Council of Europe

Parliamentary Assembly
F-67075
Strasbourg
France
July 18th, 2003
Dear Member of the Parliamentary Assembly,
Following the resolution on the situation of Palestinian refugees1 that was adopted during
the Parliamentary Assembly on June 25th 2003, the European Jewish Congress (EJC)
expresses its support for the decision taken by the Council of Europe. The situation of
Palestinian refugees must be acted upon and the humanitarian situation improved
immediately. This should be a priority, and the resolution of the refugee problem should not
be delayed until after a political settlement of the Middle East conflict is reached, but treated
as a key factor in such a settlement.
We would like to take this opportunity to inform you also about another issue concerning the
Middle East: the one of Jewish refugees from Arab lands that can be described as the
Forgotten Exodus. The Jewish exodus from Arab lands touches on the very heart of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. It highlights the responsibility of the Arab countries in pursuing antiSemitic policies before the establishment of the State of Israel. It shows their refusal to
accept the existence of Israel -- a Jewish State in the Middle East -- and it demonstrates how
the Palestinian refugee issue has been cynically exploited to advance this strategy. These
policies and practices which date back more than half a century continue unabated even to
this day.
Today, as the Quartet is working to rekindle hopes for progress in the peace process in the
post-Saddam Middle East, we must pay more attention to this issue of overdue justice. It is
not just a matter of setting the historic record straight, but rather it provides the most moral
and balanced approach to deal with the explosive issue of the "right of return" of the
Palestinian Arabs to Israel, an issue that blocked previous negotiations between the parties.
One of the basic flaws with previous peace efforts lies in the continuing, decades-old policy
of deliberately neglecting the refugee issue and deferring its resolution until some future
distant date. Any comprehensive peace plan dealing with Israeli withdrawal into new borders
must include a thorough account of the two populations of refugees: Jews and Arabs, with a
political and humanitarian solution for the Palestinian refugees as major component.
The Camp David talks of July 2000 provide an important lesson. It was only at a late stage of
President Clinton's efforts to bring together Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Chairman Yasser
Arafat that the Palestinians surprised everybody with non-negotiable demands for a full "right
of return" to pre-1967 Israel for more than four millions refugees. The Israelis were shocked
and unprepared, and immediately brought in from Israel experts on the Jewish refugees from
Arab countries, who presented the case to President Clinton. He was very much impressed
with the information they and his own advisors provided him and made an historic statement
recognizing that the refugee problem in the Middle East has two sides, one Arab and one
Jewish. This was the first time that an American president made such a reference and
commitment to this issue. The President spoke about compensating the Jews who were
expelled from Arab lands:

st

Resolution 1338 : Assembly debate on 25 June 2003 (21 Sitting) (see also Doc. 9808, report of the
Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography, rapporteur: Mr Akselsen)

"...[the fund should] compensate the Israelis who were made refugees by the war,
which occurred after the birth of the State of Israel. Israel is full of people,
Jewish people, who lived in predominately Arab countries who came to Israel
because they were made refugees in their own land."
For several years, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the European Jewish Congress
(EJC) have been focusing on what we call the "Forgotten Exodus": the plight of the Jews
from Arab countries. In the last decade we have raised the issue in our executive meetings
and we have published several studies on the subject. In the last two years we held several
conferences on the "Forgotten Exodus" in Paris, Montreal, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Washington D.C and London. The most moving aspect of these conferences was the
testimonies by Jews who left these countries. We, in the WJC and EJC, have been working
with Holocaust survivors for many years, and there is no comparison between the horrors.
However, there is a similar syndrome of "belated remembering." People who lost status and
economic means and suffered a great deal of persecution, humiliation and betrayal tend to
suppress their stories and lock it inside them and don't even share it with their family. Today,
at a later stage in their lives, these forgotten refugees often feel a personal responsibility to
tell their story and to transmit it to the next generation.
There are four basic differences between the Jewish refugees and the Arab refugees in the
Arab-Israeli conflict.
1. The number of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries exceeds the number of the
Palestinian refugees. There were about 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands,
versus 500,000 to 600,000 (estimates vary from 400,000 to 850,000) Palestinian
Arab refugees.
2. The Jews were expelled systematically, under an official regime policy which included
anti-Jewish decrees, pogroms, murders and hangings, anti-Semitic incitement and
even ethnic cleansing. The Palestinians, on the other hand, left and fled the area in
the course of an 18-month war when several Arab armies opposing the UN partition
resolution invaded Israel. One of the reasons as to why the Palestinians left Israel
was that many Arab leaders were calling on them to do so. For instance, Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri Said pledged: "We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate
every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and
children to safe areas until the fighting has died down." The hundreds of thousands of
Arabs who did not heed Nuri Said and other Arab leaders stayed in Israel, a decision
most have not regretted.
3. Unlike the Palestinians, the Jewish refugees were absorbed into their host countries,
mostly by Israel. About 600,000 stayed in Israel and the remaining 300,000 fled to
other countries, such as France, Canada, Italy and the United States. In Israel today,
the Jews from Arab countries and their children comprise the majority of the Jewish
population.
4. All Arabs who stayed in Israel enjoy legally full citizenship; the few Jews who
remained in Arab lands continue to experience persecution, attacks, jail and other
violations of human rights.
What did the Arabs and the Palestinians do with their own refugees? After rejecting the UN
resolution which called for a Jewish state, and after their defeat in the battlefield, when they
failed to drive the Jews into the sea, the Arab countries developed a brilliant scheme.
With the help of the United Nations, they created an unprecedented institution to keep the
refugees in camps without any hope for rehabilitation. UNWRA, the UN body formed for this
purpose, should be regarded as one of the most cynical and inhumane creations in the field
of humanitarian assistance. Attempts by UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold to

