#Abolish UNRWA

[girlactionfigure]

[travelbasscase]

Note them saying that UNRWA is calling for a ceasefire as if Israel hasn't attempted countless ceasefire deals only for them all to be rejected by Hamas.

So Israel is starting its Rafah operation and in doing so is evacuating the area.

The UNRWA states it will not be evacuating and will stay in the soon to be active military zone.

This sentiment is echoed by the UNRWA communications director states that they will not evacuate people from the region

If any of their personnel or civilians die in the ensuing operation they will quickly blame Israel, even though they state outright that they will not evacuate or help evacuate civilians. The most vocal voices will then run with the story and demonize Israel further, which will then be repeated ad nauseum until the next big headline. It’s predictable at this point what the media outcome will be.

[otsukare-katsukare]

i have something very personal and ugly and probably incoherent that i need to get off my chest about israel. to preface im not a zionist, i am jewish and disgusted by israel on a daily basis, and this is me mostly speaking from that. i am sorry and if anyone who follows me doesn't want to read this from me/hates it i ask that you just scroll on by and forget it. and if you do read it and respond im happy to talk but just please take it in good faith. in reponse to this post

[magz]

Palestine News Summary from LetsTalkPalestine May 16 to May 25, 2024. Related Helpful Links: [LetsTalkPalestine Links (including vetted information sources)] [gazafunds.com] [eSims for Gaza] [UNRWA] [Decolonize Palestine, learning basics and debunking myths] (Remember: In supporting Palestine and Palestinians, you are not alone. The people of the world united and in solidarity. Starting as small as one nudge and reminder, yet as big as the globe. To help one person, to help one family, to help one peoples, to help all who need to be unshackled. All help. From the River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.)

Palestine News Summary Quote, below.

May 16:

Day 223

🔻 Israeli army suffers in invasion of Jabalia (north Gaza) as Palestinian fighters resist. At least 5 IOF soldiers killed + 15 injured in battles in last 24 hours. Palestinian fighters attacked 4 Israeli tanks at command centers, incapacitated army bulldozers & sniped 1 IOF soldier

• 39 Palestinians killed, 64 Palestinians injured in Gaza in the last 24 hours

‼️ Besieged Beit Hanoun receives no food & water for 5th day since Jabalia invasion. WFP suspends operations amid border seizure in Rafah. Limited supplies enter Gaza via Karem Abu Salem crossing

🇱🇧 Hezbollah launches first-ever drone strike, injuring 3 IOF soldiers in 13 attacks on the IOF Metula base + struck IOF intelligence aircraft

• Israeli attacks on densely populated Jabalia kill 4 incl. pregnant woman

⚖️ ICJ hears South African request for orders for Israeli withdrawal from Rafah; Israel to address court tomorrow

• Israel releases 76 Gazan hostages, forced them to walk across Gaza in dire conditions

May 17.

Day 224

🇪🇸 Spain will refuse all ships carrying weapons to Israel to dock at Spanish ports after denying 1st ship yesterday

• 31 Palestinians killed, 56 Palestinians injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

🇱🇧 Israel assassinated Hamas official in airstrike on car in Lebanon, injuring 2. Earlier bombing killed Hezbollah member + 2 kids

• Israeli tanks & jets escalate bombardment & demolition of infrastructure in Jabalia amid invasion, killing 6+ as many still under rubble

🇪🇬 Egypt deploys military convoys at Gaza border amid rising tensions over Rafah invasion & Israeli seizure of Rafah crossing. Egypt warns normalization treaty w/ Israel at risk & considers downgrading relations w/ Israel

🇹🇷 Israel to abolish free trade agreement w/ Turkey & impose 100% tariff on imports in response to Turkey banning exports

• West Bank: Israel bombs Jenin, killing commander of Jenin Brigades (local resistance group), injuring 2 others. IOF killed 1 Palestinian in Tulkarem.

May 18.

