Dahlan wants 'Palestinians' in Arab countries to be granted citizenship?
In an interview with the 'Palestinian' publication Maan, Fatah's former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan hints that 'Palestinians' in Arab countries should receive citizenship in the countries in which they reside.
Dahlan also criticized the PA and Fatah in particular for neglecting
Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East, especially in Syria and
Lebanon.
"Why are we treating our people in those refugee
camps just as neglectfully as we treat our people in Jerusalem and the
Gaza Strip?" he asked."The PA spends only 0.003 percent of
its budget on the Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon, and we are
talking about 600,000 Palestinian refugees living dire conditions and
deprived of the right to work, movement, education and medical
treatment, not to mention what Palestinian refugees in Syria have been
suffering as a result of the war," Dahlan alleged.
“I challenge whomever
to prove the opposite.”
Of course, the reason why 'Palestinians' are deprived of the right to work, movement, education and medical treatment is because they are not citizens of the countries in which they have lived for nearly 70 years. Here's one example:
Lebanon
Around half of the 400,000 refugees live in camps, deprived of many
rights. Refugees don't have any property rights, no access to the
Lebanese healthcare system and there are certain restrictions on jobs we
are allowed to do. We are issued handwritten [travel documents](www.passport-collector.com/2011/08/10/lebanon-refugee-passport-for-palestine/)
of appalling quality (large size, cheap paper). The travel documents
don't even have a full date of birth, just the birth year. You probably
know about the Sabra and Chatila massacre (from the movie Waltz with
Bashir, perhaps my favorite animated movie) were 3000 Palestinian
civilians were killed in cold blood. These are at the top of my head,
I'm sure there's more. This is what a British MP Gerald Kaufman said in
2011 when he visited the camps:
When I went to Gaza in 2010 I thought I had seen the worst that could
be seen of the appalling predicament of Palestinians living in
conditions which no human being should be expected to endure. But what I
saw in the camps in Lebanon is far worse and far more hopeless. The
conditions are unspeakable, but for over 400,000 of our fellow human
beings this is their life: today, tomorrow and for a future that cannot
even be foreseen. At least in Gaza, frightful though the situation is,
the people are free within the confines of their blockaded prison. In
the camps of Lebanon they are not free.
UPDATE1: Since many here are blaming the PLO and its
involvement in the civil war. That's definitely true to a large extent,
however you're missing a few points. Most Palestinians refugees were
placed in camps in south Lebanon when they arrived. These camps were
gradually militarized and became the grounds for operations against
Israel and because the PLO had so much power back then, they started
making trouble and trying to control part of the country. So had the
Lebanon absorbed it's Palestinian population properly, this wouldn't
have happened.
But the reason that the Arab countries never absorbed their 'Palestinians' and made them citizens (except in Jordan - the article goes on to describe Syria, but they're not citizens there either) is because doing so would have meant giving up on holding them hostage to the Arab dream of destroying Israel - a dream that most of the Arab countries have themselves given up at this point, and that would no longer exist but for the Oslo Accords.
Even Dahlan himself admits that were it not for the 'Palestinian street,' the 'Palestinians' could live in peace in Israel.
The failures of PA leadership, in addition to repressive Israeli
policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, could have dire
consequences, Dahlan said.
"If this situation continues, we
will either yield to the occupation's conditions and rules -- which is
impossible at the popular level -- or have a popular uprising, which
will be very dangerous," he said, adding that the status quo could no
longer be sustained.
Because after seventy years of living the lie that they would one day return to their 'homes' in 'Palestine,' you can't quite tell these people in one day that the lie was a dream that's not going to come true. Of course, if you never start, you'll never be able to tell them either....
Dahlan strikes me as much more of a realist (although he is also a brutal murderer with the blood of Israelis and Americans on his hands) than most of the 'Palestinian leadership.' But he still has a long way to go, and he's not very popular anyway, having been disgraced by Hamas when they took over Gaza.
In 1961, they knew how to solve the 'Palestinian problem'
Here's an amazing 1961 Atlantic piece (would the Atlantic even publish something like this today @JeffreyGoldberg) written by a woman I am told is Ernest Hemmingway's ex-wife (thanks @soccerdhg) who took a tour of eight 'Palestinian refugee camps' in 1961.
Here's the money quote (in more ways than one) (Hat Tip: @zlando).
On this warlike note, we left. My guide had seemed a sober contented
fellow until our little meeting, whereupon he sounded like a politician
running recklessly for office. He then astonished me again.
"It
can all be solved with money," he said. "Now the people have nothing in
their mouths but words, so they talk. Money fills the mouth too. If
every man got a thousand dollars for each member of his family, for
compensation to have lost his country, and he could be a citizen in any
Arab country he likes, he would not think of Palestine any more. Then he
could start a new life and be rich and happy. And those who really do
own something in Palestine must be paid for what they had there. But
those are not many. Most had nothing, only work."
It could - and probably still can - all be solved with money (although probably more today than 55 years ago). But of course no one - especially UNRWA - has any interest in solving it with money. And so, unlike any other refugees in the world, the 'Palestinians' continue to fester in camps... except for the ones who have escaped to the West.
