At the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the tragedy of the Arab refugees. Following the military defeat of the Arabs in the War of Liberation and the "Nakba" that this defeat brought upon them, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians moved to the status of refugees. A human tragedy, no doubt.
But the great injustice experienced by the refugees did not exactly come from the hands of young Israel. In this sense, the Arab refugees were another people forced to leave their homes as part of a conflict between nations. The years after World War II saw tens of millions of such refugees worldwide. The process of absorbing refugees is never simple, but all the tens of millions of displaced people in the world finally found their place - except for the Palestinians.
In those years, Palestinian nationalism was in its infancy. It is quite possible that if these refugees had been rehabilitated and absorbed in the neighboring countries, we would not have a Palestinian people today. But the "Arab Brothers" did not want rehabilitated refugees. They wanted refugees who would adhere to the "return" vision. And so the refugees became a weapon in the hands of the Arab League and Arab countries, which refused to rehabilitate them. They were betrayed by their Arab brothers, who also mobilized international institutions to perpetuate the plight of their Palestinian "brothers".
This is the tragedy and this is the real injustice caused to the refugees.
UNRA
UNRA, established under pressure from the Arab League, is the clearest (and not the only) example of the world's encouragement to the Palestinians to remain stuck in their absurd vision. This is not just another refugee agency established by the UN. UNRWA is a unique agency established to take care of the Palestinian refugees. This is at a time when tens of millions of refugees in the world, most of them in a much worse situation, were taken care of by the UN refugee agency, usually successfully.
In the case of UNKRA in Korea, for example, the UN refugee agency quickly solved the problem of the 3.2 million refugees who fled from North Korea. Within five years, the agency finished settling them all and closed down. UN agencies have found solutions for 100 million refugees since World War II around the world. UNRWA, on the other hand, did not remove even one Palestinian refugee from his refugee status. Not only that - UNRWA added new generations born into the hopeless refugee camps. By the way, even those who got lucky and became naturalized in an Arab country did not lose their status as refugees.
In complete contrast to the fate of the Arab refugees, approximately 1950 Jewish refugees from Arab countries arrived in Israel in the early 850,000s. All were absorbed into the young country. UNRWA also allowed masses of Arabs to "join" the refugee camps, receive aid, and inflate the number of refugees in an unthinkable way. UNRWA is the tool used by the frustrated Arab countries to maintain the conflict. As a refugee agency, UNRWA is a total failure.
"Normal" emission is not inherited. On the other hand, the Arab "emissions" are passed from generation to generation, and in fact are perpetuated on purpose. And so, instead of the number of refugees naturally decreasing over the years, it increased almost twentyfold, from a few hundred thousand to 5 million.
ever since
The UN's universal definition of a refugee is:
| Any person who is forced to leave his permanent home in his natural place ever since ("from time immemorial") will be considered a refugee. |
UNRA's refugee definition includes a unique characteristic. This is a characteristic that does not exist in any other refugee definition in the world:
| Any Arab who left Palestine in 1948 and stayed there two years He will also be considered a refugee. |
Why was it so important to create this special definition? Because quite a few of these refugees came from nearby.
UNRA's message to the Palestinians is not:
| The vision of destroying Israel is problematic. Accept what happened, and start thinking positively about rehabilitation. |
It's just the opposite:
| Your vision is alive and well. You will return to the same houses. Until this vision is fulfilled, you will remain refugees and victims and receive relief support. |
The world was lucky that the Germans, with their 20 million refugees from the Sudetenland and other countries they attacked in World War II, did not win a benevolent refugee agency like UNRWA.
The Arab refugees - a tragedy and a legend
(*) A large part of the data and citations here are based on Gwan Peters' book "Since and Before" - a must read for those interested in understanding the roots of the conflict.
Today it is customary to state the number of 750,000 refugees in 1948. indeed?
