UNRWA perpetuates the refugee problem

"At this time of year, when Zion and Jerusalem are very much in our thoughts, there is another Trump step in the Middle East which makes practical sense. He is the first US president to question and cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the only UN agency with a specific mission to preserve the refugee status of one national aspirational group – the Palestinians.

One can be fully supportive of Palestinian rights to self-determination without believing in UNRWA. It may do brilliant work but its existence could be construed by some as an enterprise that places Palestinian refugees in a different category to all others. These would include deserving refugees such as those fleeing the still inflamed conflict in Syria, the Rohingya Muslims escaping oppression in Myanmar and African economic refugees moving north...

No longer can it be considered purely a relief organisation. It has become highly politicised agency seeking to preserve the status of second and third-generation Palestinians as refugees. The original number of refugees supported by UNRWA is, according to its website, some 700,000. As refugee status tumbled down the generations it now extends to five million people through the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and other countries. These Palestinians do not live in the vast tent cities to be seen on Syria's borders with Jordan and Turkey. They inhabit well-maintained apartment blocks and the children are educated in well-appointed schools...

The administration is the first to recognise that an organisation with the main purpose of preserving refugee status is out of keeping with the rest of the world, where permanent settlement and integration is the goal. It makes peace in the region more difficult by encouraging the multiplication of numbers. That makes the promises of 'return' in any peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians infinitely more complicated..."