NEWS — The Biden administration is considering bringing certain Palestinians to the U.S. as refugees, a move that would offer a safe haven to some of those fleeing war-torn Gaza, according to internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News.https://t.co/LcqJqwnLqz
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) April 30, 2024
How many edges can a metaphorical sword have? The whole existence of UNRWA, as I understand it, rests on the theory that Palestinians must never leave their precinct (unlike members of every other displaced group, like three of my four Irish grandparents). And, of course, there is the sad history of American political schizophrenia: Support foreign rebellions, reject refugees from those same rebellions. Per CBS News, “White House considers welcoming some Palestinians from war-torn Gaza as refugees”:
The Biden administration is considering bringing certain Palestinians to the U.S. as refugees, a move that would offer a permanent safe haven to some of those fleeing war-torn Gaza, according to internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News.
In recent weeks, the documents show, senior officials across several federal U.S. agencies have discussed the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza who have immediate family members who are American citizens or permanent residents.
One of those proposals involves using the decades-old United States Refugee Admissions Program to welcome Palestinians with U.S. ties who have managed to escape Gaza and enter neighboring Egypt, according to the inter-agency planning documents.
Top U.S. officials have also discussed getting additional Palestinians out of Gaza and processing them as refugees if they have American relatives, the documents show. The plans would require coordination with Egypt, which has so far refused to welcome large numbers of people from Gaza.
Those who pass a series of eligibility, medical and security screenings would qualify to fly to the U.S. with refugee status, which offers beneficiaries permanent residency, resettlement benefits like housing assistance and a path to American citizenship…
CBS News has reached out to the White House, Department of Homeland Security and State Department for comment.
The proposals to resettle certain Palestinians as refugees would mark a shift in longstanding U.S. government policy and practice. Since its inception in 1980, the U.S. refugee program has not resettled Palestinians in large numbers…
The resettlement of Palestinian refugees, even if small in scale, could also garner criticism from Republicans, who have sought to make concerns about immigration and illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border defining issues in November’s elections.
Soon after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and the start of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, leading Republicans, including presidential candidates, said the U.S. should not welcome Palestinian refugees, claiming that they are antisemitic and potential national security risks.
In recent years, the Biden administration has dramatically increased refugee resettlement, which was slashed to record lows by former President Donald Trump. U.S. officials have set a goal of admitting up to 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, which ends at the end of September.
VFX Lurker
I remember that. Syrians couldn’t flee to the USA after January 2017, while Canada welcomed them with open arms in (at least) 2015-2016.
I hope the Biden administration’s efforts succeed in helping Palestinians.
Baud
If this is leaking now I wonder if they’re close to announcing it.
Ryan
While I appreciate the motivation, I do have a question. I guess it’s how much of this is desired given they’ve lived in Gaza so long, and so many have held on the desire for right to return, which I can’t imagine happening anymore.
Elizabelle
This is good. I wish we would do well by our Iraqi translators too.
Anwar
Awesome! Just another way of helping Israel with its current ethnic cleansing campaign. Relocate all 3 million. That’s what Gazans want, don’t you know. To leave their home. Do the West Bank next Joe! Bring them all to Ohio, give it all to the settlers.
Guaranteed to please no one except Bibi and his minions, but especially the Israeli tourist industry. Beachfront hotels!
Biden and Blinken seem dead set in electing the orange fascist. Good job establishment Dems!
Baud
As noted earlier, Jerry Seinfeld has jumped the shark.
Percysowner
Somewhat related, in at Paws for Miles in Loveland, Ohio there is a bonded pair of Canaan dogs that came from Daily Hugz, a rescue on the West Bank. Back in December, due to the violence on the West Bank, Daily Hugz had to close and evacuate all of their rescues, sending them to the US. Canaan dogs are, apparently, large, rare (in North America) dogs, and “the oldest breed of pariah dog still existing and abundant across the Middle East”. Since we are pet people, I thought I’d throw this out, in case someone knows someone that might want a pair of refugee dogs.
