EU MPs urged to rethink refugee issue

[shira]

A gathering of hundreds of European parliamentarians who support Israel concluded over the weekend in Paris with a politically loaded discussion on the rehabilitation of Palestinian refugees - one of the most sensitive issues facing Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

The debate, part of a conference sponsored by the Brussels-based European Friends of Israel, came amid a groundswell of parliamentary activity around the world, including in the US and Canada, to reroute funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the mammoth UN body that deals with Palestinian refugees and their descendants, towards the resettlement of some of the refugees and their descendants in third countries.

<snip>

While UNRWA's 25,000-strong almost exclusively Palestinian staff care for 4.5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants, the UNHCR employs a staff of around 6,300 people to help nearly 33 million people in more than 110 countries.

The event also dwelt on UNRWA's definition of Palestinian refugees, which includes not only the refugees themselves, but also their descendants, which critics say only serves to perpetuate the refugee crisis.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1225910077853

[Kurska]

1. "which critics say only serves to perpetuate the refugee crisis." Duh

They can't possibly be integrated, no it serves the political purpose of a few to keep these people miserable as examples they can wave to the world. It's despicable and starting to become very transparent as the old guard starts to die off and the remaining refugees have little to no direct connection to the land they now claim.

[Vegasaurus]

2. Th UNRWA can be blamed partially for keeping the Palestinians in refugee camps

and dependent.

No other group in history has ever been treated like this for decades and decades.

It is absurd, and there will never, ever be "right of return: for 4.5 million people, 95% of whom never ever lived a minute in Israel.

[shira]

3. If Israel had its way 30 years ago, there would be no refugee camps in the OT

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=52&x_article=960

The "build-your-own-home" program was shot down by Palestinian and Arab leadership, as well as UNWRA and a very willing UNGA. That program 30 years ago would have taken Palestinians out of the camps and into their own homes - however, the Palestinian and Arab leadership wanted the Palestinians to keep living in misery - just as they do NOW - in order to use them as pawns in war against Israel. Happy Palestinians living the good life (and their standard of living up to Intifida 2 was better than all other arabs in the mideast) would lead to Palestinians who wouldn't want war, but peace.

And UNWRA and the UN shot it down. Those moral models.

But Israel is the root of all evil, you know.

Must've been a sinister plot back then to put Palestinians in homes in order to avoid future conflict and make their lives better.

Those zionists.

Just 30 years after the extermination camps in Poland and Germany. Trying to make the lives of Palestinians better.

Evil I tell you!

[Vegasaurus]

4. Amazing, particularly when you think of how the world totally turned

their backs on Holocaust survivors.

There were no agencies with billions of dollars of support for Jews who had survived concentration camps and were turned away from every country to which they tried to emigrate.

The Palestinians, on the other hand, have been the recipient of constant aid for over 60 years, with efforts to keep their misery going so that they can finally "win" their war against Israel.

What a waste of money, effort and energy. If only a fraction of any of that had been directed into something productive, the Palestinians could be living good lives right now, instead of ever dependent on UNRWA for another generation or two.

[azurnoir]

5. the real aim of this rethinking IMO

added emphasis mine

The debate, part of a conference sponsored by the Brussels-based European Friends of Israel, came amid a groundswell of parliamentary activity around the world, including in the US and Canada, to reroute funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the mammoth UN body that deals with Palestinian refugees and their descendants, towards the resettlement of some of the refugees and their descendants in third countries.

what better way to permanently change the map of Israel to what some it's right wing citizens have been salivating over for 41 years now

[bemildred]

6. It might be good for the refugees.

Israel has it's hands plenty full with Gaza and the West Bank, I don't know that regularizing the situation of the refugees in Lebanon and elsewhere would be a bad thing. I'd be more than happy to welcome them all here in the USA. It's quite likely it is even a good strategic choice, they are helpless and useless where they are.

[Kurska]

8. Maybe that would kick start the housing market n/t

[bemildred]

10. I expect they would be a burden at first.

No golden parachutes for them. But the Palestinians I have known were excellent people, very smart, and I'm sure they would be a welcome addition to the melting pot we have here.

[Kurska]

11. All people are excellent people

It's situations that turn men into monsters. On topic though, I think it's far more likely to see those 4.5 million refuges resettled in several countries rather then one. I think it'd be near impossible for any nation on earth to handle 4.5 million new emigrants, mostly without language or applicable trade skill.

[bemildred]

12. Ha ha, we've done that here, many times over.

But we are a large country, lots of room.

Germany just went through it, it can be done. Living together can be expensive, and it has it's difficulties, but it is way the heck better than the alternative.

Edit: we have more than that in "illegal immigrants" right now. I would bet that Israel, relatively speaking, has a shitload of "illegal immigrants" too.

[Kurska]

13. I'd believe less so now after the current economic crisis

Plus you'd still need the political will to accept all those new immigrants, which is obviously lacking. Illegal immigrants emigrated slowly over a period of time, we're talking 4.5 million people in a matter of at longest months.

[bemildred]

14. No, people are actually pretty cheap to maintain.

And these people are already used to being real cheap to maintain. And the fact that our fake economy is busted does not mean that much in itself. It's a good thing, it means we can get back to the real economy, which needs real people that work and contribute. And we are talking 4.5 million people that have been sitting there for 40 years (Edit: or longer), we can set whatever pace we like.

[azurnoir]

16. I do not think this is about

only Palestinian refugees that outside of Gaza and the West Bank it is those two groups that make up the bulk of not just refugees living in camps but the total Palestinian refugees as a whole, to pretend that this is not so is a smokescreen.

[bemildred]

17. I agree.

I'm just saying that:

1.) It's going to be difficult & crowded to actually return all those people to Israel + the OPT.

2.) It does not prejudice the Palestinian cause to have the situation of some of them regularized by one means or another, in fact it could help, and in fact there are already many such, and they are important support to the Palestinian cause as things stand now.

3.) And that it would be a great improvement for the people involved.

Just because some Zionist types favor it for selfish reasons, that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. It all depends.

I do understand the motives of the various parties in favoring or resisting this sort of thing, defending principles like the right of return and such, I'm just suggesting that perhaps some flexibility could be a good thing.

[Kurska]

7. How long can you keep a people in constant limbo?

There is a point where either the right of return or assimiliation becomes inevitable, and the right of return looks no more likely then it did 60 years ago, perhaps even less so now.

[shira]

9. so let's say 3 million refugees flock into Gaza/W.Bank

...you think they're ready for that kind of absorption in the OT? where would they live? what kind of jobs would they have? a bad situation gets worse by increasing the population by more than 50%..... oh yeah....that's never been addressed by the Pal. leadership, has it? why? why haven't they been getting ready for this, since it's all they seem to want.

...or is that Israel's problem, where at least 3 million should go, which would automatically raise Israel's population nearly 50%?

Imagine that happening in the USA, where we take on 150,000,000.

Ummm.....crisis? Free healthcare to all? where do they work? homes?

[azurnoir]

15. Oh so they were speaking only of

Palestinians outside of the OT? Not to mention that of that 3 million only a fraction are living in refugee camps that number being about 470,000. So are you claiming that of course each and every Palestinian is going to want to return to the occupied territories. But I thought they were waiting to return to Israel not to the OT which they left.