Tell Congress You Oppose this Cyncial Nonsense
The powerful lobby representing Israeli apartheid continues to draft
resolutions that are contrary to US national interest and that sabotage
peace efforts based on human rights and justice. The latest AIPAC's
resolution is on "Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries":
"House and Senate lawmakers introduced resolutions last week affirming the
need for any future Arab-Israeli peace agreement to address the rights of
the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries in the wake of the Israel's
1948 War of Independence. The resolutions call upon President Bush to
instruct United States representatives participating in international forums
on Middle East and Palestinian refugees to include a similarly "explicit
reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish, Christian, and other
refugees" from Arab and Muslim countries. Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY),
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Mike Ferguson (R-NJ)
sponsored the House version of the resolution, while Sens. Frank Lautenberg
(D-NJ), Trent Lott (R-MS), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Norm Coleman (R-MN)
sponsored the Senate version." (from
http://www.aipac.org/Legislation_and_Policy/default.asp )
This cynical resolution ignores the fact that Jews also came to Palestine
(and to the US) from Russia, Poland and other places and that their issues
are not at all equivalet to Palestinian refugees. It is a racist resolution
that assumes Arabs are interchangeable.
Write to your representatives in Congress today by going to
http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=2284
Use this opportunity to educate your member of Congress on this most
fundamental of human rights for Palestinians, their right to return to their
homes and lands. For the real issues on refugees, please visit:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/ref-qumsiyeh.html
Ask that Congress affirm rights of all refugees to return to their homes and
lands based on International law.
For a specific response to the Zionist argument claiming an exchange of
population and "Jewish refugees" being exchanged for "Arab refugees", here
is an excerpt from the appendix to the article referenced above:
"While some Jews were expelled from Arab countries, the majority left
voluntarily, invited, enticed and even intimidated into going to Israel to
swell the Jewish population as part and parcel of the Zionist program. Most
of this happened not between 1947-1948 (the years of active violence that
resulted in the Palestinian refugees being ethnically cleansed; see http:/ ?
palestineremembered.com) but in the 20 years after. This was always part of
the Zionist plan to gather the Jews regardless of where they lived (not only
from Arab countries but all countries) and settle them on land that belongs
to native Palestinians (Christians and Muslims). Israel has never fought for
Jews to stay where they are or to return to their homelands.
Zionists always claim that Palestinian refugees were intentionally not
absorbed or integrated into Arab lands to which they fled. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, states that everyone "has the right
to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." The
Geneva Conventions stipulate the right of refugees to return to their homes.
U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 (adopted in 1948), which specifically
applies to Palestinian refugees, states in Paragraph 11, "the refugees
wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors
should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that
compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return
and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of
international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or
authorities responsible." Israel was admitted to the U.N. (Resolution 273)
as a member-state only on condition that it abide by Resolution 194. Israel
has consistently refused to do so. It is the will of the Palestinian people
that they be repatriated to their homeland. Criticizing neighboring
countries because they could not absorb more refugees than they have already
is an Israeli attempt to sidestep the real issue of the Palestinian right of
return.
In his book The Gun & the Olive Branch, David Hirst describes in detail
covert Israeli operations to scare Iraqi and Egyptian Jews into fleeing
their homes for the "sanctuary" of Israel. Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former
CIA operative, wrote about the Zionist crimes against Arab Jews in Iraq
(Feuerlicht, The Fate of the Jews, 231). Zionists of European origin, like
David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and Abba Eban, often made derogatory
statements regarding Arab Jews, whom they considered to be inferior. The
program to bring them in was more motivated more by ideology than by real
interest in their welfare. Israeli historian Tom Segev devoted almost a
fourth of his book to documenting the miserable treatment these immigrants
received (Tom Segev, 1949: the First Israelis, translated by Arlen Neal
Weinstein, Free Press, New York, 1986).
In any case, the Palestinian refugees did not expel Jews from their homes in
Arab countries. In fact, some actions by Mossad and Zionist agents were
needed to increase Jewish flight, according to documents analyzed by Tom
Segev. Palestinian human rights should not be contingent on the actions of
states (Israel or the Arab States) over which they had no control. There are
Israeli Jews of Arab origin who do demand restitution for their property and
Palestinians fully support their claims and internationally recognized right
of return. The Israeli government, however, has never been willing to fight
for their rights, because it knows that by doing so it would implicitly
recognize that expulsion and dispossession are wrong, whether the victims
are Jews or Palestinians. The governments of Morocco, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen
(unlike Israel) always stated that those who left are welcome to return.
On December 11, 1975, the Iraqi government even took full-page
advertisements in newspapers around the world (New York Times, the Toronto
Star, Le Monde) asking the 140,000 Iraq-born Jews who were in Israel and
around the world to return. Egyptian President Sadat extended an invitation
for Egyptian Jews to return to Egypt in September 1977, just weeks before
his peace trip to Israel (See Chicago Daily News, September 10-11; also see
the Oregonian, Portland, July 18, 1977). Israel has never extended an
invitation to Palestinians to return to their homeland. In either case,
Israeli Jews with claims in Arab countries should take them up with those
countries, and Jews should be treated with respect, dignity and equality
wherever they live. Israel, however, was not interested in discussing this
issue when a peace agreement with Egypt was signed (Egypt had a sizable
Jewish presence).
In summary, there is no validity to the attempt to negate Palestinian human
rights based on the migration of Jews brought into Palestine, whether from
Arab countries or the Soviet Union, under the Zionist program to colonize
Palestine. One has to also remember that Jews from Arab countries as well as
Eastern Europe also settled in the US and Canada. Their issues and their
questions are legitimate areas of exploration (e.g. Jews have a right to be
treated equally in their own countries, like any other religious group, and
this must be defended and fought for). Their rights also follow
international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (including
their right to chose to return to their countries) but certainly nullify no
other similar rights for other people, whether Russians or Palestinians.
Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed have inalienable right to
repatriation. This must be their choice and is enshrined in common logic as
well as international law and is not subject to dictates of apartheid and
separation envisioned by a colonial settler movement."
Mazin Qumsiyeh