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The Detrimental Impact of News Coverage of the Palestinian "Nakba"

6/9/2020

 
​By Richard Schifter and Adriana Camisar
 
Every year, around this time, numerous newspapers around the world publish articles that mark the commemoration of the Palestinian “Nakba.” The word Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and is used by the Palestinians to refer to the creation of the state of Israel and the beginning of the problem of the "Palestinian refugees."
 
The trouble with these articles, nearly identical versions of which are published by different international news agencies, and then replicated by newspapers around the globe, is that they repeat, and therefore promote, extreme Palestinian propaganda that is completely counterproductive to the beginning of any peaceful path between Israelis and Palestinians.
 
The vast majority of these articles contain a false account of the historical events that led to the creation of the state of Israel. According to this narrative, Israel’s creation was to the detriment of a “historic Palestine” populated almost exclusively by Arabs. And the ancestral ties of the Jewish people to that land are either ignored or denied.
 
There never really was a "Palestinian state" from which Israel took territory away. When the United Nations (U.N.), in November of 1947, recommended the partition of the area then called Palestine into two states, one Arab and the other one Jewish, all that territory was part of the British Mandate (and had previously been part of the Ottoman Empire). There never was Arab-Palestinian sovereignty over that territory and, in fact, back then, the Arab inhabitants of that area did not call themselves "Palestinians."
 
The U.N. partition plan, which had the approval of most of the nations of the world, was constructed on the basis that both peoples had a right to a portion of that territory, and it recommended that the Jewish state be established in those areas where the Jewish population was a majority. Even though the horrors of the Holocaust precipitated the decision to finally facilitate the creation of a Jewish state, the historical, religious and legal ties of the Jewish people to that land are ancient and well documented.
 
While the Jews accepted the partition plan, the Arab countries rejected it, even though the plan also provided for the formation of an Arab state, and despite the fact that numerous and vast Arab states already existed in the region. That was the first missed opportunity for the creation of an Arab-Palestinian state bordering the state of Israel.
 
Immediately after the establishment of the state of Israel, in May of 1948, five Arab states (Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq, whose armies were also joined by volunteers from Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Libya), started a war with the declared intention of annihilating the nascent state. With enormous effort and the loss of 1% of its population, Israel was able to defeat the Arab armies, and a series of armistices were signed.
 
As a consequence of this war, Israel not only kept the area granted to it in the partition plan of 1947, but its territory expanded by 23%. The area known today as the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt, and the West Bank was occupied by Transjordan (later named Jordan).
 
During the conflict, approximately 700,000 Arabs left Israel. The majority of them did it of their own free will, because their leaders exhorted them to abandon the land in order to facilitate the killing of the Jews.  On the other hand, starting in 1948 and continuing in the following years, around 800,000 Jews were unfairly expelled from the Arab countries where their ancestors had lived for centuries.
 
As we look back at this time period, across the years, there was a similar number of Arab and Jewish refugees. And there is no doubt that the problem of the Palestinian refugees was generated by an armed conflict initiated by the Arab countries against Israel. If the Arab states had not attacked the newly created state of Israel, there would have been no Palestinian refugees.
 
Inexplicably, though, the Arab countries have historically been exonerated from any responsibility in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. They also have not been held responsible for the expulsion of thousands of Jews from their lands.
 
It is important to note that the descendants of the approximately 160,000 Arabs who remained within the borders of the nascent Jewish state in 1948, currently number almost two million people, about 21% of the total population of Israel, and have full civil and political rights.
 
It is also important to note that the Palestinian refugees were treated differently than any other refugee group in the world. The U.N. created in 1949 the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to provide relief for all the refugees of the conflict. But since Israel absorbed most of the Jewish refugees, the agency was left to deal with the Palestinian refugees only.
 
As its name implies, UNRWA was to provide assistance and jobs. But it was meant as a “temporary” organization, which would make sure the number of refugees decreased over time. This is why it was originally intended to resettle the refugees in the communities to which they had fled. About 40% of them were in areas that had been a part of the Mandate of Palestine, namely Gaza and what came to be called the West Bank. Most of the other 60% were in Jordan and Syria, countries whose people were of the same ethnicity and religion and spoke the same language.
 