Day 225

🔻 Hamas says it killed 5 IOF soldiers in eastern Rafah today + attacked tanks, helicopters. Hamas claims 100 attacks on IOF vehicles in last 10 days

•⁠ ⁠83 Palestinians killed, 105 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

•⁠ Israeli attack kills ⁠22, injures 30+ near Kamel Adwan Hospital in Gaza

🇨🇦 Canada sanctions 4 Israeli settlers in the West Bank over abuses

•⁠ ⁠Israel escalates bombing, killing 4 in Khan Younis & 4 in central Gaza

❗️ Ex-Mossad deputy chief says Israel losing ”war”

•⁠ ⁠Israeli bombing kills 8+ incl. women & children & injures 10 while fetching water

•⁠ Attack on evacuation center in Jabalia invasion kill 15. IOF advances Rafah invasion, attacking car killing 1, injuring others

🚚 Israel let only 33 aid trucks in Gaza since May 6

🇨🇭 Zurich police fire rubber bullets + pepper spray at students at university Gaza protest

🇦🇹 Austria to resume UNRWA funding, the 9th to resume. US, UK & others still frozen

[No May 19 summary]

(image: map of ICC member and signatories that must abide by new ruling)

‼️ International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Israeli & Hamas officials

ICC Chief Prosecutor applied for warrants for Netanyahu & Defence Minister Gallant + Hamas leaders Sinwar, Haniyeh & AlDeif for several war crimes & crimes against humanity.

If judges approve, they’d be the first-ever ICC arrest warrants for Western leaders — a milestone in ending Western impunity.

It’d obligate all ICC member states (🗺️👆) to arrest them if they entered their territory. This’d make it extremely difficult for Netanyahu & Gallant to visit allies like EU states, Canada & Jordan. But Hamas leaders — already blacklisted by the West — would be practically unaffected.

🇳🇱 Arrested suspects are tried by the ICC in the Netherlands.

The warrants may mark a new stage in Israel’s diplomatic and political isolation, straining Western ties & legitimizing arguments of Israeli criminality which may fuel more divestment & sanctions.

It’s also a clear threat to other Israeli officials & IOF soldiers.

May 20.

Day 227

‼️ Israel bombards north Gaza amid invasion of Jabalia, killing 18 in airstrikes on Jabalia & Beit Lahia. ⁠⁠Only 2 functioning hospitals in north Gaza: Al-Awda Hospital is besieged, out of drinking water & tanks bulldoze its vicinity, blocking patients & staff from leaving. Kamal Adwan Hospital oxygen machine power outage killed 1 child

•⁠ 106 Palestinians killed, 176 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

•⁠ Recently released 30 y/o hostage & cancer patient Farouk al-Khatib killed after Israeli medical negligence in captivity

⚖️ US, UK, Italy & Germany condemn ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. Hamas condemns being equated with Israel.👆 More info above

•⁠ ⁠40% (900,000) of Gaza population recently displaced including 810,000 who fled Rafah since invasion

•⁠ ⁠Israeli forces executed 2 Palestinians by opening fire on crowd at Israeli-made corridor in central Gaza that restricts Palestinians moving from north to south Gaza.

🚚 Only 69 UN aid trucks enter south Gaza from May 6-19

May 21 (part 1).

🚨 Jenin massacre (instagram news link)

Israeli forces stormed Jenin in the West Bank this morning at 8am (👆🎥), and the ongoing assault has become one of Jenin’s deadliest raids.

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed at least 7 Palestinian civilians, including Dr. Osaid Jabareen, the head of surgery at Jenin Hospital, a teacher walking to work, & 9th grade student. So far 12 people injured mostly by live bullets, incl. 4 kids, a journalist & paramedic

Israeli forces blocked the injured & staff from entering hospitals. An Israeli sniper shot at anyone moving near Khalil Suleiman Hospital, fired at people in vicinity of Jenin Hospital & blocked ambulances

Israeli forces stormed the home of a 50-year-old woman, destroyed the home then abducted her. Meanwhile, bulldozers raze the city, demolishing infrastructure, streets & cars

Ongoing fierce clashes between Jenin Bridages (local resistance group) & IOF as resistance fighters fire explosives at Israeli tanks.

May 21 (part 2).