It’s sad that it’s easier to get a dog out of violence than it is to get actual people out, but there you have it.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Interesting…
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
The theory that Palestinians should not leave their precinct rests on the notion that the world should not facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the WB & Gaza for Israel. This has led to perverse outcomes such as millions of Palestinians refugees living in Lebanon or Jordan, for generations now, w/o either the prospect of return to Israel or Palestine, or becoming citizens of their countries or residence.
I am sure Biden’s proposal is well intentioned, & I doubt the US will be taking in that many Gaza refugees. However; there have been reporting out of Israel soon after its war of vengeance started, of elements of the Israeli government raising trial balloons of “encouraging” resettlement (a.k.a. expulsion) of all of the Gazan around the world to countries that would take them, so that Gaza can be settled by Israeli (Jews?). That is textbook definition of ethnic cleaning, especially given how the IDF has rendered so much of Gaza uninhabitable.
The Biden Administration has to be extremely careful not to be setting the precedent that facilitates the goals of the ultra right wing in Israel:
AWOL
@Baud: What a dumb fuck. (And talentless bore.) Nazis have tons of Holocaust jokes. I hope he’s open to attend a Nazi stand-up show. It won’t be “woke,” I imagine.
BTW, his idiot TV show made a ton of $$$ for Steve Bannon, who’d chuck him in a gas chamber in a nanosecond.
Jackie
“TIFG doesn’t trust women; I do.”
BR
@YY_Sima Qian:
This also seems like a political loser as well. Very few progressives and young voters are going to give Biden credit if a few more refugees are allowed in, and it will open a new line of nonsense attack from the right that the mainstream outlets will parrot. Meanwhile the images out of Gaza won’t get any better and that’s what progressives will be paying attention to.
Baud
@BR:
The proposal is for people with families here. I wonder if the families are asking for help.
Kay
@Jackie:
They should focus in on on “monitor womens pregnancies”
Women now see this as a pregnancy issue, not just abortion . That’s what we heard over and over in Ohio. Talk about the whole spectrum of reproduction – we found women see this MUCH more broadly than media or Republicans do.
You’re getting conservative women voting against these bans not because they care about abortions but because they worry about pregnancy treatment.
Kay
@Jackie:
It’s a really profound change. The Roe abortion debate didn’t touch on pregnancy at all. Now MOST women mention it. Media doesn’t get it and either do Republicans – they’re stuck on abortion. It’s bigger now.
glc
@Baud: “He’s an old man, he gets confused!”
Meanwhile in other ongoing news Popehat takes a pleasantly cheap shot at our journalistic overlords.
Jay
Yeah, you don’t understand it at all. The countries and territories, (West Bank, Gaza) where Palestinian refugees fled to, could not/would not provide services, so the UN General Assembly stepped up.
The countries in the Middle East where Palestinians fled to, (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon ,Egypt etc) refuse to provide them citizenship or services to the camps and many times have tried to expel them.
Thus the UNRWA.
The countries in the ROW, that could take in Palestinian refugees, provide them with citizenship only take in a tiny number every year.
In Canada, that “great refugee” haven, Palestinian refugees accepted since the 1948 have never been more than a rounding error. We actually take in 10x more Palestinians as immigrants, (Kuwait, UAE, Europe) than as refugees.
Jackie
@Kay: I think that’s the plan?
I’m sure MVP intends to capture that phase and add it to her talking points.
And, it’s easy to hear Biden’s resolute promise to trust women to handle their own health/bodies capably without government intrusion.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: If it is people w/ family in the US, I think that is a very worthwhile humanitarian exception. But I agree w/ BR that Biden will have to visibly work much harder to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza & rein in Israeli war crimes, especially since Israel appears to poised to finally invade Rafah.
Sure Lurkalot
@Baud: As for Bill Maher, woke is the boogeyman you blame when you’re not middle age (which isn’t 55 anyway), not edgy, not observant and not relevant. But definitely cranky.
