"Finally, someone is shaking the foundations beneath one of the biggest charades, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Thanks to the twisted mandate it got from the U.N. in the 1950s, it has perpetuated the plight of Palestinian refugees from one generation to the next. The mandate prohibits UNRWA from resettling those 'refugees' and find them a permanent home, ensuring that they keep entertaining the idea that one day they will get the 'right of return.'
Now the Trump administration has taken steps to defund the organization, perhaps not for the right reasons, if the Palestinians fail to return to the negotiating table. It has so far put on hold half of the funding it normally gives each year...
The original Palestinian refugees totaled no more than 500,000 to 800,000, and their numbers are constantly in decline. But the Palestinian displacement industry is thriving because the sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren have received eternal refugee status. This is in accordance with what the U.N. has decided when it gave UNRWA its mandate.
It's no surprise, then, that Palestinian refugees number 5.5 million people and counting. Unlike other displaced people who lose their refugee status once they receive citizenship from their new country, the Palestinian refugees continue to hold that status as refugees even after they are naturalized...
Without the charade called UNRWA, the Palestinians would find it extremely hard to define themselves as refugees. Without being refugees, their leaders would be unable to demand their 'return' to Israeli cities."