Israel-Palestine Mega Fact Check!

Palestinians are not unique in transmitting refugee status to their children. According to the United Nations, “Under international law and the principle of family unity, the children of refugees and their descendants are also considered refugees until a durable solution is found. Both UNRWA and UNHCR recognize descendants as refugees on this basis, a practice that has been widely accepted by the international community, including both donors and refugee hosting countries.”

“Palestine refugees are not distinct from other protracted refugee situations such as those from Afghanistan or Somalia, where there are multiple generations of refugees, considered by UNHCR as refugees and supported as such. Protracted refugee situations are the result of the failure to find political solutions to their underlying political crises.”

Of course, it would benefit Israel that refugee status be limited to those who originally fled or were forced out of the nascent state of Israel in 1948—because almost all of these refugees are now dead. This would solve one of Israel’s biggest conundrums with respect to the Palestinians—that the international community has long held that Israel must grant the refugees the right of return to their homeland, or grant them compensation for the property they have lost (see UNGA Resolution 194).