Everyone has their own funny bone but I never grokked Seinfeld, the comedian or (especially) the show.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
It’s quite something how many old dudes fall under the spell.
If I’ve got nothing else to be thankful for , I’m thankful I’m not one of them.
japa21
@Baud: Old dude, or fell under their spell
Baud
@japa21:
Under the spell.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
Given the glacial pace of clearing preferred visa applications for Iraqis and Afghans, who assisted U.S. forces, I’m not holding my breath for any big change in actually admitting Palestinians to the U.S.
Suzanne
@YY_Sima Qian:
From Masha Gessen’s piece in the New Yorker:
As much as I admire Biden in many ways….. this is the kind of thing that I think will deeply affect the way history looks at him. And our country. The obnoxious kids on campus are right.
japa21
@Baud: Never figured you as an old dude either.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: One article I read about this question said that early in the war, Netanyahu asked Biden, Macron and Sunak to persuade Egypt’s president to allow Palestinians to be displaced into Egypt.
They reportedly answered, “No way! President Al l-Sissi won’t stand for that and neither will we.” By then they had likely talked this over with each other already.
Since the governments have not confirmed it, this is one of the many stories about this war which will not come out until it’s over.
Jay
@gene108:
Canada opened a refugee visa program for Palestinian refugees who have family in Canada, in Gaza.
It’s capped at 1,000.
It provides 3 years temp residency, their family has to support them, and they cannot work or go to school.
They have to have a passport, have a biometric security document, pass several background and security checks,
Zero have been accepted.
different-church-lady
Another doin’-the-right-thing that he’ll get kicked around the block for.
tam1MI
See above comments for proof.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady: Quite frankly, it is nowhere near enough. It’ll be a handful of people, at most. And we’re still going to supply Israel with weapons as they invade Rafah?!
It’s like saying Kristi Noem was nice to some of her pets.
Martin
Yeah, the problem here is one of moral hazard. If you take refugees you reward Bibi’s petty much openly stated goal of annexing Gaza and West Bank and create the conditions for him to want to displace more. So the borders stay closed.
That said, I think the Palestinians themselves deserve some agency in the decision. If they want to come, I say take them.
cain
@BR:
Honestly, let’s be real – those Palestinians have subsisted on a lifetime of propaganda about Jews. They’ll bring that eternal war to the U.S. They are a traumatized group of people – if they do they’ll need to figure out how to create safe spaces for themselves but also how to work with the Jews here.
cain
@Kay:
I think you are absolutely right that we need to be focusing on pregnancy. If every pregnancy is monitored – that’s not going to make any family feel safe.
Another Scott
@Geminid:
WhiteHouse.gov (from yesterday):
(Emphasis added.)
IIRC, there was a bunch of money in the “border” bill for speeding up asylum processing, including away from the Texas border. Perhaps this talk of letting Palestinian families unite in the USA is a revived piece of that.
Agreed that Biden would have to be smart on how it is presented, but it’s a good policy and it’s yet another clear contrast with TIFG.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Doug R
My father’s side of the family was born in Ukraine yet I don’t want to live there.
I don’t get wanting to keep Palestinians in a perpetual state of “victimhood”, we’ve got a continent full of descendants of people that left elsewhere because it sucked there.
VFX Lurker
To paraphrase Neil Gaiman:
It means a great deal to the ones who are saved.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: There are Palestinians here already–I’ve known some–they seem to do all right.
Suzanne
@VFX Lurker: Sure. But it’s not a big enough move to make up for giving Israel the weapons with which they appear to be committing genocide.
Squirt gun on a forest fire?
cain
@Matt McIrvin:
Sure, I have met a few and they are fine. I think they still have their prejudices and they are definitely passionate about how their homeland is. If anything, I think they are much more frustrated with the U.S. and the U.N.
But we’re talking about refugees who have seen up close destruction by IDF forces. That’s going to leave some horrible trauma.
Jay
@Doug R:
then you need to let them in, which you have been unwilling to do for 76 years.
Martin
@cain: We have both a sizable Jewish population and a sizable Palestinian population in my city. We’ve never had a problem.
I mean, you’d think with the anti-American rhetoric that comes out of Iran that the Iranian population would hate Americans. They love Americans.
Give them some credit.
cain
@Martin:
That’s good to hear – but those populations have been growing up in I would assume fairly normalized life and not in an open air prison.
VFX Lurker
@Suzanne: I hope the $9 billion we’re (finally) giving to Gaza helps, too.
Kay
@cain:
Trump is so funny because he doesn’t actually know anything about anti abortion people, or abortion, or pregnancy so he keeps blurting “the quiet part out loud”
He has now said that women should be charged criminally and that Republicans will have to monitor pregnancies, both of which anti abortion never, ever admit but which make perfect sense.
I am telling you just those two words – “monitor pregnancy” – will scare the shit out of women.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: I would be supportive of temporarily decamping Gazan refugees to the Sinai if there are trustworthy assurances that Israel will quickly allow them to return. Since no one trusts Israel on this score, least of all Bibi, that is the only sensible response.
Suzanne
@VFX Lurker: I mean, that is also good, but we’re also giving Israel about $4B a year for weapons, and that’s not counting the supplemental wartime aid.
Again, we could…. not. We could also condition that aid on not committing genocide.
zhena gogolia
I guess I’ll go join Alison Rose, wherever she is. Can’t be here any more.
Skippy-san
The reason they can’t leave is Israel will never let them return. That is why Egypt closed the border – and with good reason. Once in the US, the GOP will go nuts and scream about the border.
It is handing Israel what they want.
YY_Sima Qian
The way to look at governments’ response to humanitarian crises is this: how much effort is being to made to alleviate the causes & conditions that are creating millions of refugees, versus how much effort is being made to provide shelter/sustenance to the millions of refugees wherever they are, versus how much effort is being made to give refuge to a tiny percentage of the displaced w/ “special” circumstances. If the bulk of the effort is in the last category, then as laudable as the actions are & as lifesaving to the lucky few as it is, they take on a performative quality.
I will always hold Merkel in high esteem for being brave enough to accept hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, risking & precipitating considerable domestic political backlash, to alleviate a crisis not of Germany’s making. In sharp contrast to the US & many countries in Europe. (Türkiye, Lebanon & Jordan accepted even more, especially Türkiye.)
Of course, quickly absorbing so many refugees w/ starkly different cultural & religious customs would always have been a fraught process.
Soprano2
@Sure Lurkalot: Maher is obsessed with “woke”, so he thinks everyone else is, too.
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: :-(
Please come back when you can.
Best wishes,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
BTW, I personally do not believe the Israeli government & the IDF is intent on committing physical genocide of all or large parts of the Gazan population (can’t say the same for the most extreme elements in the ruling coalition, though). Since intent is one of the legal conditions for designating an act genocidal, I personally do not believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. There are mountains of evidence of the IDF committing war crimes & crimes against humanity on a daily basis, as well as carrying out ethnic cleansing in at least parts of the Gaza Strip, through the course of its war of vengeance, much of that evidence furnished by the pronouncements of the Israeli government/IDF & social media posts of IDF soldiers themselves. Were it not for intense international pressure, most of all from the US & the EU, I do not think the Israeli government gives a damn if a substantial portion of the Gazan population starve to death as the result of its blatant collective punishment policy. Thus, in terms of the outcome on the ground, genocide or not is becoming a distinction w/o a difference, & thus South Africa has a legitimate case at the ICJ. Never mind that the South Africa government’s (& many of the case’s supporters’) position is hypocritical due to their maintaining cozy relations w/ Putin even through the current invasion of Ukraine.
The reason South Africa is bringing accusation of genocide to the ICJ, rather than the much more easily proved crimes against humanity, is because of the Genocide Convention. The Convention obligations the international community to take immediate actions that alleviate/stop the atrocities, even while the case is being adjudicated (which can take years). Unfortunately, there is no international convention that obligates the international community to take any immediate action to alleviate/stop crimes against humanity.
