The BBC Uncovers The Palestinian Fright of Return

The BBC is reporting that despite the clamoring of Arab leaders,

Lure of the homeland fades for Palestinian refugees:The right of return for Palestinian refugees is a major sticking point in the upcoming US-sponsored Middle East peace talks, but some younger Palestinians - having never laid eyes on their ancestral homeland - say they do not actually want to go back.

The article focuses on the approximately 450,000 refugees and their descendants who are now living in Syria--and delves into why these feelings are not more well known:

"On the record, because it is politically incorrect to say otherwise, all of them would say 'Yes, we would return to Palestine'. But once you sit with them in private, you hear a very different point of view," says political analyst Sami Mubayyed.

"Why would a businessman leave their comfort zone? Home is where the heart and the money is."

Not to mention the familiarity--of home. Even those interviewed who defend their 'right' to return admit that they have mixed feelings and split loyalties.

Discussing The Palestinian Fright of Return, Media Backspin notes the irony of the situation, created by the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs themselves:

The longer Palestinian leaders gum up peace efforts by playing the right demand of return card, the less relevant it becomes for the refugees themselves.

If this keeps up, there won't be any Palestinian refugees left who ever actually lived somewhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

So the longer Abbas drags his feet and the more Hamas leaders bellow that peace negotiations are a betrayal of the Palestinian Arabs, the longer the descendants of those refugees have to acclimate themselves to their country of residence--and their home.

This might have one further benefit: drawing attention to the lousy job that UNRWA is doing in relocating those Arabs under their 'care'.

Technorati Tag: Right Of Return and Fright Of Return.