Oh. I thought Ben meant… Now that “palestine” has been “recognised” as a state the UN should demand they behave like one. But of course they aren’t, so they don’t.

They could be considered for membership of the UN but would miss out for three possible reasons:

1. They are required to be “peace loving” in accordance with the requirements of the UN Charter
2. The UN requirements for recognition of statehood would be more stringent than UNESCO – requiring compliance with the legal provisions of the Montevideo Convention 1933
3 America could exercise its veto to deny Palestine’s admission to the UN

Remember that the PLO tried to join the UN last September and never got past the vetting Committee. In my view nothing has changed since then – including UNESCO recognition of Palestinian statehood – to indicate that another approach to the UN would be successful.

Paul

I think you will find what you are looking for at this link
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=960&x_context=7

Ben – not sure what you mean. Care to elaborate?

You’ve hit the nail squarely in the head.

“Well if the people are displaced from another region they are refugees.”

Exactly. The word is not ‘displaced’ either. It’s ‘forced.’

Most of the people who ‘fled’ in 1948, would be long gone. The remainder were born in situ, ergo they are NOT refugees. If any are still alive they are not refugees anyway.

I can give you example after example from the ARAB Press, where they say the Palestinian Arabs fled on the insistence of their leaders, with the promise of a quick return, once the “Zionist entity had been destroyed”

“The radio stations of the Arab regimes kept repeating to us: ‘Get away from the battle lines. It’s a matter of ten days or two weeks at the most, and we’ll bring you back to Ein-Kerem [near Jerusalem].’ And we said to ourselves, ‘That’s a very long time. What is this? Two weeks? That’s a lot!’ That’s what we thought [then]. And now 50 years have gone by.” [PA TV (Fatah), July 7, 2009]
With these words an Arab resident of a refugee camp recounts the reason why his family left Israel in 1948, in an interview broadcast on PA TV this month.”

Here’s a good link for you Ben. It has a video and written statements of people who fled, not forced to leave

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=1102

Ben it’s also well documented that Israel **URGED** the Arabs to stay and be part of the new State of Israel

Also well documented is the fact the that approximately 600,000 Arabs FLED, whereas a Million Jews were forced from Arab/Muslim Lands.

Israel absorbed these people and still is. Arab/Muslim countries still refuse to accept your so-called ‘refugees’

You will also recall that the PA has stated that the “refugees” will not be given “Palestinian” , citizenship, but rather exercise their self invented, non-negotiable “right of return”.

Although you do not emphasise it, one must note that the Dheishe refugee camp is on the outskirts of Bethlehem. You point out that since taking charge of the camp 17 years ago, the PA has done nothing for those people. Clearly they couldn’t give a damn for their fellow Arabs and fellow co-religionists, there or in any number of similar camps scattered around Judea and Samaria. It is a matter of “I’m all right Jabbour” for the leaders who reside in mansions built with aid that was to have benefitted their people.

But the question is why has Israel done nothing for the displace Arabs? My answer is that the UN directed Israel not to improve the shanties and slums that the “refugees” were living in. I recall that somewhere around 1969 or 1970 Israel wanted to build new housing in Gaza and the UN ordered it to change nothing.

The trouble is that my searches fail to bring that UN order to hand. The point of finding that order is that it would be important to demonstrate UN complicity compounding the neglect of the PA toward UNWRA’s dependants. I would be grateful If you or anyone else could dig up that order.

Well if thepeople are displaced from another region they are refugees.

The Security Council really has no jurisdiction since Palestine is not a member state of the UN – and on current indications has no chance of being admitted to membership of that organisation.

I think it is the duty of Palestine to start behaving as a peace loving and responsible State. The first thing it can do is to get UNWRA to start dismantling the refugee camps within its state controlled areas.

How can Palestine continue to have refugee camps for Palestinian Arabs in areas that are part of the recognized Palestinian State?