3 The Arab Refugees

(1) Why the Refugees fled in 1948 More than half a million Palestinian Arabs left in 1948 during the Israeli War of Independence. Approximately one fifth of them found permanent homes, or resettled, in other Arab countries. The Arabs left Israel for a number of reasons. A major contributing factor was that a substantial proportion of the Palestinian Arab middle and professional classes emigrated voluntarily with much of their property as soon as it was proposed that a Jewish state should be established in the country. They found ample opportunities open to them in the rest of the Arab world. Many of the rank and file Arab peasants in towns and villages therefore fled because they had been deserted by their leaders and they believed propaganda from the radio stations of neighbouring Arab states. Another reason lay in the fact that Palestinian Arabs were traditionally accustomed to temporary flight as a means of avoiding involvement in any kind of warfare. When rival Arabs raided villages the weaker village residents usually fled, and returned after the raids to restore their homes and repair damage. Only a very small percentage of the overall Arab civilian population left directly as a result of the Israeli Army. This took place in Ramleh and Lydda where the Army was forced to bring about evacuation after the residents had continued indulging in acts of armed hostility after the capture of the towns. The overwhelming majority of Arabs fled because they were urged to do so by their leaders. There would have been no refugee problem if leaders of the Arab states had not

38 The Arab Refugees 39 declared war on Israel and urged their Palestinian kinsmen to evacuate Israel and return after the destruction of the Jewish state. It has become fashionable for pro-Arab apologists to claim that the refugee problem was brought about by the victorious Israelis either chasing the Arabs out or terrorising them by indulging in atrocities. The only atrocity that Arabs can refer to is the tragedy of Deir Yassin where 200 Arab villagers were killed in the course of a battle with Irgun forces. The Irgun were one of the minority anti-British underground movements that operated until the establishment of the Jewish state and the creation of a single Israeli army. The incident was unreservedly condemned by all Jewish authorities, despite the fact that the Irgun leaders maintained that the Arab deaths could not have been avoided. Menachem Begin, the Irgun leader, conceded that the Hagana had warned them against the attack. However, he claimed that the village was in a strategic position and that prior to the attack repeated loudspeaker warnings in had appealed to non-combatants to evacuate the village. Instead, the village became an armed fortification and directed effective fire against the Irgun troops. A prominent inhabitant of the village subsequently declared in the Jordanian newspaper Al Urdun (April 9, 1953): The Jews never intended to hurt the population of the village, but were forced to do so after they met enemy fire from the population, which killed the Irgun Commander. The Arab exodus from other villages was not caused by the actual battle, but by the exaggerated description spread by Arab leaders to incite them to fight the Jews. In view of oft-quoted Arab denials that they themselves urged the Palestinian refugees to leave, the following extensive documentation primarily from Arab sources refuting this is incorporated: Monsignor George Hakim, the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Galilee, informed the Lebanese newspaper, Sada al Janub (August 16,. 1948): The refugees had been confident that their absence from Palestine would not last long, that they would return within a few days, within a week or two. Their leaders had promised them that the Arab armies would crush the Zionist 'gangs' very quickly and that there was no need for panic or fear of a long exile. 40 The Case for Israel

Emile Ghoury, Secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph (September 6, 1948): The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the 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. The Economist (October 2, 1948) London: During subsequent days the Jewish authorities, who were now in complete control of Haifa (save for limited districts still held by the British troops), urged all Arabs to remain in Haifa and guaranteed them protection and security. As far as I know, most of the British civilian residents whose advice was asked by Arab friends told the latter that they would be wise to stay. However, of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa, not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of these factors were the announcements made over the air by the Arab Higher Executive, urging all Arabs in Haifa to quit. . . It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades. The Jordanian daily newspaper, Falastin (February 19, 1949): The Arab states which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the- way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees. Habib Issa, editor of Al Hoda, a New York Lebanese newspaper (June 8, 1951): The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha,assured the Arab people that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade . . . He pointed out that they were already on the frontiers and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw the Jews into the Mediterranean . . . Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes and property and to stay temporarily in neighbouring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down. Kul-Shay (Moslem weekly), Beirut (August 19, 1951): 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. The Jordanian daily newspaper, Al Urdun (April 9, 1953): For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are The Arab Refugees 41

