ORIGIN OF THE REFUGEE PROBLEM - 1957
Regional Development for Regional Peace: A New Policy and Peace: A New Policy and Program to Counter the Soviet Menace in the Middle East - Public Affairs Institute, Public Affairs Institute, Washington, D.C. - 1957 · Economic assistance, American pp.236-241
https://books.google.com/books?id=TTPRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA236
ORIGIN OF THE REFUGEE PROBLEM
FOR ten years, charges and counter charges of responsibility for the origin of the refugee problem have been voiced by the Arab States and their sympathizers on one hand and Israel and its sympathizers on the other.
The exodus from Palestine took place under such chaotic conditions as to make it impossible to identify all of the factors which caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee from their homes.
In the troubled period between December 1947 and December 1948 when the flight took place, there were undoubted acts of terrorism on both sides.
These incidents, while isolated, were undoubtedly a factor in provoking some part of the flight to neighboring Arab territory.
But the main burden of evidence now available indicates that the evacuation of the Arab population of Palestine was primarily in response to urgings from the military or political leaders of the Arab States themselves.
One thing is perfectly clear. The refugee problem would not exist had not the Arab States launched a war to prevent implementation of the Palestine Partition resolution of Nov. 29, 1947 and to destroy the state of Israel in its infancy.
This war was conducted between December 1947 and May 1948 by so-called Arab "irregulars". After May 15, 1948, the regular armies of the Arab states took over.
At the call of Arab war leaders and of the Arab Higher Committee, the Arabs in Palestine evacuated the country in large numbers.
The purpose was to clear the roads and the villages in order to expedite the advance of the Arab regular armies, demonstrate that Jews and Arabs could not live side by side, and disrupt all services following the end of the British Mandate in anticipation of speedy victory.
Under the U. N. Partition Resolution, the Jewish state would have had an Arab minority population of 397,000 or 42% of the entire population. At the end of the Palestine War, 160,000 Arabs were left in Israel.
The Arab evacuation took place in five movements: two between December 7, 1947 and April 1948; and three in May, October and December 1948, after the Arab regular armies had been defeated on the military front.
Haganah and Israel Appeal To Arabs to Stay
At the outset, a number of efforts were made to halt the flight of the Arabs, first by the Haganah and later by the Provisional Government of Israel.
In December 1947, the Haganah appealed to the Arabs to live in peace with the Jews and in leaflets distributed in the Arab villages urged them to choose peace and constructive work "so that we shall not have to harm you and your property in the course of our self-defense.
You will understand that if attacks are made from these bases we shall have no alternative but to shoot back. We hope that you will heed this appeal and help bring peace back to the country for the good of the inhabitants."
On May 14, 1948, in its Proclamation of Independence, the Provisional Government of Israel appealed to the Arab population in these terms:
Stages Of Evacuation
Immediately following the adoption of the U. N. Partition Resolution, some 30,000 persons, constituting the wealthier Arab families, deserted Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa, taking their movable possessions with them.
In March and April 1948, responding to the broadcast instructions of the Mufti of Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Arabs left the plains of Sharon.
On April 18, 1948 some 6,000 Arabs suddenly left Tiberias, which had not been involved in military operations.
On April 22, 1948, 60,000 Arabs left Haifa when 200 Jewish soldiers took over this port city following the British departure.
Between April 25 and April 29, 1948, between 65,000 and 70,000 Arabs left Jaffa.
The Arab war began on May 14, 1948. By June 11, the Israelis had pushed back the Arab armies and had occupied practically all the territory within the boundaries allotted to the Jewish state by the United Nations.
Between June 11 and July 9, 1948, a U. N. truce was observed. Fighting broke out again on July 9, 1948. Before a second truce was imposed, the Israel army captured 494 additional square miles. Thirteen Arab towns and 112 villages were occupied by the Israelis, including the Arab towns of Lydda, Ramleh, and Nazareth. During this period, the largest number of Arabs left Palestine.
A second truce ended both the fighting and the Arab flight.
But in October 1948, the strife between the armies of the Arab states and Israel was renewed. The Israelis occupied Beersheba, routed the Arab “Liberation Army” and gained control of Galilee. At this time, a mass Arab exodus took place to Transjordan from the area south of Jerusalem.
