Speech #890221534

Mr. Speaker. in December of 1962. I visited the Near East to evaluate the PalestineArab refugee situation. I discussed the issues and problems of refugees with United States and U.N. officials and returned to the United States with a number of recommendations. Once again. we will shortly be asked to appropriate funds for the share of the U.S. Governments contribution to the U.N. for continued work by the UNRWAUnited Nations Relief and Works Agency. As in previous years. this Government will be asked and probably will contribute the largest single sum for the U.N. work with Arab refugees. U.S. pledges totaled about $11.5 million in the first half of fiscal 196566. and approximately the same for the second half of the fiscal year. bringing the total contribution of the United States to $22.9 million. Translated into other terms. the United States contributes about 70 percent of UNRWAs total contribution by all governments. Mr. Speaker. the official UNRWA figures do not reflect the extent of the progress that has been made toward the absorption of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East. At the end of 1965. there were 1.300.117 refugees registered with UNRWA compared with 1.262.649 in 1964. an increase of 37.468. In June of 1962. there were 1.174.760 refugees registered creating the impression that no progress occurred in their integration. These figures are highly misleading. UNRWA has never concealed the fact that the refugee rolls were inflated from the very beginning. UNRWAs efforts to purge the rolls of the many thousands who have died or who have become ineligible. or who were never eligible in the first place have been frustrated by the refusal of the Arab Government to cooperate. Moreover. progress made in absorption and resettlement is consistently played down. Unfortunately. there is no way to establish the precise position since there is no accurate census. Since the number of refugees is substantially below that reported by the UN. there is need for a close reexamination of the Arab refugee problem. I urge that Congress instruct appropriate officials in Washington to insist that a current census of Arab refugees should be taken by the United Nations. In any event. it is quite clear that the U.S. approach to a solution to the problem through the United Nations has not worked. It is equally apparent that the Arab refugees continue to be a constant festering sore in the Middle Eastern area of the world. To these people without a home and without a country. the word refugee has become not a term holding out hope for eventual blending into the economic stream of new homelands but rather a term signifying a way of lifea hopelessness of spirit and continuation of poverty. It serves the political objectives of the Arab States to preserve the Arab refugees as a separate and distinct grouping in preparation for a new war against Israel. These unfortunate individuals faced with a life of handouts. refugee camps. and circumscribed bounds of hope have received education and training from UNRWA. But their employment and political integration are retarded because of the political implication of the existing refugee program. Mr. Speaker. it is time we in the Congress face the fact that the Arab refugee problem will continue as a matter of serious concern unless some new. forceful. dynamic step is taken to bring about the integration of these people. Such a step is necessary not only from a humanitarian point of view but from a practical political point of view as well. The 1.3 million Arabs registered as refugees in four host countriesJordan. Syria. Lebanon. and the Gaza Strip controlled by the United Arab Republicare a constant potential threat to the political stability and integrity of not only Israel but the host countries as well.