U.S. To Take In 7,000 Palestinian Refugees

This is admirable, though insufficient. The United States has a moral responsibility to accept as many refugees from Iraq as choose to emigrate here.

Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said Thursday no specific country has offered to receive Palestinian refugees in Iraq, "but I know the United States confirmed it can take 7,000 of them."

She told United Press International in Damascus that while there were no plans to permanently settle Palestinian refugees, "some live in difficult conditions, especially those from Iraq and who are stranded on the Iraqi borders" with Syria and with Jordan. The UNRWA chief noted her agency and the U.N. high commissioner for refugees have requested third countries to grant refuge to Palestinians from Iraq.

Interesting, that 7,000 figure. According to the State Department,

Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey told reporters at a Washington briefing March 23 that previous reports about the United States accepting an additional 7,000 Iraqi refugees in the coming months are inaccurate.  She said this figure simply reflects the number of U.S. referrals the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) feels it realistically can expect to make in the coming months. “UNHCR, which has the international mandate, if you will, to do the protection and make referrals for resettlement has indicated … that they had the capacity to be able to register, identify the vulnerabilities and make referrals of about 20,000, and that they anticipated that they would refer 7,000 to the U.S. resettlement program,” she said.

Does mean that the UN is only concerned with Palestinians fleeing Iraq? Not that Palestinians don't deserve safe haven, but what about native-born Iraqis? 

Or is the figure just a coincidence?