I consider myself relatively knowledgeable about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian history, but I had no idea until last week that Palestinian refugee camps existed in Palestine, that is, in the areas completely under the control of the Palestinian Authority, known as Area A.
I was first alerted to this by a tweet from Jonathan Elkhoury, who describes himself as a Lebanese Israeli-Christian. He posted a picture with the following text:
“This is Balata refugee camp in Nablus, West Bank. 100% under Palestinian Authority. Street divides between the city and camp. Palestinians in camps have no rights from PA & can’t even buy house in the street across. Why is [sic] there still refugees under PA if it’s their own state?”
Good question.
Later, Andrew Getraer, Hillel director at Rutgers, picked up the tweet and wrote a powerful thread on the topic. The long and short of it was that a Palestinian man he met at the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem said that he would stay in that refugee camp until he is allowed to return to his ancestral home, which is now in Israel.
Here we have the epitome of Palestinian intransigence, on the individual and national level. But then the question becomes: Why are international bodies enabling this? Why doesn’t the UN, whose UNRWA agencies run these camps, simply shut them down and force the PA to resettle these Palestinian people in Palestine? Does the international community, much like the Palestinian people, actually not want a resolution to the refugee problem? Do they actually want to keep it around to prevent a negotiated peace? One can’t help but wonder.
I strongly believe that the Palestinian people deserve a homeland. But what does it say about a nation if it refuses, in areas under its own control, to resettle the very people it says it wants a homeland for? What does it say about a governing body that it would rather keep these people in a constant state of displacement?
Shana Goldberg may be reached at [email protected]
Copyright © 2019 by the Intermountain Jewish News
