American Jewish Committee Exposing Full Truth of Refugee Problems Emanating from Arab-Israeli Conflict

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 28 February 2001

The American Jewish Committee this week stepped up its campaign to expose the full truth about the nature and scope of the refugee problems emanating from the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The international community has been hoodwinked by the Arab world into believing that the Palestinians constitute the only refugee population emanating from the Arab-Israeli conflict," said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

"It is time to expose the truth. There are two, not one, refugee populations," said Mr. Harris. "The international community must be reminded that more than 700,000 Jews were forced to flee from their centuries-old communities in the Arab world."

The AJC ad, "The Other Refugees" (www.ajc.org), sheds light on the vastly different ways Jewish and Arab refugees were treated after the 1948 onslaught against Israel.

The ad, which originally appeared on the New York Times op-ed page on January 30, is being published today on the op-ed page of the International Herald Tribune, and in the coming days will appear in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers.

The American Jewish Committee has long been involved in the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab counties. One product of the work, an article by Mr. Harris about the destroyed Jewish community of Libya, can be found at www.ajc.org

The full text of The Other Refugees ad follows:

"In 1947, the entire Arab world rejected the UN partition plan creating separate Jewish and Arab states in British-ruled Palestine, and instead launched a war against the new State of Israel. The Arab onslaught of 1948 and its aftermath tragically produced two – not one – refugee populations, one Jewish and one Arab.

"More than 700,000 Jews across the Arab world were forced to flee for their lives, their property ransacked in deadly riots, and their schools, hospitals,synagogues and cemeteries expropriated or destroyed. Israel, European nations and the United States absorbed these dispossessed Jews from centuries-old communities.

"Arab states, meanwhile, turned their backs on the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who crossed into Arab lands, even though many leaders had encouraged them to fight and then flee Israel with the expectation of a quick return.

"Tragically, many Palestinians have remained quarantined in squalid camps sustained by UN aid in Arab countries for more than 53 years. Only one Arab country, Jordan, has extended citizenship to the Palestinians. While professing concern for their suffering, Arab leaders instead cynically use the refugees as political pawns in the endless war against Israel.

"Why the difference in treatment?

"The answer now is clearer than ever in the wake of the Palestinian rejection of Israel's outstretched hand of peace. Neither repeated war nor terrorism nor economic boycott has driven Jews from their ancestral homeland. Thus, the Palestinian leadership, backed by many in the Arab world, seeks the destruction of Israel through the "return" of the refugees and their millions of descendants.

"Unsettled issues for both refugee populations need to be resolved. But asking Israel to open its borders to millions of Palestinians is not a solution – unless what the world wants is Israel's national suicide."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org