Why do Palestinian refugees have a separate refugee agency?

[Oodiks]

Why is it that all other refugees come under the protection of the UNCHR and are resettled in another country if they cannot return home, but UNWRA keeps Palestinians in camps all over the Middle East and they are never offered the chance to resettle in their host countries?

Focusing on Hamas, do you think they were right to use million of USD of international aid money to construct military infrastructure underneath non-military buildings? Try not to reference Israel in your answer.

Because their neighbors, run by Hamas, keep trying to kill them. Nice Israelis near the Gaza border employed their Palestinian neighbors and their Palestinian neighbors used that to gather information for the October 7 massacre. Nice neighbors; nice guys.

So you are advocating for Israel to end their occupation, apartheid and blockade and allow the formation of a Palestinian state? It doesn't look that way judging by your posts?

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, they left behind infrastructure behind that was destroyed by the people and by Hamas.

Hamas have been in charge that whole time, what have they built for their people?

Here for instance, why are you omitting the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure by Israel? Take the below quote which will look very familiar to what we have heard over the past year. Israel did over 1billion worth of damage to Palestinian infrastructure yet you are acting like Palestinians have all just been sitting around doing nothing or worse smashing it up themselves like they are some kind of savages. Why is that?

On 17 November 2012, four days into Israel’s eight-day assault on the Gaza Strip, deputy Israeli Prime Minister Eli Yishai publicly called for the Israeli army to “blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure including roads and water.” The following day, Gilad Sharon, son of former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, called for Israel to “flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing,” adding, “there is no middle path here – either the Gazans and their infrastructure are made to pay the price, or we reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip” (“A decisive conclusion is necessary,” The Jerusalem Post, 18 November 2012).

I don't think anyone's ever claimed that they are nice guys?

I agree, both are awful.

@Lolapusht how much aid does Israel receive each year? How much is either in direct military aid or spent on the military?

I suspect you are well aware that prior to 7/11 it was $3.8 billion per annum.

No, @GhostCicada, I'm pointing out the irony of you stealing centuries of Jewish history for the Palestinian story. Do you not see that?

7/11? wut

I have no idea what you are talking about. Point out where in my 2 posts on this thread I have 'stolen Jewish history' please?

Then maybe you can address your reasons for omitting Israels repeated destruction of Palestinian infrastructure in your post and instead chose to push the narrative that Palestinians destroyed it themselves and haven't been in a cycle of repeatedly rebuilding it under blockade until Israel destroy it again.

I guess you didn't read back when you responded to my reply to @Reconciliation's post. Perhaps then you'd get it?

So, you don't know whether a 'political' group should help the people it claims to represent? Really?

Are you not at all interested in how Hamas has managed to build tunnels and rockets to fire into Israel, but not to create sustainable lives for the people in Gaza?

No thoughts for the peace loving Israelis who were murdered and raped and kidnapped using information from Palestinians invited into their homes?

No, I don't 'get it' because as you know I haven't denied anyone's history.

Why are you avoiding my question? For someone who is so keen to preserve history I would have thought you would be keen to correct yourself and acknowledge Israels role in the purposeful, repeated destruction of Gazas infrastructure in order to, in the word of Eli Yishai, blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages.

How exactly did Israel manage to destroy bridges, thousands of homes, hundreds of UN shelters, tens of mosques, many government buildings, media offices, financial institutions, hospitals and health centers, two stadiums, a training center for disabled athletes, water and sewage and electricity networks, more than 100 schools, and innumerable roads in 2012 when according to you they just didn't bother building any infrastructure?

But yeah sure only Hamas are to blame for Palestinians not having 'sustainable lives'. I'm sure we will hear the same thing in another 10 years time if Israel doesn't decide to resettle Gaza this time, ignore the damage Israel does, the immense work it takes just to make Gaza habitable when Israel are finished 'blowing it back to the Middle Ages' and wonder why a place under repeated bombings that isn't allowed a port or an airport or even control of what trucks enter isn't a thriving metropolis.

Yes, that's correct. Spent mostly on defensive capabilities including the Iron Dome which was put in place to defend Israel & Israelis from persistent rocket fire from Hezbollah, Hamas & others & to defend against larger scale attacks from Iran (& anyone else) who has long promised to destroy Israel. Defense is very expensive, though Hamas don't seem to have invested in it at all. I'm not sure what your point is?

What?! This thread is ridiculous. The last 3 questions I've been asked are proof of that.

Hamas on the other hand openly admits it expects UNWRA to look after its population while it spends the huge wealth it gets from taxing its population, criminal activities and aid from other places on swanky houses for its leadership and hundreds of millions on building its huge underground tunnel network and on arms to attack Israel. Unlike Israel & the United States neither recipient or key donors publish their figures though, so its hard to tell. You can look up the 100s of millions that go to UNWRA though.