In his book "The Legend of the Arab Refugees" (1967), Walter Finner analyzes official documents of the League of Nations and census numbers of Arabs. Based on these, he states that in May 1948 there were 539,000 Arab refugees in Israel. The Arab League increased that number by 150,000. The Arabs did not allow this number to be verified, and refused to allow official commanders among the refugees. Already in the 1950s, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Dr. John Davis, admitted that the list of Jordanian rations distributed to refugees in Jordan only:
| ...including, according to the estimate, 150,000 ineligible and many who have passed away. |
In those days there was an acute shortage of workers in Iraq and Syria. About 100,000 Jews also left Iraq, leaving behind an employment void. In fact, Iraq was looking for working hands throughout the Arab world - but not Palestinians. In Syria, an attempt was made to transfer 25,000 refugees to potential development areas in the north of the country, but in 1949 this attempt was blocked by the Arab League.
In 1951, the Syrian government appealed to the Egyptian government with an official request to allow half a million Egyptian farmers to immigrate to Syria, in order to develop Syrian land that would be handed over to them. The Egyptian authorities rejected the request on the grounds that Egyptian agriculture needs working hands. Despite this, in all the places where the refugees arrived, with the exception of Jordan, they were imprisoned in refugee camps and were not granted citizenship.
The real injustice
With such "brothers", the refugees remained stuck in their misery. In 1960, King Hussein of Jordan said:
| Since 1948, the Arab leaders approached the problem of the Land of Israel in an irresponsible way... They exploited the Palestinian people for selfish political needs. It's ridiculous, and I might even say criminal. |
Khaled Al Azm, who was the prime minister of Syria in 1949-50, wrote in his memoirs published in 1972:
| Since 1948 we have demanded the return of the refugees... even though they left their country because of us... We brought a holocaust on... the Arab refugees by calling them to come and pressuring them to leave... We made them dispossessed... we made them accustomed to giving up... we took part in lowering their moral and social level.., And then we took advantage of them by committing crimes of murder, arson and throwing bombs at... men, women and children - all This is to achieve political goals... |
In July 1957, the refugee conference held in Homs, Syria issued the following declaration:
| Any discussion that aims to resolve the question of the Land of Israel, and is not based on guaranteeing the right of the refugees to destroy Israel, will be considered a disgrace to the Arab people and an act of treason. |
In 1958, Ralph Galloway, who was the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said:
| The Arab countries do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to leave it as an open wound, as an insult to the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel. The question of whether the Arab refugees will live or die is as important to the Arab leaders as the skin of garlic. |
In an interview in 1978, John McCarthy, who spent decades working with refugees around the world, said:
| ...it's such a complicated political framework. I worked in the Palestinian framework, and I tried to say, "Let's settle these people." The governments in Egypt and so on, they all said, wait a little', or "No, we are not ready for that. They will settle in only one place, back in Israel, whether it is right or not." …. These people are just toys. ...we can do deeds in humans if we get their help, only the permission of the governments. But one thing you must remember: the Arab countries do not want to accept Arabs. In this they discriminate against themselves and their flesh... |
And another amazing quote, this time from the mouth of Zuhair Mohsin, a member of the PLO's working committee, who said in 1977:
| The existence of a separate Palestinian identity is only for tactical needs. The establishment of a Palestinian state is a new instrument in the campaign against Israel... |
Summary
The fate of the Arab refugees is indeed a tragedy. He is a tragedy for them, us and the entire Middle East. The refugees were indeed wronged, but Israel, which fought for its existence in a war that was imposed on it, cannot be blamed for it. This account should be submitted to the Arab League, to the Husseini legacy and to the Arab countries, which cynically sacrificed the Palestinian "brothers" in order to prolong the war between them and Israel indefinitely.
Back in the 19th century, the Arabs in the Land of Israel murdered, raped and massacred Jews. And then they started a war against the Jews, they even changed their name to Palestinians, this happened in the sixties. Then they cry cry cry. No wonder the other Arabs don't like them. the palestinians
After 70 years, they are no longer refugees. They settled in other places. Otherwise I am also a refugee from Syria, from 100 years ago.