develop, in 1959, a comprehensive refugee resettlement scheme encountered fierce Arab

opposition and were immediately abandoned.
UNWRA, according to its own mission statement, does not aim to solve the refugee problem.
This is in sharp contrast to all UN programs for the other tens of millions of refugees dealt
with through the UN High Commissioner of Refugees. In contrast to resolutions of the UN
Security Council which reaffirmed in 1998 "the unacceptability of using refugee camps to
achieve military purposes," UNWRA camps have become -- in Lebanon, Gaza and the West
Bank -- military bases of terrorist groups, including military training, bomb making,
indoctrination, recruiting and dispatching of suicide bombers and an education system which
preaches hatred and Jihad.
The parties in the Middle East are currently discussing a new framework for peace called: "A
Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict." The parties accepted this Roadmap, and the Israeli government voted to approve
the establishment of a Palestinian State. The Roadmap only tangentially addresses the
refugee problem, and postpones it to the last stage in order to achieve "an agreed, just, fair
and realistic solution to the refugee issue." This ambiguity is not necessarily constructive.
What is "fair, just and realistic"? Who are the refugees? Should we again leave the explosive
issue of the "right of return" in limbo, looming over every stage in the peace process? Isn't
this "right of return" simply a formula to replace the State of Israel, which in essence rejects a
two-state solution?
A fair, just and realistic solution to the refugee problem must start with the recognition that
there are two refugee problems in the Middle East and both should be compensated. A fair
and just solution must start with the premise that there was an exchange of populations in
the Middle East and there is no way to turn back the historical clock. A realistic solution must
recognize that along with Israeli commitments to withdrawal, there must be a change in
priorities, promoting a concrete program to rehabilitate and resettle the refugees -- as a
prerequisite, rather than as an afterthought -- to the peace process.
We all want Israelis and Palestinians to finally be able to live in peace. But as long as the
refugee issue in the Middle East is defined by myth, and the historical record distorted, peace
will be beyond reach. Acknowledging the Jewish refugees from Arab lands, and
understanding the hidden agenda behind a Palestinian "right of return" as well as the
obstructive role played by both the Arab states and UNRWA in the refugee issue, are the first
steps to restoring a sense of justice to the Middle East narrative. The Palestinian Arabs'
commitment to peace will be proven in large part through their handling of the refugee issue.
We hope that these facts brought to your attention will help you, as a Member of the
Parliamentary Assembly, to play an active role in promoting a balanced policy towards the
two sides in the Middle East. A European policy taking into consideration the rights and
needs of the Palestinians as well as the necessity for Israel to live in peace and security.
For any further questions or comments, Manuel Seiffe at the European Jewish Congress will
be at your disposal. You can contact him at +33 (0) 1 43 59 94 63 or by email:
jewcong@wanadoo.fr.
Sincerely,
Serge Cwajgenbaum

Avi Beker

Secretary General
European Jewish Congress

Secretary General
World Jewish Congress