Read the whole thing (I'm still reading it myself). And keep in mind that it was written six years BEFORE Israel 'occupied' the 'West Bank' and Gaza, so obviously that's not the problem.
It's been seven decades since the 1948 Arab-Israeli, and yet there are
still an estimated 4 million Palestinian refugees...and zero Jewish
refugees. With so many nearby Arab allies of the Palestinians, how did
this happen? What does it say about Israel? What does it say about its
Arab neighbors? Dumisani Washington, Diversity Outreach Coordinator for
Christians United for Israel, explains.
While American sources claimed Abbas’ statement was “inaccurate,”
senior Palestinian and Israeli officials alike confirmed that the
Americans were not enthusiastic about such a meeting taking place. They
believe it would be explosive and cause the situation to deteriorate
even further. The Americans have learned from experience. They bear the
battle scars of countless disappointments. They would therefore prefer
to spend time preparing for such a meeting, honing positions,
coordinating expectations and going for a sure thing.
For the past few months, the Americans have been very concerned that they could lose Abbas. The Palestinian president’s status among his own people is getting weaker by the day,
and demonstrations against him are turning violent. A quiet uprising of
sorts against him is already underway in the refugee camps, and it
erupts every so often. In some instances, there has even been an
exchange of fire between insurgent Palestinians and security forces. The
last thing Kerry wants to see is Abbas resign or be deposed and have
the West Bank slip into administrative and military chaos. He’s already
had enough problems like that.
The real drama is taking place behind the scenes on various fronts. Kerry met recently
with the leader of the Israeli opposition, Knesset member and Zionist
Camp head Isaac Herzog. While both sides deny they discussed the
political situation, it is quite safe to assume that they did not skip
over the topic.
Netanyahu made him a very tempting
offer in which Herzog’s party would receive the Foreign, Defense and
Justice ministries. Herzog does want to join the government. He knows
that the position of defense minister (offered for just half a term, in
another year and a half) could help him overcome his image as a weakling
and give him that special something he needs to become prime minister.
Before he can join, however, he will have to convince his own party’s
Central Committee to extend his term as chairman until late 2017. That
is what Netanyahu wants in exchange for the deal. The prime minister is
not willing to forego all these strategic assets only to see Herzog
deposed a few months later and replaced with a new party chair who will
lead the Zionist Camp out of the coalition. If that happened, Netanyahu
would be exposed in every direction.
...
Kerry and the peace team he put together (which has since come apart)
are committed to achieving something. They have no interest in leaving
the negotiations in ruins. It is quite possible he would prefer that negotiations were renewed
after Herzog joins Netanyahu’s government and leads it to the political
center. Not only is Netanyahu’s current government incapable of
conducting negotiations, it wouldn’t last the first 15 minutes. Bringing
24 new Knesset members from the center-left into the coalition would
turn this government into something very different. I assume that Kerry
is kept abreast of the secret contacts between Herzog and Netanyahu and
is keeping his fingers crossed for them.
But there is another issue that is even more significant. On Sept. 2,
Al-Monitor revealed that in his meeting with Abbas on March 17, 2014,
President Barack Obama handed Abbas a proposal for a framework agreement with Israel.
This proposal was based on an earlier draft of a framework agreement
reached between the Israelis and the Americans. That agreement was the
outcome of intense negotiations between Kerry, Netanyahu and their
respective staffs, conducted over many long weeks via video
conferencing. The talks took place on an almost daily basis and lasted
for hours. They eventually resulted in a very volatile document in which
Netanyahu agreed to create a mechanism to rehabilitate the Palestinian
refugees. He even agreed to take in a limited number of refugees (to be
determined by Israel), as well as to the principle of the 1967 borders
serving as the basis for each state (with land swaps).
The one point that Netanyahu refused to concede was the status of
Jerusalem. The Americans inserted an especially explosive clause (making
Jerusalem the capital of two states) and presented it to Abbas.
The Palestinian leader has been true to form and has yet to respond
to Obama’s proposal. Kerry seems concerned that in any potential meeting
between Netanyahu and Abbas, this draft will be raised for discussion.
The ensuing explosion would be nuclear. There is no way Netanyahu could
survive politically once that happened. When the Americans informed the
Israelis about their changes to the draft, the Israelis responded with a
shrug. Netanyahu’s adviser, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, told the
Americans, “You can add whatever you want. The Palestinians will still
say no.”
So Netanyahu has already conceded the 1967 lines (1949 armistice lines) as a 'basis for negotiations,' has already conceded '100% land swaps,' has already conceded the 'right of return,' but hasn't yet conceded Jerusalem. The difference between Netanyahu and Olmert 2008 or Barak 2000 is... quite small.
Aren't you glad we elected a 'right wing government'?
Why Syrians are fleeing to Europe (and not to Arab countries)
A reminder to one and all that I am in Boston, and that's why I am posting after the Sabbath started in Israel.
I'm sure all of you were touched by the picture of a Syrian boy being carried out of the water having drowned off the coast of Turkey (reproduced above).
