JEWISH REFUGEES
& DISPLACED PALESTINIAN ARABS


135 million refugees in the 20th century fled from India, Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, The Netherlands, Greece and Muslim states like Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Algeria, Indonesia, Kuwait, Sudan, Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Libya etc.

In 1945, as a result of Nazi Germany's defeat in WWII and the Potsdam Agreement, she lost 25% of her territory and 12 million Germans were expelled. Estimates of deaths associated with the expulsions of Germans are in the range of 400 thousands-3 millions.

In 1948, Palestinian Arabs and four Arab members of the UN went to war - not only against Israel, but against the UN decision for a two-state solution in Palestine. Hundreds of thousands of Arab Palestinians fled Jewish Israel, mostly to former Palestine Mandate areas, and hundreds of thousands of Jews fled Arab states.

"Jews in Grave Danger in All Moslem Lands"(NYT, May 16, 1948), excerpts:

"text of a law drafted by the Political Committee of the Arab League which was intended to govern the legal status of Jewish residents of Arab League countries. It provides that beginning on an unspecified date all Jews except citizens of non-Arab states, would be considered 'members of the Jewish minority state of Palestine.' Their bank accounts would be frozen and used to finance resistance to 'Zionist ambitions in Palestine.' Jews believed to be active Zionists would be interned and their assets confiscated." "Already in some Moslem states such as Syria and Lebanon there is a tendency to regard all Jews as Zionist agents and 'fifth columnists.' There have been violent incidents with feeling running high. There are indications that the stage is being set for a tragedy of incalculable proportions." "In Syria a policy of economic discrimination is in effect against Jews. 'Virtually all' Jewish civil servants in the employ of the Syrian Government have been discharged. Freedom of movement has been 'practically abolished.' Special frontier posts have been established to control movements of Jews." "In Iraq no Jew is permitted to leave the country unless he deposits £5,000 ($20,000) with the Government to guarantee his return. No foreign Jew is allowed to enter Iraq even in transit." "In Lebanon Jews have been forced to contribute financially to the fight against the United Nations partition resolution on Palestine. Acts of violence against Jews are openly admitted by the press, which accuses Jews of 'poisoning wells,' etc." "Conditions vary in the Moslem countries. They are worst in Yemen and Afghanistan, whence many Jews have fled in terror to India. Conditions in most of the countries have deteriorated in recent months, this being particularly true of Lebanon, Iran and Egypt. In the countries farther west along the Mediterranean coast conditions are not so bad. It is feared, however that if a full-scale war breaks out, the repercussions will be grave for Jews all the way from Casablanca to Karachi."

Hundreds of thousands Arab Palestinians remained in Israel while all Jews where etnically cleansed in territory conquered by the Arabs.

Of the 135 million refugees in the 20th century 0.5% were Arab Palestinians; many were not refugees but Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).

While Israel integrated Jewish refugees right away, Arab Palestinian IDP and their descendants are the world's only permanent "refugees". At any point during the past years, Arab governments could have helped the Arab Palestinian IDP settle down to a decent life. They could have created the infrastructure of an autonomous Palestine on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that Jordan respectively Egypt controlled until 1967, or encouraged the resettlement of Palestinians in Jordan, which constitutes the lion's share of the original mandate of Palestine. Rather than fund the Palestine Liberation Organization to foment terror against Israel the Arab regimes could have endowed Palestinian schools of architecture, engineering, medicine and law. What Israel did for Arab Palestinians and Jewish refugees from Arab lands, Arabs could have done much more sumptuously for the Arab Palestinians displaced by the same conflict. Instead, Arab dictators cultivated generations of "refugees" and focused on what the Palestinian Arabs lost while attempting to destroy Israel. These "refugees" endured brutal oppression and unmitigated suffering at the hands of their host Arab dictators, and their own corrupt dictator Yasser Arafat. Palestinian leaders absconded with billions of dollars in international aid money and used the pilfered funds to enrich themselves and to raise terror militias.

If refugees of Africa and Asia can be absorbed into Europe and America, why couldn't the Palestinian Arab refugees be integrated by their professed Arab brothers? If Jews from diverse cultures such as Russia and Ethiopia can be absorbed by their brethren into Israel, why can't the Arabs show their Palestinian brothers the same hospitality? Even if the Palestinian Arabs were expelled from their homes, in what way are they different from the Jews who were driven out of their homes in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Iraq and Iran, let alone the countries of Europe? The answer is that the Palestinian refugees in their Arab brother countries were not treated as human beings but instead, as pawns in a cruel political game.

