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The Palestinian Refugee Issue: Rhetoric vs. Reality
Institute for Global Jewish Affairs ^ | Sidney Zabludoff

Posted on 09/27/2008 3:58:34 AM PDT by mtk1980

The sixty-year-old Palestinian refugee issue has little connection with reality. It has become solely a bargaining chip used by Arabs and Palestinians in peace talks with Israel and, as such, is a distraction from the real issues of terrorism and boundaries. Indeed, continuing to call Palestinians refugees is a misnomer. They no longer live in tents or temporary quarters. In addition, the Palestinian refugee issue is unique. Since 1920 all other major refugee crises involving the exchange of religious or ethnic populations, while creating hardships, were dealt with in a single generation. Meanwhile, issues such as the "right of return" and compensation never were adequately resolved and were largely forgotten. The same pattern evolved for Jews who fled Middle Eastern and North African countries, even though their number was some 50 percent larger than Palestinian refugees and the difference in individual assets lost was even greater.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: islam; israel; mohammedanism; palestinians; refugees
Jewish refugees from Arab countries outnumbered Palestinian refugees. The Jewish assets lost were at least 50% more.
1 posted on 09/27/2008 3:58:34 AM PDT by mtk1980
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To: mtk1980

How many generations have had to put up with this Arab BS.

There are no refugees, that were not made such by their enablers in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. and all because the Arab world chose to rid the world of Israel and Jews during a certain conflict called the six day war.

The countries listed lost their collective Asses and chose to then use the Arabs who departed Israel at the request of the losing countries as PAWNS or fake refugees.

This was the beginning of another rewritten chapter in history that blamed Israel for the screwing of generations of Arab PAWNS by their own kind, who refused to take them in and provide for them, when they had been prosperous and self sustaining in Israel before the war.

Like some other PAWNS in history, that are familiar to all, they will never reach their destiny until they forget the rewritten history, throw off the shackles of their tormentors, captors, and slave masters, and divest themselves of association with those who have proven over many many years that they could care less about them, and more about the money they bring to the table vis-a vis their present status in life. May God grant them the vision.


2 posted on 09/27/2008 6:07:09 AM PDT by wita
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To: mtk1980

The West should have stood up to the Arabs decades ago on this issue. The population exchange took place over several years and all the displaced Jews were quickly resettled, but the displaced Arabs became political pawns. There is a fairly long list of displaced populations who resettled and went on with their lives, but the Arabs have kept the “right of return” nonsense going for sixty years now.


3 posted on 09/27/2008 6:29:21 AM PDT by Will88
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To: Will88; wita

It is not quite so simple. When the US invaded Iraq, one of the first consequences of victory was that the Palestinian refugees resident in Iraq lost all property rights (their leases were cancelled) and many have been driven out of the country, living in wretched refugee camps near the Jordan border. Many have protested, in vain, that they knew no other country than Iraq.

Same story when Israel took South Lebanon - the Palestinians were driven out of the cities of Sidon and Tyre, and segregrated in the camps, which had to be enlarged and reestablished.

Iraq was, of all the Arab nations, the one where Palestinian “refugees” were the most integrgated. There were no Palestinian refugee camps in Iraq during Sadaam Hussein’s era - and the uprooting of the Palestinians from this situation was a victory for the US.


4 posted on 09/27/2008 5:02:00 PM PDT by BlackVeil
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To: BlackVeil

...and I contend the “problem” may exist today, but only because of the non solution in the beginning and so, if reparations are in order, you need only look to the instigators, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. The fund needs to be quite large and have an honest administrator, in addition, all outside funding headed to Palestinian organizations will be immediately funneled into the fund, and away from the organizations started to reap the financial benefits of being a refugee but in reality are none other than terrorist front groups, and slush funds for middle eastern thugs, with access to guns and explosives.


5 posted on 09/27/2008 8:09:56 PM PDT by wita
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To: BlackVeil

“It is not quite so simple.”

Not saying it is simple, but it should be the negotiating stance of Israel and her allies that a population exchange took place and that there is no right of return, that it’s the responsibility of Arab nations to absorb the Palestinians just as Israel absorbed the displaced Jews.


6 posted on 09/27/2008 9:05:42 PM PDT by Will88
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