I’m Glad I’m Not Getting The Same UN ‘Help’ As Palestinian Refugees

By Hassan Amir, refugee from Mosul, Iraq

My family was displaced last week when soldiers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant swept in. As Shiites, we’re persona non grata under these Sunni fanatics, so we have nowhere to go at this point but Jordan. We’re refugees. And we’re getting precious little help from the international community, which is probably sick and tired of Iraq. That’s fine with me, because if you’ve seen the way the UN handles Palestinian refugees, you’ll agree they do more harm than good.

A proper refugee agency provides for the immediate physical needs of the displaced, then tries to find them a safe place to go. Whether or not we end up here in Jordan permanently, there’s no way I’m going to entrust my family’s future to an organization that has condemned generations of Palestinians to perpetual limbo, squalor, and discrimination from host countries. United Nations Relief and Works Agency? Spare me. Whose relief, exactly?

Mine. I’m relieved we’re not subject to the bizarre world of Palestinian refugeehood, in which the goal, perversely, is not to find proper accommodation for actual humans, but to maintain those stateless souls as bargaining chips in an ever-desperate struggle to oust the Jews from their state. Give it up, you morons. It’s been 66 years.They’re not going anywhere. But we are – wherever we can find a secure place with a modicum of economic opportunity. We’re not stupid.

If there’s one thing being driven from the only home we ever knew has taught me, it’s that no one is entitled to a sense of entitlement. Entitlement is a disease that can only sentence a person to perpetual disappointment and despair. So while we’ve got it tough, we’re grateful that at least we don’t have the UN training us to think we’re entitled to something no one else has ever received. The Right of Return? When has that ever been the result of any international agreements? What kind of absurd “right” is that? No one is going to fight for MY right to return to Mosul.

Of the forces fighting ISIL, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that they have my interests in mind. Iran has Iran in mind. You can bet your bottom dinar that no one will be rolling out the red carpet for us refugees if ISIL is ever defeated. Look at Quneitra in Syria. Assad never let the residents back in, preferring to use the ruins as a permanent propaganda exhibition. Welcome to the Middle East.

The biggest favor the UN could do for the Palestinian refugees is stop “helping” them. Then they’d at least be only as unfortunate as I.

But I’m not holding my breath. I’m too busy with actually trying to make things better for me and my family. If the UN ever comes calling, I’m not home. I’ll make one for myself.