UNRWA vs UNHCR with different rules about temporary vs perpetual refugee status? Are all refugees not equal? Why? What is the point & objective to be classified as a refugee?
Check the audio above & text extracts from Wikipedia below.
A United States Sentaor claims that UNRWA is an example of a United Nations anti-Israel bias, and that Palestine refugees should be treated the same as all others with refugee status around the world.
Critics of UNRWA say that the present definition gives Palestine refugees a favored status when compared with other refugee groups, which the UNHCR defines in terms of nationality as opposed to a relatively short number of years of residency. For example, journalist Arlene Kushner stated that:
Other refugees worldwide are tended to by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which works under the guidelines of the Convention on Refugees of 1951. Only UNRWA and its Palestinian Arab protégés stand apart from this: UNRWA is the only agency that is dedicated to a single group of refugees and establishes its own rules for them. The High Commission is mandated to help refugees get on with their lives as quickly as possible, and works to settle them rapidly, most frequently in countries other than those they fled. UNRWA policy, however, states that the Palestinian Arabs who fled from Israel in the course of the 1948 war–and their descendants!–are to be considered refugees until they return to the homes and villages they left more than half a century ago (which actually no longer exist).
Extract from: INR – The False History of Oslo. Listen to full audio here.
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