Day 228

‼️⚖️ Norway the 1st country to say it’ll arrest Netanyahu if ICC warrant issued

•⁠ 85 Palestinians killed, 200 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

🔻 Hamas claims it killed 5 IOF soldiers in north Gaza w/ grenade & sniped IOF soldier at Israeli corridor separating north & south Gaza

🇺🇳 UNRWA shuts down 2 health facilities in Rafah due to Israeli evacuation order + suspended aid operations in Rafah as aid running out since seizure of Rafah crossing

•⁠ 4 killed incl. an infant in Israeli attack on home in Gaza City

📺 Israel seized @ apnews camera & broadcasting equipment, cutting its Gaza live feed. Later reversed decision after US & global backlash

🚚 Israeli forces share intel to settlers on locations of aid trucks for Gaza, facilitating settler attacks on trucks

🏥 Israel attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital 4 times (largest functioning hospital in north Gaza) as IOF fired at the gates, hitting ICU, reception area & roof. 20 staff & 13 patients trapped inside

May 22.

Day 229

🇪🇸🇮🇪🇳🇴 Spain, Ireland & Norway to recognize State of Palestine within a week. Recognition limited to West Bank & Gaza

• 62 Palestinians killed, 138 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

🏥 Footage shows Israeli forces abducting 100+ Palestinian bodies from Shifa Hospital’s mass graves

• Israeli attacks kill 6 in north Gaza. 17+ killed incl. kids & 20+ injured in central Gaza. No functional health services anymore in north & central Gaza

🔻 Fierce clashes ongoing in Rafah between resistance fighters & IOF soldiers as Israeli tanks advance. Israel admits 3 soldiers killed & 2 injured

• Death toll in ongoing Jenin raid rises to 11 including 4 teenagers. Settler attacks continue in West Bank’s Nablus

🇬🇧⚖️ Legal group (ICJP) submits war crimes complaint to Scotland Yard accusing 5 UK ministers of complicity in Israel’s starvation warfare

🇨🇴 Colombia to open embassy to Palestine in Ramallah (West Bank)

May 23.

Day 230

🏥 Al-Awda Hospital in north Gaza forced to close after 4-day siege. IOF expelled medical staff on foot, forced to abandon their patients. Al-Aqsa Hospital to run out of fuel imminently, putting hundreds of dialysis patients & incubator babies at risk

•⁠ 91 Palestinians killed, 21 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours

🇳🇴🇪🇸🇮🇪 Israeli foreign minister reprimanded ambassadors of Norway, Spain & Ireland for decision to recognise Palestine

•⁠ ⁠Israeli overnight attack on Gaza City killed 16 incl. 10 kids. 8 killed in attack on Nuseirat camp

🎓 UK police arrest 12 students at Oxford University for Palestine sit-in (@ oxact4pal)

•⁠ Israeli forces invade Beit Hanoon (north) in escalation of Jabalia invasion, Israeli sniper executed Palestinian in the head

🔻 30 Israeli soldiers injured in past 2 days

•⁠ IOF shot 2 kids in the foot & hand near Apartheid Wall (West Bank)

🇱🇧 Hezbollah claims destroyed Israeli tank after Israeli strike killed Hezbollah official & injured 3 kids in school bus

May 24 (part 1).

[Context: original old ICJ post from LetsTalkPalestine]

🚨 ICJ orders Israel to end Rafah invasion

After a new South African request, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately halt its invasion of Rafah and to withdraw. Here’s what else it said:

1️⃣ Its January orders were inadequate for the current situation which risks irreparable damage to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza

2️⃣ Israeli measures for Rafah evacuation are insufficient, and the humanitarian situation is "disastrous”

3️⃣ Israel must allow investigations into allegations of genocide

4️⃣ The court implied that the offensive may inflict conditions calculated to cause the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza — notably, this phrasing is the legal language used to describe an act of genocide

5️⃣ Demanded the immediate reopening of the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid

🇺🇸 Though these orders are legally binding, the ICJ has no enforcement power — only the UN Security Council can enforce them, and the US would likely veto

Does this mean the ICJ is useless? 🤔 Not exactly. See the last 3 slides of our post above 👆 from January explaining how we need to use tactical victories to end this genocide and free Palestine. No court can free Palestine. Only a people’s movement can.