The Negev campaign followed in December 1948, where the Arabs were also defeated. Its sequence was the flight of Arabs from the areas then held by Transjordan.
French, British, Sources Confirm Arab leaders Organized Flight
French, British, and Arab sources at the time confirmed that the Arab flights were organized at the instruction of Arab leaders; and they were not the result of being driven out by the Jews.
On April 7, 1949, the French representative on the U. N. Conciliation Commission told the Israel government it would be wrong even by accounts of the refugees themselves to describe them as having been deliberately "driven out" and correct to describe them as having fled in the atmosphere of fear, insecurity and danger inseparable from war.
On April 23, 1949, Sir Alexander Cadogan, the British delegate, told the Security Council of the United Nations:
Arab Leaders Confirm Responsibility For Flight
Arab leaders, too, confirmed that the flight was not caused by Israel. On April 20, 1948, Jamal Husseini,* Vice Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, and one of its spokesmen in the fight against partition, told the U. N. Security Council that "the Arabs would not submit to a truce, but prefer to leave their homes.”
* Now an important advisor of King Saud of Saudi Arabia.
On August 12, 1948, Glubb Pasha, then the pro-Arab British Commander of the Transjordan Arab Legion, which took part in the war against the Jewish population of Palestine, said in an article in the London Daily Mail: "The Arab civil population panicked and fled ignominiously."
On September 6, 1948, Emile Ghory, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, and one of its representatives in presenting the Arab case to the United Nations, told the Beirut Telegraph:
Arab Press Confirms Arab Responsibility
Corroborative evidence of the orders of the Arab leaders and the re fusal of some to heed them was offered by a number of Arab publications.
On March 30, 1948, the Palestine Arab paper, As Sariah, declared:
On April 3, 1948, the Near East Arabic Radio said:
On June 30, 1948, Es Shaab, a Palestine Arab newspaper, called those who fled Fifth Columnists, declaring editorially:
On August 3, 1948, a Syrian radio broadcast from Damascus declared that the Arabs of Palestine: ". . . were responsible for the heavy losses of the armies in Palestine. They ran away in the face of a threat by a small minority and spent more time talking over their fears than fighting for their country.”
On August 13, 1948, the Lebanese newspaper, Beirut, quoted a memorandum of the Arab Higher Committee to Azzam Pasha, then Secretary General of the Arab League, as follows: "From the areas not dominated by theJews, a large number of the population fled because they had no confidence in the military defense measures.”
On August 16, 1948, the Lebanese paper, Saudi el-Jenub, quoted Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Haifa and Galilee, as stating that Arab statesmen had assured the refugees that their armies would annihilate the "Zionist gangs" in a short while and there was no cause to fear permanent exile.
On September 27, 1948, the Near East Arabic Radio attacked the Arab Higher Committee's record, declaring: "It is besmirched by the flight of its leaders and their encouragement of the Arabs to leave their homes even though no previous arrangement had been made for their housing and resettlement.”
On May 15, 1949, the Near East Arabic Radio broadcast the following Statement:
Lebanese circles in the United States and in Lebanon itself in 1951 further established Arab responsibility for producing the refugee problem and for the failure to resolve it.
Thus, on June 8, 1951, Habib Issa, acting editor of the American Lebanese daily, Al-Hoda, wrote:
The exodus from Palestine took place under such chaotic conditions as to make it impossible to identify all of the factors which caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee from their homes.
In the troubled period between December 1947 and December 1948 when the flight took place, there were undoubted acts of terrorism on both sides.
These incidents, while isolated, were undoubtedly a factor in provoking some part of the flight to neighboring Arab territory.
But the main burden of evidence now available indicates that the evacuation of the Arab population of Palestine was primarily in response to urgings from the military or political leaders of the Arab States themselves.
One thing is perfectly clear. The refugee problem would not exist had not the Arab States launched a war to prevent implementation of the Palestine Partition resolution of Nov. 29, 1947 and to destroy the state of Israel in its infancy.
This war was conducted between December 1947 and May 1948 by so-called Arab "irregulars". After May 15, 1948, the regular armies of the Arab states took over.
At the call of Arab war leaders and of the Arab Higher Committee, the Arabs in Palestine evacuated the country in large numbers.
The purpose was to clear the roads and the villages in order to expedite the advance of the Arab regular armies, demonstrate that Jews and Arabs could not live side by side, and disrupt all services following the end of the British Mandate in anticipation of speedy victory.