Unequal UN mandates for refugees: Palestinians vs. all others
Of the 20th century 135 million refugees about 0.5% were Palestinians
UNHCR mandated for 20 million refugees worldwide - except "UNRWA's"
UNRWA aids only Palestinians (in West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria & Lebanon)
UNRWA upgraded Palestinians internally displaced in 1948 to "refugees"
UNRWA upgraded even the descendants of these IDPs to "refugees"
UNRWA upgraded imaginary refugees to "registered refugees"
UNRWA's Palestinian "registered refugees" multiplied due to natural increase and deception from 914,000 in 1950 to over four million in 2002.
In another 52 years (that is 104 years after their ancestors left Israel), about 17.5 million descendants of Arab Palestinians will qualify for UNRWA "registered refugee" status (given the same UNRWA definitions, the same natural increase and the same deception).

End sleaze or lose aid, Arafat told (Ross Dunn, The Scotsman, Feb 29, 2004): "The World Bank has issued the Palestinian Authority with an ultimatum to put an end to rampant corruption or lose hundreds of millions of pounds of vital foreign aid. ... Roberts said the Palestinians were receiving the largest amount of money per capita in the history of foreign aid but this was still not enough to balance the budget."

Unequal UN staff members per refugee: Palestinians vs. all others
UNHCR (non-Palestinians): 1:3,582
UNRWA (Palestinians): 1:165 (+2,000%)

Unequal contributions: Arab vs. Western donors
Arab donors currently contribute less than 3% of UNRWA's overall spending

Unequal naturalization: Arab League vs. Arab Palestinians
The Arab League has fixed that Palestinians living in Arab countries should not be eligible for citizenship, e.g. 500,000 Arab Palestinians living in Saudi Arabia are excluded from naturalization.

Unequal wealth in the Palestinian Autonomy: Arafat vs. Palestinians
Palestinian Autonomy gross national income per capita per day: US$ 3.70
Palestinian dictator and terrorist Arafat: in Forbes Report 2003 "The World's Richest People"

Yasser Arafat ‘has £1.8bn fortune’ (William Tinning, The Herald, Nov 7, 2003): "... [Arafat] has amassed a personal fortune of between £602m and £1.8bn. ... Arafat's wife, Suha, 40, who lives away from the struggles of her homeland, is given more than £60,000 a month from Palestinian Authority funds."

Fatah leader wants probe of missing $2b after the death of Yasser Arafat (Khaled Abu Toameh, JP, Jan 13, 2008)

La Dolce Vita in Gaza (JP, Feb 22, 2007): "luxury houses, with private pools and fountains"

The magnificent 70-acre-estatein Nablus (West Bank, Palestinian Autonomy) of Munib al-Masri, Palestinian businessman and late dictator Arafat confidante

Unequal names for neighborhoods: Palestinian towns vs. Arab states
"Wretched" Palestinian "refugee camps" in "occupied" West Bank and Gaza Strip are in fact neighborhoods of above average developed Arab towns including 15-storey apartment buildings, and tower office buildings near Palestinian universities and compounds of the Palestinian rich and famous.
For example, Jenin (West Bank) consists of stone and concrete buildings, with private university, schools, chamber of commerce and industry, jewelry shops, CD shops, computer shops, sweet shops, travel agencies, restaurants, lawyers offices, engineering offices, banks, mosques, insurance agents, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, sports clubs, taxis, traffic jams and everything else you expect in a community. Source: Palestine Yellow Pages

PLAZA mall in Al-Bireh, West Bank (Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers P.L.C., Dec 2, 2003): "... a national, publicly traded, Palestinian retail developer and retailer committed to establishing and operating modern shopping centers, full-scale supermarkets, food courts and modern children play areas, all aimed at upgrading the Palestinian shopping experience through providing world-class customer service, convenience, quality products, and value pricing -- all within a clean, spacious, safe and dynamic facility in order to provide all customer's daily needs “under one roof” ... The Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers P.L.C. is a 4.5 million Jordanian Dinar ($6.33 million) company and has plans to build a chain of PLAZA Shopping Centers in Palestinian cities of East Jerusalem, Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Gaza. The firm is publicly traded on the Palestinian Securities Exchangeunder the symbol PLAZA".