Thanks for the interesting article.
Which illuminates the refugee problem in a balanced and correct light.
I liked less the description in the title and in the article about who most of them supported the events of 7/10 "the tragedy of the refugees"? Filled with naivety but a little consideration for the victims, the abductees and the poor family members and our people who have been suffering from them for decades and hundreds of years.
But some of the things in the article are true and in any case it is not too late for those refugees to be rehabilitated and absorbed in the neighboring countries and that we will not have a Palestinian people at all as described here in the past tense at the beginning of the article.
Especially in view of Israeli military superiority in the past year and an impressive hold on enemy territories for security purposes.
So militarily there is no problem and global legitimacy usually comes to those who are strong and victorious, so will this rare opportunity also be used on the political level for a historic move and an unprecedented achievement of voluntary Palestinian immigration...?
Why is a legitimate opinion that I expressed, which is also the truth, that there has never been a Palestinian people, and that this is false Arab propaganda, used as a weapon by our enemies, subject to examination and scrutiny, and not published?
This is an attempt to silence, and this is not a free newspaper.
I assume that this response will also be examined and tested.
Just a shame..
There is not and never has been a Palestinian people.
Province Palestine, and until the Great Rebellion, Province Judea, is a nickname given by the Romans to Judea, in order to humiliate it, and protest against it, every trace...
And this was, hundreds of years, before the Arabs left the Arabian Peninsula for their conquest campaigns, including the conquest of the Land of Israel...
Thus, there is no connection between Palestine and the Arabs.
In my opinion, the tragedy is ours that the captains from the beginning did not know how to make informed decisions and did not direct them to their countries and now that there are 20 times their number at the very least, our chance and that of future generations to rule this land is probably decreasing day by day.
Even in our city of "coexistence" I see the influx and escape from a significant portion of buildings and neighborhoods in which they drive a stake, and this is in a city where there is no national security threat, so what chance do we have here at the national level?
In a country where there are more people who care about economic/media/political interests than people who have understanding and above all courage(!) to say which way the wind is blowing we are deteriorating.
I hope that soon the trend will be reversed.
A city that does not have national security threat relations? You probably forgot what they did in Shomer Hamot and this is just the promo for the future. They multiply throughout the city, they come from all kinds of villages, and yes, normal people don't want to live near them, and rightfully so, but in my opinion the trend is still reversible once they stop renting and selling them apartments, they will stay in their villages and society Jews need or rather must to fill the apartments of the city of Haifa.
Live here, O lovers of my cousins, the refugees of Israel.
right!
There is no tragedy here, the Palestinian people doesn't exist
The empire of Rome gave that name and there is no connection between the name to the Arabic peoples
That's why every Arab who ever had a relationship with Israel has a key (=symbol for the "lost" house) even if he didn't have a house here.
Denying the Nakba is similar to denying the Holocaust. Arguing with the numbers, putting the responsibility on the victims, saying that's how it is in wars, complaining about the treatment of others towards Jews, before or after - all to escape the consequences and collective responsibility.
It would never have been extinguished for a simple reason. The British mandate and the United Nations gave this country to the Jewish people and a small part to the cousins who did not like the partition and started attacking Jews.
Allah in the Quran the Holly land for the Jewish people's
Yoram Katz, the article is excellent, the refugees, you did not mention the contribution of the Absentee Property Law to the refugee problem. We did not allow the citizens who fled the terror of the war to return to their homes if they wanted to. We also inhabited and in other cases destroyed our pockets in the land and our forests.
I am writing from a judgmental position, I think the Jewish people had no choice after the Holocaust and in general. But we have to be precise with the facts and we have to be aware of our actions.
That's true, but I don't think that's the point.
As I wrote, there were approximately 100 million refugees in the world at that time, most of whom could not return to their homes and resettle.
Among them were also 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries who met a similar fate. Their property was confiscated and they resettled in Israel.
The tragedy of the Palestinian refugees was that their problem remained unsolved on purpose.