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US government will reject the Palestinian right of return

SHAFAQNA- The Trump administration will, in coming days, reject the UN definition of “Palestinian refugees” effectively snubbing the “right of return” of millions of Palestinian refugees to their homes. 

The US government will “effectively” reject the Palestinian “right of return” — one of the biggest sticking point in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For the Palestinians, the right for descendants to return to homes they either fled or were forced out of is a prerequisite for any peace agreement with Israel, but it is a demand the Jewish state has rejected out of hand.

According to global research, The United States Donald Trump administration will announce a suspension of funding to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

According to Hebrew-language news outlets, the US administration is expected to announce its new policy early September, which would effectively cancel the right of return for Palestinians through several steps.

UN statistics classify over five million Palestinians as refugees

The US administration will start enforcing its new policy with recognizing the existence of only half a million Palestinian refugees, who are legitimately considered refugees, out of the total of 5.3 million Palestinian refugees, which were estimated by UNRWA, demanding the right of return.

The US administration intends to form a plan in which it rejects the United Nations designation under which millions of descendants of the original refugees are also considered refugees. Sources also reported that the US administration’s new policy would “from its point of view, essentially cancels the right of return.”

According to Israel’s Hadashot News, the administration of US President Donald Trump will make the announcement over the next few days, in which it will claim that only around one million Palestinians are eligible for refugee status.

The claim will contradict UN statistics which classify over five million Palestinians as refugees.

US one-sidedly support Israel’s killing machine

The Trump regime and most all congressional members one-sidedly support Israel’s killing machine.

Earlier this month, the American magazine Foreign Policy obtained emails written by Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, to senior US officials in which he pressured Jordan to remove the refugee status of millions of Palestinians in a bid to disrupt UNRWA’s work.

Washington has on multiple occasions voiced opposition over treating the descendants of Palestinian refugees as refugees themselves, Iqna reported.

US-Palestine ties deteriorated last December, when Trump declared Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and announced plans to transfer the embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city.

The United States also canceled over $200 million in funds for the Palestinian Authority

The United States also canceled over $200 million UNRWA funds various education, health and welfare services for some five million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and  Syria.

The agency, established in 1949, was meant to be a temporary body to assist Palestinians fleeing their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s establishment. It has since endured as body with the sole purpose of catering to the needs of Palestinian refugees and the subsequent generations until a political solution to the conflict is reached.

The United States had previously been the single largest UNRWA contributor, proving some $350 million to the agency each year, i24news.

In January, the US government announced that it would withhold $65 million of a $125 million aid installment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The UNRWA head suggested that the US had slashed the agency’s budget to punish the Palestinians for their criticism of Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital.”

“The decision was not related to UNRWA’s performance because in November I had received very constructive and openly positive feedback on those issues,” Pierre Kraehenbuehl told the Associated Press.

Critics also warn that the funding cuts could deepen an already dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and strengthen hardliners and stoke instability in the region.

The right of return is one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The right of return is one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians claim that about 5.3 million Palestinians, including tens of thousands of refugees who fled in the1948 and 1968 wars from what is now known as Israel, and their descendants, have a right of return to their homes.

The Palestinians have for years insisted on their right to return home as part of any solution to their decades-long conflict with the Israeli , Islam Times reported.

Israel rejects the Palestinian demand, fearing that Palestinians would destroy Israel’s “Jewish-majority” state after the arrival of millions of non-Jewish individuals.

Currently, Israel’s population is nearly nine million, three-quarters of whom are Jewish citizens.

Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the UN created UNWRA, to help resettle nearly 600,000 Palestinians after the war; UNRWA says that there are 5.3 million Palestinian refugees in the world.

UNRWA included descendants of the original Palestinian refugees in its total sum of refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes after the 1948 war, as well as those refugees who fled during the 1967 Six Day war.

 

Read more from Shafaqna:

137 Palestinians including 18 children killed by Israeli forces on Gaza Border

Palestinians observe national mourning over Gaza deaths

Palestinians Hold Rally on 100th Day since Trump ‘Nakba’ Move

Israeli Navy kills Palestinian fisherman off Gaza coast

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