Palestinian exchange websitein Nablus/Palestinian Autonomy, May 17, 2006: "The current list of companies span a wide range of sectors including pharmaceuticals, utilities, telecommunications, and financial services. There are currently an estimated forty Palestinian companies eligible to be listed on the Exchange with a market capitalization of over 1 billion USD."

Unequal refugee populations in the Holy Land: Jews vs. Palestinians
Most Jewish Israelis are refugees from Arab states or descendants of such refugees
Most Arab Palestinian "refugees" are descendants of 1948 internally displaced persons (IDPs) or imaginary refugees.
Arab states refuse integration of Arab Palestinian "refugees" and their descendants
In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians evicted from Kuwait
Great numbers of Arab Palestinians expelled by Arab Gulf states
Great numbers of Arab Palestinians expelled by Arab Libya
Great numbers of Arab Palestinians displaced by Arab Iraq

Unequal publicity about refugees: Israel vs. Arab states
Hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews fled Arab states
Hundreds of thousands of Arab Palestinians fled Jewish Israel
Hundreds of thousands of Arab Palestinians evicted by Arab Kuwait
Great numbers of Arab Palestinians expelled by Arab Gulf states
Great numbers of Arab Palestinians expelled by Arab Libya
Great numbers of Arab Palestinians displaced by Arab Iraq
Hundreds of thousands of Arab Saharawis evicted by Arab Morocco
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds evicted by Arab Iraq
Millions of black Christian and Animist Africans displaced by Arab Sudan
Millions of black Muslim non-Arab Africans displaced by Arab Sudan

Unequal health in the Middle East: Arab Palestinians vs. other Arabs
Palestinians have higher population growth, life expectancy, fertility rate and lower infant mortality than the Middle East average and than all the neighboring Arab states Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Unequal partition of the Holy Land: Jews vs. Arabs
Of the original 1922 League of Nations Palestine Mandate to establish the Jewish National Home (120,000 sq km), Israel received only 17% (20,330 sq km), while Arab Jordan received 77% (91,971 sq km). Golan Heights (1,200 sq km): 1%. The remaining 5% are today the West Bank (5,860 sq km) and Gaza Strip (360 sq km) under Israeli or Arab Palestinian rule, their current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, their permanent status to be determined through further negotiation. Their total area of 6,220 sq km is matching equivalent to a circle with a radius of only 45 km. This is 1/2400 (0.04%!) of the total area of the Arab world & Iran (15.15 million sq km).

Unequal human development: Arab Palestinians vs. the other Arabs
The "wretched" Palestinians in the Israeli "Occupied Palestinian Territories" have higher Human Development Index (HDI = 0.731) than the 22 Arab states average (0.662) and than the average (0.707) of all neighboring Arab states Egypt (0.648), Jordan (0.743), Syria (0.648) and Lebanon (0.752) and only a bit lower than oilrich Saudi Arabia (0.769). HDI source: United Nations Human Development Report 2003

Unequal education/employment for Palestinians: Arab states vs. Israel
In Arab Lebanon, Arab Palestinians do not have social and civil rights, and have a very limited access to the government's public health or educational facilities and no access to public social services.
For years, Palestinians were not allowed to work in dozens of professions in Lebanon including as accountants, secretaries, deputy directors, marketing agents, salespersons, pharmacists, electricians, guards, drivers, cooks, hairdressers or engineers. In June 2005, however, Lebanon’s Minister of Labour issued a decision according to which Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon would be permitted to work in various occupations that were previously barred to them by law, though not those governed by a professional syndicate (such as engineering, medicine and pharmacy), from which they are still barred.

