Stop Palestinian PORN!

It's known "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." However, in the world we're living in no one cares about truth and facts in the first place. People only care about stories, feelings, emotions, perceptions. You know, "narratives". This is the reason the Palestinian propaganda machine is so successful. However, much like other massive lies, the seemingly unstoppable colossus of Palestinian propaganda, stands on weak, brittle, hollow clay legs. An academic analysis of the endless parade of Palestinian moaning and whining reveals there are four such "legs", four major themes, on which everithing else rests. It is enough to shatter one for the entire structure to crumble, however knowing and seeing all can get you immunity from Palestinian lies for good.

This article will suggest a framework of recognising, understanding and dealing with the Palestinian propaganda machine, by exposing the four "legs" at the base of this colossus.

At the foundation we can always find four myths: the myth of Peoplehood, the myth of Occupation, the myth of Refugees and the myth of the Nakba.

Yes, you got it.

PORN.

Every Palestinian lie is inspired by Palestinian PORN.

Every Palestinian narrative relies on Palestinian PORN.

Every Palestinian agenda is based on Palestinian PORN.

Pro-Palestinian activist groups? They're spreading Palestinian PORN.

All Palestinian propaganda is based on PORN.

Let's analyze Palestinian PORN and expose it for what it is.

Peoplehood

The myth of Palestinian peoplehood goes along the lines of "a proud, ancient, indigenous Palestinian people predating Israel", which doesn't make any sane person with any basic clue burst into laughter, because Political Correctness poisons such notions as truth and knowledge.

The most basic, simplest way to destroy this fallacy is to ask about the history of such a wonderful, ancient people. No need to go all ancient history (you know, like the Jews can), just some basic stuff. Who were the Palestinian kings in the 14th century? Who were the prominent Palestinian poets of the 17th century? What was the Palestinian coin of the 19th century? What, nothing?

If you're lucky enough to find somebody, who's actually willing to discuss facts, you can point out to them the word "Palestine" comes from the Hebrew word for "invaders" (oopsie!) and was originally describing an ancient Greek people, that has nothing to do with modern day Arabs. You can explain them the late 19th century - early 20th century Arabs of the area were mostly promoting Pan-Arabism with absolutely no idea they were secretly "Palestinians". You can show that after declining the UN given opportunity of establishing an Arab state in 1947, they never identified themselves as such "Palestinians", until late 60s when the notion of Palestinian self determination was really born - as a political tool against Israel. Then they can perhaps understand that without Zionism and without Israel there'd never be a "Palestinian" peoplehood.

But you shouldn't count on meeting someone like that too often.

Bottom line is, if Palestinians want self determination - Ahlan wa Sahlan!

But be honest about it, about your origins and your timeline. Otherwise, you're just spreading PORN.

That awkward moment when you try to prove Palestinian Peoplehood with an old Zionist newspaper.

Mahmoud Abbas is a slave to PORN. Photo credit: SPA. 

Occupation

"Israel breaks international law by occupying and building in the West Bank, which is an affront to Palestinian human rights and all humanity."

Well, a winning narrative is winning narrative.

To factually combat it, one has to explain what international law is, then that Israel has the best claim to Greater Israel under international law, that the territories in dispute never legally belonged to anyone before Israel, that even if it did occupy the lands, occupation in and of itself is perfectly legal, when the neighbors pose a threat to the country, that chronology matters and all of it - the wall, the checkpoints are a result of Palestinian actions, moreover a result of the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, that didn't even exist before the the 90s, and that since the two disputing parties signed an agreement regarding the territories at The Oslo Accords, any occupation that there might have been before - ended and a new phase began.

But who cares about that? That's just a bunch of pesky, boring historical and legal facts.

It's much easier to scream "occupation"! Especially, when one has no idea what that word really means.

More interestingly than trying to wage a factual argument with PORN fans, The Occupation Myth is used to justify Palestinian terrorism ("it's honorable resistance, if it's an occupation", you see), which makes me wonder what was causing Palestinian terrorism before 1967? What was causing Palestinian terrorism before 1948?

Ugh, that annoying cause and consequence thing again!

Even more interestingly: Who France, Belgium, Spain, Russia or the United States are occupying? What drives Islamic terrorism there? What drives ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram? What drives the mad rape epidemic all over Europe?

Is it "Israeli occupation" as well?

Rest assured, many PORN aficionados will be quick to explain you that it is.

According to the Larousse French Dictionary, 1939 edition (almost a decade before the establishment of Israel), this was the flag of Palestine. Tell me again how is Israel is an "occupant"?

Refugees 

"Israel is denying the "basic right" of some 5 million refugees to return home *since 1948* keeping them in poverty. There can be no reconciliation until Israel provides a *just* solution to the refugees."

Guess what?

No such thing as "Palestinian refugees" in the world!

There are two UN refugee agencies. One, UNHCR, exists for all of the refugees in the universe and is mandated to find them new homes. The other, UNRWA, exists exclusively for Palestinians and is mandated not only to perpetuate their refugee status (!), but also to pass it on to next Palestinian generations - hence the outlandish 5 million number. Sounds crazy? Just put their internet "about" pages one next to the other.

The existence of UNRWA in 2016 is an affront to international law, a money laundering scam, depriving world governments (that's world taxpayers - you and me) of their funds and quite simply an act of contempt to the intelligence of the general public - everywhere. A horrid example of an international body taking over and putting itself above the law.

More fun facts about "Palestinian refugees"?

A Palestinian "refugee" can be a citizen of a third country and still remain a Palestinian "refugee"!

A Palestinian "refugee", unlike any other refugee in the world, can be filthy rich!

A Palestinian "refugee" can be *born* in a third country!

A Palestinian "refugee" is still a "refugee" since 1948! All other refugees of that tumultuous, post WWII, time were resettled.

UNRWA is the main employer in the Palestinian territories!

Among UNRWA employees in Gaza, many are Hamas members!

UNRWA employees have immunity under Palestinian law - they're literally above the law!

UNRWA employees use that immunity, among other things, to sexually harass Palestinian women!

For more on UNRWA and the "Palestinian refugees" canard, read here.

Nakba

"Israel was born in sin, occupying and kicking out indigenous population! Thus, Israel has no right to exist!"

A sort of an uber myth on its own, comprised of many elements, it ignores on the most basic level, in the best traditions of Goebbels propaganda tactics, context, cause and concequence, chronology. In a nutshell, Arabs refused diplomatic solutions. Arabs attacked. Arabs planned a genocide of Jews. Arabs lost. Arabs brought their tragedy on themselves. Arabs' defeat and population exchange in 1948 is in no way more unique, than any other similar defeat or population exchange of the time. In fact, it's much "less unique" by every measurable parameter. Here too, only one group whines and moans professionally about their loss till today. You guessed which.

For more on the Nakba farce, read here.

Now you have better tools to identify and combat Palestinian propaganda in the information war it wages against Israel.

Remember, PORN is immoral.

PORN is wrong.

PORN is bad for you.

Overexposure to PORN may cause BDS symptoms.

One cannot spread PORN and be a decent person at the same time.

Protect your children!

Left to right: UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness, BDS founder Omar Barghouti (top),

Electronic Intifada founder Ali Abunimah, author Reza Aslan (bottom). 

Stop #PalestinianPorn!

#MakeLoveNotPorn

Use your head!

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The Nakba: Facts VS Fiction

The times in which we're living impose on us certain game rules, whether we want it or not. One of such rules is "the narrative" and the time imposing it on us is postmodernity. Theoretically, it claims that any perspective on the facts that took place, and on the chronology in which they took place, is viable. At first glance, that seems to be a perfectly legitimate observation. However, practically, it too often means for too many that notions such as facts and chronology become outdated and inconsequential altogether. Not the perspective on the facts changes, but rather facts change to fit one's perspective. Questions like - Who's the aggressor? Who attacked who first? Who started the war? Why was it started? What is the actual chronological order of events? What is the cause and consequence? Who's a terrorist and who's a freedom fighter? - All lose significance.

If any point of view is acceptable, then no one is a liar. If everyone has their own truth, then there's no truth altogether. No facts, no truth - no right or wrong.  Let's keep that on the conscience of the people responsible for killing Truth as a concept, by introducing postmodernity into our lives - the academia.

The Nakba, the "Palestinian" mourning day, commemorated on the Gregorian calendar day of the proclamation of the establishment of Israel, is the ultimate example of a "narrative" gone wild. "The catastrophe", "the disaster" of the "Palestinian" people has all the main characteristics of the typical postmodern moral and historical "relativism"; ignoring history, flipping cause and consequence, blowing events out of every proportion, throwing any context out of the window, applying replacement theory and, of course, singling out and using double standards.

What have become of the Nakba farce today in a nutshell is the following:

Evil Zionist Jews came from Europe in 1948 to a completely foreign to them Palestine, escaping the Holocaust (which is usually denied as well), occupied it, starting a brutal genocide on the innocent, civilian indigenous Palestinian population (that continues to this day!), and establishing the Zionist Israel on the ruins of Palestine. Those who weren't slaughtered, were brutally kicked out of their homes and are refugees to this day (along with all their descendants!) in an evil act of ethnic cleansing. This is to be regarded as the greatest crime in human history, Israel should be perceived as the last colonial project, Zionism should be seen as racism and as an unprecedented evil.

Terrible, isn't it?

From the point of view of the progressive-liberal-postmodern-relativist all that is as legitimate and as tangible as any other telling. If it was indeed so, then Israel would be an incarnation of Satan and all the boycotts, bias and disproportionate obsession would have been justified.

From the point of view of a normal person? Not quite so.

With the Nakba Day "celebrated" just last week, on May 15th, it's crucial to set the record straight and make a decisive stand: lies are no narrative.

Let's debunk the Nakba farce for the lies it's built of:

Myth #1: "Jews came to Israel in 1948! / Israel was only established because of the Holocaust!"

Putting aside ancient history, religion, the Bible AND the Quran, this lie ignores the building of Israel by European Jews for some fifty years before WWII. It ignores the first and the second "Aliyahs" - waves of Jewish repatriation to Israel in 1882-1902 and 1904-1914 respectively, way before WWII or the Holocaust. It ignores the establishment of the Zionist movement - the national movement of the Jewish people - in the 19th century. It further ignores the original repatriation of Yemenite Jews to Israel in the 19th century at the same time of and unrelated to the First Aliyah.

Myth #2: "Jews occupied "Palestine"!"

Never at any given time in history was there an independent state called "Palestine", the Jews could occupy. "Palestine" was only a name given to a geographic area by foreign occupiers; Romans, Turks, Brits. The name comes from a Hebrew word "Plishtim", that means... "invaders" (oopsie!), and was given to a foreign, ancient Greek tribe that invaded the land from the sea. There never was a political entity called "Palestine". There never was any unique "Palestinian" people, separate from the rest of the Middle Eastern Arabs.

Myth #3: ""Palestinians" are an indigenous people to Israel!"

With the establishment of UNRWA some brand new criteria have been established for Arab refugees from British Palestine, different and unique than the criteria for any other refugee in the universe. As opposed to any other refugee in the world, who receives status if he has been driven out of his homeland, the Arab refugee from British Palestine receives status if he's been living in British Palestine for... two years. (Along with his children. And his children's children. And the children of the children...) 

