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During the same era, an equal number of Jews emigrated from the increasingly
hostile Arab countries, for various reasons. It is sometimes unclear whether
these people were actual refugees or simply emigrants, but it is undeniable
that since the 1940’s at least 250,000 (and more probably 350,000) Jews have
left Arab countries as refugees persecuted by official policies of the state.
Some 130,000 Jewish refugees left Algeria in 1962, when the government ruled that Jews no longer have any protection of law. At least 65,000 Jewish refugees left Egypt between 1948 and 1967, experiencing arbitrary confiscations of property and illegal deportations from the country. At least 30,000 Jewish refugees left Libya between 1945 and 1969, due to widespread violence and arbitrary confiscations of property. At least 25,000 Jews have left Syria as refugees since 1944, due to various Nazi-style laws. (A former aide of Adolf Eichmann used to serve the Syrian government as an advisor.) (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/syrianjews.html) Of the more than half a million Jews who emigrated from other Arab countries during this era, it can certainly be assumed that at least 100,000 deserve to be called refugees in the full meaning of the word. Thus the Judeo-Islamic conflict has produced 700,000 Arab refugees and at least 350,000 Jewish refugees. (No attempt is made here to summarize the injustice suffered by Christians or other minorities during the same era, but the rights of Christians will be properly represented in the proposed peace agreements.) Israel absorbed as many Jewish refugees as were willing to immigrate to Israel, giving them the full legal status of a citizen, and the rest emigrated to western countries, where they were soon given the full legal status of a citizen. If and when a state of Palestine will be founded, it should be evident (according to international law) that all Palestinian refugees have the legal right to return to the state of Palestine, equally as Israel absorbed the numerous Jewish refugees and immigrants, and still continues to do so. Any objections by Israel should be dismissed as a violation of human rights and as historical injustice.
According to a study performed by a commission of the United Nations
in 1964, Palestinian refugees are the legal owners of 5,194 kmē of
private lands on the Israeli side of the Green Line border. The security
concerns cited by Israel can be accepted as a legal excuse for not allowing
the return of Palestinian refugees into the same security zone where Jews
are living, but no legal excuse exists for cancelling their ownership of
these private lands. The only legally acceptable alternative for not
allowing Arab refugees to return to lands that are their private property,
is to annex Israeli lands of equal size and value to the territories
governed by Arabs themselves. By refusing or delaying the implementation
of one of these options, Israel breaks the human rights of Arabs. Israel
can freely choose the lesser evil of these two, but other legal options
hardly do exist.
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