May 24.

Day 231

‼️ Al-Aqsa Hospital generators shut down from lack of fuel causing power outages leaving most equipment unusable, putting many at risk incl. 20 newborns as oxygen generators will run out

•⁠ 57 Palestinians killed, 282 injured in last 24 hours

🇪🇬 Egypt to finally open their side of Karem Abu Salem crossing for UN aid. Only 906 aid trucks entered Gaza from May 7-23 as Israel seized Palestinian side of Rafah crossing which Egypt won’t reopen unless legal agreement w/ Israel

🇪🇸 Israel bans Spanish consulate from servicing Palestinians in West Bank after Spain said it’ll recognize the state of Palestine

•⁠ Israel expands Rafah invasion as tanks advance into crowded areas in central & west Rafah + bombing across the city

🔻 Hamas strikes 3 IOF tanks & seriously injured IOF soldier in north Gaza

•⁠ Israeli strikes on homes in north Gaza killed 7. Israel bombed aid storage house in Deir al-Balah killing 12+

•⁠ IOF bulldoze infrastructure & storm homes in raid on Balata (West Bank)

[strtrk]

Please amplify Doha's story! Doha is a 19-year-old Palestinian student studying English literature. She's an immensely talented writer. Doha's campaign has been verified by Operation Olive Branch. I've been messaging her via Instagram, and she's told me how much she enjoys reading Japanese literature. Please read Doha's story below:

"Dear Fellow Human Beings,

My name is Doha Hassan, and I want to live.

I’m a Palestinian college student from Rafah, the southern most border in Gaza. Over the past four months I’ve seen the Israeli bombardment on Gaza creep closer and closer to my home.

I am nineteen years old, and I have hopes; I have dreams. I am passionate about reading and learning; and I have so many plans for my life, many of which came to a halt when Israel destroyed my university where I studied English literature. My youngest sister, Dana, is in kindergarten, Leen is in sixth grade and Ameer is in high school. I and my sister Raghad are university students.

Due to the destruction of universities, including my own, I have fallen behind my peers in education. Despite being a second-year college student, I am determined to start afresh and apply for a scholarship abroad. But I also need to be reassured that my family is safe.

Instead of being able to study and enjoy my time with my family, we have found ourselves living in dire conditions imposed by Israel’s genocidal war. Daily airstrikes and bombings have persisted for over four months, depriving us of sleep and leaving us traumatized. This is in addition to having endured 17 years of a siege during which Israel has continued to block essential supplies including food, fuel, drinking water, medicine, and electricity. As resources dwindle, even the most basic necessities become scarce and we often endure long queues just to obtain flour from UNRWA, when it’s available. But since the United States began its campaign to abolish UNRWA even that has become impossible.

Our challenges intensified when my sister fell ill and we were unable to access proper medical care due to Israel’s obliteration of Gaza’s entire hospital infrastructure. Despite our struggles, we opened our doors to provide shelter for displaced friends and family in northern Gaza, sharing what little we had with them and remaining resilient in the face of adversity. There are currently 1.5 million such internally displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

After two months, resources in Gaza became more scarce, compelling us to manually grind wheat to make bread and ration our meals to make ends meet. The hunger crisis gripping Gaza worsened, leaving us sleepless at night as we have been enduring relentless airstrikes and bombings. With gas supplies depleted, we have resorted to cooking and baking bread using coal, exacerbating my father and sister’s respiratory issues.

Despite our resilience, the looming threat is on my family’s doorstep as a ground invasion of Rafah is imminent. We’re not sure which will get us first: Israel’s genocidal war or Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza.

We have been hoping against hope that there would be a lasting ceasefire, but the urgency of our situation has compelled us to seek safety in Egypt.

