Palestinian refugee status is reframed as an Arab-created refusal crisis, not an Israeli cause

Evidence

In the West Bank Manji finds Palestinians who mouth ‘the script,’ the line of argument that Israel has occupied Palestine. Recognizing that this claim requires a complicated historical counter-claim, Manji offers the same argument as Chesler does. Palestine really belonged to Jews anyway, and in any event Jews needed a refuge from anti-Semitism. If there are Palestinian refugees, it is only because of the ‘disruptions of war – a conflict initiated by Arab countries that couldn’t accept Israel’s existence in their midst.’ The United Nations has deepened the crisis by acknowledging that the descendants of the originally displaced people are also refugees. Not really refugees to begin with, Palestinians face the additional disadvantage that their fellow Arabs will not help them and they themselves keep refusing reasonable deals. Only Israel has ever been prepared to help Palestinian refugees. Israel, Manji concludes, ‘brings more compassion to “colonization” than its adversaries have ever brought to “liberation.” The Jewish state negotiates tensions openly. That’s the stuff of genuine democracy.’ — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 237

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to other accounts of how refugee status is delegitimized to erode claims — resonates with the broader pattern of ‘casting out’ of Muslims central to this book. — connects to: Trump’s unabashed labeling of Palestinians as terrorists accompanied abandoning refugee funding — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 537