By Steve Kramer
KFAR SABA, Israel — In addition to the many news sources I tap here in Israel, I often check on the US via the New York Times or the Washington Post. Recently I was surprised to read in the Post that being an eternal refugee is okay. Not only that, it’s grand! You can be one, your children also can, your grandchildren too, and so on.
But there’s a catch: one of your ancestors had to have lived in Palestine during the two years between June 1946 and May 1948 and had to have been displaced from their home and lost their means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. This was in the period leading up to the first Arab-Israeli war. One other thing: the number of so-called refugees (some of whom reside very close to where their grandparents lived) continues to grow, generation after generation.
Isn’t that something? Do the millions of Indians and Pakistanis who were forced from their homes in the former British colony of India, beginning in the summer of 1947, have the same privilege as eternal refugees as the Palestinian Arabs? No, they don’t. (Approximately 5-8 million Muslims and Hindus each were displaced.)
What about the aftermath of WW2 in Europe: “Millions of Germans fled or were expelled from eastern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, survivors of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis, sought secure homes beyond their native lands. And other refugees from every country in eastern Europe rushed to escape from the newly installed Communist regimes.” They successfully settled elsewhere. They are not eternal refugees.
Then there’s the 800,000 Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries). They endured centuries of dhimmi (second class) status, blood libels, and farhud (pogroms). The Jews were deprived of their homes and livelihood in locales where they had lived for centuries – not a period as short as two years. Like the Europeans, the Mizrahi Jews settled elsewhere, in their case mostly in the Jewish State. Refugee status was only applied to those who were initially displaced, but they soon became citizens elsewhere. More of them fled their ancestral homes than the Palestinian Arabs did – and many of those Arabs were recent newcomers to the Land of Israel from around the Middle East.
One could name many more peoples who were forced from their homes and livelihoods because of wars. But there’s only one group that, unlike all the others who made new homes for themselves, refused to build new lives for themselves, even to the point of having a unique UN Agency, UNRWA, which administers to them alone. Of course, this was all aided and abetted by Jew haters in the UN and Muslim Arabs, whose ultimate goal is Israel’s destruction.
Let’s return to the Washington Post. The article’s title is, “Fate of U.N. Palestinian refugee agency in limbo as Israel readies ban.” Reading the article (until two sentences near the very end) you would never know that Israelis existed in the same region, many of them struggling and some even receiving welfare payments and other subsidies.
“Entire communities have relied on UNRWA for generations, and Palestinian officials say that even if they could fill the gaps left by the agency, doing so could strip the refugees of their legal status, which includes the right to return to their homes in what is now Israel.”
Isn’t that exactly the problem? The Palestinian Arabs overwhelmingly rely on handouts from Western countries to support themselves. They make no real effort to self-sustain themselves, instead preferring to cry and moan and demand more, more, more. Unbelievably, the world puts up with this. You didn’t know that you were so rich that you could support millions of beggars, some of whom may even terrorize you.
Can you envision the future of this beggar nation? There are about 5.5 million Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank) and Gaza. Of course, not all of the population just waits for handouts. There are quite a number who have the initiative to prosper. But still, the West sees the Palestinians as desperately needing help, never able to support themselves, and subjugated by the bad, bad, Jews. This is known as the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”
“UNRWA was founded in 1949 to aid Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during the first Arab-Israeli war. In 1967, when Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, the agency entered into an agreement with the Israeli government to provide services to refugees in the territories it controlled.” You can be sure that Israel had no idea that this was intended to be a permanent arrangement.
As mentioned previously, the Mizrahi Jews came to Israel: “600,000 Mizrahi Jews arrived in Israel soon after 1948 as refugees and immigrants, joining the Mizrahi already living in Israel… Israel’s population doubled within several years of independence, and gained again in 1956 and 1967. Today, more Israelis have Mizrahi heritage than European heritage. However, among the young Israelis, one can easily observe that they pay no attention to one’s shade of skin. Everybody marries everybody.
The Israeli government has had enough of UNRWA, in all its aspects, but especially its ‘educational’ system . Many of its workers participated in the 10/7 pogrom and others were and are full-fledged members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for Palestine. The government is cutting all cooperation with UNRWA and is trying to change this unending, failed situation with Palestinian Arabs continually growing in number and being radicalized. I would say they are tools except that so many sincerely want to massacre the Jews and replace them in the Land of Israel.
“The lack of money (UNRWA is experiencing) has already forced UNRWA to implement some austerity measures, said Hanadi Abu Taqa, head of the agency’s work in the northern West Bank. It has almost no budget to replace staff members who quit or retire, and limited funds to repair vehicles or equipment.” This is a good thing.
I’ll conclude with the few words that an Israeli pundit was permitted to say in this skewed article defending Palestinian Arab leadership, a leadership which cares NOTHING for its citizens.
“For many Israelis, this sentiment [amply exhibited above] is the main reason the group [UNWRA] should be banished. “The organization provides the fuel and support for the Palestinian vision that there should be no Jewish state and that one day they will actually attain that goal,” said Einat Wilf, a former Knesset member who has written and spoken extensively against UNRWA.
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Steve Kramer, an American Israeli, is a freelance writer based in Kfar Saba, Israel.