Zelenskyy Asks U.S. For $20 Billion To Find Out Where That Missing $100 Billion Went

Palestinian Refugees and Perverse Incentives The travesty of the Palestinian people is not that they don't have a state to call their own. It's that a series of policies, meant to advance the Palestinian right of return, have — over many decades — created a perverse incentive to keep them as a victimized population. Here is an incomplete list of such policies: • UNRWA’s Policy of Inherited Refugee Status: The 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli War created 700,000 war refugess through voluntary and involuntary displacement. The United Nations has extended the status through inheritance, to the point where 6 million Palestinians in the diaspora are designated as refugees. This makes them eligible for UNRWA’s aid and services, regardless of socioeconomic status, and discourages permanent resettlement or full citizenship in host countries. • Egypt’s Nationality Laws: Children of Palestinian fathers are generally prevented from acquiring Egyptian citizenship, effectively denying them permanent status. The Nationality Law, established in 1975 with the express intent of supporting the Palestinian right of return, was amended in 2004 to allow children of Egyptian mothers to gain citizenship, although this has not been widely implemented. These laws have left many Palestinians as legal foreigners, unable to access basic rights and services. The Casablanca Protocol of 1965, which Egypt signed, was intended to grant Palestinians rights to residency, work, and travel, but it has not been effectively implemented. • Lebanon’s Restrictions: Lebanon enforces strict regulations on Palestinians, barring them from owning property and working in over 70 professions. This severely limits their economic opportunities and ability to integrate into Lebanese society. Lebanese law also restricts the construction and improvement of Palestinian refugee camps, leading to overcrowded and deteriorating living conditions. These policies ensure that Palestinians remain marginalized and dependent on international aid. • Jordan’s Citizenship Policies: While many Palestinians who fled to Jordan after the 1948 and 1967 wars were granted citizenship,those who fled from Gaza are often denied this right. These Palestinians hold temporary Jordanian passports that do not grant them full citizenship rights, leaving them in a precarious legal situation. This policy creates a two-tier system among Palestinians in Jordan, perpetuating a sense of statelessness and exclusion for those without full citizenship. • Refusal by Neighboring Countries to Accept War Refugees: Allegedly in the name of preventing ethnic cleansing and ensuring a future Palestinian state, the refusal to accept Gazans as refugees by Israel's neighbors since October 7, 2023 has only increased the risk of direct harm to them as Israel seeks to find the hostages and hunt down the perpetrators of the Hamas massacre. The short-term goal of saving Palestinian civilians is swiftly outranked by the long-term goal of an imagined Palestinian state. Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon gain doubly from these policies. Not only does it allow them to avoid the burden of Palestinian assimilation and government benefits, it also allows them to contribute to the international demonization of Israel, increasing their own standing in the region. These policies, separately from Israel's problematic treatment of Palestinians and the brutality they're subjected to under the iron fist of terror groups like Hamas, collectively ensure that Palestinians remain perpetual victims, a helpless people that subsists on the dependency and pity of the international community.