by Rhiannon Williams JORDAN TIMES

AMMAN — The Islamic Action Front (IAF) on Wednesday called on the government to take a “decisive” stance against Israeli attempts to change the legal status of Palestinian refugees through UN organisations.

In a statement made on Wednesday, the IAF said that Israel is trying to change the status of the Palestinians forced to leave Palestine in 1948 and 1967 and their descendents.

Murad Adaileh, head of the party’s Palestinian section, warned against Israel’s efforts to “manipulate” UNRWA’s classification of Palestinian refugees.

Adaileh urged the Arab League and other international and regional organisations to oppose what he described as “a Zionist conspiracy against the right of return”.

The comments from the IAF come in light of a meeting last week in New York between Israel Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor and other Zionist leaders who argued against the transfer of refugee status from those directly affected by the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948 and 1967 to their descendents, according to international reports.

The objective of the meeting was to draft legislation for the US Congress that will result in the end of the automatic transferral of refugee status to the descendents of those Palestinians involved in Arab-Israeli conflicts. They are also hoping to amend UNRWA’s definition of the Palestinian refugee, arguing this term should only be used for someone “who was personally displaced as a result of the 1948 or 1967Arab-Israeli conflicts, and who is not firmly resettled in another country”.

Under UNRWA’s operational definition, Palestine refugees are people whose normal place of residence was Palestine and who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In 1965, UNRWA’s definition was expanded to include the descendents of those who left Palestine.

Prosor was quoted as saying that the UNRWA definition “reinforces the Palestinian leadership’s so-called ‘right of return’ for millions of Palestinians”, and that realisation of this “would cause Israel’s destruction”. He believes that UNRWA’s “broad” usage of the term refugee in relation to Palestinians is the principle obstacle preventing a peace agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel.

Hassan Barari, a political analyst and an expert on Israeli affairs, who spoke to The Jordan Times over the phone on Wednesday, said that Israel is seeking to rid the international community’s obligation towards Palestinian refugees, stating that “Israel will not compromise its character as a Jewish democratic state”.

Hamas’ division of refugees’ affairs issued a statement on its website on Monday that stated “the inheritance of labels from one generation to another is normal. Israel itself claims that that it inherited the right to ‘return’ to Palestine from its ‘ancestors’ 2,000 years ago… it is inconceivable that Israel, the country which expelled the refugees in 1948, should be the one which defines who is a Palestinian refugee is”.

UNRWA was created in 1949 in order to provide assistance to some 700,000 Palestinian refugees who were displaced in the aftermath of Israel’s independence in 1948. In the light of repeated occupation of Palestinian lands, the current figure for Palestinian refugees is estimated at over five million today.

Lara Friedman, director of policy and government relations for Americans for Peace Now argued against such a change in UNRWA policy in a column for the website http://www.thedailybeast.com.

“It won’t work, even if this somehow makes it into law. Palestinians who consider themselves refugees don’t do so simply because UNRWA, or anyone else, gives them permission to do…. They do so because this is their personal experience and their personal narrative,” she said.

Foreign Ministry officials were not available for comment on Wednesday.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR: This is a very important move, which seems not to have attracted the notice it deserves!