I asked Grok for a list of world refugee crises since 1900.
It came up with 54 countries that have suffered refugee crises since the first one, in Armenia, in 1915.
All but one are resolved. The one not resolved is highlighted below: Palestine. Just one. Out of 54. The Palestinians.
The Palestinian refugee crisis remains unresolved because we let it. It was we, the west and the United Nations, that allowed this. The Arabs in the Levant (i.e.”Palestinians”) made maximalist demands, with maximum denial of compromise. And we accommodated them. We went along with it.
We, the United Nations, allowed:
1. UNWRA: the only U.N. refugee body specifically for one people, the Palestinians. All the rest are handled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
2. We allowed 1948 refugees to pass on their refugee status to their descendants. No other group of refugees, not a single one of the other 53, is allowed to do this. Thus the number of Palestinian refugees has increased from 700,000 to well over 2 million today. All looked after by UNWRA.
3. We allowed the surrounding Arab states, those surrounding Israel, to refuse to accept or give citizenship to fellow Arab refugees from the 1948 Israel-Palestine war.
4. We allowed UNWRA to become a creature of Hamas. It runs Hamas schools that are violently anti-Jew. It helps and covers for Hamas theft of food and foreign aid. So much that Hamas leaders are billionaires living in Qatar. UNWRA even had staff taking part in the October 7th killings, rapes,looting and kidnapping.
An alternative history is this: the Palestinian refugees handled in the same way as all the others refugee groups in the last century. We should jabs said “NO” to the maximalist Arab demands. No, to all of the above accommodations.
We would not now be facing the calls to “globalise the intifada”, to “kill all Jews”, to “destroy Israel”
In this alternative history, everyone would be better off. Economically and politically. Also mentally. This region could be a hub of innovation and growth. With peace. And a logical, realistic, handling of the “Palestinian Refugee Question”.
Grok:
Here is the list of 54, sorted alphabetically, with the earliest major refugee crisis for each group (focusing on well-documented, large-scale events):
• Afghans: 1979–1980 (Soviet invasion)
• Albanians: 1990s (post-communism/Kosovo conflicts)
• Armenians: 1915 (Armenian Genocide)
• Azerbaijanis: 1988–1990s (Nagorno-Karabakh conflict)
• Bangladeshis: 1971 (Bangladesh Liberation War)
• Bosniaks: 1992 (Bosnian War)
• Burmese (Myanmar): 1962–1980s (military coups/ethnic conflicts)
• Burmese Chin/Karen: 1980s–1990s (ethnic insurgencies)
• Cambodians: 1975 (Khmer Rouge takeover)
• Central Africans: 1990s–2000s (civil wars)
• Chechens: 1994 (First Chechen War)
• Chinese: 1949 (Chinese Communist Revolution) / earlier waves in 1930s–40s
• Colombians: 1980s–1990s (drug war/insurgencies)
• Congolese (DRC): 1960s (post-independence conflicts) / major in 1990s
• Cubans: 1959–1960 (Cuban Revolution)
• Czechs/Slovaks: 1938–1939 or 1968 (Prague Spring)
• Eritreans: 1961 (war for independence from Ethiopia)
• Ethiopians: 1970s (Red Terror / Ogaden War)
• Georgians: 1990s (post-Soviet conflicts)
• Germans (post-WWII): 1944–1947 (expulsions from Eastern Europe)
• Guatemalans: 1960s–1980s (civil war)
• Haitians: 1950s–1960s (Duvalier dictatorship) / major in 1990s
• Hungarians: 1956 (Hungarian Revolution)
• Indians: 1947 (Partition of India)
• Iraqis: 1980s (Iran-Iraq War / Anfal campaign) or 1991
• Kazakhs: 1920s–1930s (Soviet collectivization/famine)
• Kosovars: 1998–1999 (Kosovo War)
• Libyans: 2011 (Libyan Civil War)
• Malians: 2012 (Tuareg rebellion / Islamist insurgency)
• Nicaraguans: 1970s–1980s (Sandinista Revolution / Contra War)
• Nigerians (Boko Haram affected): 2009–2010s
• North Koreans: 1950–1953 (Korean War)
• Pakistanis: 1947 (Partition of India)
• Palestinians: 1948 (Arab-Israeli War)
• Poles: 1939 (WWII invasion) or earlier partitions
• Romanians: 1940s–1950s or 1989
• Rohingya (Myanmar): 1978 or 1990s (major 2017)
• Russians: 1917–1922 (Russian Revolution & Civil War)
• Rwandans (historical): 1959–1961 or 1994 (Genocide)
• Salvadorans: 1970s–1980s (Salvadoran Civil War)
• Serbs/Croats (Yugoslav wars): 1991–1995
• Somalis: 1970s–1980s or 1991 (civil war)
• South Sudanese: 1955 or 1983 (civil wars) / 2013
• Sri Lankan Tamils: 1983 (start of civil war)
• Sri Lankans (beyond Tamils): 1980s
• Sudanese: 1955 or 1983 (civil wars)
• Syrians: 2011 (Syrian Civil War)
• Tibetans: 1959 (Chinese annexation / uprising)
• Ukrainians: 1930s (Holodomor) or 1940s / 2022
• Uyghurs: 1930s or 1950s / major 2010s
• Venezuelans: 2014–2015 (economic/political collapse)
• Vietnamese (boat people): 1975 (Fall of Saigon)
• Yemenis: 1960s or 2014–2015 (civil war)
