by Shlomo Cesana
American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists says UNRWA dedicates itself to preventing the resettlement of Palestinians, and inflates its numbers by including all descendants of original Palestinian refugees from 1948 War of Independence.
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Palestinian girl at an UNRWA school [Archive]
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Photo credit: Reuters
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The United Nations is scheduled on Monday to discuss
revisions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East. The discussion will focus, among other things, on an initiative by the
American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists which calls for reforming the
manner in which a Palestinian refugee is defined.
The association's goal is to fundamentally change the
objectives of UNRWA's activities. It argues that while other relief
organizations seek to resettle refugees, UNRWA dedicates itself to preventing
the resettlement of Palestinians. Additionally, while in other organizations the
number of refugees is limited to those who fled their countries, UNRWA inflates
its numbers by including all the descendants of the original Palestinian
refugees from the War of Independence in 1948.
Former Knesset member Dr. Einat Wilf held meetings in the
past year with ambassadors from countries that donate to UNRWA in efforts to
shed light on the organization's practices.
"There is no reason for a fifth-generation descendant,
living in Gaza, to be considered by an organization supported by Western
countries as a refugee from Palestine," said Wilf.
Irit Kohn, the president of the International Association of
Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, said: ["UNRWA] prolongs the refugee problem and does
not facilitate any solution. Had the considerable funds that have been
transferred [to it] been utilized properly, the situation could be totally
different."
Shlomo Cesana
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17579
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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