Wednesday, May 30, 2018

What Happened to the Arab Refugees from 1948?

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

May 14, 1948 and the British who had held a mandate from the League of Nations of 30 years left Palestine and the Jews pronounced the their creation of Israel.  In less than 24 hours, they were attacked by the Arabs.  However, 160,000 Arabs who lived within Israel's borders accepted her invitation to choose peace and become Israeli citizens.

Post Script (PS) My 3rd cousin was the Chief of Intelligence for the Stern "Gang" as the Brits called it, but they called it the Stern Group.  The Jewish National Home promised by the League of Nations became 80% smaller with the Brits holding the mandate as they gave that much to a prince of Saudi Arabia who wanted a place to rule, Abdullah, and it became TransJordan, then Jordan.  I don't know how at the end of 1949, Israel could have been 5,000km larger.  The Arab refugees' descendants
whose  ancestors had left  are located in much of Judea-Samaria and Gaza.  Remember, most are of the 4th generation now.
                                                                         
Three Israeli-Arabs were elected to the 1st Knesset.  There were postwar problems to solve and they were resolved.  At this point the Arab citizens became freer, then more educated and more prosperous than any average citizens living in all other Arab countries.  By 2010 the Israeli-Arabs number over 1,250,000 and continue to elect representatives to the Knesset.
                                                                   
1948:  Returning to village after leaving
A number of Arabs had left when the Arabs armies attacked because they were told that it would be a matter of hours and they would overcome the Jews and then they could have their homes.  The number is anywhere from  a possible 472,000 to the exaggerated 750,000 reported.

1. Fighting had started which Jews did not start or want and most Arabs fled to escape it.
2. Rich Arabs fled the war zone which was Israel.  They were leaders, and without them, the Palestinian civil society fell apart, causing more fights.  They went to Damascus or Paris.
3. The Political and radical leadership encouraged the general Arab public to get out of the way of the oncoming Arab armies.
4. Arab propaganda was backfiring.  They scared their people with lies about Jewish atrocities against Arabs.  Arabs then fled.
5. In a few cases, Israeli troops routed Arab residents from their homes in certain zones they considered vital to forming their new state.

Mahmoud Abbas in 1976 was angry at his higher-up leadership:  THE ARAB ARMIES ENTERED PALESTINE TO PROTECT THE PALESTINIANS....BUT INSTEAD THEY ABANDONED THEM, FORCED THEM TO EMIGRATE AND TO LEAVE.

So, Palestinian refugee camps were set up in the Territories and neighboring Arab countries following the 1949 Arab-Israeli War.  By 2010 the condition of the camps found them to be run-down towns that the Arab leadership never improved.  The people and their descendants are still considered refugees after 70 years.  Most Arab countries still refuse to integrate them.  They use the people as pawns in the propaganda war against Israel.  Many are nothing but a town of tents.
                                                                       
Arabs taken to the front lines to fight Jews of Israel
Whereas Arab leadership created the refugee problem, they then promised these refugees that they could go back to their homes located in Israel now, not Palestine.  These Arab leaders openly stated that their goal was to dismantle the Jewish state demographically by flooding it with Palestinian Arabs.  That would be easy to do, too, with their Sharia law allowing 4 wives and no birth control.
They called it the Arab RIGHT OF RETURN.  Clever Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt in 1961, exclaimed:  "If Arabs return to Israel---Israel will cease to exist."
Assad Abd Al Rahman, Palestinian Authority Minister of Refugee Affairs, in 1999 also agreed with:
"The demand for the return of the Palestinian refugees...is tantamount to the destruction of Israel."  
                                               

The UN, top-heavy with ruling Muslims,  has given special treatment to Palestinian refugees.  
1. 1949: Set up UNRWA, an agency just for Palestinian refugees.  They are serving the 4th generation as 25 years is a generation.  By 2025 they will be aiding and abetting the 5th generation.  
2. 1994:  PA was formed and governed 38% of the Palestinian refugees but did not use its billions of foreign-aid dollars to improve their living conditions or opportunities.  Conditions did not change.  
3. 2005:  UNRWA was serving 4.3 million Palestinians. 
4. 2010-2011  UNRWA budget for year was $1.23 billion dollars.  
5. 2014 estimate of:  4.43 million Palestinians in Judea-         Samaria and Gaza 
      with 1.7 million living in the Gaza Strip  
      2.8 million in the Judea-Samaria. 
                                       
     
USA calls for investigation of terror ties in UNRWA camps

"UNRWA has been criticized by the Israeli government and politicians for alleged involvement with Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas. Israel has stated that Peter Hansen, UNRWA's former Commissioner-General (1996–2005) "consistently adopted a trenchant anti-Israel line" which resulted in biased and exaggerated reports against Israel."
                                          
Hamas tunnel found under UNRWA school in Gaza

"In June 2017, UNRWA employees discovered a tunnel running underneath the Maghazi Elementary Boys A&B School and the Maghazi Preparatory Boys School. According to UNRWA's spokesperson, the tunnel had no entry points in the school premise, but runs underneath the school. UNRWA stated it intended to seal the tunnel, and that is protested to Hamas. Hamas denied it was involved, and requested clarifications from other armed factions that denied involvement as well.
Following the tunnel discovery, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that UNRWA should be dismantled and reincorporated in other UN agencies. In response UNRWA's spokesperson said only the United Nations General Assembly could change UNRWA's mandate, and further stated in Hebrew on Israeli radio that if "UNRWA is gone" from Gaza that "two million people will turn into IS (Islamic State) supporters"  Is this a threat or a fear?  Today, Gaza is bombing Israel with rockets and mortars non-stop, putting all of southern Israel into bomb shelters.  Hamas has been leading the acts of the past weeks at the fence.  


Resource:  Israel 101 Magazine produced by StandWithUs.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Palestinian-Authority
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRWA
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/palestine-population/
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/01/were-arabs-expelled-from-their-villages.html

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