On Cue: UNHCR Settles Palestinian Refugees ... in Chile

Sunday's blog posting on the failure to resolve the Palestinian refugee problem compares the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)'s abysmal performance to that of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

As if on cue, the UNHCR resettled the first contingent of 117 Palestinian refugees in Chile this week. As explained in this AP report, "The refugees had spent months stranded at a desert camp on the Iraqi-Syrian border. They were the first of 117 Palestinians whom the Chilean government has agreed to receive under a plan coordinated with the Catholic Church and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The refugees will live in La Calera, a city northwest of the capital, Santiago, that has a strong Arabic community."

In other words, these Palestinians never fell under UNRWA's corrupted and corrupting care. They were refugees from the Iraq war, not from the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967. As a result, they are not being forced into the anti-Israel UNRWA stage production that keeps refugees in their poverty-ridden state of suspended animation.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled Baghdad in recent years. As explained by the UNHCR, "Under the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, the [Palestinians] received protection and assistance and enjoyed a relatively high standard of treatment that some segments of the Iraqi population considered unfair. Soon after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Palestinians were targeted with forced eviction, death threats and killings in Baghdad. Many sought refuge in neighboring Jordan and Syria but became stranded in desolate border camps."

In September 2007, Brazil accepted some 100 Palestinians who were stranded for over four years in Jordan's Ruweished camp.

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