responsible because of their dissemination of rumours exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs . . . By spreading rumours of Jewish atrocities, killings of women and children, etc. they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine until they fled leaving their homes and property to the enemy. The Jordanian journal, Ad-Difaa (September 6, 1954): We were masters in our land, happy with out lot . . . but overnight everything changed. The Arab government told us "Get out so that we can get in" — so we got out but they (the Arab government) did not get in. Mahmoud Seif ed-Din Irani, With the People (Amman, Jordan 1956 ): All of a sudden, the people of Jaffa began to evacuate their town, abandoning it in the middle of a fight, even before its climax . . . I now see that we fought only half-heartedly . . . Our many quarrels kept us too busy. We left the country of our own free will believing we were going on a short visit, a trip and soon we would return as if nothing had happened and as if there had never been a war. Bulletin of the Research Group of European Migration Problems, January 1957 (The Hague), pp. 10-11. As early as the first months of 1948 the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek temporary refuge in the neighbouring countries, later to return to their abodes in the wake of the victorious Arab armies and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish properties. The Secret Behind the Disaster, by Nimer Al-Hawari, former Commander of the para military Arab Youth Organization in Palestine: The Arabs' eyes were blinded and their brains clogged. They were confused by promises and deluded by their leaders. The Palestinian Arabs were ignorant and easily led astray. They were short-sighted and unthinking and subjected to a gangster leadership . . . which herded them like docile sheep . . . Many left temporarily, they thought, to await the passing of the storm . . . The leaders rattled their sabres, delivered fiery speeches and wrote stirring articles. Iraq's Prime Minister had thundered "We shall smash the country with our guns and destroy and obliterate every place the Jews will seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down." The Cairo daily - Akhbar el Yom (October 12, 1963): The 15th May 1948 arrived . . . On that very day the Mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead. In the light of this, the contrasting appeals of the Jews who urged the Arabs to remain should be noted: 42 The Case for Israel

The Assembly of Palestinian Jewry (Vaad Leumi) (October 2, 1947): The Jewish people extends the hand of sincere friendship and brotherhood to the Arab peoples and calls them to co-operate as free and equal allies for the sake of peace and progress, for the benefit of their respective countries. Haifa British Police Report to Police Headquarters in Jerusalem (April 26, 1948): Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe. Appeal by the Haifa Workers Council (extracts from posters distributed in Arabic and Hebrew throughout Haifa, April 28, 1948): For years we lived together in our city, Haifa, in security and in mutual understanding and brotherhood. Thanks to this, our city flourished and developed for the good of both Jewish and Arab residents, and thus did Haifa serve as an example to the other cities in Palestine . . . We are peace-loving people! There is no cause for the fear which others try to instil in you. There is no hatred in our hearts, nor evil in our intentions towards peace-loving residents who, like us, are bent upon work and creative effort. Do not fear! Do not destroy your homes with your own hands; do not block off your sources of livelihood; and do not bring upon yourselves tragedy by unnecessary evacuation and self-imposed burdens. By moving out you will be overtaken by poverty and humiliation. But in this city, yours and ours, Haifa, the gates are open for work, for life and for peace, for you and your families . . . Workers, our joint city, Haifa, calls upon you to join in its upbuilding, its advancement, its development. Do not betray your city and do not betray yourselves. Follow your true interests, and follow the good and upright path. Federation of Jewish Workers in Palestine Appeal from the Assembly of Palestinian Jewry (Vaad Leumi) (December 3, 1947): Arabs! The National Council of Jews in Palestine sends you words of peace and calls on you not to follow those who invite you to riots, and bloodshed. The Jews plan to build their state . . . with complete co-operation and friendship. They have no interest in destruction, but in construction. The Jewish effort developed and enriched all of the country in the past — and it will continue to be in the future a perpetual source of blessing to Jews and Arabs alike . . . Remove the inciters from your public forums and take the hand which is stretched out to you in peace. Appeal from the Zionist General Council (April 12, 1948): At this hour, when bloodshed and strife have been forced upon us, The Arab Refugees 43

