Andrew Whitley, the New York Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the following at a recent conference:
'We recognize, as I think most do, although it's not a position that we publicly articulate, that the right of return is unlikely to be exercised to the territory of Israel to any significant or meaningful extent,' Whitley told an audience at the National Council for US-Arab Relations conference. 'It's not a politically palatable issue, it's not one that UNRWA publicly advocates, but nevertheless it's a known contour to the issue.' Instead of entertaining that 'cruel illusion,' he continued, Palestinians should start considering 'their own role in the societies where they are, rather than being left in a state of limbo where they are helpless.'
UNRWA has been responsible for providing aid and services to Palestinian refugees since 1949. At that time there were approximately 700,000 refugees. Now there are estimated to be 5 million since refugee status was made transferrable to the next generation and -- more importantly -- because the places where the original refugees ended up, Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza have done nothing to integrate them into the surrounding society.
As Ben Cohen notes , it is hard to fault Whitley for his logic. 'Of the 50 million people who lost their homes because of war and conflict in the twentieth century, practically none of the original displaced returned to their homes, never mind their descendants. The historical record shows that refugees - like those 17,000 displaced Jews administered to by UNRWA back in 1950 - are invariably absorbed by host countries.'
Ah, but the Arabs have refused to absorb any Palestinians because that would have prevented them from using these poor souls as political bludgeon with which to beat Israel. So the reaction to Whitley's extraordinarily reasonable statement was predictably extreme. The Jordanians have condemned him , Hamas has threatened him and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denies there is any validity to Whitley's position .
There are two tragedies about this episode. First, it simply a fact that Whitley had the extreme good sense to allude to that Israel will not commit suicide by permitting million of Palestinians who have no claim to the Jewish State to 'return' there. And second, it has been more than 60 years that millions of Palestinians live in miseable conditions in refugee camps because the powers that be will not let them have civil and equal rights. The result is news reports about the current condition of refugee camps in Lebanon which another UNRWA representative says are as bad as the camps in Gaza.
Those who wear the label of 'friend of the Palestinian' are exactly the ones who are, in fact, doing that people the greatest harm." (source)