But many of you may be wondering why the Syrians are trying to flee by sea to Europe, rather than fleeing south via Jordan to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, where they would at least speak the language.
The answer to that lies in the 'Palestinians.'
The Syrians can see how the 'Palestinians' have been treated by their Arab brethren for the last 67 years. They are confined to 'refugee camps.' In most Arab countries, they do not hold citizenship, cannot travel, cannot hold any job that requires any kind of license and do not live in permanent housing. Instead, they are left to languish to await the (God Forbid) demise of the State of Israel.
Many of the Syrian refugees are likely 'Palestinians.'
As to the reason that you hear of the Syrians fleeing to many different European countries and not just to one (e.g. Germany which seems more willing than others to take them), that is because once you get to any European country, you can get a Schengen visa.
The Schengen Visa is the representative of the collective of 26 European
countries that have mutually decided to eliminate passport and
immigration controls at their joint borders. Within the Schengen area,
concurrently, the citizens of these 26 European countries are free to
travel in and out of this zone as one single country sharing equal
international travel rights. The citizens of the Schengen zone countries
cherish the right to migrate internationally without any limitations,
the basis of free movement, one of the basic human rights.
And that's without even taking into account the general 'pleasure' of living in a Muslim country. It's no wonder the Syrians want to go to Europe and not to Arab countries.
Turkey, where that picture was taken, is not a Schengen country. The family was trying to reach Greece after escaping by land to Turkey. Turkey is a Muslim country for all intents and purposes.
Know your enemy: BDS aims to destroy Israel and not 'just' the 'settlements'
Here's an interview with Omar Barghouti, holder of a Master's degree from Tel Aviv University and the founder of the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement in the radical Leftist 972 Magazine. For those of you who still believe, against all evidence, that the BDS movement is 'only' targeting the 'settlements' and not Israel itself, perhaps this will convince you otherwise.
Barghouti, 51, refuses to respond to his accusers — he
maintains a boycott of the Israeli media. He was willing to conduct this
rare interview due to my Palestinian identity and under the condition
that it be published first in Arabic, on Palestinian website “Bokra” – although it is also being published in English here on +972 Magazine and in Hebrew on Local Call, where I am a blogger. Unified trilingual anti-Zionism at its best, I must add.
Barghouti explains his choice to not speak with the Israeli media and
the logic behind the more general call for boycott, divestment and
sanctions against Israel as a whole: “In every other situation of
sustained oppression, human rights groups call for punitive measures
against the state and its institutions, not just against a narrow
component of the state that is directly connected to the injustice at
hand. No one called for banning products of Sudanese companies producing
in Darfur in response to the Sudanese regime’s war crimes there. Sudan
as a whole was targeted.
“As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, Israel is put on a pedestal in
the West, and treated as if it were above international law. BDS seeks
to end this Israeli exceptionalism and criminal impunity. Israel must be
treated like any other state committing similarly egregious crimes.”
...
BDS calls for: an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian
and other Arab territories since 1967, including dismantling the wall
and colonies; an end to Israel’s system of racial discrimination against
its Palestinian citizens; and respecting the UN-sanctioned, fundamental
right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
“These three basic rights correspond to the three main components of
the Palestinian people: those in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem; those in the 1948 territory who live under
Israeli apartheid,
and those in exile”, Barghouti says. He insists that regardless of what
shape the political solution to the conflict takes – it must be based
on these principles.
For those of you who don't get it, the so-called 'right of return' would bring millions of 'Palestinians' who never lived here to live in what is left of Israel, after its separation from 'Palestine,' thereby overwhelming demographically what is left of the Jewish people in its ancient land.
Some BDS activists choose to boycott all of Israel, not
just companies or bodies profiting directly from the occupation. Why is
that?
“The artificial and untenable distinction
between Israel and ‘the occupation’ is political and ideological; it is
not based on practical, legal or moral considerations. It is Israel
that international law regards as the occupying power, and therefore, is
the party responsible for the construction and maintenance of not just
the colonial settlements, but also the whole occupation regime.
But Israel’s deepest injustice, Barghouti argues, is the denial of
the right of return to Palestinian refugees. Those refugees, uprooted
and dispossessed in 1948, comprise 68 percent of the Palestinian people.
They, too, deserve equal human rights, he insists.
That ought to make it abundantly clear. The BDS movement is about destroying the State of Israel and not 'just' about reaching a 'two-state solution.' But then, if the last 15 years have shown us nothing else, they have shown us that a 'two-state solution' is about destroying Israel too.
Celebrate! United Nations celebrates 65 years of Hamas' arms supplier (with video)
As you might recall, last summer UNRWA - the agency that is supposed to resettle 'Palestinian refugees' and instead has perpetuated their 'refugee status' for the last 65 years - was caught hidingdiscoveredrocketshidden in its schools in Gaza, and explosives booby-trapped into those schools' walls. On Tuesday, a high-level United Nations meeting celebrated all that UNRWA has done for 'Palestinian refugees' (Hat Tip: Bad Blue).
