Tension Building Over News Reports of Pending Trump Re-defining “Palestinian Refugee”

Tension among Palestinian leadership again soared in response to an announcement by President Trump when on Saturday evening the president said the U.S. will not accept the definition of “Palestinian refugee” set by the United Nations refugee agency, UNRWA, and that it will cap the number of refugees it recognizes. The refugee issue being a redline matter for the Palestinians, response was angry and swift. Local media reported that Washington will not accept the UN version which is consistent with the Palestinian assertion that refugee status is handed down through successive generations resulting in the American numbers ending up about one-tenth of the UN-Palestinian version. Jared Kushner is credited with authorship of the plan to strip refugee status from some two million Palestinians.