Under Israeli rule, Arab Palestinian universities in East-Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip (all founded after 1967 when Israel took over these territories from Arab Jordan and Arab Egypt):
Al Azhar University of Gaza
Al-Quds University (6 campuses in Jerusalem and West Bank)
Arab American University of Jenin
Bethlehem University of Bethlehem
Birzeit University of Birzeit

Hebron University of Hebron
Ibrahimieh Community College of Jerusalem
Islamic University of Gaza
Palestine Polytechnic Institute
An-Najah National University of Nablus official website: "In 1977 it became An-Najah National University with Faculties of Arts and Science. In 1978 An-Najah National University joined the Association of Arab Universities as a full member. The university grew and advanced from this point forward constructing auditoriums, a library and a student center until it was declared a "closed military area" by the Israeli authorities in 1988. It was reopened in 1991 and has been fully functioning since. It has 10 Undergraduate Faculties, 30 Masters, and one Ph.D program. The university has also added nine professional and technical centers, such as the Center for Water and Environmental Studies and the Center for Urban and Regional Planning. An-Najah National University continues to advance and develop and offer the highest level of secondary education in the West Bank. The foundation has already been laid for its new campus, which will house the School of Medicine, a Teaching Hospital and its existing Science and Technical Faculties, and An-Najah hopes to expand to hold more than 10,000 students by the new millenium.” You got it? From 1948-1967, under the occupation of the Arab Jordanian brothers, Nablus got no university. But since 1977, under Israeli rule, Nablus not only got their first university but “the university grew and advanced”. Needless to say, while tens of thousands of Arabs study at Israeli universities, no Jew can safely enter Nablus: Hamas and Islamic Jihad Triumph in Al-Najah University Student Elections. The USA and the EU classify Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations.

Is it true that the Gaza Strip’s Palestinians live in the world's most crowded place? Compare:
Gaza Strip: 1.4 million residents on 360 km² = 3,900 inhabitants/km²
Tel Aviv, Israel: 7,221/km²
Hong Kong Administrative Region, China: 6.9 million residents on 1,103 km² = 6,206/km²
Taipei, Taiwan: .2,6 million residents on 272 km² = 9,660/km²
Mumbay, India: 17.5 million residents on 438 km² = 28,800/km²
Singapore: 4.4 million residents on 693 km² =6,400/km²
Cairo, Egypt: 25,325/km²
Casablanca, Morocco: 15,514/km²
Tunis, Tunisia: 9,164/km²
Istanbul, Turkey: 7,013/km²
Lagos, Nigeria: 13,591/km²
Caracas, Venezuela: 16,266/km²
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 8,280/km²
Moscow, Russia: 14,605/km²
Warsaw, Poland: 5,198/km²
London, United Kingdom: 5,100/km²
Naples, Italy: 4,118/km²
Berlin, Germany: 3,154/km²
Monaco: 16,600/km²
Mexico City, Mexico: 9,736/km²
Los Angeles, USA: 2,436/km²
West Bank: 425/km²

How do internally displaced (IDPs) differ from refugees (UNHCR official website): "Who is an Internally Displaced Person? Like refugees, they are hapless civilians often caught up in an endless round of civil conflict or persecution. There are an estimated 20-25 million of them around the world and they are sometimes known by the clumsy bureaucratic acronym of "IDP" – an Internally Displaced Person. What is the difference? When a fleeing civilian crosses an international frontier, he or she becomes a refugee and as such receives international protection and help. If a person in similar circumstances is displaced within his or her home country and becomes internally displaced person then assistance and protection is much more problematic."

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951 (UNHCR official website, June 16): definition of the term "refugee", art. 1: "... the term “refugee” shall apply to any person who ... is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it." (PDF, 267 KB)

WHO IS A PALESTINE REFUGEE? (UNRWA official website): "Under UNRWA's operational definition, Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict ... UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of registered Palestine refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than four million in 2002, and continues to rise due to natural population growth."

UNRWA and UNCHR (UNRWA website): "UNRWA and the UNHCR are both UN agencies mandated by the international community to do specific jobs for refugee populations. UNRWA deals specifically with Palestine refugees and their unique political situation. One reason for the distinction is that in the main the UNHCR is mandated to offer refugees three options, namely local integration and resettlement in third countries or return to their home country – options which must be accepted voluntarily by refugees under UNHCR’s care. These are not feasible for Palestine refugees as the first two options are unacceptable to the refugees and their host countries and the third is rejected by Israel. Given this context, the international community, through the General Assembly of the United Nations, requires UNRWA to continue to provide humanitarian assistance pending a political solution."

