The Jewish Herald • Friday, March 22, 2013 21 N EI GH B O RS


Plight Of Palestinians In Syria Could Have Implications For Israel W


More than 70 percent of Syria’s Palestinians live in the Damascus area, “within spitting distance of the Golan Heights” Ron Kampeas


ASHINGTON — It’s the latest Palestinian refugee crisis, but


it has nothing to do with Israel or the West Bank — yet. With Syria home to hundreds of thou-


sands of Palestinians, the raging civil war there is destabilizing a population with nowhere to turn, and some analysts are warning it could complicate the Is- raeli-Palestinian relationship. “The question is what could happen,


what is the appropriate regional re- sponse,” said Aram Nerguizian, a se- nior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. More than 70 percent of Syria’s Pal-


estinians live in the Damascus area, Nerguizian noted, “within spitting dis- tance of the Golan Heights.” It’s not that Israel’s border there is


under threat of being breached, he said, but the presence of so many internally displaced Palestinians could complicate Israel’s relations with the Palestinians and other Arab States, especially if Syr- ia breaks up into smaller entities. “If you have pressure to do more” for


the Palestinians, “it opens up discus- sions about the Arab-Israeli arena and even more instability,” he said. Officials from the United Nations Re-


lief and Works Agency were in Wash- ington last week campaigning for extra funds for the approximately 500,000 Pal- estinians under its charge in Syria. The United Nations is trying to raise $1.5 billion for Syrian relief, and $90 mil- lion has been earmarked for UNRWA, which services Palestinian refugees


from Israel’s 1948 War of Independence and their descendants. The issue already has reverberated in


Israeli-Palestinian relations. Palestin- ian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Ab- bas said in January that he was ready to absorb 150,000 of Syria’s Palestinians in the West Bank, but that Israel’s govern- ment insisted that each arrival renounce the “right of return” to Israel as a con- dition of passage. Abbas said he would not force Palestinians to renounce such a right before a final-status agreement. Israel would not comment on the offer. Dennis Ross, a former top Middle East


adviser to President Barack Obama, said the status of the Palestinians in Syria likely would feature prominently in private discussions between Obama and Abbas during Obama’s visit to the region this week. “What, if anything, can we in the


international community be doing to somehow safeguard those Palestin- ians there?” Ross said Monday at an Obama trip preview at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which he serves as a counsel. “It’s hard to imag- ine that that’s not going to be part of the private conversation.” Israel already is watching Syria with


great concern. One of the key questions is what would happen to Syria’s stock- pile of chemical and biological weapons and anti-aircraft artillery should the As- sad regime collapse. A crumbling Syri- an regime could transfer the weapons to Hezbollah, or they could fall into the hands of groups among the rebels that are affiliated with Al-Qaida.


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