Why was this unique criteria needed? Clearly because the universal standard didn't apply to the Arabs from British Palestine. While the exact numbers are disputed among scholars, obviously a significant enough chunk of what's referred to today as "Palestinians" are in no way indigenous to Israel. Children of foreign workers brought in by the Ottomans, result of migrating tribes, gangs moved in during the Arab revolt. Their claim is in no way more primal, than that of the first and second Aliyahs. Not to mention the historical claim on Israel, unique to the Jews.

Now, if we look at UNRWA's original number of 711,000 refugees (even though today they brazenly claim "about 750,000" on their official website!), we'll discover a surprise as well. Prof. Karsh's meticulous research proved the max. estimation of "Palestinian" Arab refugees can only stand at 609,000. That means some 100,000 neighboring, non-"Palestinian" Arabs jumped on to suck on the global community's generous tit.

Myth #4: "Zionists kicked "Palestinians" out! They started it! "Palestinian" terrorism is only a response to Zionist aggression!"

Here comes that pesky-little-insignificant-outdated nuisance called "chronology".

Five Arab armies attacked the Jews on May, 1948 before they "kicked out" anybody. To what were they "responding" then?

Arabs murdered some 300 Jews during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt. Before the Jews "kicked out" anybody or "occupied" anything. To what were they "responding" then?

Arabs slaughtered 18 Jews in Safed and 67 in Hebron in 1929. To what were they "responding" then?

That list goes on.

Still feel like justifying and rationalizing Islamic terrorism?

Now without even getting into the numbers of the (rather substantial) question of how many Arabs were actually physically expelled by Jews, how many fled on their accord and how many left adhering to the plea from Arab generals to leave (ignoring Jewish leadership pleas to stay and build a life together), so that they could wipe out the Jews quickly and allow them to "come back in two weeks", let's remember a few basic facts:

#1: Arabs were the ones who attacked Jews; five foreign armies, as well as local gangs.

#2. Their directly expressed goal was Jewish extinction and genocide.

#3. They started the war. They planned genocide. They lost. Where's the Nazi "Nakba Day"?

Myth #5: "Zionists have comitted genocide of "Palestinians"! / The Nakba is the "Palestinian" holocaust!"

The Holocaust is not a matter of perspective.

A genocide is not an issue of narrative.

You don't get to call your defeat in 1949 a "Holocaust" just because it's "a Holocaust for you".

The lie of the Israeli perpetrated genocide is a lie of monstrous magnitude, bearing a metaphysical purpose. Its purposes are to prove "Jews are evil after all" - thus exempting Western guilt over the Holocaust, and that "what the Nazis have done to them, they're now doing to the Palestinians", turning Zionism into modern day Nazism and all of Israel into a sort of a Freudian complex. The only conceivable reason for this audacity to bear any succeess whatsoever is to assume Hitler's Big Lie propaganda technique works: "tell a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".

Okay, let's engage in intellectual self abuse: A genocide is the systematic destruction of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group - courtesy of Wikipedia.

Example #1: During the Armenian genocide, the Turks slaughtered some 1.5 million of the 2 million of Armenians living in the Ottoman empire. That's some 75% of the Armenian population under the Ottoman empire. That's a genocide.

Example #2: During the Holocaust some 6 million of the 9.5 million of European Jews were slaughtered. That's some 63% of the Jewish population. That's a genocide.

Example #3: During the Rwandan Genocide some 500,000 out of the 770,000 Tutsis were slaughtered. That's some 65% of the Tutsi population. That's a genocide.

That list goes on.

Now coming to Israel and the Arabs, out of the 711,000 (UN numbers) displaced "Palestinians" (not out of the entire Arab population of British Palestine, mind you), some 13,000 people were killed. That's some 1.8% of the displaced Arab population. I deliberately used the numbers bearing the seal of the "Palestinian Narrative" approval, even though they're disputed and inflated.

Even their own numbers prove beyond a reasonable doubt there never was a genocide.

Myth #6: "Okay, no genocide, but the Zionists ethnically cleansed Palestine! Secret Zionist documents prove that was their intention all along!"

