Following a second attack in as many weeks on Jews in the US by terrorists yelling “Free Palestine,” there’s a bold path President Trump could take to both outflank the anti-Israel movement just as (they think) they’re gaining momentum and actually speed up peace in the region: That is by striking deals with individual Arab countries to close Palestinian refugee camps and give refugees citizenship. It would be the perfect US response to the recent cold-blooded murder of a young engaged Israeli couple in Washington, DC, on May 22 and Sunday’s attack injuring eight in Colorado, both of which are reflections of the far left’s efforts to “globalize the intifada.” This instead would shrink the intifada by removing a big propaganda and recruiting tool – the refugee camps. It may even win the president a peace prize.
The refugee problem began in 1948, when the modern State of Israel was declared and neighboring Arab countries (along with those further afield) attacked her. An estimated 600,000-750,000 Arab residents fled – whether to avoid war or at the urging of Arab countries that told them to get out of the way and promised a quick win.
For the last 77 years, those original refugees and their descendants have largely been kept in camps run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and treated as second-class citizens by Arab countries. Take Lebanon, for example, as UNRWA itself states on its website: “The very high rates of poverty among Palestine refugees are a result of decades of structural discrimination related to employment opportunities and denial of the right to own property in Lebanon.”
Jewish refugees fleeing Arab lands
Contrast those Arab refugees with the rarely mentioned, but larger number, of close to one million Jews who fled Arab and Muslim lands at the same time. They left after the Arab League’s Political Committee drafted a 1947 law, ahead of Israel’s formation, that stripped Jews of citizenship and rights, and Arab leaders warned their safety could not be guaranteed. Many of those Jewish communities had existed for thousands of years: Aleppo’s Jews date to King David, and Iraqi and Iranian Jews to the Babylonian exile 2,500 years ago.
You don’t hear much about these refugees because, instead of being kept in camps, Israel integrated them (large populations also went to the US, Canada and France) – and because Jews displaced by Arabs don’t fit the anti-Israel narrative.
These two sets of refugees should have been treated as a population swap. That’s how the unfortunate consequences of conflicts are usually handled. After the Greco-Turkish War ended in 1922, for example, one million Christians from the Ottoman Empire resettled in Greece and 500,000 Muslims went to Turkey. In 1947 millions of people changed countries following the partition of India and Pakistan. In 1974, after Turkey invaded Cyprus, 140,000 Greeks left the north and 60,000 Turks went south.
President Trump should keep this history in mind and go Arab country by Arab country – as he did with the Abraham Accords – striking deals that incentivize refugee integration. So far, he has focused on individual accords and, regarding refugees, mainly on Gaza – reportedly offering Libya the unfreezing of billions of dollars if it takes up to one million refugees. Solving the broader refugee problem would pave the way for more countries to make peace with Israel and would expand the accords more rapidly.
Naturalizing refugees is a central pillar of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and it has already been done in the region. Jordan’s 1954 Nationality Law granted citizenship to “any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in Jordan” during a specified period.
Alongside finalizing cases in Jordan, a good initial focus could be Syria and Lebanon, with 586,000 and nearly 500,000 refugees respectively, according to UNRWA. Both countries are in dire financial straits, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar – recently very friendly hosts to President Trump – are their main patrons. He also just met Syria’s new leader and lifted sanctions on the country, so it’s a good time to ask for something in return.
A crucial step toward naturalization is to scrap UNRWA. The UN already has a refugee agency – the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – that works in 136 countries and serves more than 130 million people. Palestinian refugees don’t need separate treatment, especially because UNRWA perpetuates their predicament.
UNRWA maintains status quo for Palestinians
While UNHCR helps refugees build new lives, UNRWA works to keep them in camps. UNHCR doesn’t automatically confer refugee status on descendants. UNRWA, in contrast, automatically labels each new male generation as refugees and even re-claims those who have left, advertising on its website that “refugees can continue registering newborns as they move abroad.” UNRWA even counts as refugees those naturalized in Jordan in 1954 and their male descendants.
It gets worse. UNRWA-run schools have been shown to indoctrinate pupils with anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric, and its staff include Hamas members – including some who took part in the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.
If UNRWA is dissolved, its budget of more than US $1 billion a year could be used to help countries naturalize the refugees. The US isn’t funding UNRWA at the moment because of its flaws (though it has contributed about US $6 billion since 1950). Washington could say it will redirect that money from other UN contributions, forcing states to cover the shortfall or end their own UNRWA donations.
Besides UNRWA savings, and the money the Qataris and Saudis already pour into Syria and Lebanon, additional funds could come from the World Bank, which has resources for integrating refugees. The US State Department and USAID also spend billions on refugees. Alongside compensating countries for taking refugees, funds could compensate the descendants of both communities for property lost or stolen.
Deal-making is an exercise in realism. It moves parties from rhetoric to practical wins. For those in the camps, citizenship and freedom from second-class status are big wins. For Libya, Lebanon and Syria, it offers funds to rebuild. For Saudi Arabia and Qatar, supporting the plan generates deep US goodwill and peace with Israel. For Israel, it removes a propaganda and terrorist-inspiring tool. And for the US, besides fostering peace and saving money, it might win President Trump a peace prize.
Daniel Freedman is the managing partner of NavT1 and co-author of The Black Banners.