NEWS from the World Jewish Congress
For immediate release
August 28, 2003

WJC calls for resettling Palestinian Arab refugees in Arab states

The United Nations should abandon its one-sided approach to the Arab-Israel
conflict, particularly in its dealing with the refugee issue, Dr. Avi Beker,
Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress, told Secretary General Kofi
Annan.

In a letter to Annan, and in similar letters to UN member states this week,
Dr. Beker noted that while the world has long been preoccupied by the
Palestinian Arab refugees, it has ignored the 900,000 Jews expelled from
Arab states. Focusing on only one aspect of the refugee story in the Middle
East hinders the ability to find a true and fair solution to the refugee
problem. Instead of working toward a resolution to the refugee crisis, the
UN has built a cumbersome and costly bureaucracy ostensibly devoted to
providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian refugees. At the same time,
the UN has turned a blind eye to the misuse of UNRWA camps by terrorist
forces.

"Recently, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a
resolution calling for the resettlement of the Palestinian refugees in the
Arab states where they now live or in third countries," wrote Dr. Beker in
the letters to the member states. "The Council's resolution provides an
opportunity to find - in the words of the Roadmap - a 'just, fair and
realistic' solution to the Middle East refugee problem."

Along with the letter, Secretary General Annan and Ambassadors to the UN
received copies of two recent WJC studies: The Jews of Iraq: A Forgotten
Case of Ethnic Cleansing, by Carole Basri, and UNRWA, Terror and the Refugee
Conundrum: Perpetuating the Misery by Dr. Beker.

"A Palestinian 'right of return' is simply a formula to supercede the Jewish
State, and in essence, rejects a two-state solution," said Dr. Beker.

"If the international community is serious about achieving peace in the
Middle East it must abandon once and for all the incendiary rhetoric of the
'right of return'. For years, the UN General Assembly has adopted the
Palestinian position on this issue. Yet, an objective discussion of the
Middle East refugee problem is an integral step on the road to peace," he
continued.

"It is our hope that this year, the General Assembly will take a more
balanced and open look at the problem," Dr. Beker told the UN secretary
general.
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For copies of the letters and WJC reports, contact: eyaari@wjc.org.il or
wjc@his.com
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The World Jewish Congress is an international federation of Jewish
communities and organizations representing 80 nations on six continents, and
it serves as the multinational representative of world Jewry. Founded in
1935 to fight the poison of hatred and intolerance of Naziism, the WJC has
been combatting the persecution of Jews around the world for more than six
decades, and today it is leading the fight for material and moral
restitution to the Jewish people of the greatest theft and most heinous
crime in recorded history.
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W O R L D J E W I S H C O N G R E S S
Douglas M. Bloomfield, Washington Representative
301/460-3285 * F: 301/460-4187 * wjc@his.com
http://www.wjc.org.il/