On June 2, 2015, the UN held a full-day high-level conference honoring
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA) on its 65th anniversary. UNRWA Commissioner General
Pierre Krähenbühl used the occasion to commend himself for UNRWA's
performance under his leadership. He made no mention of the findings of
the UN Secretary General's own Board of Inquiry that UNRWA failed to
secure weapons in their schools and even gave weapons back to Hamas -
thereby facilitating the commission of war crimes.
The meeting consisted of a day of hate speech and blood libels directed at the UN member state of Israel.
Indeed it did. Here are some of the highlights. Let's go to the videotape.
And if you're an American taxpayer, you paid for at least 22% of this celebration. So why isn't anyone speaking out against this?
#Caring: Red Cross delivers medical supplies to 'Palestinian refugee camp' in Syria for first time in over a year
For the first time in over a year, the Red Cross has succeeded in delivering medical supplies to the 'Palestinian refugee camp' in Yarmouk, Syria.
"This is the first time in over a year that we
have been able to deliver aid to the people in the camp, we hope to do
more," Daphnée Maret, the deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Syria,
who oversaw the operation, said in a statement.
"We
remain extremely concerned about the hardships being endured by the
people living there, in particular the limited access to food, water and
health care."
Syria's ambassador
to the U.N. in Geneva, Hussam Eddin Aala, said that the ICRC delivery
was "the result of continued cooperation" with authorities and the
Palestinian Red Crescent.
"We have
been sending humanitarian assistance in cooperation with UNRWA to the
camp on a daily basis whenever the security situation allows since
January 30," Aala told Reuters, referring to food parcels delivered to
Yarmouk by the U.N. agency taking care of Palestinian refugees
throughout the Middle East.
"We have been exerting continuous efforts to send assistance and evacuate those civilians who need evacuation," he added.
You didn't hear about this, did you? You can bet that if this were a 'refugee camp' in the 'West Bank,' the UN Security Council would have condemned us six times already.
Silly me, I thought that Bedouins were nomads. If that's the case, how could they ever have had homes from which they could be 'refugees'?
But UNRWA is threatening Israel over a plan to move Bedouin from the area of E1 - between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim - to the Jericho area, which is further east.
"If such a plan were implemented this would ... give rise to concerns
that it amounts to a 'forcible transfer' in contravention of the Fourth
Geneva Convention" banning involuntary population relocation in
occupied territory, UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said.
"It might also make way for further Israeli illegal settlement
expansion, further compromising the viability of a two-state solution,"
he said in a statement. "I urge the Israeli authorities not to
proceed with the transfer...and I also urge the donor and state
community to take a firm stand against it."
...
UNRWA added that most of those slated for resettlement to Jericho, in
the east of the Palestinian Authority territory, were registered
Palestinian refugees.
The IDF Civil Administration said there were various plans to rehouse Bedouin and they were being conducted in consultation with community leaders. "As part of the effort to draft master plans for the benefit of the area's Bedouin population, whose purpose is to enable the Bedouin to live in places with suitable infrastructure, dozens of meetings were held with Bedouin leaders," the Administration said in a written response to AFP. "Several plans to prepare such places have been advanced, partly through such meetings."
Why don't I hear any Bedouin protesting this plan? Hmmm.
According to Wednesday's daily Haaretz, the Palestinian
Embassy in Greece reported that the ship that sank off the coast of
Malta was carrying more than 450 passengers, most of them Gaza
Palestinians. Other reports say the vessel was rammed intentionally by
another ship run by rival smugglers.
The Gaza-based human rights group Adamir collected the names of more
than 400 missing people. “No one knows where they are; the whole Gaza
Strip is talking about it. It’s such a painful story, as if it’s not
enough what happened in the last war and now another blow comes,” Adamir
director Halil Abu Shamala told Haaretz, noting that most of the passengers were young people but that there were also whole families aboard.
At least 15 Palestinians drowned when another ship sank off the Egyptian coast near Alexandria on Saturday.
Abu Ahmed, who lost his son on that ship, explained to Haaretz
that most of the Gazans leave through tunnels that originate in the
southern Gaza town of Rafah and come out on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
One Gazan involved in such operations told Haaretz: “This
trip costs between $3500 to $4000 dollars a person. It’s a relatively
small tunnel; most of the big ones have been blocked by the Egyptians.
People crawl dozens of meters and at the end of the tunnel on the
Egyptian side of Rafah a minibus or other vehicle waits for them and
takes them to Port Said.”
He added that Egyptian security officials are bribed to look the other way.
Haaretz heard testimony that the refugees board small boats,
sometimes dozens per boat. Once they leave Egyptian territorial waters
they switch to another boat that in most cases sails to Italy. The trip
usually takes about a week.
One refugee told Haaretz that when the boat approaches the
shore it issues a distress call and Italian navy and Red Cross ships
pick them up. In other cases, people jump into the water with life
jackets, and are rescued by the Coast Guard or the Red Cross.
Evelyn Gordon points out that 'Palestinian refugees' are the only refugees in the world who are denied the right of resettlement.
