Israel/Palestine
Showing Original Post only (View all)US Senate dramatically scales down definition of Palestinian ‘refugees’ [View all]
The US Senate approved language Thursday night that could shrink the number of Palestinian refugees recognized by the United States from 5 million to about 30,000.
An amendment to a bill, proposed by Republican Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, asks the State Department to distinguish between Palestinians displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948 and those refugees who are their descendants.
Nearly everyone agrees that around 650,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes between June 1946 and May 1948. But when it comes to counting the number of Palestinian refugees alive today, the math gets fuzzy.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency the main body tasked with providing assistance to Palestinian refugees there are more than 5 million refugees at present. However, the number of Palestinians alive who were personally displaced during Israels War of Independence is estimated to be around 30,000.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-senate-dramatically-redefines-definition-of-palestinian-refugees/