Opinion

Double blow to the Palestinians

September 01, 2018

IF US President Donald Trump is serious about capping the number of recognized Palestinian refugees at only half a million, and end all US financial aid to the Palestinians, it will be an extremely unjust one-two punch.

Israeli TV recently announced that a report due to be published at the beginning of September by the administration will cap the number of recognized Palestinian refugees at half a million — around a tenth of the present UN number. It said the US is set to announce that it will not accept the UN’s definition of a Palestinian refugee, which states that refugee status is passed from one generation to the next.

Stripping millions of Palestinians across the region of their status as refugees is a highly evocative issue, tied to the Palestinian “right of return” demand. Refugee status is not just granted to those who fled Palestine 70 years ago but to their descendants as well, putting the refugee population at around five million, nearly one-third of whom live in camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza.

Trump is working to limit immigration into his own country, but immigrants who can and cannot cross into America are not the same people nor are they in the same boat as refugees wanting to return to Palestine. The right of return of Palestinians is a scared right as well as a human right. Israel flatly rules out any hopes among exiled Palestinians that they might someday return home, although Israel’s position stands in contrast with its Law of Return that grants all Jews worldwide the right to settle permanently, while withholding any comparable right from Palestinians.

Like Jerusalem, Trump may be aiming to take another thorny issue “off the table” before unveiling his anticipated deal of the century to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In reality, blocking the right of return does not take the issue off the table because it is a gross injustice and it favors Israel and in particular a very right-wing perspective within Israel.

News that Trump may cut off all aid to the Palestinians is unofficial but last week the administration did officially announce that it would cut more than $200 million in aid for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The US has now slashed its support from more than $300 million last year to $60 million thus far. The aid goes to UNRWA, the UN relief agency which has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN states, including those from the US, its largest donor.

The administration is clearly hoping that the economic pressure will get the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table which PA President Mahmoud Abbas left over Trump’s decision last year to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

However, the aid cut could backfire badly on Israel and the reasons are not difficult to discern. Since UNRWA provides education, health, and other essential services to some two million people, cutting its aid would cause more hardship and unrest in Gaza, the West Bank and other parts of the Middle East. The void created by any decline in UNRWA services would be filled by extremists.

US aid to the Palestinians is not charity. It is needed for a dire humanitarian situation for a people suffering deep economic hardships.

The Trump administration is rearranging the terms of Palestinian aid in Israel’s favor. Cutting aid is one more way that the US government, the historic peace process mediator, is aligning itself with hardline elements within Israel.

President Trump likes to shake things up and shatter the status quo but you don’t disrupt things without laying the foundation for a viable alternative.


September 01, 2018
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