Angry ‘Palestinian refugees’ close UNRWA facilities for ending free healthcare

After being required to partially pay for their health care, Palestinians in Lebanon close down 4 UNRWA offices in their 2nd day of protest, demanding 100% free, UN funded treatment.

By Ari Yashar

 

“Palestinian refugees” living in Lebanon on Friday closed UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) offices across the country in protest for the second day in a row, in protest for being made to partially pay for their health care.

The protest on Thursday shut down UNRWA offices in Tripoli in the north as well as Ain El Hilweh and Mieh Mieh “refugee camps” in the south, and on Friday the UNRWA office in south Lebanon was again shut in protest, reports the Lebanese state-run National News Agency.
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UNRWA was established only to deal with the roughly 800,000 Arabs who left Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. It has radically different policies than the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which treats all other refugees worldwide, and as a result the now five million descendants of “Palestinian refugees” retain that refugee status and are not integrated into their host nations.

No UN body was formed to help the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were violently forced from Arab countries following the establishment of the modern Jewish state. In that expulsion ancient Jewish communities, some dating back to Temple times, were forcibly uprooted and in the process had their fortunes stolen.

The current flap over UNRWA comes in response to a new healthcare program the UN body introduced on January 1.

According to the new reform, the “refugees” will no longer be able to receive completely free health care, but will instead have to pay a limited co-payment.

They are now required to pay a 5% co-payment at Palestinian Red Crescent hospitals, 15% at government hospitals, and 20% at private hospitals, after previously having received all three forms of treatment completely on the UN’s bill.

Faced with backlash, the financially hurting UNRWA has said the reform is not a cut in services but rather a new approach directing more funding to other areas, including expanded coverage for both complex surgeries and long-term care.

UNRWA now covers 60% of tertiary care expenses for the “refugees,” up from the previous figure of 50%, and now pays a ceiling of up to $5,000 from the previous limit at $4,200.

UNRWA was documented storing Hamas rockets and weapons during 2014 Operation Protective Edge, a fact that even the UNRWA chief admitted to last June, and likewise it has actively taken part in inciting anti-Semitic violence.

Investigative journalist David Bedein revealed to Arutz Sheva last month that an UNRWA facility near Bethlehem housing the school that was attended by the Palestinian terrorist responsible for a recent bus bombing in Jerusalem celebrated the bomber in a massive event.

Bedein detailed how the Israeli press ignored the event, even as the Israeli government refuses to crack down on UNRWA’s blatant terror incitement by conditioning continued funding on an ending of the incitement.

 

View original Arutz Sheva publication at:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211878#.VyxzuWP8fFI