Your generosity and support can make a huge difference in saving our lives. The only way out of Gaza is through the Rafah border, which requires a fee of $7,000 for each adult and $3,500 for each child. The total amount for my family to get out of Gaza is $45,000. My family consists of 5 adults and 2 children. The horror we are living through is unimaginable. The non-stop air strikes and bombings have changed our lives to a battle of everyday survival.

Every contribution, regardless of its size, will help ensure our safe journey out of Rafah towards a more secure place in Egypt. Your generosity will provide us with an opportunity to reconstruct our lives.

With gratitude,

Doha"

[im-just-a-random-fandom-girl]

yes, but i do think everyone should be against UNRWA… just not for this. UNWRA should be abolished because it perpetuates the conflict and categorizes palestinians as a lower class of people that don’t deserve the same rights to seek asylum as other migrants and refugees.

obviously, now is not the time to abolish UNWRA, when there is no backup system, plan, funding etc in place to support the palestinian people, but this issue shouldn’t be forgotten about. palestinians are the only people in the WORLD who do not qualify for UNHCR aid/resettlement/right to seek asylum because of a stipulation in the 1951 Convention that was made with this conflict in mind and Eurocentrism and racism heavily influencing it

[dserwer1]

Gaza questions are easier than answers

The New York Times has already described how Netanyahu’s plan for postwar Gaza clashes with everyone else’s thinking. Netanyahu wants a full-fledged re-occupation of Gaza, complete with puppet Palestinian government there. He is already clearing a buffer zone inside the Gaza fence and wants to control the Egyptian/Gaza border as well. He imagines that UNRWA can be abolished. Israeli-selected…

[queenwille]

Respectfully disagree UNRWA needs abolishing. It's effective goal is to keep palestinians in a state of multigenerational refugee status instead of ending their refugee status like the UNHCR.

UNRWA needs a complete overhaul, should be replaced with UNHCR. UNRWA has proven to be a failed experiment.

honestly i understand your point, but sadly i’m painfully uninformed that i cannot comment on the subject.

i mostly meant that unlike what people think, you can stand by israel and still believe there should be an organization that takes care palestinian humanitarian needs.

it just cannot be infected by terror by any means.

[girlactionfigure]

Tonight, Israel attacked (for the first time) the Palestinian refugee camp of Al Bas in Tyre.

Fatah Sharif, chairman of the UNRWA teachers' association, was killed in the attack .

Hamas publishes an official proclamation in which it announces that the fresh elimination is none other than:

الشهيد القائد فتح شريف أبو الأمين قائد حركة المقاومة الإسلامية حماس في لبنان وعضو قيادة الحركة في الخارج

Commander of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in Lebanon and Member of the Movement's Leadership Abroad

Hamas is a central pillar of UNRWA, as it was in Gaza, so it is in Lebanon.

I circled in red in the attached photo the logo of UNRWA behind Sharif.

And here is the chairman of UNRWA's teachers association on an official Hamas proclamation with the special title: commander in Hamas in Lebanon.

Fatah Sharif, commander of Hamas in Lebanon, according to the official definition of the movement, receives a letter of appreciation from UNRWA, for his work (2019)

[newstfionline]

Across the Mideast, Palestinians Brace for Trump Aid Cuts

AP, Jan. 16, 2018

SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip--Mahmoud al-Qouqa can’t imagine life without the three sacks of flour, cooking oil and other staples he receives from the United Nations every three months.

Living with 25 relatives in a crowded home in this teeming Gaza Strip slum, the meager rations provided by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugee families, are the last thing keeping his family afloat in the territory hard hit by years of poverty and conflict. But that could be in danger as the United States, UNRWA’s biggest donor, threatens to curtail funding.

“It will be like a disaster and no one can predict what the reaction will be,” al-Qouqa said.

Across the Middle East, millions of people who depend on UNRWA are bracing for the worst. The expected cut could also add instability to struggling host countries already coping with spillover from other regional crises.

UNRWA was established in the wake of the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel’s creation. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting.

In the absence of a solution for these refugees, the U.N. General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, the original refugee camps have turned into concrete slums and more than 5 million refugees and their descendants now rely on the agency for services including education, health care and food. The largest populations are in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.

Seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as providing a valuable safety net, UNRWA is viewed far differently by Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the agency of perpetuating the conflict by helping promote an unrealistic dream that these people have the “right of return” to long-lost properties in what is now Israel.

“UNRWA is part of the problem, not part of the solution,” he told foreign journalists last week. Noting that the Palestinians are the only group served by a specific refugee agency, he said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main U.N. refugee agency.

Some in Israel have even tougher criticism, accusing UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas militants in Gaza.

Blaming the Palestinians for lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts, President Donald Trump has threatened to cut American assistance to the Palestinians. UNRWA would be the first to be affected.

The U.S. provides about $355 million a year to UNRWA, roughly one-third of its budget.

U.S. officials in Washington said this week the administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the year’s first contribution, cutting a planned $125 million installment by half or perhaps entirely. The decision could come as early as Tuesday.

Matthias Schmale, UNRWA’s director in Gaza, said Washington has not informed the agency of any changes. However, “we are worried because of the statements ... in the media and the fact that the money hasn’t arrived yet,” he said.

Schmale dismissed the Israeli criticisms, saying that individuals who spread incitement or aid militants are isolated cases and promptly punished. And he said Netanyahu’s criticism should be directed at the U.N. General Assembly, which sets UNRWA’s mandate, not the agency itself.

Any cut in U.S. aid could ripple across the region with potentially unintended consequences.

Gaza may be the most challenging of all of UNRWA’s operating areas. Two-thirds of Gaza’s 2 million people qualify for services, and its role is amplified given the poor state of the economy, which has been hit hard by three wars with Israel and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power over a decade ago. Unemployment is 43 percent and the poverty rate is 38 percent, according to the official Palestinian statistics office.

“Nowhere else are we the biggest service provider for the population of the entire territory,” Schmale said. He said UNRWA provides food assistance to 1 million Gazans, calling it “an expression of collective shame for the international community.”

The dire situation in Gaza is evident inside al-Qouqa’s home, which is so cramped the family has made sleeping spaces with wood boards and fabric. Two male family members are unemployed. Two others are Hamas civil servants and get paid only intermittently by the cash-strapped movement.

At 72, al-Qouqa is worried about his grandchildren. “If UNRWA provides them with bread, they can remain patient. But if it was cut, what will they become? They will become thieves, criminals and a burden on society,” he said. Many believe Hamas, which administers schools and social services in Gaza, will step in to fill the void.

Jordan, a crucial ally in the U.S.-led battle against Islamic militants, is home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants--with nearly 2.2 million people eligible for UNRWA services. This has turned the U.N. agency into a major contributor to social welfare services in the country, which also hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by war.

U.S. aid cuts could heighten the threat of instability in Jordan, which is grappling with a worsening economy hurt by the spillover from conflict in neighboring Syria and Iraq. More than one-third of Jordan’s young people are without jobs, turning them into potential targets for recruitment by extremists.

Most of the Palestinians eligible for UNRWA services in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship, and some argue that this has ended their refugee status. But most maintain that UNRWA services are vital to propping up an important ally.

UNRWA’s services are also vital in Lebanon, where Palestinians are prohibited from working in skilled professions and owning property.

Lebanon is the least-welcoming Arab country to Palestinian refugees, because it does not want Palestinians to settle and because it does not want the refugees to upset the country’s delicate sectarian balance. Camps in several cities are ringed by concrete barriers and Lebanese security forces use checkpoints to control who enters and leaves. A recent census found 175,000 Palestinian refugees or their descendants living in the country.

The civil war in Syria has made many Palestinians refugees twice over. Some 32,000 Palestinians who were living in Syria fled to Lebanon, according to UNRWA. In Syria, Palestinians enjoyed the right to own property and to work in all professions. They are not entitled to the same in Lebanon.

While more than 5 million Syrian refugees worldwide are entitled to assistance from the U.N.’s general refugee relief agency, Palestinians are barred from it under the logic that UNRWA serves them. But UNRWA in Lebanon is chronically underfunded, and the wave of Palestinians arriving from Syria has strained its finances even further.

