.
The example illustrates how important it is for a mutual understanding between Jews and Arabs, to clarify how the state of Israel was created and why various conflicts subsist. It is for this reason that the content of teaching conveyed in the subjects of history and geography at Palestinian schools has great relevancy. There the crucial fundamentals are taught, that are passed on to the next generations who bear responsibility in the near future.
And it is because of our (co-) funding for UNRWA and for many other projects in the Palestinian territories, that we bear responsibility for the content of teaching.
And from the findings themselves:
• The surveyed textbooks consistently portray Jews in a strongly negative manner, and often demonize them. Jews are rarely individuated, but instead are subsumed into a stereotype or the concept of Zionism.
• The textbooks reveal serious omissions regarding Jews within the historical context of Palestine. They first appear as Zionist colonizers and settlers at the end of the nineteenth century.
• The effect of this is that the Jewish presence in modern Israel is delegitimized.
• Jewish and Israeli places, as well as the State of Israel as a whole, are not found on maps included in the textbooks. The existence of Israel is denied.
• Instead, the maps label the area inside the modern borders of Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza, as ‚Palestine‘.
• The terminology with which the books refer to Jews and Israelis is not neutral, but often pejorative. The contrast between them and Palestinians akin to that is between evil and good. The Palestinian resistance against Jews is glorified.
...Both the negative portrayal of Jews and of the Palestinian actions which are applauded are problematic. None of the surveyed textbooks feature an appeal for mutual understanding, but descriptions of armed resistance are numerous, and implicitly praise conflict.26 For instance, Israel is depicted as an occupying regime (sultatu l-ih‘tilal)27 or as a Zionist terror organization (al-munathama al-irhabiya as-sah‘yuniya). 28 Jewish settlements are described with explicitly negative terms as Mus‘tautana and Musta‘amar.29 Palestinians are cast as the native people (as-sukan al-asliyun) of the area who resist (qawama) the aggressor.30 This resistance is glorified with terms as sacrifice (tad‘hiya) and martyrdom (istish‘had). Palestinians killed in conflict figure as martyrs (shuhada). 31
The textbooks use the term Jihad only in its limited sense of a struggle against an adversary. Its broader reference to an inner struggle for faith is not present. This language extends throughout the curriculum: a textbook intended for children in Grade 2 already stresses the significance of martyrs and prisoners, and encourages pupils to visit the families of martyrs on Independence Day.32 Members of Palestinian resistance organizations are referred to as Fida‘i (self-sacrificing warriors)33 or Thuw‘war (revolutionaries).34 The idea of Fida‘i is celebrated in the Palestinian anthem, which is printed in a textbook for the first grade.35
...In fact, in various sections of the textbooks, even Israel‘s territory within the ‚Green Line‘ of the 1949 Armistice borders is not recognized, and as a general rule they refrain from using the term ‚Israel‘, preferring „the Lands of 1948“.39 In lower grades, images replace words to illustrate the Palestinian claim to these territories (see figure 10).
The study found a few instances of antisemitism in textbooks as well, although it was not pervasive:
The representation of Israelis and
Jews cannot be evaluated as balanced.
From an historical perspective,
the Jewish „other“ appears as an antagonist;
adversaries to Mohammed.
The next time they appear in history
is as ‚occupiers‘ in the context of the
Jewish national movement, Zionism,
at the end of the nineteenth century.
In most cases, Jews figure as aggressive,
violent colonialists, who were
able to occupy Palestine with the aid
of Great Britain, and who occupy it still.
The separation of Palestine following
the UN resolution of 1947 is pictured
as „occupation“ (ih‘tilal) and as illegal,
violent, land seizure (igh‘tisab).
11
The Jewish immigration to Palestine is
described as „colonising greed“ (alat‘ma‘a
al-istitaniya) which aims to
take the place of the native population
(as-sukan al-asliyun) after their
eviction (tard) and extermination
(iba‘da).
12
Anti-Semitic stereotypes such as
‚greed‘ or ‚financial temptations‘
exist, but are quite rare. For instance,
the textbooks suggest that Zionists
should have tried to convince the Ottoman
Sultan Abdelhamid II to allow
Jews to migrate to Palestine by offering
material incentives (al-igh‘ra‘at
al-madiya).
14 It is also claimed that
‚Zionism‘ relocated its ‚headquarters‘
from London to New York since it controls
(fi aydi l-harakat as-sahyunia)
many of media outlets and important
parts of the US economy.15 In this way,
the textbooks perpetuate elements of
popular anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
The Palestinian Authority and UNRWA are responsible for teaching generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and Jews.
And they should be held responsible.
(h/t Yenta) We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
UNRWA sprung into action after I revealed that one of their schools in a Gaza City camp last October held a ceremony to support the stabbing spree against Jews and posted about it on Facebook.
Oh, they didn't announce that they were launching an investigation. They didn't say that people would be fired. They didn't apologize for this blatant breach of UN and human rights. They didn't say a word about the child abuse they were involved in.
No, they first took down the specific posts that I referred to.
And now they removed the UNRWA logo from the page!
From this:
To this:
Will they claim that this school is not a UNRWA school? Even though it is located inside an UNRWA camp?
Most UNRWA schools follow the same design and all use the UN blue color scheme, and this school is no exception. Also note the UNRWA logo on these girl's vests in this photo taken earlier today:
And earlier photos on their Facebook page leave no doubt:
Once again, UNRWA is showing that it doesn't actually care that its schools teach support for terror - but it cares very much about the possibility of losing funding because of meddling Westerners who want to know how hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent. So they want to add some barely-plausible deniability to the hate that they teach, knowing that their donors (with the notable exception of Canada) are not likely to stop funds as long as they are fed a line about UNRWA caring about neutrality and human rights.
