RAMALLAH, West Bank — As the world watches the Syrian refugee crisis unfold, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is offering to accept Palestinian and Syrian refugees on its soil, calling on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to make this possible. There appears to be widespread doubt, however, that the gesture is anything more than a symbolic effort designed to embarrass Israel.

In addition to the PA's media announcement, President Mahmoud Abbas on Sept. 5 asked Riyad Mansour, the UN permanent observer of the State of Palestine, to promptly tackle the matter with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in order to take the appropriate and necessary measures to host refugees in Palestine.

In this context, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry confirmed in a Sept. 6 press release “Palestine’s readiness to deal with the refugee problem, especially [Palestinian and Syrian] refugees flowing from Syria.”

“[The] country is ready, despite its limited and modest means, to open the houses of all the Palestinian citizens to accommodate asylum seekers instead of having them continue a journey toward the unknown, based on the instructions of President Abbas.”