“What UNRWA provides is not even a quarter of what a Palestinian refugee needs,” said Ramy Mansour, 34, who fled to Lebanon from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus in 2013. “Take everything and return us to our homes. We don’t want any assistance or anything, just return us to our country.”

[waywardkoalacollective]

This lady has serious mental issues. “Israel is a terrorist state, slaughtering people in Gaza”? Are you serious? Why am I not surprised she thinks smoking weed gives people a clearer view of the world? I have ESSAYS prepared for these exact instances. I’m sick and tired of people like this being praised like some sort bringer of the truth. She’s regurgitating lies and nothing else.

Hem hem.

In 1967 during the 6 day war, the Arab countries around Israel declared war first, during which Israel won easily AND captured more land despite the fact that those countries were heavily supported by the USSR, while Israel did not receive support.

And do you know what Israel was doing to provoke such a full fledged war? Did they expell citizens already living in that area, the same way the Arabs expelled 850 000 Jews out of multiple North African and Middle Eastern countries? NO. Those Palestinian “refugees” you hear of? They left voluntarily, and surrounding countries, fellow Arabs, refused to help them. The Syrian prime minister at the time, Khalid Al-Azm, admitted to persuading thousands of Syrians to leave, with the idea that they would return once the war was over and Israel was abolished. And somehow, even the children of the children of those “refugees” are given refugee status and are fully supported by the UN.

So why DID all those countries declare war? The answer is very simple. Pure and rancid antisemetism and hate. NOTE that the area was controlled by England at the time, and the arabs had no problem with that.

So what about Gaza then? A piece of land Israel captured during the 6 day war? What did Israel do to it? Fucking nothing, besides establishing a few very successful villages and working the land, something the inhabitants of Gaza NEVER bothered to do. Gaza didn’t even have a government at the time. And in 2002 Israel left completely. Were those villages worked on? Did Gaza make any steps to succeed as a country? No. It relied completely on UNRWA and continues to blame Israel for all its problems.

Brenda had TIME today

[clubofinfo]

