"UNRWA was originally created as a temporary agency to offer relief to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled conflict zones in 1948. Successive changes to UNRWA's rules have since expanded its definition of Palestinian refugees to include ALL descendants of the original ones, including adopted children - even if they hold citizenship in other countries or live in the Palestinian-governed territories: the West Bank and Gaza. How can a Palestinian be a refugee in his own future home?
UNRWA's definition of a refugee is far more expansive than that recognized by the UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR), which cares for all the other refugees in the world besides the Palestinians. The US definition of who qualifies as refugees for admission to this country would not confer refugee status on most UNRWA recipients.
The ever-growing number of Palestinians refugees, estimated to reach 20 million by 2060, are almost completely supported by the taxpayers of Europe and the US.
'Why weren't these individuals settled or offered citizenship where they have been living for 70 years?' asks Asaf Romirowsky, an author and historian of Arab Palestinian refugees.
'[The world has seen] millions and millions of refugees since World War II, and the only ones who are still not settled are Palestinians.'
The answer is UNRWA, which is 'the only internationally funded 'relief' organization that is run not only for, but by its clients,' according to Romirowsky.
UNRWA's 30,000 employees are mostly Palestinians, and many are Hamas members. UNWRA has said it does not and will not discriminate against them.
UNRWA, a permanent bureaucracy that has not settled a single refugee, is designed to keep Palestinians stateless and dependent on charity. It also helps maintain the expectation, which comprises the golden thread of the PA educational system, that one day all Palestinians will return to the homes that their grandparents abandoned in 1948 - and thus overrun and destroy the Jewish state..."