The news that hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza drowned
last week when the boats in which they were trying to reach Europe sank
once again highlights the hypocrisy of the world’s attitude toward the
Palestinians. After all, the “international community” has designated
two-thirds of all Gaza residents as bona fide refugees, even though the
vast majority of them were born in Gaza and have lived there all their
lives. And as bona fide refugees, they shouldn’t have had to board
rickety smugglers’ boats in a desperate attempt to reach Europe; they
should have been able to apply to the UN for orderly resettlement right
from their refugee camps, just as thousands of other refugees do every
year. But they can’t, because Palestinians are the only refugees in the
world who are denied the basic right of resettlement.
Granted, they are also the only
“refugees” in the world for whom refugeehood is an inheritable status
that can be passed down to one’s descendants in perpetuity, generation
after generation. Under the definition used by the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees, which deals with all the world’s refugees except
Palestinians, only a few thousand elderly Gazans who were personally
displaced in 1948 would be considered refugees today, rather than the
1.2 million actually on UN rolls.
So if the “international community” were to argue that Gazans don’t
deserve a right to resettlement because they aren’t really refugees,
that would be perfectly legitimate.
But it doesn’t. In fact, not only has the world adopted the unique
definition of refugeehood promulgated by the Palestinians’ personal
refugee agency, UNRWA, but it actively supports this definition by
funding UNRWA’s ever-expanding budget to keep pace with its
ever-expanding number of “refugees.” And once having accepted the claim
that these born-and-bred Gazans are actually refugees from an Israel
they’ve never seen, the international community is morally obligated to
ensure that they enjoy the same rights as all other refugees.
Instead, Palestinians are the only refugees in the world who are denied the right of resettlement. Whereas UNHCR resettles tens of thousands
of refugees every year, UNRWA hasn’t resettled a single refugee in its
65 years of existence. On the contrary, the schools it runs for
Palestinian refugees indoctrinate them
from kindergarten on that there is one, and only one, way for them to
end their refugee status: by “returning” to the towns or villages in
Israel that their ancestors fled–which most of them have never seen, and
some of which no longer even exist. In short, since Israel would never
voluntarily accept all five million “refugees” on UNRWA’s rolls, it’s
telling them that the only solution to their refugeehood is Israel’s
destruction.
But as long as there are no Jews killing the 'Palestinian refugees'... what difference does it make?
The phrase 'peaceful Palestinian' is almost an oxymoron
Israeli diplomat Yehuda Yaakov - our Consul General to New England no less - describes the hopelessly naive view of the 'Palestinians' that has led to the disaster known as the 'Oslo process.'
I have no doubt that Palestinians, like Israelis, seek normalcy. Like
us, they want a better future for themselves and their children. If
they could speak freely I am sure they would say that they want the
concrete and metal that went into the tunnels to go into schools and
clinics instead.
Any observer can see this plainly in Israel’s
relationship with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — a
relationship which, while far from perfect, certainly reflects an
aspiration toward normalcy at its most basic level: toward improvement,
not destruction.
How can I be so sure? Well, I saw this thirst for normalcy with my own eyes just this summer in New England, while visiting the "Seeds for Peace" summer camp held annually in Maine.
There my wife, Ofra, and I met not only Israeli campers of all
religions, we also chatted with Palestinians. My Arabic-speaking wife
conversed with them in their mother tongue.
We didn't talk politics, of course, just about how wonderful it was
to enjoy life itself. We spoke civilly, shook hands, smiled and even
laughed with each other. Indeed, in this serene New England atmosphere
we saw so clearly how good fences make good neighbors.
Maybe it's something about the air in Maine. Jonathan Tobin, using a New York Times article by architecture critic Michael Kimmelman in which Kimmelman discusses the trials and tribulations of building a town square after 65 years in the Al-Fawwar 'Palestinian refugee camp' south of Hebron, sees things in a far different light.
While the Arab states colluded with Palestinian leaders to keep the
refugees homeless in order that they may be preserved as props in an
endless war against Israel, the residents of the camps have participated
in this dispiriting and pointless charade. They have often resisted any
improvements in their lot because to accept anything more than charity
and subsistence—provided by UNRWA, the United Nations agency dedicated
to keeping Palestinian refugees homeless—was a tacit acceptance that
they weren’t going back to what is now Israel.
As Kimmelman tries to argue, the fact that the residents of the camps
have accepted the building of squares or ball fields can be interpreted
as a sign that their ideological quest is being set aside in order to
deal with their current needs. But even in this slightly hopeful
context, it is hard to ignore the intransigent nature of the culture of
these camps that provides an obstacle to peace that seems impossible to
overcome.
As a Palestinian architect told Kimmelman, the right of return is “an
architectural question in one respect,” as it is a question of the
redistribution of land and buildings. The quest to give these people
better lives and a sense of dignity that has been denied them is one
that deserves sympathy and support. But, unfortunately, even in the
context of a discussion about improving the camps and recognizing that
they are more than mere way stations on a path to Israel’s destruction,
the rhetoric of even the most moderate voices in this piece took it as a
given that “return” to Israel, i.e. the end of the Jewish state, was a
given. Though an almost equal number of Jews were forced to flee from
their homes in the Arab and Muslim world at the same time and made new
lives in Israel and the West, the Palestinian Arabs seem to prefer
ongoing misery to acceptance of the fact that they must move on.
