Video Of The Week - A Palestinian "Refugee" Speaks out - https://tinyurl.com/yaqhutob
Obama concealed
a myth-smashing report. Trump can reveal it to the world.
Wall Street Journal - By Richard Goldberg and Jonathan
Schanzer
For the full
article go to https://tinyurl.com/y7g2dmqt
If President Trump wants to promote peace in the Middle East, his
first step should be to declassify a key State Department report that would end
the myth of Palestinian “refugees.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is singularly devoted to
the Palestinian refugee issue. Unrwa labels more than five million Palestinians
“refugees”—an impossible figure. The first Arab-Israeli war, in 1948, yielded
roughly 800,000 Palestinian Arab refugees.
Perhaps 30,000 remain alive today,
but Unrwa has kept the refugee issue alive by labeling their descendants—in
some cases great-great-grandchildren—as “refugees,” who insist on the “right of
return” to their ancestors’ homes. Israel categorically rejects this demand.
Unrwa’s operations run counter to the broader mission of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees, which is to resettle those displaced by war.
Unrwa’s mission, on the other hand, keeps the conflict’s embers glowing by
refusing to resettle Palestinians in neighboring countries or even in the
Palestinian territories.
If Mr. Trump wants his peace plan to have a chance, he has to
challenge false Palestinian narratives. He did this by recognizing Jerusalem as
the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy there. For decades,
Palestinian leaders issued maximalist claims on Jerusalem. Mr. Trump’s move
sent the message that making peace requires accepting reality.
Mr. Trump can send the same message by declassifying one document.
In 2012 Congress ordered the State Department to disclose how many Palestinians
currently served by Unrwa fled the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and how many are
merely their descendants. The Obama administration classified the report,
citing national security—as if revealing foreign census data were a threat to
America.
A year and half into office, Mr. Trump hasn’t reversed this policy,
but momentum is building against it. In April more than 50 House members urged
State to declassify the report. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has done the same.
Removing the label of “refugee” from millions of Palestinians
wouldn’t hurt them. Instead, it would unlock their economic potential and
create an opportunity for lasting peace. Perhaps that’s why the Palestinian
leadership is fighting it. Once the refugee issue is exposed as a scam,
Palestinian leaders would have to learn how to govern, not merely stir up
antagonism with Israel.
The inability of Palestinian leaders to detach from this
70-year-old story raises real concerns about whether peace is possible. But if
Mr. Trump is committed, he can send a clear message to the millions living in
Unrwa camps: Your leaders want to keep you in squalor, while America wants you
to prosper. It’s the most pro-Palestinian step an American president could
take.
Mr. Goldberg is a senior adviser and Mr. Schanzer senior vice
president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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