UN & UNRWA should demand end to refugee camps in Gaza & West Bank

 

The tragic death of Palestinian Arab-USA journalist – Shireen Abu Akleh – caught in crossfire between Israeli security forces and armed Palestinian Arabs in Jenin--should serve as a clarion call to the United Nations (UN) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to demand:

• the closure of the 27 UNRWA-funded Palestinian Arab refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – currently housing about 800,000 Palestinian Arabs and 
• their resettlement in towns and villages throughout Gaza and areas A and B of the West Bank among their own Palestinian Arab brethren.

No Palestinian Arab should have ever been classified as a refugee after having moved from one part to another part of former Palestine – whether voluntarily or not. 

UNRWA stands condemned for allowing this fictitious refugee status to continue for over 70 years. 

UNRWA's flawed policy has led to discrimination and a gross abuse of human rights for those Palestinian Arabs forced to live in these over-crowded and degrading camps separated from their fellow Palestinian Arabs. 

That human rights organisations such as the UN Human Rights Committee and Amnesty International remain silent on the plight of these penned in Palestinian Arabs and the conditions in which they live is equally reprehensible. 

UNRWA makes clear that it has no say in the camps being closed or remaining open:

"UNRWA does not administer or police the camps, as this is the responsibility of the host authorities."

But UNRWA does have the power to force their closure by withholding financial assistance to those PLO and Hamas-administered camps unless their residents are progressively moved out and resettled among the general Palestinian Arab populations in Gaza and the West Bank. 

UNRWA itself readily admits the shocking conditions existing in these camps which have also become breeding grounds for planning and implementing violence and murderous attacks against Israel's civilian population.

Jenin Camp on the West Bank:

• borders the Jenin municipality and was established in 1953
• has a population of 14000 that lives on just 0.42 sq. km of land
• according to UNRWA: 

"experiences one of the highest rates of unemployment and poverty among the 19 West Bank refugee camps... Unemployment and poverty has affected the youth especially, resulting in widespread dissatisfaction and frustration and contributing to higher school dropout rates among younger children.

Jabalia Camp in the Gaza Strip:

• Is the closest camp to the Erez border crossing with Israel
• Has a population of 114,000 that lives on 1.5 sq. km of land and is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
• UNRWA concedes:

"Overcrowding and a lack of living space characterize Jabalia camp. Shelters are built in close vicinity and there is a general lack of recreational and social space. In many cases, residents have had to add extra floors to their shelters to accommodate their families, in some cases without proper design. Many live in substandard conditions." 

Closing Jenin and Jabalia and resettling their 128000 inmates would be a good start. 

UNRWA donors need to pressure UNRWA to demand that Hamas and the PLO close all 27 camps -threatening to reduce their pledges if this does not happen.

The marked absence of wealthy Arab-donor countries in the following list of the top 20 donor countries to UNWRA in 2021 makes depressing reading.

Those missing wealthy Arab donor countries have: 

• the political and financial clout to force the PLO and Hamas to close these camps and
• the potential to make substantial pledges to UNRWA to fund the successful resettlement of their long-suffering fellow Arabs.

This humanitarian disaster being perpetuated by the PLO and Hamas on their own people must be ended.

Author's note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.

Bennett set to shake-up global consensus on two-state solution

 

Israeli Prime Minister — Naftali Bennett — seems set to challenge the decades-long failure by the international community to achieve its called-for two-state solution: Creating a second Palestinian Arab state, in addition to Jordan, for the first time in recorded history.

Bennett made his intention very clear when introducing Israel’s next Government — presumably with his new coalition partners’ unanimous approval:

“We will ensure Israel’s national interests in Area C — and we will increase standards to that end after much neglect in this area.”

Bennett — anointed as “Prime Minister and Minister for Settlement Affairs” — is now uniquely placed to promote his “Israel Stability Initiative — February 2012” (Stability Plan)  —  summarised by him in 2017:

“The main idea of The Stability Plan is to provide full civilian self-governance to the Palestinians so they can elect themselves, pay their taxes, and control those areas that are theirs. We should apply sovereignty in Israeli-controlled areas—known as Area C—and Palestinians living there will become part and parcel of the State of Israel. And since within the State of Israel you cannot have two levels of people, those Palestinians living in Area C—approximately 80,000 people—will be offered full Israeli citizenship, including voting rights. I think most will opt for residency rather than citizenship (like in East Jerusalem) but it’s up to them. They can be Israeli citizens, Israeli residents or Palestinian citizens.

Those living in the Palestinian-controlled areas (Areas A and B) will govern themselves in all aspects barring two elements: overall security responsibility and not being able to allow the return of decedents [sic] of Palestinians refugees. We can’t have an inflow of millions of great grandchildren of 1948 refugees coming across the Jordan River because in one swoop that would distort the demography of the area, and within a few weeks of their arrival, the local Palestinians in Judea and Samaria would tell them to ‘go back to Jaffa’ which would subsequently create pressure on Israel that could lead to a third intifada inside ‘Smaller Israel’.

My option is that Palestinians have an ‘autonomy on steroids,’ and I’m open to ideas about how this materialises; it could be a confederation with Jordan, or local municipalities, or a central government. It would encompass full freedom of movement, massive infrastructure investment, the creation of a tourism zone so Christians can enter Haifa, Nazareth, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Hebron without going through road blocks. We would have joint industrial centres, and we’d be able to create a land port governed by the Palestinians in Jenin that would be connected to Haifa.”

Bennett continued:

“I understand there is global consensus around the two-state solution, but what the world thinks is no proof for the correctness of a plan. The world gets it wrong a lot.

I’d say to those in the international community who are so entrenched in the idea of a Palestinian state that (a) the Palestinians have a state in Gaza and they blew it, and (b) after 50 years, at what time do we need to rethink? In the high tech world where I come from, if my employees tried the same solution and failed again and again I’d fire them as I’d expect them to have tried to tackle the challenge from a different angle by now! There is an industry around this topic—think-tanks, journals, professionals and academics who keep on chewing on the same old failed solution. We’re not in Europe, we live in a region with very few democracies, and when we tried this idea out it blew up in our faces and no one showed us any sympathy.”

Global consensus needs to positively respond to Bennett’s challenge.

Author’s note: The cartoon—commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators—whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.