Palestinian refugees can no longer be sidelined
December 16, 2020 Share
On Dec. 3, MEI’s Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs convened a webinar on the future of Palestinian refugees and their place in the policy discourse following the election of President-elect Joe Biden and the departure of the Trump administration. Below is a summary of the major takeaways from the event, organized by topic.
Watch the webinar, Palestinian Refugees Beyond the Trump Era, here.
Gaza refugees and COVID-19
Mattias Schmale, director of field operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, gave a sobering update on the public health crisis Palestinian refugees in Gaza are facing during the global COVID-19 pandemic. “The latest trends are really extremely worrying. We’ve had over the past few weeks a steep rise in daily infections, between 700-800 daily. We now have 122 people dead. Keep in mind here in Gaza, the prison-like conditio