Speech #900013346

I include a statement by me at the annual Bnai Zion Order Day Dinner in New York this past Sunday: It often seems to me that many in the position of leadership and trust are like children playing with matches. We gaze with amazement as some men. presumably adults. use a topsyturvy logic. if such it can be called. that would lead any reputable psychiatrist to conclude that this was the behavior of the emotionally unstable. I have particular reference to the Arab refugee problem from whence has sprung that particularly noxious band of men called the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Ahmed Shukairl. its selfstyled leader or fulminator. if you please. Seventeen years ago the United Nations formed the United Nations Relief and Works Administration. Its mandate: to terminate not later than December 31. 1950. unless otherwise directed by the Assembly and to take "constructive measures . . . at an early date with a view to termination of international systems for relief". Seventeen years later the end is not yet in sight. Who are these refugees today? How many are there? Who were these refugees seventeen years ago? And how many were they? How many have been rehabilitated? How many absorbed? A few figures are in order at this point. An early report for the period July 1. 1963 to June 30. 1964. and by this I mean the report of UNRWA itself. showed 1.280.000 Arab refugees were being maintained by UNRWA. 256.000 were already selfsupporting and no longer needed UNRWAs help. In the 196566 report of UNRWA we read that of the 1.317.749 refugees under United Nations care only 861.122 were registered for rations. Of the remaining 456.627. apparently did not need them. Yet of this number at least 150.000 are admittedly dead. absent. or ineligible. Thus more than half a million among the 1.317.949 who are taken care of by UNRWA are no longer refugees as we understand the term. but whom UNRWA still calls "the uprooted Arab refugee". Senators Gore and McGee. in making a tour of the Middle East reported to the State Department that the ration cards "had become chattel for sale. for rent or bargaining by any Jordanian. whether refugees or not. needy or wealthy. These cards are used as security for loans from many lenders. for credit from merchants. almost as negotiable instruments". Further. the figures show. and this is not a quote from the Senators. that between July. 1950 and June. 1966. the UNRWA rolls showed a total of 570.785 births. and only 112.275 deaths. a most incredible figure as any health statistician can tell you. The pretense of rehabilitating the Arab refugee has been dropped. Now he is merely fed with a ration card. a commodity of barter or bribe. It is perfectly clear that the Arab Governments axe exploiting the plight of refugees (I am talking of those who are genuinely in need) for their antiIsrael crusade. The UAR. Jordan. Syria. and Lebanon. the host governments of the refugees have frustrated every effort toward a solution of the problem. At this point nobody seems to make an effort to remember that the refugee problem was brought on by the Arab war against Israel in 1948. At that time the British survey of Palestine established that on December 31. 1944. a total of 640.000 Arabs were living in the present area of Israel. the natural increase during the following forty months. that is until May 1948. the Declaration of the Independence of the State of Israel and the month of the Arab war against Israel. would amount to about 56.000. making a total of 696.000. Of these. about 142.000 remained. 35.000 were subsequently permitted to return to Israel to be reunited with their families. This makea 519.000 refugees who could have gone into "exile". My. how they have grown. Now. as I have said before. 1.317.749 as of June 30. 1966.