This position paper discusses several points regarding how the Canadian government should handle the Palestinian refugees.

CJPME Factsheet 73, published January, 2010: This factsheet addresses a number of destructive myths relating to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA). This UN Agency, tasked with alleviating the humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and their unique political situation, has been the target of attacks and malicious allegations in recent years.

CJPME Factsheet 72, published January, 2010: This factsheet provides a historical and contextual overview of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA), created to provide humanitarian assistance to the 850,000 Palestinian refugees displaced by war or forcibly expelled from their homes between 1947 and 1949. Today, Palestinian refugees now constitute the world’s largest and most enduring refugee population.

CJPME Factsheet 25, published May, 2007: Following comments made at the Camp David II Summit in July, 2000, there has been a resurgence of interest and publicity concerning the rights and redress due Jewish emigrants and refugees who fled Arab countries in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.  (See CJPME’s factsheet “The Emergence of the Jewish Refugee Question” April, 2007)  While both Palestinian and Jewish refugees are protected under international law, it is important to understand fundamental differences in the narratives of each people. 

CJPME Factsheet 22, published February, 2007: Few Canadians are aware that Canada has a unique responsibility to the Palestinian refugees.  Since 1995 Canada has chaired the Refugee Working Group of the Middle East Multilateral Peace Process, which is charged with “improving the current living conditions of refugees and displaced persons without prejudice to their rights and future status.” Tragically, the committee has not met for several years, yet the need to improve the refugees’ living conditions of refugees has never been greater.