It is a cover-up and it is happening in front of our eyes.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Today, AP's Matt Lee followed up in asking the State Department spokesperson John Kirby about whether they have any comment on the article I wrote yesterday about UNRWA inciting kids to become "martyrs" in "defending al-Aqsa."
The response was tepid, filled with wishy washy diplomatic cover for UNRWA and insisting that UNRWA takes these things seriously.
"Our blood and souls we will sacrifice for you, oh Al-Aqsa"
If UNRWA takes them seriously, then why am I still finding things every few months? Why aren't they policing themselves?
UNRWA today told the Gaza City school I reported on to take down the Facebook timeline entries from October 20, 2015, when the incitement ceremony was held. Many of the photos are still up (and won't be tomorrow after UNRWA reads this.) UNRWA did the least amount possible. They just covered up the easily visible parts but didn't uproot the problem. If UNRWA was really as serious about incitement and antisemitism as the State Department alleges, this wouldn't be a game of whack-a-mole - they would be publicly denouncing this incitement and announcing a plan to stop it once and for all. They would be doing what I'm doing to pro-actively find these issues before someone else does.
But they never did that and they never will, as long as their donors like the US government keep giving them cover as if specific UNRWA teachers are bad apples but UNRWA has no problems at its schools in general. I've uncovered enough institutionalized antisemitism at UNRWA schools based on their own social media sites to know better, and the State Department knows better as well.
Kirby's quote about how neutrality is vital to UNRWA sounds like it was written by Chris Gunness, not the US government. It is so obviously false as to make the rest of the statement a joke.
Here is today's State Department briefing discussing my scoop. I superimposed the evidence from UNRWA school webpages that show that there is nothing "alleged" about this: UNRWA schools are literally teaching children to kill themselves attacking Jews to stop them from visiting the Temple Mount.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
On October 20, as Israelis were being stabbed and run over daily by Palestinians, the UNRWA Gaza City camp school "A" held a ceremony supporting the stabbings and car rammings.
Remember, even though the West characterizes the terror attacks as being prompted by general frustration at the "occupation," the Palestinian narrative has always been that the terror spree was purely meant to defend the Al Aqsa mosque from Jewish infiltration. The timing of this ceremony was specifically to support the wave of terror that was then reaching its height.
Here are some of the signs that the UNRWA students were proudly holding:
“We will live like flying hawks, and we will die like steadfast lions, and all of us for the Palestinian homeland”
“We heed your call, oh Al-Aqsa, our blood and souls we will sacrifice for you, oh Al-Aqsa”
“My soul is a sacrifice for you, oh Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem is in our hearts, Al-Aqsa is in danger, everybody rise in order to save Jerusalem, let us join hands in order to liberate and save Jerusalem”
This is not UNRWA teachers expressing their support for terror on Facebook, as bad as that is. This is UNRWA itself teaching its students to support stabbing Jews - and encouraging them to die in the process.
This is beyond disgusting. It is proof positive that despite UNRWA's denials, its schools are being used as a platform to teach hate and violence.
There is no oversight, there are no checks and balances, and the only reason we know about it is because all members of this particular school - principals, teachers and staff - were proud enough of teaching hate that they held a public ceremony celebrating and encouraging terror and putting it on Facebook. If this is what some UNRWA schools publish publicly, who knows what kinds of hate and antisemitism are being taught behind closed doors?
UNRWA pretends that it takes reports about abuses like this seriously. Its commissioner general said this last week, referring to me specifically. if that is true, then we should expect UNRWA to publicly denounce this ceremony and make a pledge to its donors to take specific, audited steps to ensure that things like this can never recur.
UNRWA head Pierre Krähenbühl might claim to take these reports seriously, but all that means is that he will do everything possible to cover it up.
That is, unless the public, the media and the donors demand answers.
The pattern is clear. UNRWA employs anti-semites and terror supporters. Its schools teach hate. It shows no interest in solving the problem, only in covering them up. The time has come to demand that UNRWA face consequences for supporting and encouraging its students to commit terror acts.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
UPDATE: Matt Lee of AP asked the State Department spox to comment. They will check out this story and get back to him.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
At the Q&A, I am told, Hillel Stavis asked about antisemitism on UNRWA websites. Krähenbühl claimed UNRWA takes it very seriously and investigate all allegations about antisemitism "no matter what the source whether they come from UN Watch or Elder of Ziyon. We investigate every one."
It's nice to know that they read me. Maybe he should tell his staff at UNRWA USA to stop blocking me on Twitter so they can act faster when I show how anti-Israel their staff is.
You see, UNRWA USA lists 5 staff members on its webpage. I've already shown how two of them would support anti-Israel causes on social media. Four of them have already hidden their Twitter accounts and they are trying to stop people like me from seeing their Facebook pages, but..everyone leaves a trail.
Here's number 3, Lena Badr Abdelhamid, showing her desire to boycott Israel:
Now we have proven that more than half of the staff of UNRWA-USA is explicitly anti-Israel - when UNRWA claims that it is non-partisan and takes great pains to keep it that way.
If the majority of UNRWA's American staff is this anti-Israel, how can we expect its staff in the Middle East to be anything else?
So, Pierre, you have a little more to investigate. Will you uphold UNRWA's mandate or will you protect your staff that violates it? Are you beholden to the UN's stated principles or to protecting your friends?
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Elder of Ziyon
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