Refugees by numbers 2002 (UNCHR - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees): (PDF, 289 KB) "Persons of concern to UNHCR at 1st Jan 2002: 19,783,100 ... An estimated 3.9 million Palestinians who are covered by a separate mandate of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are not included in this report. However, Palestinians outside the UNRWA area of operations such as those in Iraq or Libya, are considered to be of concern to UNHCR. At year-end their number was 349,100."
UNRWA in Figures (UNRWA - U.N. Relief and Works Agency in the Near East, Dec 31, 2002) (PDF, 32 KB)

The Refugee Curse (Daniel Pipes, The New York Post, August 19, 2003: "Here's a puzzle: How do Palestinian refugees differ from the other 135 million 20th-century refugees?
Answer: In every other instance, the pain of dispossession, statelessness, and poverty has diminished over time. Refugees eventually either resettled, returned home or died. Their children - whether living in South Korea, Vietnam, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Germany or the United States - then shed the refugee status and joined the mainstream.
Not so the Palestinians. For them, the refugee status continues from one generation to the next, creating an ever-larger pool of anguish and discontent.
Several factors explain this anomaly but one key component - of all things - is the United Nations' bureaucratic structure. It contains two organizations focused on refugee affairs, each with its own definition of "refugee":
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees applies this term worldwide to someone who, "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted . . . is outside the country of his nationality." Being outside the country of his nationality implies that descendants of refugees are not refugees. Cubans who flee the Castro regime are refugees, but not so their Florida-born children who lack Cuban nationality. Afghans who flee their homeland are refugees, but not their Iranian-born children. And so on.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an organization set up uniquely for Palestinian refugees in 1949, defines Palestinian refugees differently from all other refugees. They are persons who lived in Palestine "between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict." Especially important is that UNRWA extends the refugee status to "the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948." It even considers the children of just one Palestinian refugee parent to be refugees.
The High Commission's definition causes refugee populations to vanish over time; UNRWA's causes them to expand without limit. Let's apply each definition to the Palestinian refugees of 1948, who by the U.N.'s (inflated) statistics numbered 726,000. (Scholarly estimates of the number range between 420,000 to 539,000.)
The High Commission definition would restrict the refugee status to those of the 726,000 yet alive. According to a demographer, about 200,000 of those 1948 refugees remain living today.
UNRWA includes the refugees' children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as Palestinians who left their homes in 1967, all of whom add up to 4.25 million refugees.
The 200,000 refugees by the global definition make up less than 5 percent of the 4.25 million by the UNRWA definition. By international standards, those other 95 percent are not refugees at all. By falsely attaching a refugee status to these Palestinians who never fled anywhere, UNRWA condemns a creative and entrepreneurial people to lives of exclusion, self-pity and nihilism.
The policies of Arab governments then make things worse by keeping Palestinians locked in an amber-like refugee status. In Lebanon, for instance, the 400,000 stateless Palestinians are not allowed to attend public school, own property or even improve their housing stock.
It's high time to help these generations of non-refugees escape the refugee status so they can become citizens, assume self-responsibility and build for the future. Best for them would be for UNRWA to close its doors and the U.N. High Commission to absorb the dwindling number of true Palestinian refugees."

JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa): "In 1945 there were nearly 900,000 Jews living in communities throughout the Arab world. Today, there are fewer than 8,000. Today, 99% of these ancient Jewish communities no longer exist in the lands where Jews lived for thousands of years. In some Arab states, such as Libya, the Jewish community no longer exists; in others, only a few hundred Jews remain. Of the 900,000 Jewish refugees, approximately 600,000 were absorbed by Israel, where today almost half of Israel's Jewish citizens are the original refugees and their descendants. The remainder went to Europe and the Americas."

Justice for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries (JJAC)

The Forgotten Refugees. An exchange of populations (David Littman, NRO, Dec 3, 2002)

Arab Saharawi refugee camps (Western Sahara Online): "The temperature in the refugee camps reaches IN SHADE a scorching 135 F (57.2 Celsius) in summer and plunges below freezing in winter. Sandstorms, called siroccos, rip through the refugee camps without warning. Flash floods wipe out entire tent neighborhoods, destroying everything in their path. In the southwest corner of Algeria, nearly 200,000 refugees are struggling to survive in this inhospitable part of the great Sahara Desert." ... "The International Court of Justice in The Hague issued a ruling in 1975 that neither [Arab] Morocco nor [Arab] Mauritania has any claim to the territory of Western Sahara. Mauritania could not militarily, politically or economically sustain fighting against the POLISARIO troops and signed a peace agreement in 1979. They acknowledged the sovereignty of the Western Saharan nation in exile, the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) which was founded in 1976. On the other hand, Morocco refuses to this day to relinquish any claims to Western Sahara." More ...

