Trump and Netanyahu Want Aid to Palestinian Refugees Denied

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Palestinian refugees include patrilineal descendants of their 1948 and 1967 numbers - now totaling  around five million men, women and children, dependent on vital UN Relief Works Agency (UNWRA) aid.

During Israel's 1948 war of aggression, about 800,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, property and possessions.

They, their descendants and others from Israel's 1967 aggression are denied their international law guaranteed right of return to their homeland.

Millions of Palestinians comprise the world's longest unsettled refugee population - no resolution to their plight in sight because of repressive Israeli policies, funded and encouraged by Washington.

In December 1948, UN Resolution 194 stipulated that refugees wishing to "live at peace with their neighbors…should be permitted" to return to their homes at the "earliest practicable date."

The right of return is inviolate, an inalienable international law right - rejected by Israel and Washington, partners in the highest of high crimes.

In 1949, UNWRA was established to provide vital aid for millions of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes in 1948, others in 1967, including their descendants and adopted children, dispossessed from their land, property, livelihoods, and fundamental rights.

The organization provides education, healthcare, and other vital social services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Trump prioritizes militarism, warmaking, corporate favoritism and tax cuts for the rich - at the expense of vital social justice programs.

Like his predecessors, Netanyahu wants maximum Jews and minimum Arabs in historic Palestinian - brutal oppression, ethnic cleansing, slow-motion genocide and aggression his tactics.

He and Trump reject peace, stability, and affording Palestinians their fundamental rights, including aid for Palestinian refugees dependent on it.

They're holding them hostage, demanding they agree to Israeli subjugation through no-peace/peace talks, renouncing their fundamental rights, including East Jerusalem as their future capital - to receive woefully inadequate amounts of aid.

Washington provides over $300 million annually to UNWRA. Trump wants the amount slashed.

Netanyahu wants the agency to "disappear," part of Israel's longstanding plan to Judaize historic Palestine, minimizing a Palestinian presence in their historic homeland.

When it comes to Israel, the Occupied Territories and Middle East, Washington and Tel Aviv partner in each other's high crimes - including putting aid-dependent Palestinians on an increasingly shrinking diet, harsh enough to force them out of land Israel wants for exclusive Jewish development and use.

At his weekly Sunday cabinet meeting, Netanyahu disgracefully said "I fully agree with President Trump's strong criticism of UNRWA."

"I made a simple suggestion, that the funds for UNRWA should be gradually transferred to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, with clear criteria for supporting real refugees, rather than fictitious refugees, which is what is happening today under UNRWA."

Netanyahu believes slow-motion elimination of UNWRA aid will end what he calls a right of return threat to Israel.

"Great-grandchildren of refugees, who are not refugees, but who are cared for by UNRWA," should be denied aid, he roared, adding "(t)his absurd situation must end."

"UNRWA is an organization that perpetuates the problem of the Palestinian refugees. It also perpetuates the narrative of the so-called 'right of return' with the aim of eliminating the state of Israel, and therefore UNRWA must disappear."

The "so-called 'right of return' is based on fundamental international law neither Netanyahu or Trump can change.

The problem of Palestinian refugees lies in Washington and Tel Aviv, not in 58 recognized camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

UNWRA provides education, healthcare, and other vital social services to millions of Palestinian refugees - victims of Israeli aggression and displacement.

Trump and Netanyahu scorn all Palestinians, wanting their fundamental rights denied under permanent occupation harshness - a prescription for endless conflict and instability.

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