by MEMRI
The Palestinian response to the Israeli campaign for the dissolution of UNRWA
Following reports that Israel is campaigning for the dissolution of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and its integration in the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC), PLO and Palestinian
Authority (PA) bodies and officials said that Israel is acting to thwart
the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes. They stressed
that there will be no concessions on this issue, and that the only
possible solution to the refugee problem is implementing UN Resolution
194 on their right of return.
The following are excerpts from some of the statements.
The key – a symbol of the right of return (image: paltimes.ps, September 12, 2017)
The Refugee Problem Will Be Resolved By Implementing UN Resolution 194; There Will Be No Concessions On This
A statement released by the Palestinian
Information Ministry on September 12, 2017 said: "The right of return is
anchored in UN resolutions and in particular in Resolution 194. There
will be no Palestinian concessions on the right of return. The
persistent, toxic attempts by Israel and its leaders [to deny this
right] are not new. The founder of Israel, David Ben Gurion, said about
this: 'The old refugees will die and the young will forget'... The most
appropriate response to the attempts to eliminate the issue of the
refugees is to remind the world that it opposes the occupation and that,
decades ago, it voted in favor of [the refugees'] return and
compensation, and also to ask Israeli diplomats about the hundreds of
Palestinian cities and villages that the Zionist gangs destroyed in 1948
and about the crimes, ethnic cleansing and expulsion that occurred
there. The [PA] Information Ministry stresses that the dissolution of
UNRWA, and the cessation of its services, will take place one day after
the UN resolutions regarding the refugees' return and compensation are
implemented to the letter. This is the time for the UN to seriously
consider placing full responsibility for the Nakba on the occupying
entity [i.e., Israel] and charging it with financing all of UNRWA's
needs, on the force of international law and the UN Security Council and
UN General Assembly resolutions."[1]
In an interview with the Palestinian news
agency WAFA, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki said that
"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu dispatched a delegation to Washington
to discuss the dismantling of UNRWA in order to pressure the
Palestinians to make concessions. There will be no concessions on this
issue. We will not succumb to any blackmail on this... It is a red line
as far as we are concerned."[2]
In its September 12, 2017 weekly session,
chaired by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, the Palestinian government
condemned the "campaign initiated by the Israeli government to usurp
UNRWA's mandate [to care] for the Palestinian [refugees], after Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded UNRWA's dissolution and its
integration in the UNHRC." The government emphasized "the permanent and
principled position of the PLO and the Palestinian leadership with
regards to resolving the problem of the Palestinian refugees, i.e. the
implementation of UN Resolution 194 and opposition to resettling the
refugees [elsewhere], in any way. The government made it clear that
UNRWA would continue providing services to the refugees by virtue of the
mandate granted it in UN Resolution 302.[3]
In this context, the Palestinian prime
minister told UNRWA representatives: "The international community is
obligated to guarantee UNRWA's continued activity, as it is the living
witness to the Palestinians' tragedy and to the magnitude of the crime
[committed] against them. The refugee problem is the heart of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. Its resolution according to UN decisions, and in
particular Resolution 194, is the primary way to end the conflict and
attain peace."[4]
The PLO Executive
Committee warned of the danger posed by Israel's diplomatic campaign to
dissolve UNRWA and clarified that it would fiercely oppose this
campaign, along with the Palestinian public, particularly in the refugee
camps. It added that Israel was doing this "to cover up its crime that
led to the expulsion of Palestinians from their cities and villages and
to the destruction and takeover of their property through acts of
looting that have been ongoing ever since the Nakba."[5]
Director Of PLO's Department of Refugee Affairs: Israel Means To Undermine Refugees' Right Of Return To Their Homes
It should be noted
that, already in June 2017, it was reported that Netanyahu had called
for dissolving UNRWA and integrating it in the UNHCR on the grounds that
it perpetuates the refugee problem by leaving it unresolved, and
because it incites against Israel.[6]
In response, the director of the PLO's Department of Refugee Affairs,
Ahmad Hanoun, said in a press release: "Netanyahu's call is intended to
deliver a blow to the refugees' right to return to the homes from which
they were expelled in 1948 and eliminate the living witness to the
Palestinian Nakba [i.e., UNRWA]."[7]
MEMRI
Source: https://www.memri.org/reports/no-palestinian-conseccions-on-right-of-return
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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