Palestinians are driven from homes by armed Iraqis (Jack Fairweather, The Daily Telegraph, Jun 9, 2003): For all its golden words in support of the Palestinian cause, the [Iraqi] government refused to let them own their homes and restricted their employment to manual labour ... While the Palestinian cause may stir the passions of Arabs across the Middle East, Palestinians themselves are often regarded with suspicion. Palestinian militants were involved in civil wars in Jordan and Lebanon. In 1991, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were evicted from Kuwait after the emirate was liberated from the Iraqis. And in 1993 and 1994, hundreds were evicted from Libya on the grounds that Yasser Arafat had supported Saddam. Now it is the Palestinians in Baghdad who are the victims of the political upheaval."

In Postwar Iraq, Fortunes of Palestinians Worsen (Pamela Constable, Washington Post, Aug 3, 2003): "... even those [Palestinians] who were born in Iraq or married an Iraqi cannot become Iraqi citizens or hold passports, and few other countries accept their Iraqi travel documents. Moreover, Palestinians could not own property such as houses or cars until last year, when Hussein suddenly reversed a long-standing policy. And although they were entitled to the same public education as Iraqis, they were barred from a variety of military and public-sector jobs ..."

Palestinians Expelled by Libya Stranded (Salma Shawa, Washington Report, Aug/Sep 1996)

Palestinian refugees in Saudi Arabia (Wikipedia, Oct 8, 2005): An estimated number of 500,000 Palestinians are living in the kingdom of Saudi-Arabia as of December 2004. They are not allowed to hold or even apply for Saudi citizenship, as the new law passed by Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers in October 2004 ( which entitles expatriates of all nationalities who have resided in the kingdom for ten years to apply for citizenship, with priority being given to holders of degrees in various scientific fields ) has one glaring exception: Palestinians will not be allowed to benefit from the new law because of Arab League instructions barring the Arab states from granting them citizenship in order "to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland".

Palestinians in Lebanon (Julie Peteet, World Refugee Survey 1997): "Despite international law governing the treatment of refugees, the Lebanese state implemented laws to restrict Palestinians in a variety of ways. In 1962, legislation placed Palestinians on a par with foreigners so that their gaining employment required a work permit. While Palestinians circumscribed this requirement for nearly two decades, the post-1982 period has witnessed its vigorous implementation. For example, Decision no. 289/1, issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on December 18, 1982, set out the categories of employment closed to foreigners, which range from banking to barbering. The ministry also issued a circular detailing the arenas of work open to foreigners, with work permits, as: 'construction workers and workers in ancillary tasks, excluding electrical installations, sanitation facilities and glass mounting; agricultural workmen; tanning and leather workers; excavation workers; textile and carpet workmen; smelters; sanitation workers; nannies, nurses; servants and cooks; car wash and ubrication workers.' In other words, Palestinians are forbidden to work in all but the most menial of positions."
Lebanon permits Palestinians to work (ArabicNews, Jun 29, 2005): "The Lebanese minister of labor Tarrad Hamadeh said that Lebanon alleviated restrictions which prevent resident Palestinian refugees to work in most of the jobs. He said that "Israel was the one who expelled the Palestinians [in 1948 - MEI]. They are now in our country, accepting it or not, depriving them from work is a violation of human rights." The decision taken by Hamadeh permits Palestinians who were born in Lebanon to work in private sector jobs, used to be limited for the Lebanese citizens."
The Legal Status of Palestinian Refugees and their Relation with the Lebanese State (Nasri Saleh Hajjaj, Shaml, the Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Center)
UNRWA official website: "Palestine refugees in Lebanon face specific problems. They do not have social and civil rights, and have a very limited access to the government's public health or educational facilities and no access to public social services. The majority rely entirely on UNRWA as the sole provider of education, health and relief and social services. Considered as foreigners, Palestine refugees are prohibited by law from working in more than 70 trades and professions. This has led to a very high rate of unemployment amongst the refugee population."

