ACTION:
The 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
http://pac-national.org
http://justicewheels.org
http://qumsiyeh.org
"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
http://pac-national.org
http://justicewheels.org
http://qumsiyeh.org
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