US: Most Palestinians no longer refugees
The Trump administration is planning to change unilaterally the definition of a Palestinian refugee and slash the number it recognises by nine tenths in its latest attempt to ‘‘break and remake’’ the Middle East.
President Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and Middle East adviser, are believed to have decided that all but 500,000 of the 5.5 million Palestinian refugees should be stripped of their status. The proposal, to be announced next month, will be part of a new strategy that will also involve reductions in the large amounts of money the US gives to the Palestinian territories.
In January Trump cut aid to the UN agency responsible for the Palestinians, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The strategy is also expected to ‘‘take off the table’’, for the most part, the issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, which has been a significant factor in the collapse of previous rounds of peace talks.
Kushner said in recently leaked emails to his colleagues that the goal ‘‘can’t be to keep things stable and as they are. Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things.’’ He and Jason Greenblatt, the US envoy to the Middle East peace process, are working on what is claimed will be ‘‘the most detailed peace plan ever’’ and ‘‘the deal of the century’’.
Its details are a closely guarded secret but are said to include the Palestinians giving up the right of return and other key demands in return for a state that would be restricted in size and autonomy. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is believed to have been tasked with ensuring that the Palestinian Authority accepts the plan, at least as a basis for negotiations.
Palestinian fears that the plan would be skewed towards Israel’s demands were exacerbated when Trump broke from most countries, including Britain, in recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the US embassy there.
The latest proposals are clearly intended to set up a framework for some kind of Palestinian state that would not challenge Israel’s security and would be manageable for the Gulf states that are likely to have to fund it. However, it would shift the ‘‘burden of care’’ for the remaining Palestinians and their political futures to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, the fragile neighbouring states where most live.
There are more then two million registered refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, out of a total population in the two territories of about four million. The remaining three and a half million Palestinian refugees live mainly in the three neighbouring countries, where UNRWA is responsible for their education and welfare.
Israeli politicians claim that only 30,000-50,000 Palestinians can be properly classed as ‘‘refugees’’ – those who were born in what is now Israel. It is not clear how the Kushner plan has arrived at the figure of 500,000, although it roughly equates to the Israeli estimates of the original numbers forced out during the creation of the Israeli state in 1948.
Nor is it clear what status the 500,000 would have under a peace deal. The Israelis have refused to agree that the refugees have a ‘‘right of return’’ to their original homes. – The Times