refugee camps which organize official celebrations in honor of their
recently-martyred suicide bombers.
Who runs these "refugee camps"? There is one agency with absolute
authority over Palestinian refugee camps - and it is not the PLO, not the
P.A., not Hamas, Islamic Jihad or any other Arab entity.
The agency which runs these refugee camps in none other than UNRWA, the
United
Nations Relief and Works Agency! This body was established by the UN after
the 1948 War of Liberation, with a mandate to administer 'temporary
shelters' until such time as the refugees earned/won/were granted the right
to return to the homes and villages they had fled in '48 - even if these
villages no longer existed!
UNRWA, therefore, remains the only refugee agency in the world whose
apparent purpose is to perpetuate the status of refugees as refugees!
Indeed, the official curriculum of the free UNRWA education system is
based on that idea - that refugees
must remain refugees until such time as they are repatriated to their homes.
Peter Hanson, the Danish-born Director of UNRWA, explains that "the right
of return"
remains the motto of UNRWA, and the cause which unites all of the
Palestinian people.
Sammy Messhassha, Head of Public Affairs for UNRWA in
Jerusalem,acknowledges that UNRWA is well aware of the fact that thousands
of armed Palestinian Authority security personnel make their homes in UNRWA
camps, and that UNRWA does not object to such a phenomenon.
P.A. media analyst Ghassan Khatib remarked to CNN, in a February/2000
interview, that every young man in the UNRWA Balata refugee camp now has
his own personal weapon! How? Each UNRWA camp hosts a local steering
committee which is in charge of distributing the funds received as
charitable donations from relief organizations and donor countries around
the world. And it is that committee which decides whether to provide food
rations or weapons with the money at their disposal.
In light of such evidence, will the nations and
organizations which contribute so generously to UNRWA - including the
United States, Canada, E.U., and even Israel -now demand that UNRWA disarm
these hotbeds of terrorism masquerading as refugee camps? Or not.
At this time, as UNRWA food storage bins are turned into ammunition dumps
to supply armed weapons to the Palestinian gunmen, UNRWA issues urgent
memos for donor nations to urgently allocate funds to UNRWA.
There is one question for the UNRWA donor nations to ask: Where has all the
flour gone??
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Previous Articles Written in
Israel Resource Review
about UNRWA
7th July, 1997
The Refugee Dilemma: A Day in the UNRWA Arab Refugee Camps by Shawn Cohen
Sidebar: What you need to know about U.N.R.W.A. by David Bedein
1st December, 1997
"40 Minutes in Palestine" by Michael Cohen
29th December, 1997
Commonly Held Assumptions:
Palestinian Arab Refugees as "Peripheral" to the Peace Process by David Bedein
13th October, 1998
Why is the Shuafat Refugee Camp Seething? by David Bedein
13th July, 1999
Clinton and the Right of Return by David Bedein
Peace Only if '48 Refugees Return Home by Al-Ahram Weekly Editorial
15th June, 2000
Palestinian Refugee Issue Complicates Israeli-PA Negotiations by Julie Stahl
9th May, 2000
Orient House Orients the Visitor to the Palestinian State by David Bedein
26th October, 2001
The PLO: Aiming to Bring 300,000 Arab Refugees to the Galil by Uzi Benziman
5th October, 2001
UNRWA Director Peter Hansen Opposes Solving Palestinian Refugee Problem
28th March, 2001
Canada's role in the 'Right of Return' by David Bedein
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