Canada Denies It Will Accept 100,000 Palestinian Refugees

Canada has denied a Lebanese media report that Ottawa reached a deal with the United States to accept 100,000 Palestinian refugees – 40,000 from Lebanon and 60,000 from Syria. According to the report, similar understandings are in place for France, Belgium and Spain, each of which would take in about 15,000 Palestinians. The initiative is said to be part of US President Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, the political components of which will be unveiled after Israel’s September 17 election. Tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past few years have left Lebanon, where the government deprives them of basic rights. Meanwhile, Israel is in the process of devising a plan to facilitate Palestinian emigration from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Some 30,000 Gazans reportedly left the blockaded enclave last year alone. Palestinians are the only people in the world whose refugee status is passed down from generation to generation.