But the Arab countries refused to resettle the Palestinian refugees (because they wanted them to be available to return to Israel and continue to be of help in efforts to destroy it).  Through clever manipulation of the U.N. system, UNRWA was turned into an organization that assumed the task of preventing the integration of the Palestinian refugees into the communities in which they lived.  That was done by setting up, under UNRWA auspices, a segregated system of medical, educational and social services for Palestinian refugees.  Children were taught in UNRWA schools that their home was Palestine, the place to which they were to return so as to end Israel’s existence.  When the operatives who had changed the very objective of UNRWA’s existence recognized that their goal might not be reached soon, they succeeded in creating for UNRWA an exception to the general U.N. rule, by providing that Palestinian "refugee status" would pass from generation to generation (along the paternal line).
 
The Palestinians are the only people in the world whose refugee status passes from generation to generation. By virtue of this, the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original refugees, who today number more than 5 million people, are still considered "refugees”, and the U.N. continues to promote the so-called "right of return" of these refugees to Israel.
 
This massive migration program is something that no Israeli government would ever accept, because it would imply the liquidation of Israel as a Jewish state, the only Jewish state in the world, to become yet another Arab state.
 
While the Palestinian leaders say that they are in favor of a two-state solution, by not giving up the "right of return," what they are really seeking is the destruction of Israel through demographic means. This is the main reason why so many attempts to reach a peace agreement have failed.
 
By constantly repeating a historically incorrect and radical narrative, instead of making a fact-based, objective analysis of the conflict, international news agencies are contributing to the empowerment of the most rejectionist factions, and the unnecessary prolongation of this painful conflict.

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Adriana Camisar is B’nai B’rith International's Special Advisor on Latin American Affairs. A native of Argentina, Camisar is an attorney by training and holds a Master’s degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

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Richard Schifter, Chairman of the Board of the American Jewish International Relations Institute (AJIRI), has had a distinguished career as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. and in government. Since 2005 he has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of AJIRI.

CEIRPP: A Rejectionist, Hateful Body Fully Funded by the United Nations

7/18/2017

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English

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) has a very attractive title, which may lead us to think of it as an entity that seeks peace and justice. However, the reality is quite different.
 
CEIRPP was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1975, together with the infamous resolution that—only 30 years after the Holocaust—declared that Zionism was equal to racism. And from its inception, the Committee was charged with promoting the idea that the creation of the State of Israel was a historical injustice (despite the fact that the United Nations itself recommended its creation in 1947).
 
One of the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” the title of this committee refers to, is the so-called “right or return” of the Palestinian refugees to what constitutes today the State of Israel. And by Palestinian refugees, they not only mean the surviving refugees from Israel’s War of Independence, but also their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, numbering today more than five million people. CEIRPP is therefore committed to end the existence of Israel through a program of mass migration.
 
It was on Nov. 13, 1974, that Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly. In his speech, in which he denounced “the Zionist entity” and stated that Zionism was an imperialist, colonialist and racist ideology, he made it clear that he was committed to ending Israel’s existence. Nine days later, the U.N. General Assembly followed through by adopting a resolution that declared it to be “the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted.”
 
The anti-Israel forces at the U.N. then went to work and, in 1975, passed the resolution that established CEIRPP. This resolution reaffirmed that it viewed the inalienable rights as including the “right of return.” Thus, from the outset, CEIRPP’s mandate was to promote a maximalist position that goes against the “two states for two peoples” solution that the U.N.—at least formally—pledges to support.
 
In 1977, at the request of the Committee and to assist with its mission, the Division of Palestinian Rights (DPR)—initially the "Special Unit for Palestinian Rights"—was established within the U.N. Secretariat (it should be noted that the Palestinians are the only people in the world who have their own division within the U.N. Secretariat).
 
Together, with the creation of DPR, Nov. 29 was designated as the "International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People." What this date commemorates is the adoption by the U.N. General Assembly, back in 1947, of the resolution that recommended the partition of Palestine into two states. On this date each year, the Committee—with the assistance of DPR—organizes events in different cities around the world, where it is claimed that while Israel was created in 1948, the Palestinian state is still waiting, and Israel is blamed for it. The curious thing is that none of these commemorations mention the fact that it was precisely the Arab leaders who did not accept the 1947 partition plan and who even today refuse to accept Israel's right to exist.
 
