Letters to the Editor
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‘Now We Know’
Bravo to Mark Steyn for highlighting a problem that receives insufficient attention in the public arena [“Now We Know,” Opinion, January 30, 2006]. Palestinians have been classified as refugees for 60 years, which, as he points out, has taken its toll on the Palestinian psyche. He asks us to imagine what the implications would have been had the populations displaced after World War II or due to the partition of British ruled India – and their succeeding generations – been deliberately kept in refugee camps until now.
Sadly, the international community has been complicit in this travesty. In 1948, five Arab nations attacked the fledgling State of Israel, intending to destroy it. Refugees are a tragic byproduct of any war. But unlike other refugee situations, the world agreed to set up a separate mechanism for dealing with Palestinian refugees. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency exists to this day. Its mandate is “to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees.”
All other refugees, except for the Palestinians, potentially fall under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Unlike the mandate of UNRWA, the UNHCR seeks “to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide.” The key word here is “resolve,” which is strikingly absent from the goal of UNRWA. UNRWA’s mission is to perpetuate the refugee problem – by extending protection to all descendants of the original Palestinian refugees without any time limit, and by avoiding any schemes to resettle refugees permanently in other countries.
The tragic result is that Palestinian refugee camps have become incubators for hatred against Israel and fertile recruiting grounds for terrorist groups like Hamas. The refugees are encouraged to believe that one day they will “return” to their homes and, in doing so, push out the Israeli “occupiers.” That is not exactly a foundation for building new lives and creating conditions for peace.
And finally, while world attention remains fixed on Palestinian refugees, the other refugee problem created by the Arab assault against Israel gets only lip service at best. At least as many Jews living in Arab countries became refugees, driven out of their ancestral lands by fear and persecution. But the key difference is that these Jewish refugees were not instrumentalized like the Palestinians. They weren’t used as political pawns, wallowing in self-pity and a sense of lifelong victimization. Instead, they moved to Israel, Europe, and North and South America and started new lives. Speaking of contrasts …
DAVID A. HARRIS
Executive Director
American Jewish Committee
www.ajc.org
Manhattan
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