The
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics recently commemorated World
Refugee Day by releasing new statistics on Palestinian refugees. Therein
lies a tale.
The bureau reported that there are now 5.1 million Palestinian refugees, saying of their ages:
“The Palestinian refugees are characterized as a young population where
41.7% are under the age of 15 in Palestinian territory, 35.9% of
Palestinian refugees in Jordan were under 15 in 2007, 33.1% of
Palestinian refugees in Syria were under 15 in 2009, and 30.4% of the
refugees in Lebanon were under 15 in 2010.”
This means, for
example, that more than a third of Palestinian “refugees” in Jordan were
born after 1997. That is either 30 years (from the 1967 war) or almost
50 years (if they fled when Israel was established in 1948) after their
parents or more likely grandparents arrived in Jordan. Those in Jordan
have full Jordanian citizenships and vote in Jordan, which means this: A
young Jordanian of Palestinian origin, whose family has lived in Jordan
for 30 years and who himself or herself has always lived in Jordan, is
still considered a "refugee."
This is bizarre, and
the new statistics are a reminder of the unique definition applied to
Palestinian “refugees.” For every other category of refugees in the
world, the 1951 U.N. convention on the status of refugees clearly
applies to the refugee only, and not to subsequent generations. This is
the definition used by the U.N. high commissioner for refugees today.
Only when it comes to Palestinians does a separate organization, the
U.N. Relief and Works Agency, count not only those who actually left
their homes but also subsequent generations, presumably forever, and
regardless of whether those progeny were born and are settled elsewhere
with full citizenship.
So a young American boy
of, say, 10 years of age, born in Chicago to American parents, but
whose grandparents were Palestinians who fled Israel in 1948, is counted
by UNRWA as a “Palestinian refugee.”
It is not surprising
that the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. Senate on May 31 adopted
an amendment defining Palestinian “refugees” the way all other refugees
are defined, and rejecting the definition that produces the number 5.1
million today and who knows how many more millions as the years roll by.
What’s surprising is that this effort, led by Sen. Mark Kirk of
Illinois – who would represent the young boy in my example as well as
his parents – was widely held as controversial. It is simply common
sense.
Elliott
Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on
Foreign Relations. This piece is reprinted with permission and can be
found on Abrams’ blog “Pressure Points” here.
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