That the implementation of the “right of return” continues to this day to be one of CEIRPP’s main goals can be clearly unveiled by reading the information note that describes CEIRRP’s mandate (at the site of UNISPAL, the U.N. information system for the question of Palestine). It expressly refers to the "right of return" of the Palestinian refugees and provides that "the various refugee resettlement and compensation schemes advanced over the years... were always meant as interim measures, not as substitutes for the right of return."
 
It is important to mention that only in the case of the Palestinian refugees the "refugee status" passes from generation to generation. All the other refugees of the world stop being refugees when they are resettled in a new place. But in the case of the Palestinians, the organization that assists them (UNRWA) never had resettlement as its goal. As a consequence, the Palestinian refugees are always kept in a precarious situation as they cannot be fully resettled anywhere, and their permanence and constant growth is used as a weapon against Israel.
 
In the numerous events that CEIRPP organizes around the world, Israel is demonized and the Palestinians are detached from any responsibility for the conflict. Such a biased entity should not be a part of the U.N. system.
 
By supporting CEIRPP and the “right of return,” the U.N. has become the vehicle by which the Palestinian leadership believes they will be able to end Israel's existence. And this is why they refuse to negotiate a peace agreement, which would necessarily imply the recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and the abandonment of the “right of return.”
 
The recent forum organized by CEIRPP at the U.N. headquarters in New York commemorating “50 Years of Occupation,” is an excellent example of the powerful and harmful anti-Israel propaganda that emanates from this Committee, in the name of the U.N.
 
Saeb Erekat, the lead negotiator of the Palestinian Authority, opened the forum by making a shameful comparison between Israel and ISIS, stating that an "anti-life" culture prevails in Israel, and claiming that Hamas is not a terrorist organization. He repeatedly compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and—despite claiming that the Palestinians seek a two-state solution—he refused to recognize Israel as the Jewish state.
 
The Committee and Division not only disseminate this hateful anti-Israel propaganda in the name of the U.N. They also coordinate the work of multiple anti-Israel NGOs around the world. As was rightfully denounced by Israel's Permanent Representative to the U.N. Danny Danon, NGOs with links to Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were represented at this forum. The PFLP recently claimed responsibility for the murder of Israeli Police Officer Hadas Malka in Jerusalem.
 
Also present at the forum were numerous NGOs that actively promote BDS, a movement that not only seeks the end of Israeli settlements, but also the destruction of Israel and that is clearly anti-Semitic in nature. Many of these organizations, when speaking about “occupation,” clearly stated that it did not begin with the Six-Day War, but with the creation of Israel itself.
 
Another example of the radical agenda of this forum was the presence of a representative of the Palestinian soccer club of Chile. Members of this club recently engaged in a violent anti-Semitic incident against the players of a Chilean Jewish soccer team.
 
In addition to BDS, the various anti-Israel strategies that the Palestinians are pursuing internationally were discussed, including the scandalous offensive that is being carried out at UNESCO, with the goal of erasing the links between the Jewish people and their most sacred places, an unacceptable falsification of history that the world is unfortunately consenting to.
 
In sum, CEIRPP makes it possible for a powerful anti-Israel propaganda apparatus to function at the heart of the U.N. system, and its radical agenda is counterproductive to the achievement of peace. It is time for democratic countries to stop funding an entity that causes a great many Palestinians to believe that the United Nations with ultimately deliver a Palestinian state from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea.

español

CEIRPP: Una Entidad Radicalmente Anti-Israelí Financiada por la ONU

El Comité para el Ejercicio de los Derechos Inalienables del Pueblo Palestino (CEIRPP por sus siglas en ingles) tiene sin duda un atractivo titulo, que nos hace pensar que se trata de un organismo que lucha por la paz y la justicia. Sin embargo la realidad es muy diferente.
 
Este Comité fue creado por la Asamblea General de la ONU en el año 1975, juntamente con la infame resolución que – a solo 30 años del Holocausto – declaró que el sionismo era igual al racismo. Y desde sus inicios, el Comité se encargo de promover la idea de que la creación del Estado de Israel fue una injusticia histórica (a pesar de que la misma ONU recomendó su creación en 1947).
 