No matter how much certain progressive-liberal-postmodern-relativist "scholars" will try to twist certain phrases or quotes, take them out of context and detach them from historic perspective, there was a wide consensus of opposition to an expulsion of Arabs across the Jewish political map, left and right.

With that being said, let's also understand "ethnic cleansing" is the postmodern historian's way of demonizing population exchange. In the years after WWII (i.e. the years in question) population exchange with the purpose of creating homogeneous nation states was the international norm, approved and encouraged by the global community in general and specifically in Israel (even by some Arab leaders!). Sure, leaving one's home is always a tragedy, but this was, sadly, happening all over the world and in much (much) higher numbers. All of these exchanges were tragically accompanied by major loss of life as well.

Example #1: 14.5 million were exchanged between India and Pakistan. There was no war. On the contrary it was done to prevent one by uniting the Hindus with the Hindus and the Muslims with the Muslims. Yet both countries were unable at the time to take care of the mass population exchange, and massacres occured on both sides. The exact number of the people killed as a result of the transfer is still disputed, with some estimations going as high as a million dead. Most scholars cite around 500,000.

Example #2: Approximately 12 million of ethnic Germans from all over Europe were driven out of their homes after the Nazi defeat by furious local populations. Even though they were indigenous to their homes, and unrelated in any way to the Nazis. Around 550,000 were killed during the expulsions.

Example #3: The end of WWII has left some significant grudge between the Poles and the Ukrainians as well. 1.5 million were expelled from their homes. As many as 100,000 were killed.

That list goes on.

Population exchange cases worldwide compared.

In blue: the total amount of displaced in each case. In red: those killed during the process.

Some 850,000 Jews (that's 100,000 more than even the current inflated numbers of UNRWA) driven out of Arab lands as a result of the establishment of Israel also come to mind. Those actually were indigenous citizens of their origin countries, living there for centuries. They weren't at war with the Arab population of their countries. They didn't invade the Arabs with five hostile Jewish states. They never swore to drive the Arabs into the sea.

You know, small, insignificant, pesky differences.

Out of all of the millions of refugees the world have seen since WWII only one group keeps its refugee status till today and passes it on to its descendants. Only one has turned their displacement to the core of their national identity. Only one whines and moans till this very day of their "great disaster". Guess which.

By the same token, where's the Indian Nakba Day? Where's the Pakistani Nakba Day? Where's the German?..

That list goes on.

Myth #7: "Zionists are committing genocide of "Palestinians" today!"

Even if you know absolutely nothing about history, international law, politics, the Middle East, the Israeli-Arab conflict or anything else about anything, you still have to be brain-dead to take these accusations seriously.

You cannot have a genocide with a steady growth of population. (You know, as opposed to a sharp decline.)

You cannot have a genocide with a steady growth in life expectancy, higher than that of the world average.

You cannot have a genocide with a steady decline in infant mortality rate, lower than that of the world average.

That list goes on.

Myth #8. "Israel is a colonialist project!"

The Jews didn't come to Israel with the flag of Poland, Russia, Morocco or Yemen. They didn't come to abuse the "riches" and "indigenous population" of Israel for some other homeland. They came to settle in Israel, a persecuted people, leaving everything behind to build a new, Jewish life in their new homeland. To work the land, to build the cities, to develop their own independent, Jewish culture. Zionism is not colonialism, nor is it racism. It's the Civil Rights Movement of the Jewish people.

Coming back to the "narrative era", sure, one man's victory is another man's tragedy. Granted. Even if it's entirely self-inflicted. Granted every loss, every displacement is a tragic event for the people involved. Granted had there never been wars in the world, it'd have been a better place. No question about it. Now, say you've turned this loss into a defining moment in your history, into a cornerstone of your national identity (unprecedented, really). Say, you've turned misery into a career. Say, you've perpetuated the suffering of (the descendants) of your refugees. Say, your national idea is a strikingly negative one, in an absolutely unique way compared to the global practice.