Under the U. N. Partition Resolution, the Jewish state would have had an Arab minority population of 397,000 or 42% of the entire population. At the end of the Palestine War, 160,000 Arabs were left in Israel.
The Arab evacuation took place in five movements: two between December 7, 1947 and April 1948; and three in May, October and December 1948, after the Arab regular armies had been defeated on the military front.
Haganah and Israel Appeal To Arabs to Stay
At the outset, a number of efforts were made to halt the flight of the Arabs, first by the Haganah and later by the Provisional Government of Israel.
In December 1947, the Haganah appealed to the Arabs to live in peace with the Jews and in leaflets distributed in the Arab villages urged them to choose peace and constructive work "so that we shall not have to harm you and your property in the course of our self-defense.
You will understand that if attacks are made from these bases we shall have no alternative but to shoot back. We hope that you will heed this appeal and help bring peace back to the country for the good of the inhabitants."
On May 14, 1948, in its Proclamation of Independence, the Provisional Government of Israel appealed to the Arab population in these terms:
"In the midst of wanton aggression we call upon the inhabitants of the state of Israel to return to the ways of peace and to play their part in the development of the state, with full and equal citizenship and due responsibility in all its bodies and institutions, provisional or permanent."
Stages Of Evacuation
Immediately following the adoption of the U. N. Partition Resolution, some 30,000 persons, constituting the wealthier Arab families, deserted Jerusalem, Haifa, and Jaffa, taking their movable possessions with them.
In March and April 1948, responding to the broadcast instructions of the Mufti of Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Arabs left the plains of Sharon.
On April 18, 1948 some 6,000 Arabs suddenly left Tiberias, which had not been involved in military operations.
On April 22, 1948, 60,000 Arabs left Haifa when 200 Jewish soldiers took over this port city following the British departure.
Between April 25 and April 29, 1948, between 65,000 and 70,000 Arabs left Jaffa.
* * *
The Arab war began on May 14, 1948. By June 11, the Israelis had pushed back the Arab armies and had occupied practically all the territory within the boundaries allotted to the Jewish state by the United Nations.
Between June 11 and July 9, 1948, a U. N. truce was observed. Fighting broke out again on July 9, 1948. Before a second truce was imposed, the Israel army captured 494 additional square miles. Thirteen Arab towns and 112 villages were occupied by the Israelis, including the Arab towns of Lydda, Ramleh, and Nazareth. During this period, the largest number of Arabs left Palestine.
A second truce ended both the fighting and the Arab flight.
But in October 1948, the strife between the armies of the Arab states and Israel was renewed. The Israelis occupied Beersheba, routed the Arab “Liberation Army” and gained control of Galilee. At this time, a mass Arab exodus took place to Transjordan from the area south of Jerusalem.
The Negev campaign followed in December 1948, where the Arabs were also defeated. Its sequence was the flight of Arabs from the areas then held by Transjordan.
French, British, Sources Confirm Arab leaders Organized Flight
French, British, and Arab sources at the time confirmed that the Arab flights were organized at the instruction of Arab leaders; and they were not the result of being driven out by the Jews.
On April 7, 1949, the French representative on the U. N. Conciliation Commission told the Israel government it would be wrong even by accounts of the refugees themselves to describe them as having been deliberately "driven out" and correct to describe them as having fled in the atmosphere of fear, insecurity and danger inseparable from war.
On April 23, 1949, Sir Alexander Cadogan, the British delegate, told the Security Council of the United Nations:
"During the past week there has been a tendency for Arabs to infiltrate into Haifa, and there were continuous Arab attacks on Jews during the four days preceding the Haganah offensive. It thus appears that the Arabs are those responsible for the latest developments in Haifa.”On October 3, 1949, the London Economist carried the following eye witness account of what transpired in Haifa.
". . . During the subsequent days the Israeli authorities who were now in complete control of Haifa urged all Arabs to remain . . . and guaranteed them protection and security. So far as I know, most of the British civilian residents whose advice was asked by Arab friends told the latter they would be wise to stay. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that by far the most potent of these factors were the announcements made over the air by the Arab Higher Committee urging all Arabs in Haifa to quit. The reason given was that upon the final withdrawal of the British the combined armies of the Arab states would invade Palestine and drive the Jews into the sea. It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.”