we turn to the Arabs in the Jewish state, and to our neighbours in adjacent territories, with an appeal for brotherhood and peace. Israel's Proclamation of Independence (May 14, 1948): In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab 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 representation in all its bodies and institutions, provisional and permanent. * It is perhaps pertinent to observe that the U.S.S.R., which today strongly supports the Arab version of the origin of the Arab refugees and holds Israel responsible, did not always have this attitude: The Soviet Delegate to the U.N. Security Council stated on March 4, 1949: Statements have also been made on the Arab refugee question, but why should the state of Israel be blamed for the existence of that problem? When seeking to determine the responsibility for the existence of the problem of the Arab refugees, we cannot fail to mention the outside forces I have already referred to. They pursue their own selfish interests for the monopoly exploitation of the oil wealth of the Near and Middle East and the creation of military strategic bases, which have nothing in common either with the cause of peace and international security or the interests of the Arab and Jewish peoples and only correspond to the aggressive designs of the leading circles of some states.

(2) UNRWA and the true number of bona fide Arab Refugees There are conflicting estimates ranging from 600,000 to 2,000,000, as to how many Arab refugees exist. The number has usually been greatly exaggerated. Arabs who lived in the area covered by Israel in 1949 numbered approximately 750,000. Of them, 160,000 remained in Israel after the exodus, showing that up to 600,000 bona fide Arab refugees had left Israel. Early UNRWA reports indicated that a substantial proportion of these, probably in excess of twenty per cent, found permanent homes and resettled in. other parts of the Arab world. Yet current UNRWA reports now refer to some 4 4 The Case for Israel

1,300,000 Arab refugees! The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that many Arabs in Jordan and Gaza, who had never lived in Israel, claimed that they were entitled to relief and attained the status of refugees. In addition padding of the rolls has been notorious; many deaths are not reported, as ration cards are valued as currency. Until 1967 UNRWA had no means of verifying the eligibility or genuiness of those registered on the rolls. * The United Nations Economic Survey Commission reported on 28 December 1949 that the number of bogus refugees on the list at that stage was as high as 160,000. * In 1952 UNRWA stated: Whereas all births are eagerly announced, the deaths, wherever possible, are passed over in silence so that the family may continue to collect rations for the deceased. * Henry Labouisse, UNRWA Director, told a Palestinian Refugee Conference in Jerusalem (July 20, 1955): There are refugees who hold as many as five hundred UNRWA ration cards and there are dealers in UNRWA approved clothing ration cards. The Arabs exploited UNRWA in other areas. For example, UNRWA paid indirectly for Arab text-books which fanned anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel amongst Arab children. Arab refugees who joined Arab terrorist organizations also remained on the rolls and continued receiving UNRWA supplies. * In June 1967, when Israel assumed jurisdiction of the administered territories, the bogus refugee rolls and similar discrepancies were cleared up. * It is significant that since assuming these responsibilities in 1967 Israel has also made substantial contributions to UNRWA, amounting to over three million dollars up to the end of 1971. * The bulk of funds for UNRWA come from the United States which provided $455 million of UNRWA's total income of $700 million. The U.S.S.R. has never contributed at all, and the oil-rich Arab states have contributed a mere pittance. The Arab Refugees 45