Consider the following, Israel's vice ambassador to Norway, George Deek (who happened to be an Israeli Arab), has brought up this question: Why is the Nakba commemorated on the date of Israel's declaration of independence? Why not, say, this expulsion, or that massacre, or this defeat? What is the Palestinian "catastrophe" all about? Their loss? Their expulsion? Their diaspora? Or is it our victory that is their main cause of mourning?

This is what it's all about. The very essence of the entire conflict. The Palestinians' main problem is not a lack of a country, it's the existence of ours. No other nation got the amount of opportunities the Palestinians did to establish their own state. It's not a matter of territory. As long as a Jewish state exists anywhere within historic Israel, the Palestinian "Nakba" won't end.

Don't let "narratives" brainwash you.

Insist on using your brains at all costs.

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Shut down UNRWA! part 1

This is a call to action, and you won't find a lot of those in this blog. It's time to raise awareness around the world to the nature of this organization and its actions. It's time everybody knew the difference between what this body claims to do and what it actually does.

It has nothing to do with your political persuasion. Whether you're 'left' or 'right', pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, pro-Two-State-Solution or pro-One-State-Solution.

It's time for everyone to unite and call to shut down UNRWA!

Make no mistake, this call is not only because of the recent developments. It's not only because of the suspicion that the Hamas mortar that killed a 4-year-old boy on Friday, was fired from an UNRWA school. It's not only because of the fact that terror rockets were found on three different occasions in UNRWA schools in Gaza. It's not only because UNRWA returned the missiles to the "local authorities" - i.e. Hamas terrorists on at least one of the occasions. Make no mistake, these developments are horrific, and could certainly be enough to make such a call, or at least a call to launch a serious investigation into UNRWA and its conduct. But the reasons to shut down this corrupt facility go way deeper than that.

UNRWA - United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or as their logo states in short, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, and The UNHCR - The United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees, or as their logo states in short, The UN Refugee Agency, were created roughly at the same time and, you'd think, for the same reasons.

Notice any difference?

The difference, however, is not only in the logo and the tagline. Lets see what the agencies tell us about themselves in their own websites!

UNHCR mandate: "The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide."

UNRWA mandate: "We provide assistance and protection for some 5 million registered Palestine refugees to help them achieve their full potential in human development."

UNHCR statement of purpose: "Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country."

UNRWA statement of purpose: "The Agency’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance, including in times of armed conflict."

UNHCR defines refugees through the legislation of the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention: "a refugee is a person who is outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail him — or herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution." They also add that: "A person may no longer be a refugee when the basis for his or her refugee status ceases to exist. This may occur when, for example, refugees voluntary repatriate to their home countries once the situation there permits such return. It may also occur when refugees integrate or become naturalized in their host countries and stay permanently."

UNRWA has its own, unique definition, as it proudly states: "UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees. It has contributed to the welfare and human development of four generations of Palestine refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are also eligible for registration."

UNHCR in figures: Around 8,600 employees, dealing with some 34 million refugees worldwide.

UNRWA in figures: More than 30,000 employees, only some 200 of them are not "Palestinian refugees" themselves, dealing with some 5 million "Palestine refugees".

UNHCR achievements: "In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives."

UNRWA achievements: "When the Agency began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services."

UNHCR (left) and UNRWA. More than a cosmetic difference.

Got it?

There are two kinds of refugees in the world: "Palestine refugees" and all other refugees. One agency is busy resettling refugees, another simply "takes care of them". One agency solves refugee problems, another perpetuates them. 

One group of refugees are the immediate individuals in need, another group passes their "refugee status" on to their children, grand children and grand-grand children. One group of refugees has to prove it was driven outside of their country of nationality or habitual residence, another has only to prove they resided in British Palestine for two years before the war (sorry, "indigenous Palestinian people" enthusiasts!). One group of refugees is dependant on objective criteria, another group is not dependant on anyhting at all. For example, it can have multi-millionaire "refugees", "refugees" who are already citizens of third countries, etc. One group seeks to get rid of its refugee status, another group seeks to join in by all means.

Unbelievable? Mind-blowing? Disturbing? Sickening? All of the above?

You're goddamn right!

After all it's not every day you get undeniable proof  of UN's double standards, hypocrisy, basic disregard of its own legislation and of any human decency whatsoever in its regard to the Israeli-Arab conflict directly from the horse's mouth!

So how did it ever come to this? How was UNRWA established? Why did "about 750,000 Palestine refugees" (a figure totally disproven) need a unique agency, with unique criteria all for themselves in a sea of tens of millions of refugees just like them?

When the attack of five Arab armies on the newly reborn state of Israel, with the stated purpose of "driving the Jews into the sea", surprisingly failed, some 609,071 Arab residents of British Palestine became refugees. Some were driven out by the winners, most escaped voluntarily, guided by the Arab promise of a quick triumph, after which they could return home, despite the Jewish leadership pleading them to stay and live side by side. Arab leadership insisted they leave, and after they've lost - surprise, surprise! - no place was found for them in the neighboring Arab countries. Instead of incorporating them in their countries they came up with the "Right of Return" for the Arab refugees of Palestine, which is in fact a Demand of Return, because no such "right" actually exists in international practice, no such precedent ever took place, no group of refugees nowhere in the world was ever eligible for such a "right".

Also, if we take into consideration some 800,000 Jewish refugees (around 200,000 more than the Arab ones) who were expelled from their (actual) ancestral homes in their Arab countries, following the Arab defeat in the War of Independence, who were incorporated in Israel as equal citizens, we get a simple population exchange. Yes, a sad practice. Yes, losing a home is always tragic. But, sadly, a common practice in the post WWII world, with more than 50 million people undergoing population exchange, as many new nation states were created. But, instead of acknowledging all this, the creation of UNRWA was pedalled. And voila! Whatever good and honest intention there might have been to the (initially temporary body) in the beginning, is long gone more than 60 years later.

Today there are roughly 8 times more people dependant on UNRWA than in 1950. 8 times more people still live in misery and want, unaccepted by their fellow Arab countries, unintegrated in their fellow Arab societies, living in conditions of true Apartheid (unlike the made-up, non-existent Israeli one). No one ever, in more then 60 years, lost his eligibility for UNRWA aid. The UNRWA register is filled with deceased individuals, "refugees" who in the meantime recieved citizenship elsewhere, grand children of refugees Why? To serve a weapon against the Jewish state, a means to vilify Israel at the cynical expense of their fellow Arabs. Since the original mandate (dealing with 1949 refugees) is no longer relevant in any way, UNRWA's mandate has developed and became more and more abstract to incorporate more and more fields, and employ more and more people. Now, this monster of corruption exists simply to keep existing and provide paychecks to its vast staff from the international community donations. 

When you try to sit down and look at the current events, and try to figure out why no solution seems to work, you have to go back to the beginning. And UNRWA was there at the biginning, part of the original sin, that perpetuates the conflict and the "Palestine refugee" status. UNRWA is nothing but an obstacle to peace. 

So, if you're pro-Palestinian, if you believe Palestinian refugees deserve the same human rights as everyone else on the planet, you must spread the word of the real nature of UNRWA. Talk about UNRWA, post about UNRWA, share information about UNRWA, use hashtag #ShutDownUNRWA on social media.

If you're ever serious about peace in the Middle East in our times, if you're ever serious about solving the Israeli-Arab conflict - UNRWA must go!

And just in case you're thinking, "sure, UNRWA perpetuates the problem, but it's also a legit, objective, non-aligned, humanitarian organization", then stay tuned for more coming up soon, as we'll explore some of UNRWA's recent activities and "achievements"!

Keep using those brains!

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