Arab Leaders Confirm Responsibility For Flight
Arab leaders, too, confirmed that the flight was not caused by Israel. On April 20, 1948, Jamal Husseini,* Vice Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, and one of its spokesmen in the fight against partition, told the U. N. Security Council that "the Arabs would not submit to a truce, but prefer to leave their homes.”
* Now an important advisor of King Saud of Saudi Arabia.
On August 12, 1948, Glubb Pasha, then the pro-Arab British Commander of the Transjordan Arab Legion, which took part in the war against the Jewish population of Palestine, said in an article in the London Daily Mail: "The Arab civil population panicked and fled ignominiously."
On September 6, 1948, Emile Ghory, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, and one of its representatives in presenting the Arab case to the United Nations, told the Beirut Telegraph:
"At the time of the first truce the number of Arab refugees was 200,000. By the time the second truce began this number had risen to 300,000. It is impossible to foretell how many more refugees there will be if hostilities are renewed and there is a third truce.
I do not want to impugn any one but only to help the refugees. The fact that there are theſe refugees is the direct consequence of Arab ſtates in opposing partition and the Jewish State. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem.”
Arab Press Confirms Arab Responsibility
Corroborative evidence of the orders of the Arab leaders and the re fusal of some to heed them was offered by a number of Arab publications.
On March 30, 1948, the Palestine Arab paper, As Sariah, declared:
"The inhabitants of the large village of Sheikh Munis and of several other Arab villages in the neighborhood of Tel Aviv have brought a terrible disgrace upon all of us by quitting their villages bag and baggage. We cannot help comparing this disgraceful exodus with the firm stand of the Haganah in all localities situated in Arab territory or bordering on it. But what is the use of making comparisons; everyone knows that the Haganah gladly enters the battle while we always flee from it.”
On April 3, 1948, the Near East Arabic Radio said:
"It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees to flee from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem, and that certain leaders have tried to make political capital out of their miserable situation. The Arab states must not allow the future of the refugees to be sacrificed to make political capitalout of their fate."
On June 30, 1948, Es Shaab, a Palestine Arab newspaper, called those who fled Fifth Columnists, declaring editorially:
“The first group of our Fifth Columnists are those who abandon their houses and business premises and go to live elsewhere. Many of these have lived in great comfort and luxury. At the first sign of trouble they take to their heels in order to escape sharing the burden of the struggle whether directly or indirectly. The neighboring countries have fugitives from the battlefield. They are the battlefield. They are the worst type of Fifth Column and deserve to be punished with the utmost severity."
On August 3, 1948, a Syrian radio broadcast from Damascus declared that the Arabs of Palestine: ". . . were responsible for the heavy losses of the armies in Palestine. They ran away in the face of a threat by a small minority and spent more time talking over their fears than fighting for their country.”
On August 13, 1948, the Lebanese newspaper, Beirut, quoted a memorandum of the Arab Higher Committee to Azzam Pasha, then Secretary General of the Arab League, as follows: "From the areas not dominated by theJews, a large number of the population fled because they had no confidence in the military defense measures.”
On August 16, 1948, the Lebanese paper, Saudi el-Jenub, quoted Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Haifa and Galilee, as stating that Arab statesmen had assured the refugees that their armies would annihilate the "Zionist gangs" in a short while and there was no cause to fear permanent exile.
On September 27, 1948, the Near East Arabic Radio attacked the Arab Higher Committee's record, declaring: "It is besmirched by the flight of its leaders and their encouragement of the Arabs to leave their homes even though no previous arrangement had been made for their housing and resettlement.”
On May 15, 1949, the Near East Arabic Radio broadcast the following Statement:
“The Arab leaders and the Arab press and radio announced on May 15 (1948) that the Jews were scared to death and would soon be thrown into the sea by the advancing Arab armies; but it was not long before opinions had to be changed as the Jews scored nothing but victories and the Arabs suffered nothing but
Lebanese circles in the United States and in Lebanon itself in 1951 further established Arab responsibility for producing the refugee problem and for the failure to resolve it.
