STOP SILENCE - SILENCE KILLS

According to the UN, Palestinian refugees in Syria remain outside the conflict
The half million Palestinian refugees in Syria stays out of the conflict that is bleeding the country of the Middle East, told Efe the Colombian Felipe Sanchez, representing the UN body that provides assistance to this population.

"In Syria there are about 475,000 refugees who fortunately have not been involved so far in this maelstrom of violence," he said in an interview with the representative of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA, for its acronym in English)

"But if conditions change, it could become quite complicated, the potential consequences for residents," said Sanchez, who these days he toured Latin America.

The UN aims to countries with emerging economic and political prominence as Brazil, Argentina and Chile are involved more directly in the search for a solution to the conflict in the Middle East.

Currently, there are 5 million Palestinian refugees, of which 1.5 million live in camps distributed by Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Outside the Middle East, Chile has the largest community of Palestinian origin, with 350,000 people, according to the UN.

UNRWA, founded in 1949, shortly after the first war that expelled the Palestinians from the territory in which they lived, is the only UN agency dedicated exclusively to addressing the situation of an ethnic group or nation in conflict.

This agency also provides services to people displaced by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and other later in the area.

"The problem of refugees shows a failure of politics, the peace process has been postponed and this great concern, especially because in the last period no signs of progress but of stagnation," said Sanchez, in charge of UNRWA in the West Bank.

"In Gaza there are a million and half people living in a strip 40 km long by 5 wide, with one of the highest population densities in the world and live a block scheme for the international community considers illegal," explains.

"70 percent of the population suffers great stress, the stress of violence, lack of economic opportunity, if disconnected from the rest of Palestine and the world," he notes.

Six out of ten Palestinian refugees living in Gaza are youths with no prospects. In this group "ideologies flourish alternatives that are attractive, because it gives them an identity, security, and the consequences it brings," the official UNRWA.

Since the 50's, when Egypt emerged in the political movement led by Abdel Nasser and a group of young officers, "there had been an emergence of pan-Arab ideas like making the rounds again in the region," said Sanchez, referring to the process of change in which is immersed the Arab world.

"This creates high expectations among the population, including Palestinian refugees," but the capacity of countries in which they live and help from the international community is limited.

"If the refugee issue is not placed on the table quickly, we can enter a cycle of instability," warns the head.

Working with UNRWA 31,000 people (30,000 of them Palestinians) that a budget of $ 655 million provided to refugees vital services like education, health and humanitarian assistance.

Its main objective is "to help alleviate suffering, waiting for a solution that is fair," but unlike the UNHCR (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees), UNRWA can not offer legal recognition or protection , because the Palestinians do not belong to any state.

Palestinian refugees make up a third of the refugee population in the world. More than half of them children under 15 whose parents and grandparents were born in refugee camps, says Professor Karma Nabulsi, a researcher in political science who lives in the UK.

Half a century later, still living in the same fields waiting for a solution to the conflict by the international community, said Nabulsi in a document published on the website mundoarabe.org

But "the mandate of the UNRWA-Sanchez points out, is not solving the refugee problem, but merely to help in both parties arrive at a just and lasting solution," which recognizes that it is still far away.