For nearly eight decades, the international community has coddled a unique and dangerous fiction: the perpetual Palestinian Arab refugee. While every other displaced population in post-World War II history-from the millions of Germans expelled from Eastern Europe to the Hindus and Muslims of the Partition-was integrated into new homes within a generation, the Palestinian Arab "refugee" has been transformed into a hereditary political weapon. This is not a humanitarian tragedy; it is a manufactured industry designed to facilitate the destruction of the Jewish state.
The current strategy of merely documenting UNRWA’s complicity with terror-while necessary-is insufficient. We have seen the tunnels under headquarters and the textbooks that glorify martyrdom, yet the global bureaucracy remains unmoved, hiding behind the shield of "humanitarian necessity." To break this cycle, Israel must pivot from a defensive posture to a legal offensive. There is a need for a "Symmetry Mandate"-a Refugee Reciprocity Law that ties the status of the 1948 Palestinian refugees directly to the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were brutally expelled from Arab lands in the same era.
History provides the blueprint for this resolution. Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Arab world reacted with a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against its own Jewish citizens. From the narrow alleys of Baghdad to the vibrant Jewish quarters of Cairo, centuries-old communities were uprooted. These 850,000 Jews did not languish in "refugee camps" funded by a dedicated UN agency for 78 years. They were absorbed by the nascent State of Israel and the West. They became citizens, taxpayers, and builders. By any legal or historical metric, the "refugee" problem on the Jewish side was solved through integration and sovereignty.
The Arab Palestinian side, however, was deliberately kept in a state of arrested development by Arab regimes and the United Nations. By allowing "refugee" status to be passed down like an inheritance, UNRWA created a population of millions who believe their future lies not in building a society where they live, but in "returning" to a Galilee or a Tel Aviv they have never seen. This is the "Right of Return" myth-the single greatest obstacle to peace. It is the dream of 1948 that fuels the massacres of today.
The Symmetry Mandate would serve as a legal sunset for this myth. Under this doctrine, Israel should formally declare that the exchange of populations between 1948 and 1960 constitutes a finished historical chapter.
Just as there is no "Right of Return" for a Jew to reclaim a confiscated villa in Baghdad or a shop in Tripoli, there can be no "Right of Return" for the great-grandchildren of those who left Jaffa. The law should mandate that any international funding, reconstruction aid, or diplomatic recognition in the post-war era be strictly contingent on the permanent resettlement and naturalization of Palestinian Arabs in their host countries or within the designated administrative zones of the "Board of Peace."
Critics will argue that this violates international norms. On the contrary, it restores them. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which handles every other refugee group on the planet, prioritizes local integration and resettlement. UNRWA is the only agency whose mandate is to prevent integration. By applying the "Symmetry" logic, Israel is simply demanding that the same standards applied to Jewish refugees from Egypt and Yemen be applied to the residents of Gaza and Jenin. It is an act of administrative justice that levels the historical playing field.
In the halls of the Knesset and the corridors of the U.S. Congress, this must be the new litmus test for aid. We must stop asking "How do we reform UNRWA?" and start asking "How do we sunset it?" The answer lies in the 1948 Symmetry Act.
1. Any dollar sent to Gaza must be earmarked for permanent housing and the transition of services to local, non-Islamist municipal authorities.
2. The "refugee" camps must be bulldozed and replaced with neighborhoods.
3. The UNRWA ration cards must be replaced with identity papers from a governing body that acknowledges Israel’s permanence.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx