Thursday, October 14, 2004

UN's Peter Hansen speaking

I now see this man's problem: He's one of those anti-Semites who genuinely believes he is NOT a jewhater. No amount of evidence and experience in his own life will make him see it. For the rest of us, it's not all that hard. In fact, you must be blind to miss it. Jerusalem Post interviews UNRWA's Peter Hansen. Just a choice quote about the Arab refugees after the War of Independence:
These Palestinians did not feel Syrian or Kuwaiti; they are different. I mean, if World War II had turned out differently, and Hitler had wanted the Danes to disappear from the face of Denmark and live in, say, Norway or England, that wouldn't have worked.
Here comes the inevitable comparison to Hitler again; and he isn't even aware that he's making it. It beggars belief.
He also refuses to talk about the eight hundred thousand or so Jewish refugees forcibly expelled from the Arab countries in and after 1948. They settled in Israel with no real problems, even though they actually outnumbered the Jews IN Israel at the time!
Lastly, it is simply a lie to say people could not grow new roots, no matter how unjust their uprooting may have been. After WW2, many ethnic Germans were forced out of Poland and Checkoslovakia. They made a new life in Germany. As any sane person would have done.

Another huge, HUGE lie about the refugees: Their number.
One particular problem I am facing now is that descendants are only from the male side of the family. A child of a Palestinian woman refugee and a non-Palestinian father is not entitled to our education. Now that's a pity because it flies in the face of gender equality. But if maternal lineage were included, that would create even greater problems in the area - if, all of a sudden, instead of 4.2 million refugees, there were more than 5 million. This is just one of the moral-ethical dilemmas that we are facing. No matter what you do, you will violate a basic principle.
4.2 million. That is more than even the wildest Arab claim. And for Hansen, this is the MINIMUM. With any luck, he could have five million clients on his hands, a fourth generation refugees already underway. It really is too ridiculous for words!
Also, the man simply is a liar.
I could easily have told the reporters that we know the hearts and minds of everyone who works for our organization, but that would be an obfuscation. Instead, I said that I would be very surprised if there weren't some employees who, for religious or nationalistic reasons, sympathize with Hamas. [In fact, in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Hansen said: "Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime."]
I already let loose on this guy. But he is worse than I thought. And that is saying something.

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