Thursday, October 15, 2009
This is just a quick link to follow -- an "aside." These are links to interesting things that, for one reason or another, I didn't place into a full posting. Click the link to visit the full article. Go to the blog index for a regular listing of posts.
Judith Miller and David Samuels: Arab states' crimes against Palestinians, For years, they've kept the people dispossessed - 'For decades, Arab governments have justified their decision to maintain millions of stateless Palestinians as refugees in squalid camps as a way of pressuring Israel. The refugee problem will be solved, they say, when Israel agrees to let the Palestinians have their own state. Yet after years spent in terrible conditions, not a single Palestinian refugee has been returned to Israel, and a few aging apparatchiks have made it back to the West Bank or Gaza. Instead, failed peace plans and shifting political winds have resulted in a second Palestinian nakba, or catastrophe - this one at hands of the Arab governments...'
I believe there is an error in Miller and Samuels' article re Arab states' crimes against Palestinians. The article states Palestinian refugees have not returned to Israel, although some have returned to Gaza and the West Bank. I believe Israel over the years has allowed some 180,000 Palestinian refugees to return to Israel as hardship cases, usually older refugees who posed little threat and reunited with family.
I believe you are right. I also believe there have been compensation payments made in the past.
I recently read this article in The Independent UK, and I cannot comprehend why this very lengthy article is entitled "No Way Home" because it chooses not to focus on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees' right of return, but rather tries to divert attention from it by focusing on how shabbily the Palestinians are treated by their Arab neighbors. While some of that is true, this is entirely a separate issue and has nothing to do with the rights of the Palestinian refugees and the crimes that Israel has committed collectively upon an entire of society of people for the last 60 years.
Thus, the tragedy of the Palestinian Diaspora is that there most definitely is a way home, but the rights of the Palestinian refugees continue to be denied even though clearly set out in UN Resolutation 194 of 1948, and reaffirmed many times after that.
Notably, Karen Abuzayd never said or implied that the fate of the Palestinians lies "elsewhere" as the authors of this article wrote. What she did say at the conclusion of her speech at UNRWA's anniversary ceremony in New York City on 24 September was:
"I conclude my statement with a call to the international community to redouble its efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and with it, the plight of Palestine refugees. I ask also that we solemnly renew our commitment to ensure the refugees’ enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms as stipulated in relevant international instruments. The protracted exile of Palestine refugees and the dire conditions they endure, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territory, cannot be reconciled with State obligations under the United Nations Charter.
We welcome the possibilities and renewed hope arising from recent international attention to the conflict. UNRWA stands ready to play its constructive and enabling role to ensure that the Palestine refugee voice is heard and that their interest and choices are reflected in any future agreement"
If the authors of this article wish to express their own personal opinions as regards the Palestinian refugees, they are entitled to do so, but should not be engaging in outright distortions and misrepresentations.
Marlene Newesri
you wrote: "protracted exile"
That is exactly the point!
Historicaly, every conflict produces population shifts.
An example:
In the M.E. about 800,000-1,000,000 Jews who had been in
Arab and No African countries--for thousands of years--were
expelled from their homes and eventually resettled, mostly
in Israel and the US.
The Arab palestinians, on the other hand--many who had
resided in palestine for as little as two years--were
put in camps (by their co-religionists). And now, 3 generations
later are still called "refugees."
Every other population shift has resulted in resettlement.
These people are severly abused and greatly mislead,
How very sad.
Demonizing the only country in the ME that took in massive
amounts of refugees does not help these sad people.