What we must recognize here is that the pathology of hate is not
merely about Palestinian violence but also the ingrained beliefs passed
on from generation to generation that alone of all historical events of
the last century, the creation of Israel must be reversed. Unlike the
countless millions of other refugees from wars of aggression waged in
their name, the descendants of the Palestinians who hoped to see the
Jews prevented from having their state think they can continue to
persist in this delusion and that world should support them in holding
on to it.
Anyone who questions the power of this delusion should have taken
note of the fact that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas specifically rejected an Egyptian offer
to give hundreds of square miles in the Sinai adjacent to Gaza for the
purpose of resettling the refugees. Abbas, the man acclaimed as a peace
partner for Israel by the world, rejected the offer out of hand. The
reason was that he knows the refugees and their supporters won’t listen
to reason and start seeking solutions to their plight that don’t involve
the eradication of Zionism. If it took decades for Palestinians to
accept the need to build a square in their refugee camp, it’s easy to
understand why they won’t give up their ideas about going “home” or
thinking that they should be given, as some insist, a “choice” about
dispossessing the Jews of Israel.
The fact that the Times and most of the rest of the
international media ignored the story about Abbas’s rejection of Egypt’s
offer says a lot about the way the world has accepted Palestinian
assumptions. But while the media obsesses about Israelis building in
lands that were theirs before 1948 and would remain in the Jewish state
even in the event of a peace agreement, they treat the absurd
Palestinian fantasies as reasonable. Far from merely an architectural
question, the camps and what they represent are a permanent obstacle
that must be removed if the Middle East is ever to know peace.
And if that's how the 'Palestinians' in Al Fawwar - who would likely be residents of a 'Palestinian state' were one ever established - feel, imagine the chances that the stateless 'Palestinians' in 'refugee camps' in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq will ever give up their 'right of return,' or that the governments of those countries might ever look them straight in the eye and tell them that 65 years of statelessness was all for nothing.
The longer this goes on, the less likely it is that there will ever be a 'peaceful solution.' And there is no end in sight. Yehuda Yaakov is a starry-eyed, naive fool.
Abu Bluff and Egypt's foreign ministry both deny Sinai land offer
It took several hours, but both 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen and Egypt's foreign ministry are denying a story I reported earlier today that has Egypt offering Abu Mazen 1,600 square kilometers of the Sinai for a 'Palestinian state' and Abu Mazen turning down that offer. This is from the next-to-law link.
Israeli statesmen responded favorably to reports of an Egyptian-led
proposal aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the Sinai
Peninsula in order to resolve the issue of refugees.
Earlier in the day, Egypt's Foreign Ministry denied reports of the
initiative, which claimed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi presented
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with the proposal. The ministry
added that the proposal was actually made in the past by ousted
President Mohammed Morsi.
Al-Tayyib Abd Al-Rahim, Secretary-General of Abbas's office, told the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency that the reports were "fabricated."
Al-Rahim added that Abbas would not accept any alternative to a
"Palestinian state" on the 1949 Armistice lines with eastern Jerusalem
as its capital.
"This news is completely false and the proposal is an old one
suggested by former head of the Israeli National Security Council Giora
Eiland, who suggested to establish a Palestinian state in Gaza and parts
of Sinai with autonomy in the West Bank," al-Rahim said.
Abbas's representative further claimed that Egypt shares the PA's
position calling for a "two state solution" based on the 1949 Armistice
lines.
My guess is that Sisi made the offer, Abu Bluff said no, and that the Egyptian foreign ministry is afraid that disclosing the fact that the offer was made will lead to rioting in the streets, and possibly to Egypt being expelled from the Arab League as happened after Camp David. Egypt is extremely anti-Semitic.
According to the report, Jordan, in a clear breach of its
international obligations, refuses entry to, or forcibly deports,
Palestinian refugees escaping Syria. "Jordan has officially banned entry
to Palestinians from Syria since January 2013 and has forcibly deported
over 100 who managed to enter the country since mid-2012, including
women and children," the report revealed.
The report quotes Basma, a Palestinian woman from Yarmouk refugee
camp in Syria, who describes how the Jordanians turned her and others
back. "They told us, 'You are Palestinians, you aren't allowed to
enter,'" she recounted. "They took us in a bus and dropped us on the
Syrian side of the border at 2 a.m."
Another Palestinian refugee from Damascus, 47-year-old Abdullah, was
quoted as saying: "As we were crossing, the Jordanian army started
firing at us. We all laid down flat on the ground to avoid the gunfire.
After some moments two trucks with army officers came to us, before we
knew what was happening an army officer shot five of us in our legs. We
weren't trying to flee."
During the past three years, Jordan has received millions of Syrian
refugees. But when it comes to Palestinians, the story is different.
