Monday, March 19, 2007

Libya stirs the pot

Libya is threatening to expel all Palestinians refugees reports Ynet News:
Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi has decided to boycott the Arab League's summit, set to be held in Riyadh at the end of March, in response to what he considers as the Arab leaders' plan to "sacrifice" the refugee issue in order to please Israel.

Gaddafi is worried that in the framework of the Saudi peace initiative, Arab leaders would concede the refugees' right of return, and agree to have them naturalized in their countries of residence, in a bid to encourage Israel's cooperation with the peace plan.

Libyan newspaper al-Jamahiriya reported this week that Libya may begin deporting Palestinian refugees soon, in protest of the Arab plan. "Libya will never cooperate with a concession of the refugees' right of return, and will not allow for the settling of refugees far away from their homeland," the paper stated. "Libya is in negotiations to allow thousands of Palestinians who reside within its territory to move to the Gaza Strip through Egypt, before the plot to settle them in the Arab countries materializes," it added.

And before anyone thinks Gaddafi’s all bluster and noise; I should point out Gaddafi did expel thousands in 1995 once the Oslo peace accords were officially signed.

I have always had a problem with the so-called Right of Return because, well, there is no such right. The international rational for allowing the Jews to attempt to create a state in 1948 was to establish a Jewish homeland and while some may pretend it was a humanitarian gesture by the international community in response to the suffering of the Jews during the holocaust I am considerably more cynical.

I believe the idea of having to repatriate Jews back to their alleged countries of origin was a thought that most post-war nations found innately repellent. Better to allow them an opportunity to attempt to establish their own state within the Palestine Mandate.

Certainly, my own country (Canada) in 1947 held a decided preference for German immigration over any significant Jewish immigration. The phrase ‘none is too many’ comes readily to mind. I suspect that very few in the international community expected the fledging state of Israel to either survive its first few years - let alone to still be standing strong in 2007.

You can argue that the establishment of the state of Israel by the international community was immoral and a mistake. Not necessarily what I believe, but one can put forth that argument. What I find interesting in today’s debate, which is most often overlooked or discounted in debates in 2007, but most definitely wasn’t in 1947, was the need for creating a Jewish homeland. Not a secular democracy or an Arab Muslim/Christian state but a homeland for the world’s Jews.

When Transjordan was established within the Palestine Mandate it was resolved that it would not be open to any Jewish immigration. A complete ‘Jew free zone’ if you will was created within the Palestine Mandate. And odd as it may seem today, I have yet to hear any objections to the immorality of that concept or anyone questioning the legitimacy of the Jordanian state.

So if the underlying rational for the state of Israel is to be the world’s homeland for the Jews; why hasn’t a quick end to the alleged “right of return” for Palestinian Arabs occurred within the international community? I suspect if one were to ask Palestinians living in refugee camps if they wanted to live as a minority in a Jewish state the answer would be a resounding “no”. Even today in Israel, there is a noticeable sense of unease among even prominent Israeli Arabs with the idea of living in a homeland established for and by Jews.

And you know, I don’t believe translating a verse from Hebrew into Arabic and singing one refrain in Arabic from the Hatikva would make any Israeli Arab feel more comfortable within the Israeli state. Meir Kahane might be more right on this than most people are comfortably admitting or allowing.

For the right of return or even just compensation to be paid to those Arabs displaced within the Israeli state when there is no corresponding right or discussion of compensation for the Jews who were expelled from Arab countries since 1948 is unconscionable. The UNRWA never did establish permanent refugee camps in Israel for Jews - in spite of the fact that nearly a million destitute Jewish refugees were absorbed by the Israeli state since its conception.

It would have been reasonable to assume once the Oslo accords were signed by Israel and the PLO that a substantial return of Palestinian refugees among the various Arab refugee camps would be among the first orders of business by the Palestinian Authority but you would be dead wrong. The Palestinian Authority apparently believes the correct position is all or none.

According to the UNRWA figures, there are approximately 4.3 million Palestinians registered in refugee camps throughout the Middle East. Though, when one starts looking at those figures it becomes apparent that something is a little dodgy. Of those 4.3 million registered Palestinian refugees approximately 1.6 million are located in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Ask yourself why the UNRWA considers any Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip (an entirely “Jew free zone”) or even the West Bank as a bona fide refugee? Surely, if peace broke out and a second Palestinian state was established tomorrow; where exactly would those 1.6 million Palestinians return to? And it won’t be Tel Aviv. So how are they a refugees?

Ask yourself another question. Why does the Palestinian Authority allow the UNRWA to run refugee camps within the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? There really is one simple answer. Somebody else needs to pick-up the tab so the Palestinian Authority can continue ‘resisting the occupation’; otherwise, the PA might have to expend a great deal of time, energy and resources building the infrastructure of a state rather than just posturing a role. Furthermore, as long as someone else is picking up the tab, the PA can safely ignore the whole issue of returning Palestinians refugees from the camps in the Arab world and re-settling them in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

I suspect if the 2.7 million Palestinians were returned tomorrow to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip no one currently living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip would be killing the fatten calf to welcome them back.

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