Speech #850266799

Therefore. when we find countries which are trying to practice liberal principles of government. which are trying to adapt themselves to the 20th century. which are trying to rebuild great physical and human resources. I feel we have a special obligation to those countries and we have a privilege and an opportunity to work with them. One of the issues which has been raised again and again in the Congress and outside the Congress is the issue of the Arab refugees. I. too. have visited the refugee camps. I want to say it has been very difficult for Mr. Labousse. who was the United Nations Director of the refugee program. to get even a scintilla of cooperation from the Arab States. I spent time with the workers in the camps. with the directors. and with the program planners. I was told that a couple of years ago in Israel when an attempt was made at one of the refugee camps to build a community outpatient clinic to take care of the health needs of the refugees. the refugees themselves and outsiders from the country of Syria tore down the bulding. They were not going to have any care. the theory being. "If you take care of our health. it means that you are going to try to keep us in the camps. We want to be miserable." It seems incredible. but it is the kind of emotional irrationalism with which we have had to deal. and with which the United Nations has been faced. I feel that we can make a real contribution in this area by being a little more firm and definite in our policies. For example. take the Arab refugee question. The sooner we tell people that the answer to the Arab refugee question is resettlement rather than repatriation. the better off we shall be. It is true that some refugees may well go back into Israel. but it would be foolish to expect that the nationstate of Israel would accept refugees who might turn into a fifth column. They will take back some of course. I believe that the State of Israel ought to compensate for lands and properties taken over. As I understand. the State of Israel is willing to do that. But resettlement is the answer and we ought to make it unequivocally plain that that is what we believe in. Some people say. "What do you mean by telling the Palestinian Arab refugees that they must be resettled?" I ask. Where are all the tears about the refugees in India? The distinguished Senator from Kentucky probably knows more about India than does any other Member of Congress. What about the refugees in Pakistan? What about the refugees in Hong Kong? There are a million of them. I do not hear anyone making speeches about them. shedding tears. and indulging in wails of anguish about those refugees. The reason is that some efforts are being made by the other governments to resettle refugees. Refugees are not all going back to the countries from which they came. They are being resettled. I believe that should be done in the case of the Arab refugees. and we ought to be very firm about it. To date we have not been firm. Resettlement is the answer.