Uno de los “derechos inalienables del pueblo palestino” a los que hace referencia el titulo de este comité, es el llamado “derecho de retorno” de los refugiados palestinos a la tierra que constituye hoy el Estado de Israel. Y por refugiados palestinos, no se refiere solamente a los refugiados de la guerra de independencia de Israel de 1948 sino a sus hijos, nietos y bisnietos, los que llegan a ser hoy mas de cinco millones de personas. CEIRPP, por lo tanto, pretende acabar con la existencia del Estado de Israel mediante un programa de migración masiva.
 
Cuando el 13 de noviembre de 1974, Yaser Arafat se dirigió a la Asamblea General de la ONU, dijo que el Sionismo era una ideología imperialista, colonialista y racista, y mostro claramente que quería acabar con la existencia de Israel. Nueve días después, la Asamblea General adopto una resolución que declaro que es un “derecho inalienable del pueblo palestino el retornar a sus hogares y propiedades de las que fueron desplazados y desarraigados.”
 
A continuación, las fuerzas anti-Israelíes de la ONU se pusieron a trabajar y, en 1975, lograron que se apruebe la resolución que creo CEIRPP. Esta resolución, reafirmo que los derechos inalienables incluían el “derecho de retorno.” Así es como, desde el comienzo, el mandato de CEIRPP fue promover una postura maximalista que va directamente en contra de la solución de dos estados para dos pueblos que –al menos formalmente- la ONU dice promover.
 
En el año 1977, a instancias del Comité y para ayudar con su misión, se creó la División de los Derechos de los Palestinos (DPR) - inicialmente la “Unidad Especial de los Derechos de los Palestinos” – dentro de la Secretaria de la ONU (cabe resaltar que los Palestinos son el único pueblo del mundo que tiene su propia división dentro de la Secretaria).
 
Juntamente con la creación de DPR, se designo al 29 de noviembre como el “Día Internacional de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Palestino.” Lo que se conmemora es la adopción por parte de la Asamblea General de la resolución 181, del 29 de noviembre de 1947, que recomendó la partición de Palestina en dos Estados. En esta fecha, el Comité –con la asistencia de DPR- organiza eventos en diferentes ciudades del mundo en los que se denuncia que mientras el Estado de Israel fue creado, el Estado Palestino aun espera, culpando naturalmente a Israel por este hecho. Lo curioso es que en ninguna de estas conmemoraciones se menciona el hecho de que fueron precisamente los lideres árabes quienes no aceptaron el plan de partición de la ONU de aquel 29 de noviembre de 1947 y quienes aun hoy se niegan a aceptar el derecho de Israel a existir.
 
Que la implementación del derecho de retorno continua siendo aun hoy uno de los ejes principales del trabajo de CEIRPP puede verse claramente en la nota informativa que describe su mandato (en la pagina de UNISPAL, el sistema de información de la ONU para la cuestión de Palestina). La misma se refiere expresamente al “derecho de retorno” de los refugiados palestinos y establece que cualquier compensación o re-establecimiento de los mismos solo podrá considerarse una medida “interina,” y que no podrá sustituir al derecho de retorno.
 
Es importante mencionar que solo en el caso de los refugiados palestinos la calidad de refugiado pasa de generación en generación. Todos los otros refugiados del mundo dejan de ser refugiados cuando se establecen en otro lugar. Pero en el caso de los Palestinos, la entidad de la ONU que los asiste (UNRWA) nunca tuvo como objetivo su re-establecimiento. Esto hace por un lado, que los refugiados palestinos estén siempre en una situación precaria no pudiendo re-establecerse en forma plena en lugar alguno, y por otro, que su permanencia y constante crecimiento puedan ser utilizados como un arma en contra de Israel.
 
En los numerosos eventos que CEIRPP organiza alrededor del mundo, se demoniza a Israel y se desliga a los Palestinos de toda responsabilidad por el conflicto. Un órgano con semejante parcialidad no debería formar parte del sistema de la ONU.
 
Las Naciones Unidas, al apoyar a CEIRPP y al derecho de retorno, se constituyen en el vehículo por el cual los Palestinos creen que conseguirán poner fin a la existencia de Israel. Y es por esto que se niegan a negociar un acuerdo de paz, que implicaría necesariamente el reconocimiento de Israel como Estado-nación del pueblo judío y el abandono del derecho de retorno.
 
