The U.S. State Department just released its 2015 “Framework for Cooperation” with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The document is filled with bureaucratic gobbledygook about improving UNRWA’s management practices and preventing funds from falling into the hands of terrorists, but it ignores the fundamental problem: in its 65 years of existence, UNRWA has done nothing but exacerbate the Palestinian refugee problem and provide cover and support for terrorism. Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander Joffe write:
This exercise in repetition occurred in the wake of a war that again exposed UNRWA’s unsavory and illegal activities, from being “shocked” that its schools were used to store Hamas rockets and rote condemnations of Israel, to its employees cheering the murder of Israelis. The framework nevertheless represents the American commitment to prolong the existence of UNRWA. . . .
[The framework’s suggestions] reflect the professionalization of UNRWA from a temporary relief organization into a multifaceted international organization dealing with Palestinian “basic education, health, relief and social services, microcredit, camp improvement and infrastructure and other assistance,” and “human development of Palestinian refugees by improving living conditions, economic potential, livelihoods, access, and human rights.” In other words, all the things that a Palestinian state should be doing for its citizens at home and outside its borders. They also take for granted that UNRWA will not only continue to exist through at least 2021 . . . but will also grow in both scope and size, then and beyond. There is no talk about limiting UNRWA’s operations, or turning responsibilities over to the Palestinian Authority or to countries that host Palestinian “refugees.”
Read more on National Interest: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/americas-palestine-refugee-policy-insane-11908