No ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees, Israel UN ambassador says

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations emphasized Thursday that there is no “right of return” to Israel for millions of Palestinian descendants of Arabs who were displaced during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the Jewish National Syndicate (JNS) reports.

The 1948 war took place when Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq sought to destroy Israel, which had just declared independence by accepting the terms of the United Nations 1947 Partition Plan. Around 750,000 Arabs fled or were forced to leave their homes in British Mandate Palestine for surrounding Arab countries, and their descendants now number in the millions. Known as refugees although they have never lived in Israel, this Palestinian group lives in “refugee camps” in Arab countries, and is supported by the United Nations UNRWA agency.

Palestinians are the only people in the world to have a UN refugee agency designated for them alone. The United Nation assigns second and third generation refugee status only to the descendants of Arabs who fought against Israel in 1948; no other people from any other conflict are granted refugee status to the second and third generation of descendants.

In his address to the UN Security Council about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Erdan attested “Let me be clear: There is no ‘right of return.’ You all know this. The demand of returning millions of descendants of refugees is a demand to obliterate the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. This will never happen.” Erdan went on to ask the Council: “How can it be that after so many decades there are still refugee camps inside Palestinian cities? Have you ever stopped to ask yourselves why the descendants of Palestinian refugees are still living in refugee camps? Why have they not been integrated into Palestinian society? We are talking about camps in Palestinian cities.”

Erdan especially addressed UN Secretary-General António Guterres for his condemnation of Israel’s counterterrorism operations in Jenin earlier this month, JNS reports. “The fact that the secretary-general chose to condemn Israel, a law-abiding democracy, as opposed to the bloodthirsty Palestinian terrorists seeking to murder innocent Israelis, is a disgrace,” Erdan said. “Such remarks only embolden the terrorists.”

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