Right of Return For Arabs?

The recent meetings between Israel and the PA have once again brought the Arab demand for the "Palestinian Right of Return" front and center. The proposal calls for millions of Palestinians to return to the lands they evacuated in 1948. Those who don't return would be compensated. The demand includes not only the "refugees" but four generations of descendants as well. Such a "return" would be the end of Israel as a Jewish State. That is why the Arab world demands it. Death by attrition.

Why did the Arabs leave in 1948? This from Israel's War Against Terror;

They knew that a war was imminent; they didn't doubt that the Arab armies would quickly win a sweeping victory, and they wanted to be as far as possible from the battlefield. The second wave of emigration came in the spring of 1948, after fighting had erupted between Arab irregulars and Jewish defense forces. This time the urban population was involved, and in far greater numbers - for example, some seventy thousand from Jaffa and sixty thousand from Haifa. An estimated total of over two hundred thousand Arabs emigrated in this wave, despite strenuous efforts of the Jews in various parts of the country to dissuade them from leaving. The Haifa Workers' Council, for example, published, on 28 April 1948, the following plea: "...our city flourished and developed for the good of both Jewish and Arab residents ... Do not destroy your homes with your own hands; do not bring tragedy upon yourselves 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." This appeal, however, and many similar ones, were of no avail. Most of the local Arab leaders had already managed to take flight, and directly or indirectly, they encouraged the Palestinian population from across the border to "temporarily" leave their homes.

But the largest wave of Arab refugees, three hundred thousand or more, followed the massive Arab invasion of 15 May 1948, the day after Israel's declaration of independence. The large majority of these emigrants were of the poorer strata of the Arab population, both urban and rural, the former group including day laborers such as the thousands of port workers who had come to Palestine from Syria.

The Palestinians gambled and lost.

Here is a very relevant quote;

Now as far as the refugees are concerned, one has to understand that the existence of these refugees is a direct result of the Arab States' opposition to the partition plan of 1947 and the reconstitution of the State of Israel. The Arab states adopted this policy unanimously, and the responsibility of its results, therefore is theirs. -Emil Ghory, secretary of the Arab High Council, in an interview published on 6 September 1948 in the Lebanese daily Al-Telegraph, soon after the events occurred and before this topic became an important theme of Arab propaganda.

In a discussion of the Arab refugee problem in the UN Security Council on 4 March 1949, the Soviet delegate said "Statements have 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 responsibility for the existence of the problem of the Arab refugees, we cannot fail to mention the outside forces ... They pursue their own selfish interests which have nothing in common either with the cause of peace and international security or with the interests of the Arab and Jewish peoples, and which only correspond to the aggressive designs of the leading circles of some states."

It is clear that the so called "refugee" problem was nothing short of the Arabs abandoning their homes while banking on an Arab victory in the Israeli War of Independence. They were not evicted. They were not herded into refugee camps. At least not until they arrived amongst their Arab brothers in surrounding countries.

The sad irony is that nothing is mentioned of the Jewish refugees. Upon the establishment of the State of Israel, neighboring Arab countries for the most part evicted the Jewish residents and confiscated their property. According to a 2003 study by the "Justice For Jews From Arab Countries", whose honorary chairmen were Irwin Cotler, a liberal Canadian MP and Richard Holbrooke, former US Ambassador to the UN, 850,000 Jews left Arab countries, and over $1 billion of property was left behind or confiscated. These Jews did not leave willingly and they surely didn't get receipts for their assets.

No one is demanding compensation for the Jews who were forced out of their lands, while no one seems to get enough of the Palestinian demands for the return of assets they willingly surrendered.

The story continues today as I read in the Hebrew edition of Maariv. You can read the whole story here about a Jewish family who had their property confiscated by Egypt. Egypt subsequently sold the property to none other than Coca-Cola!! The Supreme Court of the United States is expected to hear the case within the next few days.

The Palestinian right of return is a farce. It is nothing short of a ruse to destroy Israel from within. It has no legal basis. Compared to the Jewish refugee issue, the Palestinians are looking to cash a lottery ticket without the winning numbers. It will never happen.

Linked to Woman Honor Thyself Right Truth Don Surber