The Jordanians are not afraid of the Syrian refugees because they
know that once the crisis is over in their country, they will return to
their homes. Unlike the Palestinians, the Syrians are not seeking
Jordanian citizenship or new lives in the kingdom. The Syrians see their
presence in Jordan as a temporary situation.
There is also no talk about transforming Jordan into a "Syrian
state," as opposed to calls for creating a homeland for the Palestinians
in the kingdom. As such, the Jordanians' problem is with Palestinians,
not Syrians or other Arabs.
Fayez Tarawneh, head of the royal court and former prime minister,
defended the anti-Palestinian measures in a meeting with Human Rights
Watch last year. He said that a large influx of Palestinians from Syria
would alter the demographic balance of the kingdom and cause
instability.
The human rights group said that as a result of the Jordanian
government's policy, many Palestinians from Syria do not have proper
residency papers in Jordan, "making them vulnerable to exploitation,
arrest, and deportation."
It continued that, "undocumented Palestinians from Syria dare not
seek protection or redress from the Jordanian government against
exploitation or other abuses."
Really, the Jordanians aren't doing anything different than any other Arab country. If anything, Jordan is the only Arab country that grants any 'Palestinians' citizenship. And the world's reaction to this kind of treatment of 'Palestinians' by their fellow Arabs?
That's right. The world doesn't give a damn how Arabs treat other Arabs. It only cares how Jews treat Arabs. Double standard par excellence.
Officially, Unrwa is a strictly humanitarian agency, providing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank, as well as Gaza, with "assistance and protection" in the form of schools, hospitals, construction, loans, jobs and other help. By the agency's own account, in its 2014-15 budget "the core services UNRWA provides are comparable in nature and scope to those provided by a local or national government."
But Gaza under Hamas is a place with only two basic industries: aid and terrorism. These are much entwined, and not solely because Hamas controls Unrwa's staff unions in Gaza, where in 2012 a Hamas-affiliated slate swept 25 of 27 seats. In effect the U.N. group subsidizes Hamas. Among U.N. agencies in the Middle East, Unrwa is the largest employer, with a regular budget for 2014 of $731 million, and a total budget that, with emergency appeals, tops $1 billion.
The agency has roughly 30,000 staff on its payroll, almost all Palestinian. Some 12,500 work in Gaza, home to 1.2 million Unrwa-registered refugees, who account for about two-thirds of Gaza's population. The U.N. agency's welfare programs relieve Hamas of many of the costs of servicing the enclave it controls as its launchpad for terror.
With the agency handling household chores, Hamas—especially since its bloody takeover of Gaza in 2007, ousting the Palestinian Authority's Fatah—has found the time and resources to amass rocket arsenals (Unrwa last month reported finding rockets stashed in three of its vacant schools), to bombard Israel (sometimes in close proximity to Unrwa premises), and to build miles of concrete-reinforced tunnels extending into Israel for terrorist attacks. Israel, in its counteroffensive, has been accused by the U.N. of deadly strikes on Unrwa schools serving as shelters.
How did it come to this? Created by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949, Unrwa began operations in 1950 as an emergency jobs and aid program for Palestinian refugees. It was supposed to be temporary but has been repeatedly renewed. The agency has now carried on for 64 years, vastly expanding its budget, programs and refugee rolls.
Unrwa is unusual among U.N. agencies in ways that render it especially unaccountable, even by U.N. standards. All other refugees world-wide fall under the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Only the Palestinians have their own dedicated U.N. refugee agency, offering special access to the perquisites of the U.N. logo, stage and fundraising.
Almost all other U.N. agencies report to an executive board, allowing at least some chance of functional oversight. Unrwa reports directly to the entire 193-member General Assembly, where responsibility is broadly dispersed and easily avoided. According to a paper in 2010 by the agency's own chief of legal affairs, Lance Bartholomeusz, Unrwa enjoys the added flexibility of having no clearly defined mission: "its mandate is not conveniently stated in one place and must be derived from all other relevant resolutions and requests."
Thus unencumbered, Unrwa has ensured its own survival by transforming itself into the patron of Palestinian grievance, conferring refugee status down the generations, an unusual practice. The agency's website reports that since 1950 its roster of registered refugees has grown from an original 750,000 to 5.3 million—a sevenfold increase, all eligible for the Unrwa dole. For the Palestinians, this has been ruinous, fostering within an otherwise enterprising culture a crippling sense of entitlement and dependency.
The United States is UNRWA's largest donor. And rather than reevaluate, some Americans have a vested interest in keeping it that way.
In 2011 the agency opened an office in Washington run by two former U.S. government insiders: Matthew Reynolds, previously the State Department's assistant secretary for legislative affairs, and Chris McGrath, previously a media-events director for Sen. Harry Reid. The job descriptions include representing the U.N. agency's interests to the State Department and monitoring Congress on a daily basis to yield an "advocacy strategy dedicated to optimizing Unrwa's relations with Congress."
Thus U.S. tax dollars fund Unrwa officials now lobbying in Washington to obtain yet more money for an agency entwined with the rocket-launching, tunnel-digging rulers of Gaza. Mr. Reynolds, reached by phone this week, said he doesn't answer questions from the media. Christopher Gunness, the agency spokesman, did not respond to repeated queries.
