I'm more and more distressed every morning when I click to my daily BBC news page and discover some new massacre, catastrophic event, new bitter or racist comment of resentment, or just another sad story concerning the Middle East on the front page. However, none of this should come as much of a surprise I suppose.
One of the biggies, is of course always the saga of Israel and Palestine. With the new popular elections of Hamas, the question of detracting foreign aid to Palestinian groups because of the party's positions, Israel's cosmetic withdrawl from Gaza, the imminent death of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and the possible stepping down of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, etc etc etc, nothing seems to ever improve. While my sympathies for one group have always been pretty clear and well self acknowledged, the more I learn, the more and more I became disenchanted with the whole lot of them.
This semester I'm taking a seminar in the FMRS department on the Palestinian Refugee Crisis and its surrounding issues. Though the course is not even at the mid point, I've either learned more about or at least been more convinced about the hopelessness of the whole situation.
1) Try reading some of the pre-Benny Morris and Avi Schlaim Israeli "historians," aka, storytellers. If anyone with half a brain of knowledge of world history were to read the Zionist literature produced during the time of the initial Jewish settler occupation of Palestine they would realize the astounding rasicsm and ideology of supremacy promoted in the region. Even Ben-Gurion himself nearly admits to the Israeli policies of Arab "transfer." Couple that with Golda Mier's claim that the "Palestinians never actually existed" argument, and see what kind of historical and factual realities that gets you into.
2) The reality of the U.N. parition plan: in 1937 (when the Peel commission recommended partition of the country), the population of Palestine was only 33% Jews who owned only 8% of land the land. Somehow, however, in the drawing and quartering of the country, the U.N. determined that Israel should be granted 55% of the land (and of course the most fertile parts as well.)
3)Does anybody, even the Arabs, really support the Palestinians? In some ways, of course the answer is yes. It is the Arab countries who fought on the side of the Palestinians originally (though for a multiplicity of reasons, namely domestic concerns). However, while for example in Egypt, where one can't go a week without hearing a snide remark about the Israeli demons, or at least Egypt's "grand victory" over Israel in 1973 (did they really win?), one rarely encounters a comment of actual plight for the Palestinians. The Palestinian refugee problem is a primary example. Today it's estimated that there are about 4 million Palestinian refugees. Many of them have been forced to settle in the neighboring Arab countries, primarily Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. What's somewhat surprising (at least to me) is that those Palestinians that have settled in Arab countries encounter many more difficulties than those who have settled outside the Middle East, such as in European countries or America.
The question basically comes down to a combination of U.N. resolutions and recommendations, and a country's interpretation of them. First of all, Palestinian refugees are the ONLY major group of people who fall outside the mandate of UNHCR, which provides protection and assistance for refugees across the globe. Palestinians were given a special office, known as UNRWA to take care of their troubles. To make a complicated story simple, the basic problem is that UNRWA only has offices in a few countries, Egypt not being one of them. U.N. law states, under the 1951 Refugee Convention, that if a refugee is not being protected by another U.N. office, i.e. UNRWA, they ought to automatically be covered by UNHCR. So, under this interpretation of the law, Palestinian refugees in Egypt should be protected and assisted by UNHCR. And so the story goes--Palestinians in Egypt go to the UNHCR office, get an interview like everyone else to have their case reviewed, and then get a stamp that UNHCR recognizes them as refugees. The next step is to send the stamped document to the Egyptian government at the "Mogamma," where under normal circumstances the government approves the UNHCR claim. However, while thousands of refugee cases are approved by the Egyptian government, it is only the Palestinians who are rejected.
Why?
What this all goes back to is that the Arabs (including Palestinians) emphasize their Right of Return, as stated in the 1947 UN reslolutions. While in most refugee circumstances, it is the case that the refugee wishes to resettle, not return. Therefore, by allowing Palestinians to be under the mandate of UNHCR, this implies that they are forgoing their right of return. The Egyptian government (and others likewise) insistence that Palestinians must ultimately return to their country is the logic behind their denial to protection/assistance by UNHCR as well as not being granted citizenship (except in Jordan where many have been offered Jordanian citizenship). In turn, Palestinians in Egypt are only offered "special status" rights, such as the right to work (other refugees are not given this right).
But what are the real consequences to this ideological policy? The truth of the matter is that the Palestians in need of assistance located in Egypt, Libya, and other Arab countries without a UNRWA office simply slip through the cracks. While such policies may be considered by the Arab regimes as a real "statement" to their objections of Israel, in the end Israel likely ignores them (since when have they ever really cared about what the Arabs thought), and it is the Palestians themselves who truly suffer.
When I brought these issues up with some of my Egyptian colleagues in discussion, they either denied the claim, or stated that there were no poor Palestians in Egypt. Why should Egypt worry about them so much when "they're the ones throwing the big dollars in clubs, bars, and casinos anyways!" However the facts don't really support these statements in the big picture.
So I guess my opinion at the end of the day lies in contradiction. While Israel has undeniably committed atrocities against these people, the Arabs aren't really there to support them at the end of the day. The arguments and battles over land borders and access to resources are now replaced with an ideological and ethnic/racist war between the Arabs and Israelis. Sure, Israel isn't fair, but if you're going to shout injustice, be just to yourselves.
posted by Katie Warren @ 3:19 PM
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