RAMALLAH _ Palestine News Network
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expatriates on Thursday rejected the efforts of Israel and the US administration to determine the numbers of Palestinian refugees and their prescriptions as part of the Washington plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In a press statement, the ministry said, "the repetition of the American-Israeli illusion and lies about the Palestinian refugees will not overlook the international community and the United Nations, and will not make it a reality."
"The international consensus rejects the United States ´ policy of biased Israeli occupation and historical injustice on the Palestinian people and their successive generations," the ministry stressed.
The ministry´s statement was "in response to the leaked Israeli foreign affairs in the Hebrew media on the issue of Palestinian refugees and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)."
The foreign ministry said that the US-Israeli attempts to redefine the refugees or propose bypass roads to resettle them or the role of UNRWA "fall within the context of attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause."
A member of the PLO´s executive committee, head of the refugee affairs Department Ahmed Abu Houli, said Israel and the United States had nothing to do with the numbers or characteristics of Palestinian refugees.
In a press statement, Abu Houli said, "Refugee status includes the children and descendants of the approximately 9.5 million Palestinian refugees, and Israel´s denial or questioning of this number is worthless because refugee status and refugee determination is a UN-related affair that has nothing to do with the Israeli Government or the US administration them and they are not guardians of the United Nations. "
"Resolution 194 of the United Nations explicitly and clearly recognizes the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes from which they have been displaced, and the reaffirmation of it in General Assembly meetings each year has given it the binding character of international law to implement it," he said.
Israeli media had published a leaked document for the Israeli Foreign affairs, stating that the number of Palestinian refugees was estimated at a few tens of thousands, and that the expanded definition of the (Palestinian refugees) was disingenuous and had much injustice for the rest of the world´s refugees.
The document suggests that Palestinian refugees residing in Jordan should be resettled, noting that US President Donald Trump´s decision to stop funding UNRWA shows that the agency is "not part of the solution but part of the problem."