El reciente foro organizado por CEIRPP en la sede de la ONU en Nueva York conmemorando los “50 años de Ocupación,” es un excelente ejemplo de la poderosa y nociva propaganda anti-israelí que emanada de este Comité, en nombre de la ONU.
 
Saeb Erekat (el principal negociador de la Autoridad Palestina) inauguro el foro haciendo una vergonzosa comparación entre Israel y ISIS, diciendo que en Israel prevalece una cultura “anti-vida” y alegando que Hamas no es una organización terrorista. Comparo muchas veces a Israel con la Sudáfrica del Apartheid y – a pesar de repetir incasablemente que los Palestinos buscan una solución de dos Estados – se negó a reconocer a Israel como el Estado del pueblo judío.
 
El Comité y la División no solo diseminan esta poderosa propaganda anti-Israelí en nombre de la ONU. Coordinan además el trabajo de múltiples ONGs antiisraelíes alrededor del mundo. Estuvieron representadas en este foro ONGs con vínculos con Hamas y el PFLP (El Frente Popular para la Liberación de Palestina) como lo denuncio el representante permanente de Israel ante la ONU Danny Danon. De hecho, el PFLP se adjudico recientemente la responsabilidad por el sangriento asesinato de la policía Israelí Hadas Malka en Jerusalem.
 
También estuvieron representadas numerosas ONGs que promueven activamente el BDS, movimiento que no solo busca el fin de los asentamientos sino la destrucción de Israel y que es netamente antisemita. Muchas de estas organizaciones, al hablar de “ocupación”, fueron claras en manifestar que esta no empezó con la guerra del 67 sino con la creación misma del Estado de Israel.
 
Otro ejemplo de la agenda radical de este foro fue la participación de un representante del Club Palestino de futbol de Chile. Recientemente, miembros de este club protagonizaron un escandaloso episodio de violencia antisemita en contra de los jugadores del equipo de futbol de la comunidad judía chilena.
 
Además de BDS se discutieron las diversas estrategias anti-Israelíes que los palestinos seguirán implementando, incluyendo por supuesto la escandalosa ofensiva que se esta llevando a cabo en UNESCO, con el objetivo de negar los vínculos entre el pueblo judío y sus sitios mas sagrados. Una inaceptable falsificación de la historia que el mundo esta consintiendo con su casi total inacción.
 
En suma, CEIRPP hace posible que funcione en el corazón de la ONU un poderoso aparato de propaganda anti-israelí cuya agenda radical es contraproducente para la paz. Es tiempo de que los Estados democráticos dejen de financiar a un ente que hace que muchísimos palestinos crean que las Naciones Unidas les otorgara un Estado palestino desde el rio (Jordan) hasta el mar (mediterráneo).
​

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Adriana Camisar, is an attorney by training who holds a graduate degree in international law and diplomacy from The Fletcher School (Tufts University). She has been B'nai B'rith International Special Advisor on Latin American Affairs since late 2008. In 2013 she relocated to Argentina, her native country. Prior to joining B'nai B'rith International, she worked as a research assistant to visiting Professor Luis Moreno Ocampo (former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court), at Harvard University; interned at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs; worked at a children's rights organization in San Diego, Calif.; and worked briefly as a research assistant to the Secretary for Legal Affairs at the Organization of American States (OAS). To view some of her additional content, Click Here.
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The Problem with the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

12/7/2016

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Last week, the United Nations marked its International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a day created by the U.N. to further promote the continuing Palestinian narrative of victimhood and, of course, bash Israel. The date chosen for the international day—Nov. 29—was no accident. This was the date of the passage in 1947 of General Assembly resolution 181, which recommended partitioning the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted this plan and declared independence; the Arabs rejected it and, along with neighboring states, embarked on a war of annihilation against the newly independent Jewish state. Israel beat back the invading Arab armies and the Zionist dream became a reality.
 
As a result of the fighting, many Arabs fled their homes and became refugees. An even greater number of Jews from Arab countries were expelled from places that had seen thriving Jewish communities for centuries (some of these communities went back to ancient times, preceding the Arab invasion of the North Africa). The Jewish refugees were absorbed by Israel while being completely ignored by the international community. The U.N. created a refugee agency—United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)—only for Palestinian refugees, who, unlike any other refugee population, can pass their refugee status on to their descendants. Billions of dollars (and euros) later, UNRWA now claims to serve over 5 million refugees.
 