(3) Why Israel is unable to repatriate Arab Refugees Israel has frequently expressed a willingness to extend limited repatriation to Arabs separated from their families and has in fact permitted tens of thousands of refugees in this category to return. Israel has also repeatedly offered compensation for Arab refugees within the context of a peace settlement with the Arab states. However, a mass repatriation of Arab refugees pledged to the destruction of the state of Israel could not be accepted by Israel, as such a move would jeopardise her very existence. This is spelled out openly in hostile Arab statements: Dr. Mohammed Salah ed-Din, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, stated in Al Misri (October 11, 1949): In demanding the restoration of the refugees to Palestine, the Arabs intend that they shall return as the masters of their homeland, and not as slaves. More explicitly, they intend to annihilate the State of Israel. The Lebanese newspaper, Al Siad, advocated (April 6, 1950): The return of the refugees in order to create a large Arab majority that would serve as the most effective means of reviving the Arab character of Palestine while forming a powerful fifth column for the day of revenge and reckoning. The Jordanian daily, Falastin (January 28, 1956): The Arab refugees will not be returned to Palestine except by war, which will preface their return. Palestine Arabs only demand arms, mobilization and training. The rest they will do themselves. Beirut publication, Al-Massa (July 15, 1957) Resolution adopted by the Conference of Arab Refugees at Horns, Syria, July 11-12, 1957. Any discussions aimed at a solution of the Palestinian problem which will not be based on ensuring the refugees' right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as a desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason. President Nasser in an interview with Zuericher Woche (September 1, 1960): If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist. Al Nashashibi, editor of UAR daily, Al Jumhuriya (May 14, 1961): We do not want to return with the flag of Israel flying on a single square metre of our country, and if indeed we wish to return this is an honoured and honourable return and not a degrading return, not a return that will make us citizens of the state of Israel. U.A.R. Government Radio "Voice of the Arabs" (June 25, 1961): We will return to Palestine not as refugees, but as masters of the 4 6 The Case for Israel

homeland. Soon the march will begin and all the refugees will return to their homeland. U.A.R. Government Radio, "Voice of the Arabs" (June 26, 1961): The refugees will not return under the protection of the Israeli gang, but will become a liberated state in which not a single Zionist will have a foothold and which will fly only the flag of the Arabs. Cairo daily, Al Jumhuriya (June 27, 1961): The refugees will not return while the flag of Israel flies over Palestine soil. They will return when the flag of Palestine is hoisted over Arab Palestine. U.A.R. Government Radio, "Voice of the Arabs" (September 13, 1961): It is obvious that the return of one million Arabs to Palestine will make them the majority of Israel's inhabitants. Then they will be able to impose their will on the Jews and expel them from Palestine. Nasser told the UAR National Assembly, (March 26, 1964): Israel thought the ending of the refugee problem would lead to the ending of the Palestine problem, but the danger lies in the very existence of Israel. Al Nashashibi, editor of U.A.R. daily, Al Jumhuriya (May 20, 1964): The people . . . are well aware that a just solution to the problem of Palestine means the restoration of Palestine to the Arabs and the resettlement of all the refugees in their plundered homeland. The just solution is the liquidation of imperialism represented by Israel, which serves it as a base and a bridgehead. The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Abdullah al-Yafi, reported in daily Al-Hayat (April 29, 1966): The day of the realization of the Arab hope for the return of the refugees to Palestine means the liquidation of Israel.

It should be noted that since 1949 Israel has admitted and resettled more than 50,000 Arabs under family reunification programmes and has also freed accounts and safety deposits of Arab refugees in Israeli banks. Israel has also permitted over 25,000 Arabs from Jordan to return to their homes on the West Bank or in Gaza. Moreover Israel did this despite the fact that the Jordanian Minister of the Interior, Al Majali, made statements in August 1967 such as: Every refugee should return to help his brothers to continue their political activities, and remain a thorn in the flesh of the aggressor until the crisis has been solved. The Arab Refugees 47

