Palestinian Refugees Forever

"[UNRWA: definition of "refugee"]: A person whose normal residence had been Palestine for a minimum of two years preceding the 1948 conflict and who, as a result, had lost both his home and means of livelihood."
United Nations Relief and Aid Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

"[Once a temporary organization, now a] huge welfare agency, prolonging its beneficiaries' dependence instead of giving them tools to become self-sufficient. The agency's funding of food rations to large numbers of refugees who were perfectly capable of providing for their own sustenance [is lamentable]."
James G. Lindsay, former legal advisor, general counsel for UNRWA

In this 1971 photo from the UNRWA archive, Palestinian refugees pose for a picture in the 

New Amman refugee camp in Eastern Jordan. (photo credit: AP/G.Nehmeh/UNRWA 

Photo Archives)

Founded in 1949 as a organization with a temporary mandate, to alleviate the plight of Palestinian refugees who fled Israel, its goal was inclusive of emergency relief and "the economic integration of the refugees in host countries." UNRWA funded development projects whose purpose was to employ those refugees whom UNRWA planned to "make them self-sufficient to a point where their names could be deleted from the relief rolls."

At that juncture UNWRA even crossed off its lists fraudulent applications, at that time held to be in the tens of thousands, by people making use of false births and duplicate registrations with variations on their names, to game the system and become "refugees" whose plight garnered them protection and support under the umbrella of the UN's refugee-aid system specific to the Middle East Palestinians.

And then reality set in. Arab states had no interest in accepting the Palestinian refugees as permanent registrants and citizens with all the rights inherent in that status, preferring to have the UN look after them as "refugees", a festering sore blamed on the presence of a Jewish State where those "refugees" insisted their own state was meant to be. Out with the development projects, because as it happened, many refugees had no interest in being resettled.

Which was when UNRWA transformed itself from a temporary function to a fairly permanent one.
And it changed its mandate somewhat in the process, opening itself up generously, funded by the West primarily, to treat homeless Palestinians who hadn't fled as refugees equally with those who had. Then the addition of less needy Palestinians who hadn't fled, hadn't lost their homes also received the coveted refugee status.

And that was inclusive of Palestinians who had lived always outside Israel, even if they had lived in the same home they, their fathers and grandfather had lived in. And while they were at it, they cast their refugee net even wider to include needy nomadic Bedouin and Arab villagers living in Palestine using fields for pasturage that became part of Israel, and those who had held jobs in Israel. UNRWA absorbed into the refugee designation some needy non-Palestinians from Lebanon for good measure.

dalje.com   A minaret looms above the controversial Israeli separation barrier that surrounds the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, West Bank. February 5, 2012.

And then, generosity knowing no bounds, the requirement to be needy was dropped, as was that requiring continuous residence in the Palestinian territories after the 1948 war with Israel. Even a Palestinian who had migrated to Canada, deciding after awhile preferrence to be back in Gaza could resume refugee status and have all entitlements reinstated. The final absorption into refugee status was the inclusion of grandchildren and great grandchildren of refugees.

So UNRWA looked after its longevity by nurturing Palestinian "refugees" from their original official estimated number of 726,000 to the over five million refugees that official UNRWA recognizes to this date. All purportedly eager to return to their Palestinian homeland, where they may assume, UNRWA will continue to perpetuate itself and their endowments into perpetuity.

Should UNRWA, as it happens, write itself out of business its bureaucracy of 30,000, 90% of whom are Palestinians would be out of work. Clearly, that would be disastrous.

Back in 2000 Jean Chretien, then prime minister and his foreign affairs minister John Manley generously offered to resettle Palestinians in Canada. The response by Palestinians was to burn Manley in effigy in the West Bank and the statements of appreciation sounded something like this: "If Canada is serious about resettlement, you could expect military attacks in Ottawa or Montreal", according to the head of a Fatah militia.

"We reject any kind of settlement of refugees in Arab countries, or in Canada", stated the Palestine Liberation Organization. As they go on growing like Topsy; the United Nations Relief and Aid Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and the Palestinian "refugee" population, both.
Data thanks to Lawrence Solomon, StandWithUsCanada