http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=828Media: The Palestinian Refugees: Why Is Everyone Lying To Them?
A reply from UNRWA
To the Hudson Institute Website Editor
Sir/Madam,
The article posted on 19 October 2010, “The Palestinian Refugees: why is everyone lying to them?” contains factual inaccuracies and false insinuations about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The notion of “UNRWA administered camps” is misleading as UNRWA does not run camps, but manages facilities such as schools and clinics within them. We have no control over who lives in the camps and the idea of our Agency forcing anyone to stay in them is absurd. Our education and micro-finance programmes offer self-reliance and give our beneficiaries the ability to leave the camps and lead dignified and productive lives, integrating where desired and possible into host communities. The facts speak for themselves. The proportion of refugees living in camps has steadily declined from about one hundred per cent at the time of our creation over sixty years ago, to just one third today.
Moreover, the conclusions that UNRWA perpetuates the refugee crisis, offers “no solution” and “creates new generations” of refugees are also wrong. As with refugees assisted by UNHCR, the refugee status of UNRWA refugees is transferred through the generations pending a just and lasting solution. What perpetuates the Palestinian refugee crisis is the failure of the parties to resolve the refugees’ plight within the context of a durable political resolution of the conflict. Until such resolution is reached, UNRWA remains committed to its mandate of bringing human development through education, health and social services, offering dignity, hope and stability to some of the most disadvantaged people in one of the world’s most troubled regions.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Gunness,
UNRWA Spokesperson
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Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside. What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.
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