Expert: The Trump administration’s decision to scrap all future aid payments to the main agency helping Palestinian refugees marks a new – and most likely disastrous – chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The US State Department said on Friday it would no longer continue its $360 million annual contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), depriving it of a third of its budget. US officials described the organisation as “irredeemably flawed”. The move follows an announcement last week that Washington had slashed $200 million from other aid programmes for the Palestinians. About five million Palestinians – many languishing for decades in refugee camps across the Middle East – rely on the agency for essential food, healthcare and education. Other states in the Middle East have reason to be fearful. Jordan’s foreign minster, Ayman Safadi, warned on Saturday that the denial of aid would “only consolidate an environment of despair that would ultimately create fertile grounds for further tension”. Jordan, which hosts two million Palestinian refugees, has called a meeting at the UN later this month, along with Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Turkey, to “rally political and financial support” for UNRWA. Traditional American and European backing for the UN agency could be viewed as reparations for their complicity in helping to create a Jewish state on the ruins of the Palestinians’ homeland. That act of dispossession turned the Palestinians into the world’s largest stateless population. Except there are few signs of guilt. The handouts provided via the UN have served more like “hush money”, designed to keep the Palestinians dependent and quiet as western states manage a crisis they apparently have no intention of solving. That was why the European Union hurriedly promised to seek alternative funds for UNRWA. It noted that the agency was “vital for stability and security in the region” – a stability that has enabled Israel to disappear the Palestinians, uninterrupted, for seven decades. The Trump administration, by contrast, is more brazen about the new way it wishes to weaponise aid. US officials have not concealed the fact that they want leverage over the Palestinians to force them to submit to Donald Trump’s long-promised “deal of the century” peace plan. But there is a deeper and darker agenda afoot than simply reviving failed negotiations or pandering to the Trump administration’s well-known antipathy towards international institutions. Over the past 25 years, peace talks have provided cover for Israel’s incremental takeover of what was supposed to be a future Palestinian state. In the words of Palestinian lawyer Michael Tarazi, while Israel and the Palestinians were discussing how to divide the pizza, Israel ate it all. So Mr Trump’s team has, in effect, reverse-engineered a “peace process” based on the reality on the ground Israel has created. If Israel won’t compromise, Mr Trump will settle the final-status issues – borders, Jerusalem and the refugees – in the stronger party’s favour. The only hurdle is finding a way to bully the Palestinians into acceptance. In an indication of how sychronised Washington and Israel’s approaches now are, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, made almost identical speeches last week. In an address to American Jewish leaders, Mr Friedman noted that a “different way of thinking” prevailed in the Middle East. “You can’t talk your way, you just have to be strong,” he said. The next day, Mr Netanyahu reiterated that message. He tweeted: “The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive.” That sounded uncomfortably like a prescription for the Palestinians’ future. Israel has already carved out its borders through the ethnic cleansing campaigns of 1948 and 1967. Since then, it has mobilised the settlers and its military to take over almost all of the remnants of historic Palestine. A few slivers of territory in the West Bank and the tiny coastal ghetto of Gaza are all that is left for the Palestinians. A nod from the White House and Israel will formalise this arrangement by gradually annexing the West Bank. As far as Jerusalem is concerned, Mr Trump recognised it as Israel’s capital by moving the US embassy there in May. Now, even if it can be born, a Palestinian state will lack a meaningful capital and a viable economy. The final loose end are the refugees. Some time ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas surrendered their right – sanctioned in international law – to return to their former lands in what is now Israel. Instead, the question was whether Israel would allow the refugees encamped in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to move to the West Bank and Gaza and become citizens of a Palestinian state. But if Israel refuses to concede a Palestinian state, even that minimal ambition is doomed. Israel and the US have an alternative solution. They prefer to dismantle UNRWA and disappear the Palestinians in the swelling tide of refugees spawned by recent western interventions in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan. On Sunday Mr Netanyahu welcomed what he called a US move to “abolish the refugee institution, to take the funds and really help rehabilitate the refugees”. The US and Israel want the Palestinian refugees to fall under the responsibility of the UNHCR, the UN’s umbrella refugee agency – or better still, their host countries. In a leaked email reported by Foreign Policy magazine this month, Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, wrote that it was time to “disrupt UNRWA”. He added that “sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there”. Central to that disruption is stripping millions of Palestinians of their status as refugees. The Trump administration is due to publish a report later this month, according to Israeli media, that will propose capping the Palestinian refugee population at 500,000 – a tenth of the current number. Mr Kushner has reportedly been leaning on Jordan to revoke the status of its two million Palestinian refugees, presumably in return for US compensation. When UNRWA’s mandate comes up for renewal in two years’ time, it seems assured Washington will block it. If there is no UNRWA, there is no Palestinian refugee problem. And if there are no refugees, then there is no need for a right of return – and even less pressure for a Palestinian state. Israel and the US are close to their goal: transforming a political conflict governed by international law that favours the Palestinians into an economic problem overseen by an array of donors that favours Israel. • First published in The National http://clubof.info/

[tdshay]

EXCLUSIVE – John Bolton: Time to Abolish UN’s Palestinian ‘Refugee’ Agency | Breitbart NEW YORK -- Speaking during a radio interview, former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton advocated for the Trump administration to withhold funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ministers to Palestinian “refugees.” Source: EXCLUSIVE – John Bolton: Time to Abolish UN’s Palestinian ‘Refugee’ Agency | Breitbart

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‘UNRWA shouldn’t be held hostage to politics’

As the U.S. slashes the Palestinian refugee agency’s budget, Netanyahu is urging it be abolished altogether. Some believe that shuttering UNRWA would somehow make the Palestinian refugee problem extinct. ‘Not true,’ says the agency’s director in Washington. Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah receive monthly food rations from an UNRWA distribution center, January 23, 2017. (Abed Rahim…

[ultimatenutshackfangirl]

And it's those Neo-Nazi cops wanting the UNRWA to be abolished just because it helps victims of genocide.

And we know how much they love genocide.