The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

169 still usually “list themselves as refugees” because Palestinians fortunate enough to be settled and involved in society still “enjoy the monetary and other benefits granted them by” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) (Bartal). According to a 1968 study, many Palestinian refugees who were not originally located in refugee camps later moved in to them (Marx). This happened because in a refugee camp “[t]hey paid no rent and no municipal taxes and their water supply and sanitation were free” (Marx). These Palestinians have a special UN agency, the UNRWA dedicated to their welfare (Bartal); however, the UNRWA, itself, faces a similar conflict of short-term welfare that complicates solutions. This is because the UNRWA hires almost entirely out of the refugee population, with a continued “demand by Palestinians to increase staffing and thereby provide employment” (Marx). This set-up means that a resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem would eliminate the need for the UNRWA (Marx). This would in turn eliminate “the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza Strip” (Marx). This creates a clear conflict of interest, which along with the benefits and drawbacks of refugee status have led many refugee camps to become permanent (Marx). This is not completely negative. Palestinians have “invested capital in improvements,” and currently refugee camps can be “among the better lower-class urban quarters” (Marx). Nonetheless, the permanency of refugee camps inhibits possible solutions. Evidences of this is seen in the “close-knit social networks” and situations that cause refugees to “not wish to leave their property, livelihoods, and friends in order to be resettled,” and help continue the “refugee existence” on through the generations (Marx). While the improvement of conditions for Palestinian refugees is good, its effects and the UNRWA’s conflicted position threaten to replace a permanent resolution with a stateless status passed on through generations. If the international community is going to solve this problem while it is still possible, world leaders should agree upon Israel’s right to a Jewish-majority and therefore its justification to refuse the return of Palestinians. If all the refugees were to return, it would end the Jewish majority. Many see this an encouraging possibility. Israel’s tactics in preserving its Jewish majority are compared by critics “to Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa” (Karsh 320), but those who say that there is no need for a Jewish-majority state