The Gazans do not have years.
pajaro
@cain:
We have done a pretty good job here of creating conditions where people do not replicate the tribal conflicts that might have driven them here. Indeed, there are times when former enemies live near each other, because they share aspects of their culture or language.
For example, the neighborhood where I grew up, mostly Jewish, changed after most of our community left, to be replaced by South Asians–both Indians and Pakistanis. When my son travelled to India, he explained to his hosts what had happened to my former neighborhood, and that the former enemies were choosing to live together. He told me that they refused to believe him.
David 🏀Caitlin Clark🏀 Koch
I ve never seen the show “seinfeld”, but his personal stand-up act was always pablum, avoiding any edge, prattling on about airline food and standing in line at the grocery store. Even now he just produced a movie on the invention of the…. (Checks notes).. The poptart. He’s the last person to whign about comedy being no longer going over the line.
Suzanne
@David 🏀Caitlin Clark🏀 Koch: Jerry Seinfeld was also the least funny part of that show.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Please don’t go. Or come back after a break. I will miss you.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-limits-of-accusing-israel-of-genocide-under-international-law
Soprano2
@Kay: I think they want it to be like communist Romania, where they even monitored women’s periods and birth control was illegal. You’re right that “monitoring pregnancy” will scare the crap out of women.
Suzanne
@YY_Sima Qian: From the Gessen piece I linked above:
ETA: And Jay linked to it at #57, as well.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: I’m sorry you feel you need to leave, but I do understand.
frosty
@zhena gogolia: I’m sorry to see you go; I enjoy your comments. I hope you’ll be able to come back after a break.
The news, the blog posts, and the comments for the last week or two have been hard for me to take as well.
Kay
@Soprano2:
He’s such a buffoon. I love when he stupidly blunders into one of these traps that show how much he hates women. It’s always some draconian punishment for women – criminal charges, “monitoring” – how can he have spent almost ten years now around these people without figuring out that they don’t say this part out loud?
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: I’ve read the Masha Gessen article, typically excellent. I don’t think there is a clear legal case for Israel committing genocide in Gaza. I agree that, as a social or historical construct, Israeli conduct in Gaza could be construed as genocidal, but as a practical matter I think such discourse tends to be unproductive if not counterproductive. It affords opportunities for proponents to virtue signal, rather than pushing forward actions that might alleviate the suffering of Gazans. That is why I do not use the word “genocide” to describe Israeli conduct in Gaza, but “war crimes” & “crimes against humanity”.
For similar reasons, I think it is highly counterproductive for the US State Department to call CPC regime’s conduct against Uyghurs in Xinjiang “genocidal”, as opposed to crimes against humanity, while never clarifying whether the US position refers to physical or cultural genocide, & not taking any action commensurate w/ the accusation. (Accusation of physical genocide against Uyghurs is pretty preposterous. Unfortunately, there is no commonly accepted criteria for cultural genocide, nor is it a prosecutable crime under international law, probably because too many countries are guilty of it past & present.) It is virtue signaling & has become fodder for the Great Power Competition.
Finally, I am glad that South Africa brought forth its case, blatant hypocrisy notwithstanding, since this is probably one of the very few means under international law to to try to force the international community to take immediate action. The defenses mounted in the ICJ & at Oakland were utterly risible.
rikyrah
Now, this?
ICAM
Let’s bring in 100-250,000
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
As was noted in the article, the key reason not to use the word “genocide”,
is that the olds et al hold fast to the idea that a nation, created as a result of a genocide, can’t possibly be engaged in genocide, and Israel has no gas chambers and ovens.
The definition of genocide is no longer just the Holocaust.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: As I said, I find the defenses’ arguments utterly risible. I think Israel can mount a credible defense that its policies do not have the intent of physically destroying all or large part of the Gaza population, but probably means self-incriminating to crimes of humanity in the process.