Opinion |
Senior UN leadership must reassure the Palestinians that their rights will be protected and that they will have equal status in terms of their right of return
The Knesset’s decision on 28 October to bar the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from operating in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is a spectacular own goal. It will elevate the 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Bank to a new level of international protection under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose preferred solution for protracted refugee situations is voluntary repatriation: the right of return.