(4) The Reasons for the Continued Existence of the Arab Refugee Problem The Arabs have deliberately maintained the miserable plight of the Arab refugees as a propaganda weapon against Israel. Report by the Commission of Churches on International Affairs, compiled by the World Council of Churches' Adviser on Refugees, Dr. Elfan Rees (1957): I hold the view that, political issues aside, the Arab refugee problem is by far the easiest post-war refugee problem to solve by integration. By faith, language, race and by social organisation they are indistinguishable from their fellows of their host countries. There is room for them in Syria and Iraq. There is a developing demand for the kind of manpower they represent. More unusually still, there is the money to make this integration possible. The United Nations General Assembly, five years ago, donated a sum of $200,000,000 to provide, and here I quote the phrase "homes and jobs" for the Arab refugees. That money remains unspent, not because these tragic people are strangers in a strange land — because they are not, not because there is no room for them to be established — because there is, but simply for political reasons. Radio Cairo (July 19, 1957): The refugees are the corner-stone in the Arab struggle against Israel. The refugees are the armaments of the Arabs and . Beirut daily, Al Hayat (June 24, 1959): Firstly it should be noted that the Arabs today are the last people interested in the return of the refugees or in trying to render them justice. The Arab states use the suffering of the refugees as a weapon in their struggle. But this struggle has not yet taken place and it does not look as though the Arab states are getting ready now to wage it in the near future. Eleven years have already passed, the refugees are still scattered, and time has begun to leave its mark on them. The old generation is disappearing and a new generation, foreign to its motherland, has arisen. Beirut daily, Al Hayat (June 25, 1959): It is only regrettable that the refugees themselves have been prepared to lend themselves to this policy of blindness. They have not succeeded in organizing themselves properly in order to prevent the Arab states from leaving the right track. History will determine that our brothers the refugees are in a very large measure responsible for their tragedy because of their primitive emotions and hopeless enthusiasm. Everybody in the Arab states, among the refugees, and all over the world knows that we the Arabs, in our present position and on the basis of our present policy, will not do a thing for the refugees. Nevertheless we 'reject' resettlement and accuse any 48 The Case for Israel

foreigner who dares mention the word 'resettlement' of treason, imperialism and intrigue; even if he only wants to help us or the refugees. The time has come for us to rid ourselves of this hysteria of verbal bravery and empty dreams at our expense and at that of the refugees. The time has come for the Arab states to forgo their ambition to compete for the support of the mobs in a contest of words about Palestine and to move from a policy of 'crocodile tears' to one of plans, means and aims. Beirut daily, L'Orient (1957): The responsibility of the Arab governments is very great. For eight years these governments have been applying to the refugees an inhuman policy. Under the pretence of cultivating the longing for their houses in Palestine, and for the purpose of maintaining a menacing population on the frontiers of Isreal, these governments. have systematically rejected all attemps to integrate and find employment for the refugees. King Hussein stated (January 17, 1970): The Arab leaders have used the Palestinian people for selfish political purposes. This is ridiculous and I could say criminal. It should be noted that whilst the Jordanians at least offered the refugees citizenship status, Egyptian rule in Gaza was a purgatory for the refugees, who were virtual prisoners. Few were allowed to emigrate, and they were barred from Egypt. The Saudi Arabian Radio, on March 10, 1962, likened Nasser's regime in Gaza to Hitler's regime in occupied territories in World War II .

(5) A Contrast — Israel's Integration of Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries Over 500,000 Jews, many of them destitute, were driven out of the Arab countries and successfully absorbed and integrated into the Jewish state after 1948. The break-up of Jewish refugees from Arab countries to Israel was as follows: Algeria 12,387 31,671 Egypt 36,680 Morocco 234,942 Iraq 123,925 Tunisia 42,630 Lebanon & Syria 8,400 Yemen 46,439 Prior to the establishment of Israel the Arabs made no secret of the fact that Jews in Moslem countries would suffer if a Jewish state would come into being. The Arab Refugees 49

Muhammed Hussein Heykal Pasha, Chairman of the Egyptian Delegation to the United Nations told the General Assembly Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine (November 24, 1947): The lives of one million Jews in Moslem countries would be jeopardised by partition. . . If Arab blood is shed in Palestine, Jewish blood will necessarily be shed elsewhere in the world despite all the sincere efforts of the governments concerned to prevent such reprisals. Jamal al Husseini, Chairman of the Palestine Arab Committee stated (November 24, 1947): It must be remembered that there are as many Jews in the Arab world as there are in Palestine, whose position under such conditions, will become very precarious even though the Arab states may do the best to save their skins. Hundreds of thousands of other Jewish refugees, mainly survivors from Nazi concentration camps, were also successfully integrated in Israel.

