As readers of this blog know, in the last couple of weeks I’ve written two pieces about the remarks of Andrew Whitley, an UNRWA official who was more candid than he should have been (here and here.) I want to point out this superb piece by Asaf Romirowsky, which provides some much needed historical perspective. Says Asaf:

Sometimes UNRWA will simply deny its internal critics even existed. In 1952 Lt.-Gen. Sir Alexander Galloway, a noted British soldier-diplomat who was then UNRWA director in Jordan, made what was to become a famous statement to a group of visiting American church leaders: “It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die.”

Galloway’s solution was straightforward: “Give each of the Arab nations where the refugees are to be found an agreed-upon sum of money for their care and resettlement and then let them handle it. If… the United Nations had done this immediately after the conflict – explaining to the Arab states, ‘We are sorry it happened, but here is a sum of money for you to take care of the refugees’ – the problem might have been solved long ago.”

Do be sure to read all of Asaf’s piece, co-authored with Alexander H. Joffe, here.