President Barack Obama listens as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responds to a question during a joint meeting with the press in the Oval Office. Photo: Pete Souza.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations to help Palestinians “who are suffering from the bloody conflict” in Syria “return to live in the Palestinian Territory,” Israel National News reported.

Abbas has long demanded that 5 million foreign Arabs be allowed into all of Israel—not just Gaza and the West Bank—as part of the what Palestinians call their “right of return.”

These Arabs are descendants of about 750,000 Arabs who had fled Israel after the War of Independence in 1948. A number of them left—on their own accord—because Jordan and other Arab neighbors promised them that they would be able to return to Israel immediately after the anticipated defeat of the Jewish state.

The UN’s typical policy is that only those who flee their countries themselves are considered “refugees,” not their descendants. However, the UN makes an exception for descendants of Arabs who fled Israel. In many cases, the countries where these descendants currently reside have refused to grant them citizenship.