(6) Could the Refugees have been integrated by the Arab States? Arab refugees have not been expelled into an alien environment. An Arab refugee living in Jordan or Gaza is still living amongst the same people, culture, and way of life as that which he left in Palestine. The actual movement from one part of Palestine to the West Bank, represented no fundamental wrench for the Arabs. So far as they were concerned both banks of the Jordan were home for them. Indeed, there is no question that settlement in a prosperous Arab Palestine would be far more meaningful as a solution for the refugees than repatriation to Israel, a country which would appear alien to them, with a level of life and taxation to which they would be totally unaccustomed. The movement of Arabs within Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in other areas such as Kuwait, demonstrates the fact that the nationalism of the Palestinian refugees has been synthetically created and exploited as a political tactic against Israel. In the case of the Palestinian refugees, village patriotism has been raised as a sacred cause. It is significant that Nasser faced no problems about dislodging whole villages for the Aswan Dam projects. In view of the Soviet stand in 50 The Case for Israel

this matter the tremendous population movements which have been undertaken within the Soviet Union whenever this was required for Soviet political or economic purposes should also be mentioned. Economic conditions do not represent the worst feature of life in the refugee camps, as many refugees have a higher standard of living than the people living outside the Camps. The tragedy of their status lies in the alienation brought about by a false existence based on hatred of Israel and inculcated delusions of conquering Israel, killing the Jews and appropriating houses and farms which most of the refugees would never recognize, and those under 25 have never seen. It is pertinent to stress that the whole educational system in the refugee camps is based on maintaining and inflaming hatred of Israel amongst these young Arabs. A commission of experts appointed by UNESCO in 1967-68 pointed out that in the UNRWA schools: The choice of historic events selected is almost always centered on Palestine, but an excessive importance is given to the problem of relations between the Prophet Mohammed and the Jews of Arabia, in terms tending to convince the young people that the Jewish community as a whole has always been and always will be the irreconcilable enemy of the Muslim community . . . The term Israel is never used in text books and never features on any map to designate a state entity. The territories constituting the state of Israel are frequently designated as the "usurped portion of Palestine." * Similar sentiments were expressed by the Syrian Minister of Education, Suleman al Khash, who wrote to M. Rene Mahey, Director General of UNESCO (May 3, 1968): The hatred (concerning Israel) which we indoctrinate into the minds of our children from their birth is sacred. * In many Arab countries such as Iraq there is a shortage of manpower, yet visitors to the West Bank will frequently observe that there are huge tracts of fertile territory adjacent to refugee camps lying fallow demonstrating that the authorities have made no effort to divert refugees from the camps to a constructive agricultural mode of existence. * Who possesses more wealth than the Arabs with their oil wells in Kuwait, Libya and Saudi Arabia? These three The Arab Refugees 51

countries alone could solve the Arab refugee problem overnight by diverting only a small percentage of their enormous wealth from oil for such a humanitarian purpose. Other countries such as Egypt, Syria and Iraq could have established all these refugees on a very high standard of living if only a small proportion of their arms budget had been diverted to such a goal. * It must be emphasised that the Arab refugee problem is a minor one compared with the major refugee upheavals that have been solved by integration over the last thirty years: Over 40 million European post-war refugees were successfully reintegrated and today lead constructive lives. 15 million Indian and Pakistani refugees have been re-settled. 9 million East German refugees were re-settled in West Germany. 4 million Korean refugees were re-settled from the North. At the same time it must be stressed that no refugee problem of large dimensions has ever been solved by repatriation. The Israelis are certainly not an obstacle to a negotiated solution. On the contrary: Abba Eban, Israeli Foreign Minister, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly suggested (October 8, 1968) that: A conference of Middle Eastern states should be convened, together with the governments contributing to refugee relief and the specialised agencies of the United Nations, in order to chart a five-year plan for the solution of the refugee problem in the framework of a lasting peace and the integration of the refugees into productive life. Under the peace settlement, joint refugee integration and rehabilitation commissions should be established by the signatories in order to approve agreed projects for refugee integration in the Middle East, with regional and international aid. Michael Comay, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. stated (November 25, 1968): The Israeli government contemplate that a refugee programme would include a reintegration and compensation fund which would provide the financial means for land settlement, economic self support, land, migration and compensation for abandoned property. I would reaffirm the willingness of my government to give prompt and substantial support to such a fund.