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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 4 december 2019

Israel to U.N.: Uprooted Jews should be seen as refugees

By JENNIFER PELTZ Israel and the United States,
Associated Press however, have lambasted
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — UNRWA as anti-Israel and
Israel wants the United badly run. The U.S. cut its
Nations to recognize as funding for the agency
refugees hundreds of thou- from $360 million in 2017
sands of Jews who fled to $60 million in 2018 and
Arab and Muslim countries nothing this year, calling
in the last century, its U.N. the agency "irredeemably
envoy said Tuesday. flawed."
Ambassador Danny Danon On the settlements issue,
told the U.N. General As- one of Tuesday's Assembly
sembly that he plans to resolutions stresses a call
propose a resolution about for "an immediate halt to
what he called "the 'forgot- all settlement activities,"
ten' Jewish refugees." among many other oft-re-
"We don't hear the inter- peated themes. It passed
national community speak 147-7, with 13 abstentions.
of them when they discuss Assembly resolutions are
the refugees of the conflict, not legally binding or en-
perhaps because it doesn't forceable, but they indi-
serve the Palestinian narra- cate world opinion.
tive," Danon said, accusing Hundreds of thousands of
the international commu- Jewish settlers live in the
nity of taking a one-sided West Bank and east Jerusa-
approach to refugees and lem, areas that Palestinians
other aspects of the con- In this Tuesday March 26, 2019 file photo, Israel United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon claim for their future state.
addresses the U.N. Security Council, during a meeting on the Palestinian and Israeli conflict at
flict. U.N. headquarters. The U.N. and the Palestin-
He didn't detail his planned Associated Press ians say the settlements
resolution, except to say are illegal and undermine
that it would "acknowl- concerned with Palestin- lence and persecution. tinians fled or were forced hopes for the long-dis-
edge the wrong done" to ian matters and reiterate a Many fled to Israel around from their homes during cussed two-state solution
the Jews in question and roster of longstanding posi- the time of its establishment the war. A U.N. agency to the Israeli-Palestinian
"make right the injustice tions on the Israeli-Palestin- in 1948. assists them and their de- conflict.
that they suffered." ian issue. One measure in- The uprooted Jews were scendants — all told, about In 2016, a U.N. Security
Palestinian Ambassador cludes a call for a stop to absorbed in Israel, where 5.5 million people — in the Council resolution called
Riyad Mansour reiterated Israeli settlement of areas their descendants now West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jor- the settlements "a flagrant
appeals for humanitarian Israel captured in the 1967 make up about half the dan, Syria and Lebanon. violation under internation-
aid for Palestinian refugees Mideast war — a stance country's Jewish popula- The Palestinians and the al law."
and said the assembly's given new resonance by tion. U.N. see its Relief and Works The U.S. announcement
long history of resolutions on the recent U.S. announce- The bid for refugee rec- Agency as a lifeline for im- last month upended a four-
the conflict don't amount ment that it no longer be- ognition may be largely poverished people with decade-old State Depart-
to prejudice against Israel. lieves the settlements vio- symbolic at this juncture, no state of their own. In- ment legal opinion and
"It doesn't work that way," late international law. but it reflects Israel's deter- ternational support for it is subsequent years of care-
he told the group. Danon said an estimated mination to highlight what "an indispensable source fully calibrated U.S. opposi-
The remarks came as the 850,000 Jews were forced it considers to be years of of hope and stability until tion to settlement construc-
assembly weighed, and ul- out of Iraq, Egypt, Moroc- pro-Palestinian bias at the a just solution for the Pal- tion.
timately approved, resolu- co, Iran, and many other U.N., including on the issue estine refugees is realized," Israeli leaders welcomed
tions that continue the work countries during the 20th of refugees. Mansour told the General the U.S. decision. Palestin-
of various U.N. components century after enduring vio- An estimated 700,000 Pales- Assembly on Tuesday. ians bitterly protested it.q