Mr. Chairman. I want to call attention of the committee to the fine part of the committee report on page 11 which has to do with PalestinianArab refugees. and particularly to that part of that section which reads: Under difficult circumstances Israel has achieved impressive economic development. so that for the first time in 10 years. grant assistance has not been programed for Israel. It is certainly a fine day when any nation can point to such progress in the circumstances through which the world is going. I hope my colleagues will agree that we congratulate Israel. and congratulate the committee on this report. Mr. Chairman. I am further impressed by a statement which the committee has made on page 11 of its report dealing with the question of the Arab refugees from Palestine. The committee has stated: The committee regrets that only limited progress has been made to solve the problem of the Palestine Arab refugees. Some progress has been made within recent years because refugees who have acquired skills have found employment and have been absorbed in the local economy. The United Nations Relief and Work Agency now plans to expand the vocational training program in order to stimulate employment of the refugees. and part of the funds included in this years authorization for the U.S. contribution to UNRWA are to be used for this vocational training program. Nevertheless. progress toward a final solution remains regrettably slow. The only favorable developments during the past year were (1) real progress in the rectification of UNRWA relief rolls. and (2) an expanded program of vocational training. While the committee continues to support the program. it is of the opinion that more vigorous action is needed to bring the refugee problem to an acceptable and early solution. The committee believes that the vast majority of the refugees will eventually have to be resettled in lands where there is room and opportunity for them. This statement is of importance because it emphasizes resettlement as the logical and proper solution of the refugee problem. It is necessary to speak frankly on this issue. and I congratulate the committee for having done so. Unfortunately this issue has become obscured by propaganda. and hundreds of thousands of innocent men. women. and children have become prisoners of that propaganda. Many people who are unfamiliar with what happened in 1947. have been led to believe that these refugees were driven out of Israel and that they have a right to return to that country under the terms of a U.N. resolution. Those who recall the 194748 struggle and who are familiar with its history know that the Arab countries refused to accept the U.N. 1947 decision. They went to war against it. they tried to prevent Israel from coming into existence. they encouraged the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country in the belief that they would soon win the war and be able to return to take over the whole country. There would not have been a single Arab refugee if the Arab leaders had accepted the 1947 U.N. resolution. It is also important to emphasize that the Arabs still refuse to make peace with Israel. They refuse to negotiate with her. They still insist that the Arab refugees have a right to return to Israelnot to live as law abiding citizens of that statebut to take over the country and establish an Arab State. The Arabs are demanding compliance with a 1948 U.N. resolution. which did. in fact. say that the refugees should be allowed to go back or get compensation for their property. But that resolution also talked about a peace settlement. to which the Arabs have never been willing to agree. Under these circumstances. it has always seemed to me that resettlement of the Arab refugees in Arab countries is the only sensible and practical and fair solution. There are 11 Arab countries. they have about 3 Y2 million square miles. they have 78.500.000 people. That is a population density of 22.5 people per square mile. There is but one Israel. with only 8.000 square miles. with 2.100.000 people. and with a population density of 263 per square mile. It should also be realized that about 450.000 Jews have come out of the Arab countries during this period. and have been settled in Israel. Since the State of Israel took Jewish refugees from the Arab countries. the Arab States should be as humanitarian to their own people and accept and resettle the Arab refugees from Israel. The doctrine of resettlement has been applied in almost all refugee problems since World War II. I know of no substantial repatriation of refugees anywhere. There is no reason to believe that Israel should be an exception to this rule. especially when the Arabs persist in a state of war against Israel. Now it is interesting to notice that the language of the House committee report urging resettlement is similar to the language of the Democratic platform of 1956 and 1960. I happen to believe that platform declarations should be honored. and I am glad to see that the House committee has adopted this language. For it appears that the administration needs to be reminded of this language. In recent weeks. it has been reported that the administration is associating itself with the Arab demand that Israel accept the principle of repatriation and agree to permit the Arab refugees to have freedom of choice in advance of a peace settlement. I am convinced that this is unrealistic. No country in the world would or could permit outsidershostile outsidersto decide its immigration policies. No country in the world would permit itself to be penetrated by hostile invaders. I do not understand why the administration is accepting the line.
Keywords matched
immigration refugee refugees