Jun. 24, 2016

Egyptian Statesman: What Palestinian Refugees? – Amos Harel
At a recent meeting a well-known Egyptian statesman sat down to talk with an Israeli acquaintance. The conversation touched on the Palestinian refugees, and this person, who held top positions in the past and still has great influence, lost his cool. “What refugees are you talking about?” the Egyptian said. The region is flooded with millions of new refugees living under impossible conditions and desperately needing help. These people fled the terrors of war in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Giant tent cities have sprouted in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Against this backdrop, the Palestinians’ insistence on portraying third-generation refugees, the grandchildren of those who fled during the 1948 war, is groundless. Many of these refugees live in stone dwellings with proper infrastructure, continuing to benefit from handouts from the UN. Their leaders use them to perpetuate the Palestinian problem. (Ha’aretz)