After the Arabs lost the war they initiated in 1948, the Jordanians occupied an area known to Jews as Judea and Samaria (that the Jordanians later renamed the West Bank), along with eastern parts of Jerusalem (including the Old City); the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt. No Palestinian state was established during this time of Arab control over these lands. The Palestinians have also rejected multiple Israeli peace offers and walked away from the negotiating table at nearly every turn.
 
The Palestinians see Nov. 29 as a catastrophe, and so the U.N.—which does not even attempt to hide its own pro-Palestinian bias—has adopted this narrative.
 
At the international day commemoration by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), a U.N. body funded by our tax dollars to attack Israel, the president of the General Assembly wore a scarf with the kaffiyeh and a Palestinian flag on it. Not normal attire at the usually buttoned-up U.N. Beyond the odd choice of neckwear, the GA president also endorsed a right of return in his speech, a non-existent “right” which the Palestinians would like to exercise for all five million of their UNRWA-designated refugees to flood Israel. The deputy secretary-general of the organization talked of the U.N. General Assembly’s decision to upgrade the U.N. status of the Palestinians to non-member state in 2012 as a “historic milestone.” Neutrality goes out the window when there is an opportunity to parrot the Palestinian talking points. Is there another conflict situation where the diplomats behave like this? I have yet to encounter one.
 
And this was before the U.N. member states, whose pronouncements on Israel can be far more unhinged, had their chance to vilify and demonize the Jewish state at the CEIRPP session and a later GA session in which a number of condemnatory resolutions (including ones continuing the operation of CEIRPP and other costly Palestinian propaganda bodies embedded deep within the U.N. system) were passed.
 
Algeria complained, rather absurdly considering the importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people, about the “increasing Judaization of Jerusalem.” Qatar decried the seven decades of occupation, meaning not only areas in dispute from Israel’s victory in the Six Day War of 1967, but Israel’s very existence from 1948. 
 
The vilest speech, though, at this year’s international day activities was delivered by Ecuador. Ecuador’s ambassador, quoting the recently-deceased former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (who received not one, but two different moments of silence during the day’s proceedings), declared, after condemning the Holocaust, that there was nothing more similar to the Holocaust as the “genocide” committed against the Palestinian people.
 
This display of overt anti-Semitism from a U.N. platform was truly beyond the pale and B’nai B’rith has called on Ecuador to replace the ambassador. But the problem goes beyond the hate-filled words of certain diplomats. When the U.N. sacrifices historical truth and simply repeats and amplifies all manner of lies against Israel, the end result does not improve the lives of anyone in the Middle East. It only encourages more anti-Semitism.
 
Nov. 29 should be recognized for what it was, a date in which the international community voted to affirm the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our homeland. The rejection by the Palestinians of that compromise (and all of the offers that came in later years) to live in peace next to a Jewish state has led to the current state of affairs. And there should be some recognition, finally, for the Jewish refugees that were violently pushed out of Arab countries throughout the Middle East.
 
If the international community is serious about a peaceful resolution to the conflict, then it is time to send the message to the Palestinians that if they want a state, they need to negotiate with Israel. It’s long past time to close down the Palestinian propaganda bodies at the U.N. and to end the incessant biased attacks against Israel. These are distractions that lead nowhere, but especially not toward peace. Without a change in direction by the international community, the Palestinians can look forward to many more years of ultimately meaningless speeches at the U.N. while more missed opportunities for peace continue to slip by.

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Oren Drori is the Program Officer for United Nations Affairs at B’nai B’rith International where he supports advocacy and programming efforts that advance B’nai B’rith’s goals at the U.N., which include: defending Israel, combating anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and promoting global human rights and humanitarian concerns. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 2004 and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago in 2006. To view some of his additional content, Click Here.
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United Nations Relief and Works Agency at 65: A Continuing Problem

6/17/2015

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PictureOren Drori
Recently, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) celebrated the 65th anniversary of its creation with an event at U.N. Headquarters in New York. The agency—whose regular budget is funded predominately from Western donor countries—serves only Palestinian refugees. All other refugees in the world fall under the care of the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). Unlike other refugees, Palestinian refugees can also pass on their refugee status to their children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. Instead of settling the refugees, UNRWA has exacerbated the problem and now claims to have 5 million refugees under its care.