The United Nations Relief & Works Agency For Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced
Tuesday that another rocket stockpile has been found at one of its
schools in Gaza. This instance marks the third time since the beginning
of Operation Protective Edge that a weapons arsenal has been found at an
UNRWA school in Gaza.
UNRWA has yet to place blame on any individuals or organizations for
placing the weapons stockpile within a children’s school. The UN body
refused to do so on the past two previous occasions as well.
The UN body, after both previous findings, has handed the rockets it had found back into the possession of “the local police," otherwise known as the terrorist group Hamas.
This week, UNRWA supplies and building materials had been found in Hamas’s tunnel infrastructure, which has been used to smuggle weapons and carry out attacks on the State of Israel.
I'm shocked. Just totally shocked....
And here's a fact you might not have known.
UNRWA is currently the largest agency-subdivision of the entire UN, employing over 30,000 staff.
It's long past time to disband UNRWA and to start treating 'Palestinian refugees' like every other refugee in the world. Starting with resettlement in third countries.
UNRWA says there are 65 thousand displaced Palestinians since yesterday in #Gaza and UNRWA doesn't have enough resources
— Tweet_Palestine (@Tweet_Palestine) July 20, 2014
You will recall that last Wednesday, the IDF urged 100,000 'Palestinians' to flee Northern Gaza (only about 20,000 actually fled; many others stayed because Hamas urged them to stay and be human shields). One can only wonder what would have happened if all 100,000 had fled.
I guess UNRWA's $1.4 billion biannual budget doesn't go as far as it used to. Maybe Qatar and Turkey can come up with some more money for them. After Hamas brought on this war, I'd be surprised to see the Saudis, the Europeans or the US bail them out.
In fact, after this story, why would anyone give money to UNRWA?
If this story is correct, the 'peace processors' may as well pack up and go home. 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen has ruled out an end-of-conflict clause. It's inconceivable that Israel will sign any agreement that makes any significant concessions without such a clause.
The report, which first appeared on Israel Channel 2 News based on American and Israeli sources and was reported by The Times of Israel, stated that Abbas had given three unequivocal rejections to the U.S. president:
Specifically, the report said, Abbas rejected Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that he recognize Israel as a
Jewish state. He also refused to abandon the Palestinian demand for a
“right of return” for millions of Palestinians and their descendants — a
demand that, if implemented, would drastically alter Israel’s
demographic balance and which no conceivable Israeli government would
accept. And finally, he refused to commit to an “end of conflict,” under
which a peace deal would represent the termination of any further
Palestinian demands of Israel.
Instead, Abbas stated that his goals in the negotiations were limited
to “working for a solution that is based on international legitimacy
and also the borders — the 1967 borders — so that the Palestinians can
have their own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital and
so that we can find a fair and lasting solution to the refugee problem.”
...
Skeptics of Palestinian intentions have long turned to the first two
rejections — made consistently by Palestinian leaders over the years —
as proof that PA leaders had never negotiated in good faith, using the
talks as a ploy to legitimize later violence and bolstering the
international movement to delegitimize Israel. Yet with the third
rejection — No to an “end of conflict” clause — it becomes difficult to
understand what the point of talks was in the first place. By stating
from the outset that negotiations will not bring a termination of the
conflict, Palestinian leaders remove nearly all the incentive for
Israeli compromise. Indeed, the absence of an end-of-conflict clause is
widely seen as one of the main failings of the catastrophic 1993 Oslo
Accords.
Thanks Obama and Kerry. We know that you'll pressure Israel to sign anyway. What could go wrong?
Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said that Abbas plans to speak
with Obama on all issues related to the realization of a two-state
solution and the establishment of a just and balanced peace that will
result in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state whose
capital is Jerusalem.
Abu Rudeineh stated that the visit to Washington is taking place
during a sensitive time period and under circumstances of change in the
Arab world, stressing that PA Chairman intends to stick to the
“fundamental Palestinian principles”.
In a speech he gave to the Revolutionary Council of Fatah this past
Wednesday, Abbas said that the Palestinian Arabs are steadfast in their
positions that eastern Jerusalem will be the capital of Palestine, and
that Israelis will remain in the Palestinian state after Israel
withdraws to the pre-1967 borders.
On the issue of the “Palestinian refugees”, Abbas said in his speech
that every refugee who wishes to return to the State of Israel will be
allowed to do so, and declared that all refugees, without exception,
will receive compensation.
The remarks are not surprising, as Abbas has consistently said that unless all his preconditions are met, there will be no peace with Israel.
In a recent appearance
broadcast by PA TV, Abbas clearly stated: no Jewish communities will
remain in the PA, and 5 million “refugees” worldwide, “from Canada to
Japan” – including all of the descendants of Arabs who fled Israel in
1948 – will have the right to “return” to Israel.
It's clear there's not going to be 'peace' in our lifetimes, and that's fine. The bigger issue is what will happen when this 'negotiation' charade ends.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