Lausanne Peace Treaty of Jan 30, 1923, Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations (Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs): "The Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Greek Government have agreed upon the following provisions: Article 1 As from the 1st May, 1923, there shall take place a compulsory exchange of Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox religion established in Turkish territory, and of Greek nationals of the Moslem religion established in Greek territory. These persons shall not return to live in Turkey or Greece respectively without the authorisation of the Turkish Government or of the Greek Government respectively."

Forced Population Transfers: Institutionalised Ethnic Cleansing as the Road to New (In-) Stability? The European Experience (Stefan Wolff, Department of European Studies, University of Bath/UK)

Iraq's last Jews wait in fear for war (Times Online, Oct 18, 2002): "Protected from prying eyes by a 10ft wall and padlocked steel gates plastered with Saddam Hussein posters is Bataween Synagogue, an anonymous brown-brick building, with no nameplate or symbols to betray its purpose, where the handful of Jews who remain in the city gather discreetly to worship each week. Fifty years ago there were about 350,000 Jewish people in Iraq. When the British marched into Baghdad at the end of the First World War a fifth of its citizens were estimated to be Jewish. Today 38 remain in the capital. In Basra, the once prosperous port in the south, there is just one old woman. In Mosul and Amarah, and other Iraqi cities where Jews had lived for more than two millennia, their communities have vanished without trace."

The Middle East's other refugees (National Post): “Sadly, the 20th century was an era of involuntary migration. Ottoman Turkey ejected two million Armenians during the First World War. Czech authorities expelled three million ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland after the Second World War. When the British partitioned India and Pakistan in 1948, a total of 10 million moved between the two countries, with fearful Hindus fleeing for their lives one way, Muslims the other. And yet none of these refugee movements gave rise to the festering conflict caused by a smaller refugee migration -- the flight of about 800,000 Palestinian Arabs from Israel. Why?”

The Last Jews of Libya

The Scribe, Journal of Babylonian Jewry

American Sefardi Federation

Historical Society of Jews from Egypt

Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries

In the Middle East, black means white (Robert Fulford, National Post, Canada, Jul 5, 2003)

Ten Tips on How to Be an Arafat Apologist (Jamie Glazov, Frontpage Magazin, Apr 11, 2002)

Hatred of Israel is a crutch Arab states have to give up (Ruth Wisse, Wall Street Journal, Jun 16, 2003): "At any point during the past 55 years, Arab governments could have helped the Palestinian Arabs settle down to a decent life. They could have created the infrastructure of an autonomous Palestine on the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza territory that Egypt controlled until 1967, or encouraged the resettlement of Palestinians in Jordan, which constitutes the lion's share of the original mandate of Palestine. Rather than fund the Palestine Liberation Organization to foment terror against Israel they could have endowed Palestinian schools of architecture, engineering, medicine and law. What Israel did for its refugees from Arab lands, Arabs could have done much more sumptuously for the Palestinians displaced by the same conflict. Instead, Arab rulers cultivated generations of refugees in order to justify their ongoing campaign against the 'usurper' ... In almost identical ways [to the Nazis], the autocrats who govern Arab societies have used the "Zionist entity" to deflect attention from the worst aspects of their rule. The unwanted presence of the Jews became the rallying point for internal dissatisfaction with the mounting problems of Arab regimes. The drumbeat against Israel invited the world to debate the iniquities of the Jews rather than question the legitimacy of the attacks against them. This comparison is not intended to equate the Germans with the Arabs, except in the ways that both exploited anti-Semitism to achieve broader political goals. Both used the alleged threat of "the Jews" to excuse their own failures. Anti-Semitism in both situations linked otherwise warring groups of the Left and Right. The problem with anti-Semitism in its older and newer varieties is that it seems to serve its patrons so well. Without question, Arab rulers successfully deflected attention from their offenses by their decades of war and propaganda against Israel. Even the liberal Western media that might have been expected to support a besieged fellow democracy have long since focused on alleged Israeli abuses instead of on the abuses of their Arab accusers."

UNRWA official website (Jul 9, 2004): "UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of registered Palestine refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than four million in 2002, and continues to rise due to natural population growth."

Report of the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East [UNRWA] - July 1997 - 30 June 1998): "UNRWA registration figures are based on information voluntarily supplied by refugees primarily for the purpose of obtaining access to Agency services, and hence cannot be considered statistically valid demographic data; the number of registered refugees present in the Agency's area of operations is almost certainly less than the population recorded."