Can someone educate me as to where the refugees are that Arafat is speaking of, and where they are from? Thanks.
Arafat is talking about the Palestinian refugees from 1948.
About 600,000 - 700,000 Arab refugees left Palestine during the period 1947 - 48. The wealthy people left before the end of the Mandate in May 1948; others either a) ran to avoid the fighting b) believed Arab rhetoric that the Jews would be conquered quickly & please get out of the way c) fled in panic or d) were driven out by the Jews.
Although a final truce was arranged in 1949, the Arab states refused to recognize Israel or sign a peace treaty. The Israelis refused to take the Arab refugees back, though those who had remained in country were allowed to stay and became citizens of Israel. The Israelis had their hands full taking in 300,000 Holocaust survivors from Cyprian and European DP camps and 500,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries. (You never hear about Jewish refugees because they were all resettled and became simply Israelis.)
A special UN agency, UNWRA, was set up to take care of ('perpetuate' would be a more accurate word) the Arab refugees from Palestine. Unlike every other refugee population in the 40's, the Palestinians were never allowed to resettle, except in Jordan. The rest were kept in camps in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt without work permits or citizenship. Those who wanted to move had to leave the country. There are about 4 million people on the UNWRA lists today, but those lists are inflated. Nobody knows for sure how many refugees there are in total today, counting the original refugees and their descendants, but numbers of 5 million or more are tossed around. |
