The political exploitation of Palestinian refugees knows no limits. UN Resolution 194, which has been accepted blindly as the framework upon which a solution should be found, is rarely criticized for shifting accountability upon the colonized population, rather than the settler-colonial framework which usurps Palestinian territory and made Palestinians refugees in the first place. Resolution 194 is part of the international narrative on Palestine and has little to do with safeguarding the rights of refugees because it fails to call for the decolonization of their land.
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Humanitarian aid is about the international community first and foremost. The recipients are forced to play a part in this charade, which ignores Israel’s colonization of Palestine as the cause of the whole issue.
Furthermore, the PLO’s request for aid promotes the international narrative of delays. Aid must be given until a solution is found, the PLO insists, yet how much emphasis is placed upon finding and implementing that solution? The international community and the Palestinian leadership have turned Palestinian refugees into accessories for political convenience.
Indeed, there is hardly any mention of Palestinian refugees unless a humanitarian context is evoked, or if the UN inaugurates a project to exploit the illusion of “Palestinian autonomy”, which is non-existent in a humanitarian context rigged with deficiencies and political allegiances to the Zionist colonial project.
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Decades have passed since the UN Relief and Works Agency was mandated to provide for Palestinian refugees and bound to a “neutral” narrative, despite being funded by countries that prioritize their diplomatic and economic ties to Israel over and above human rights and justice.
Palestinians are Deprived of a Political Voice, and Their Leaders do Nothing about it