Hamas on the other hand openly admits it expects UNWRA to look after its population
I will take your word for this but if you had a link to it I would be interested in reading it. Hamas are a terrorist organisation and like most similar organisations I am sure they are well embedded in the criminal and drug underworld to support and finance their activities and lifestyles.

You can look up the 100s of millions that go to UNWRA though.
What is the purpose of this comment? Whether you mean to or not it feels like you don't think UNWRA should be receiving this funding to support and sustain people in Gaza? Whether we like it or not the blockade and a useless governing body does mean support is needed like it is in many countries that we provide humanitarian assistence to. Their infrastructure has been continually destroyed for decades it costs a lot to rebuild, Gaza is now pretty much flattened with nearly every piece of infrastructure required to sustain a population, never mind enable them to flourish and thrive, is destroyed, so billions upon billons will now be needed to rebuild.

www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-plagued-poverty-hamas-no-shortage-cash-come-rcna121099 www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-plagued-poverty-hamas-no-shortage-cash-come-rcna121099]]]]

Quite a good round up of Hamas wealth/funding.

Of course Palestinians need aid, but they’re not getting it and haven’t been getting it for decades. As long as Hamas is in power, they will funnel finance to fill their own coffers. UNWRA is totally failing the very people it is there to help. The international community keeps throwing money at UNRWA and it keeps being diverted away from those that need it.

Everything keeps being destroyed and being rebuilt. What was Israel meant to do after 7/10? Not go into Gaza, leave the hostages there for however long, let the perpetrators escape and just wait for the next attack?

These threads are always full of “Israel is committing genocide…Israel needs to stop…we must stop arming Israel”. Where are the calls for Hamas to be removed from power? Or for UNRWA to be disbanded and replaced with an organisation that actually helps Palestinians (and that will take years as the indoctrination of Jew hatred pretty much from birth via UNRWA schools needs to be stopped)? Israel seems to be expected to care more about the Palestinians than Hamas does. Why is that? Do people just think Hamas are incapable of basic humanity, are lesser somehow and as such can’t be held to a similar value system to ourselves? Surely the options are either that Hamas are inferior to “us” or, if they’re equal, they are murderous maniacs that need to be removed from a position of power? Why are people demanding Israel stops, but Hamas is allowed to continue?

Israel seems to be expected to care more about the Palestinians than Hamas does.

Israel doesnt have to care about Palestinians but they do have to abide by International law. Do you think it is right for Israel to 'blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages' and cause $1.2billion worth of damage to civillians infrastructure like they did back in 2012?

The Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions prohibit “the unnecessary destruction of the enemy’s property,” and the “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”

Were Israel offering to pay for all the destruction that they have caused? Where exactly was 1.2billion to fix the civilian infrastructure Israel purposefully destroyed on 2012 supposed to come from? This is a long held tactic of Israel, as we saw in this current conflict the first thing they went for was There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything will be closed.

Israel don't have to care but complaining about funding to Unwra, complaining that Hamas haven't done enough to develop Gaza whilst ignoring Israels policy of targeting civillians infrastructure with the aim of keeping Gaza underdeveloped or sending them to the 'middle ages' doesn't really wash.

How would you destroy Gaza's vast military tunnel network, deliberately placed under and accessed via civilian infrastructure?

Most of us here aren't engineers so can't realistically answer that but I think the implication that the only option is to flatten an entire country and all its infrastructure is an extreme method of doing it and I'm sure with patience and planning a far more sustainable and less destructive method could have been found. Bombing doesn't seem to be solving it anyway

Flooding.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.timesofisrael.com/idf-confirms-flooding-hamas-tunnels-in-gaza-with-seawater/amp/

It is, isn't it? It is quite interesting that no one has mentioned that Netanyahu happily funded Hamas for years. Why is that?
For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it's blown up in our faces | The Times of Israel
A Brief History of the Netanyahu-Hamas Alliance - Israel News - Haaretz.com

This doesnt address my point though. My point is that people keep asking why isn't Gaza thriving, where does all the aid money go, why haven't they built any infrastructure, why should Israel care when Palestinians don't even care enough to help themselves completely ignoring the billions of damage Israel cause to civillians infrastructure. If the essentials are being blown up every time you build them how can you ever progress past the essentials and move to a place where you are thriving. Why are so many posters ignoring the role that Israel have played in keeping Gaza under developed. The narrative seems to be that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and have had no responsibility for anything that has happened in Gaza since, it's not Israels fault that Hamas haven't decided to build any infrastructure completely omitting that infrastructure has been repeatedly built and then destroyed.

Obviously it makes you question why people are so hell bent on telling half a story that portrays Palestinians as undeveloped people, willing to live in an undeveloped place because they don't care enough about themselves to build anything when clearly that isn't the case or there wouldn't be billions of dollars of infrastructure for Israel to repeatedly destroy.