May 31, 2006

Those Refugees

by Daniel Freedman at May 31, 2006

"Resolutions introduced in the U.S. Congress call for any reference to Palestinian refugees to be matched by similar references to Jewish and other refugees," the JTA reports.

While we often hear of Palestinian Arabs who left their homes in 1948 after the surrounding Arab countries declared war on Israel and sought to destroy her, we hear very rarely about about Jewish refugees who were kicked out of their homes in Arab lands in 1948. The number, supporters of these Jewish refugees say, as the JTA notes, "far surpasses the number of Palestinians who became refugees in 1948." Of course the two refugee cases aren't quite comparable. Many of the Palestinian Arabs fled on the urging of those invading Arab armies who told their fellow Arabs to move out the way while the Jews were being destroyed and to return once the Arabs were victorious, while the Jews were evicted with no choice in the matter.

"This resolution urges the international community to place all refugees on equal footing when Middle East refugee matters are discussed," said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), one of the co-sponsors of the Senate resolution.