Thus, on June 8, 1951, Habib Issa, acting editor of the American Lebanese daily, Al-Hoda, wrote:
"As soon as the British had publicly announced the time for their relinquishment of the mandate and their withdrawal from Palestine, the Arab League began holding meetings and calling con ferences, and its general secretary, Abdul-Rahman Azzam Pasha, published numerous reports and declarations in which he assured the Arab peoples and all others that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel-Aviv (the virtual Jewish capital) would be as simple as a military promenade for the Arab armies. Azzam Pasha's statements pointed out that armies were already on the frontiers and that all the millions that the Jews had spent on land and on economic develop ment would surely be easy booty for the Arabs, since it would be a simple matter to throw the Jews to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.On August 19, 1951, the Lebanese newspaper, Kul-Shay, placed the reponsibility for the flight of the Arab refugees on the Arab states and scored their neglect of the problem, declaring:
“As the time for the British withdrawal grew nearer, the zeal of the Arab League was redoubled. Meetings and conferences took place almost daily and burning calls and appeals were issued. Broth erly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine, urging them to leave their land, homes and property and to stay temporarily in neighboring, brotherly states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down.
“The Palestinian Arabs had no chance but to obey the 'advice' of the League and to believe what Azzam Pasha and other responsible men in the League told them—that their withdrawal from their lands and their country was only temporary and would end in a few days with the successful termination of the Arab punishment action against Israel. “But victory was not to be the result of this 'punishment' action. Victory is not produced by speeches, reports, and declarations. Vic tory is produced by cannons, airplanes, and tanks. The threats of the Arab League evaporated in the face of the preparedness, good com mand and superior generalship of the Zionist 'gangs.' We saw the 'military promenade' become a crushing catastrophe that shattered the prestige of the League and its member states and exposed their inner weakness and deterioration.
“Azzam Pasha and the other responsible Arab leaders now try to excuse the defeat of the Arabs on the ground that their forces were inadequately armed, organized and trained. In the light of this, we should like to ask Azzam Pasha and his colleagues a simple question:
‘If the Arab armies lacked sufficient arms, organization and training, why did you throw them into a savage war against an enemy who had everything that modern wars require—equipment, good training, unity of command, expert officers who know the arts of war and who had participated in two World Wars? And why did you jeopardize the lives of a million Palestine Arabs and make them wander from their homes? Since, as you say, the Arab armies were not adequately prepared for victory, did not the flight of the Arabs, urged by you, amount to the facilitaton of Zionist victory?'"
"Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honour nor conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honour? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it!
"Does not Lebanon share in the common responsibility for their fate? But when she is asked to shoulder the burden of the outcome of her participation in a political and military misadventure, some newspapers and certain groups hasten to foretell calamities and disasters,
"You are welcoming thousands of Kurds and Assyrians as co religionists and citizens; however you deny the right of those, in the expulsion, humiliation and poverty of whom you had a hand, to take refuge with you and to give you their energy love, power, and property."
______________________________________
Swope Dispels Misconception Israel is Cause of Arab Refugees’ Plight; Blames Arab Leaders
JTA, November 30, 1948
Herbert Bayard Swope, in a letter published in the New York Herald Tribune today, draws attention to the fact that on the question of the Arab refugees from Palestine there has been much confusion of thought and a general tendency to blame the Israelis for the plight of the refugees while “the opposite is nearer the truth.” To dispel the misconception that the Israelis are the cause of the Arab refugees’ plight, Swope quotes reports that either have not been given much emphasis or else have not been published in this country.
One such report which appeared in the London Economist pointed out that there is little doubt that the most potent factor which influenced the decision of the Arabs to flee from a city like Haifa was “the announcements made over the air by the Arab Higher Executive, urging all Arabs in Haifa to quit.” The Economist’s article emphasized that “the reason given was that upon the final withdrawal of the British the combined armies of the Arab states would invade Palestine and drive the Jews into the sea, and it was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Israeli protection would be regarded as renegades.”
Another report quoted by Swope appeared on Sept. 6, 1948 in the Arabic newspaper “Telegraph” published in Beirut. It carried a statement made at a press conference by Emil el Ghory, representative of the Arab Higher Committee at the U.N. General Assembly, in which the Arab leader declared; “The problem of these refugees is the direct result of the policy of resistance to partition and to the establishment of the Israeli state. This policy was unanimously adopted by the Arab governments, and it is they who have to bear responsibility for the solution of the refugees problem.”
Comments
Post a Comment