[WCUSP] HumanRights] ACTION: Oppose AIPAC's cynical congressional resolutions on refugees

[yvonne simmons]

> 
> 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."
> 


 
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