“Israel Hayom” newspaper, on Wednesday, unveiled an official Israeli document, issued by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which denies the existence of millions of Palestinian refugees.
The document affirms the need for settling the refugees residing in Jordan. It also claims that there are links between the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Hamas, saying that the agency is exaggerating the number of refugees and blurring the facts, in order to keep the refugee issue instead of resolving it.
According to the PNN, the document considers that the “refugee” classification applies to a very limited number of Palestinians, the same position expressed by the US administration in a report, recently, which states that there are only “tens of thousands of Palestinians refugees” only, instead of the 5.3 million refugees registered with UNRWA.
The document referred to UN General Assembly Resolution 149, which states that refugees should be returned, claiming that the resolution is non-binding and that the General Assembly does not have the capacity to commit to decisions, but only recommendations.
Through the document, Israel called on the European countries to amend what it called a “historical mistake” of granting UNRWA a mandate related to Palestinian refugees and their attachment to the United Nations refugee agency.
07/21/18 World Refugee Day 2018 Report: Palestinians are the Largest Population of Refugees
