Throughout the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has been clear that the plight of the Palestinians is being used as a political tool and weapon against Israel. My career has been dedicated to educating the public about the Middle East, highlighting that Palestinian suffering has persisted since Israel’s War of Independence. Unlike other displaced groups, Palestinians have remained refugees because no other country has offered them a home.
Since the Six Day War in 1967, the struggle for Palestinian liberation has (supposedly) been at the heart and soul of the Arab world. However, actions speak louder than words, and at a time when Palestinians in Gaza need help the most, leaders of these Arab countries show just how little they care about them. Egypt’s and Jordan’s unwavering refusal to grant Gazan civilians refuge while Israel wages its war against Hamas is proof that, to Arab leaders, concern for the Palestinians is nothing but empty words.
War is always tragic and, in most cases, leaves populations displaced, as we saw in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) reports that nearly six million Ukrainian refugees were recorded across Europe, while an estimated eight million had been displaced by May 2022. In other words, according to these stats, about one-quarter of Ukraine’s population had to flee their homes as a result of the war.
In the case of Israel and the Palestinians in 1948, when Arab dictators and ultra-nationalist Palestinian leaders started the War of Independence, about 750,000 Palestinians were displaced.
In most cases, refugees and displaced persons fall under UNHCR, the UN agency that protects and assists refugees and displaced persons by helping them find solutions after war. Most of the time, UNHCR provides humanitarian assistance to refugees and helps to facilitate voluntary return to their home countries, integrate them into host communities, or resettle them in third countries when return and integration are impossible. An example with my own family happened in 1991, when the Iron Curtain fell in Russia and we were forced to flee as refugees. We immediately were absorbed into Israel, which took in many Jewish Russians who were fleeing Soviet persecution.
Today, the 750,000 (at most) Palestinian refugees from the War of Independence have turned into over 5.9 million refugees. The vast majority of today’s Palestinian refugees are now the descendants of Palestinians who were expelled or fled their homes during the War of Independence. While UNHCR exists to mitigate these problems, the reason the Palestinian refugee crisis is growing is that Palestinians do not fall under UNHCR; instead, they are the only refugees in the world to fall under an exclusive UN refugee category.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was established in 1949 and has contributed to the prolonged Palestinian refugee situation. While other refugees under UNHCR adhere to the standard international definition of refugees outlined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, UNRWA’s definition of a refugee includes descendants of those displaced in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. This definition is a huge departure from the standard refugee definition, creating a perpetuation of refugee status for the Palestinians for generations to come.
Why have Palestinians been forced to stay as refugees for 75 years?
THIS RAISES a legitimate question, which is “why?” Why on earth would it be advantageous to force the Palestinians to carry on a refugee status for 75 years? The vast majority of Palestinians were not alive in 1948, so what other explanation could there be for perpetuating their suffering and the refusal of Arab countries to take them? The Arab leaders claim to care about Palestinians, yet all their actions prove otherwise. The only legitimate answer is that they want to prolong Palestinian suffering in order to continue the conflict against Israel.
Palestinians are also fed an unrealistic notion of the “Right of Return,” a political position that the Palestinian refugees of today will return to the territory that is now Israel proper. In no way is this a realistic notion, and it is used as nothing more than to undermine Israel as a Jewish state. While the Palestinians were offered reparations in several previous peace deals, their leadership has rejected all of them and instead pushed the notion of “right of return.” Holding on to this unrealistic expectation and rejecting statehood and liberation multiple times has also contributed to the Palestinian refugee problem.
History repeats itself as Arab leaders have taken the same positions ever since the Six-Day War. Indeed, King Abdullah II of Jordan announced shortly after the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis that accepting Palestinian refugees is a “red line” for Jordan. Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly dismissed calls to take in Palestinians from Gaza and said, “We are ready to sacrifice millions of lives to protect our territory from any encroachment.”
Twenty-one Arab countries claim to care about Palestinians but none of them are taking in Palestinian refugees.
At a time when Gazans need help the most, Arab leaders demonstrate that they are actively willing to watch millions of them die to prevent them from entering their territory. They want Palestinians to suffer and fail because it continues to excuse any altercations with Israel. Anyone who is ignoring all this and the context in which Hamas murdered, raped, burned, and decapitated civilians when they choose to blame Israel for Palestinian civilian deaths is just a vicious antisemite. Neither do they honestly care about a better and safer future for the Palestinians.
The writer is a social media activist with over 10 years of experience working for Israeli and Jewish causes and cause-based NGOs. She is co-founder and COO of Social Lite Creative, a digital marketing firm specializing in geopolitics.