Thread by @UNWatch

1/ "Who are "Palestine refugees?" Per @UNRWA—whose definition differs from what UNHCR @Refugees applies to the rest of the world—they're all descendants in perpetuity of 750,000 displaced in 1948. That's 5.7 million & growing—and includes 2 million who are Jordanian CITIZENS.

https://twitter.com/UNRWA/status/1358816297337950211

2/ While refugee numbers from all other post-WW2 conflicts were reduced due to integration in host countries or resettlement elsewhere consistent with UNHCR mandate & 1951 Refugee Convention, only Palestinian refugee numbers continue to rise year after year with no end in sight.

3/ More than 800,000 Jewish refugees were forced out of Arab lands in wake of Israel's creation. All were resettled in other countries, many of them in Israel, and are no longer refugees.

4/ A better question is: How did we get here? The answer can be found in the authoritative new book by @EinatWilf
and @Adi_Schwartz — The War of Return (a must-read). amazon.com/War-Return-Ind…

5/ The authors document how having lost the territorial war, Arab leaders began to view the refugees as another weapon in their war to eliminate the State of Israel, by demanding a "right of return" which does not exist in international law.

6/ Egyptian FM Salah al-Din, Oct. 1949: “It is well known & understood that the Arabs, in demanding the return of the refugees to Palestine, mean their return as masters of the Homeland & not as its slaves. With greater clarity, they mean the liquidation of the State of Israel.”

7/ Unlike other refugees who were resettled in host countries, the Arab states hosting Palestinian refugees refused to integrate them into the local economy and insisted on keeping them in refugee camps separate from the rest of the population.

8/ Lebanon openly discriminates agains Palestinians, treating them completely differently than its citizens, denying Palestinians basic rights, such as entry to certain professions and equal access to healthcare.

jpost.com/middle-east/pa…

9/ In Syria, Palestinian refugees were never given citizenship.

10/ Only Jordan granted citizenship to its Palestinian refugees, now numbering 2.2 million. Yet astonishingly they are still classified as "refugees" by UNRWA, eligible for its benefits and services even though international refugee law—and logic—would not consider them refugees.

11/ Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza never left the area between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean and live under Palestinian rule in territory designated for a potential future Palestinian state. How can they be called refugees?

12/ It is time to reassess whether UNRWA truly contributes to peace and stability, or whether—in the words of Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis—“UNRWA has become part of the problem.“ swissinfo.ch/eng/palestinia…