It should not be forgotten that the Palestinians were not the only refugees of the period in the Middle East. A greater number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries were also in need of resettlement at the time. The difference, of course, was that the Arab refugees from the recently-declared State of Israel in 1948 were fleeing an active war zone due to the inability of Israel’s Arab neighbors to accept the nation-state of the Jewish people. Arab countries invaded the fledgling state of Israel while also kicking out their own Jewish populations. Most of the Jewish refugees arrived in the newly-emerging State of Israel penniless, but were integrated within the new state (albeit often in a far from seamless or ideal way).

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The Arab world never took responsibility for the creation of both refugee situations: the Arab refugees by invading Israel in a bid to end its existence, and Jewish refugees by the mass expulsions of Jews from countries where they had been a thriving community for hundreds of years. The responsibility to care for the Palestinian refugees was transferred to the international community, where it festers to this day because they were never integrated into the neighboring Arab states. Worse, in some cases Arab states have put severe restrictions on the Palestinian refugees’ lives, most acutely in Lebanon which does not allow Palestinians to own property or to enter many professions. These laws were meant to ensure that the refugees could not integrate.

UNRWA is not just an aid agency, though. To be sure, UNRWA does provide medical care and education. One would not know it from the media portrayal of the Palestinians, but the health and education status of those under UNRWA care are actually among the highest in the Middle East (as UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl proudly stated at the celebratory event). But UNRWA also often strays from its humanitarian mission and moves into the political, pushing forward the Palestinian narrative. The agency’s media unit showed off a number of slickly-produced videos during the 65th anniversary event that could have been mistaken for something coming out of the Palestinian Authority, or one of the Palestinian propaganda units within the U.N. Secretariat (most notably the well-funded Department of Palestinian Rights or the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People). 

UNRWA representatives also frequently take to the airwaves to bash Israel in times of renewed conflict. Hamas has fired from in and around UNRWA facilities, and when Israel is forced to respond, UNRWA condemns vociferously the Israeli counter-terrorism actions. During the latest round of fighting, rockets were found by UNRWA in its facilities in Gaza, but it is unclear what if any accountability measures have been put in place to make sure such a situation does not repeat itself. In reaction to the discovery of the rockets in three separate incidents, UNRWA could not bring itself to condemn Hamas by name. Needless to say, there is no such timidity when UNRWA has an issue with Israeli actions—the accusations are fast and the condemnations are furious. 

Most fundamentally, though, UNRWA perpetuates and promotes the Palestinian narrative of the Palestinian claim to return. Generation upon generation of refugee is told the lie that there is a “right of return;” that they can remain a refugee until there is a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinian representatives that will allow them to return to within Israel’s borders. Of course, there is no “right of return,” only the politically-driven (and non-binding) U.N. General Assembly resolution 194, which Israel is under zero obligation to follow. When a Palestinian state emerges as an end-product of direct negotiations with Israel, the refugees will be expected to either settle permanently in the states where they currently reside or move to within the borders of the newly-formed Palestinian state. No Israeli government will accept a flood of Palestinian refugees (and their succeeding generations) en masse within its borders, to do so would be an end to the Jewish democratic state.

As UNRWA turns 65, there appears to be little will in the Arab world, especially in the Palestinian leadership, to address the root cause of the conflict: the inability to accept Zionism—the right of the Jewish people to sovereignty and self-determination in their homeland. As such, UNRWA will continue into the future to serve the ever-growing Palestinian refugee population on the dime of Western taxpayers. Donor countries must call for UNRWA reform so that the agency adheres strictly to its humanitarian mission and the refugee population is prepared for reality when a two-state solution is reached.


Oren Drori is the Program Officer for United Nations Affairs at B’nai B’rith International where he supports advocacy and programming efforts that advance B’nai B’rith’s goals at the U.N., which include: defending Israel, combating anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and promoting global human rights and humanitarian concerns. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 2004 and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago in 2006. To view some of his additional content, Click Here.
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