Bush Authorizes $26 Million for Palestinian Refugees

U.S. Department of State

Funds would be given to UN Relief and Works Agency

President Bush has requested that up to $26 million be made available to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to meet unexpected and urgent refugee needs in the West Bank and Gaza. ---

Refugees from where?

They are refugees from the part of Palestine that they no longer control, some call it Israel.

To disenfrachise these people by classifying them as "refugees"? That is to say "squatters"?

has been & is still being manipulated to reinforce what we're supposed to think about the Palestinians?

And few notice, much less question it.

refugees since they were expelled from their homes in 1947-48; the other major wave came as a result of the 1967 war. If you read Israel's propaganda, and observe their behavior, they clearly consider these folks squatters already, since they have no problem forcing them off their land to make way for settlers on an almost daily basis. The money in this case is just a sop to Abbas and the PA to shut them up about how futile the Road to Apartheid is.

What you suggested never crossed my mind.

Do you have any idea how many Jews were expelled from Arab countries from 48-67? Why is there no Jewish community in Iraq? Can one be Jewish and a legal citizen of Saudi Arabia?

Why do you think the Palestinians are still considered refugees? Could it be because it suits the purposes of the Arabs in their continual hatred of Jews and their desire to see Israel destroyed?

Why aren't those expelled Jews in "camps" like the Palestinians? Why were they able to quickly repatriate themselves elsewhere - Israel, America, Europe - despite the loss of homes, assets, businesses, worldly possessions?

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

very much. :)

So tired of hearing this nonsense. The Jews in Iraq left on their own; they were not expelled. In fact, there were laws in Iraq forbidding the Jews to leave for quite some time. Very few Jews were forcibly expelled in the ME; this has been documented by many historians, Morris, Segev, and so on. When you see web sites claiming the Jews were expelled, it's a good hint that you've got a dubious source of information.

Hey, thanks for addressing (well, sort of) my first statement and ignoring the rest of my post.

And interesting you name two Israeli historians considered by many to be revisionist.

And interesting you name two Israeli historians considered by many to be revisionist.

. . . that you name none.

they'd be considered dubious.

History is history; it's either true or false. Just crying 'revisionist' because you don't like what a historian says is a foolish waste of bits and bytes. Prove it wrong (if you can); don't whine about 'revisionism.' That's not making an argument.

The 'rest of your post' is irrelevant. Who cares what the other Arab states did or didn't do? Israel deliberately created the refugees; Israel is responsible for them. When you say something relevant, it will probably get a response; when you toss out nonsensical 'facts,' you'll probably get a response; when you introduce red herrings, they'll get ignored or pointed out for what they are.

That is the science of history, people don't seem to understand that, the field isn't about memorizing dates and events at least real history isn't.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

what links anyone provides to refute this nonsense but I've provided a few.

I suggest, however, you find a Temple in your area with a Sephardic population and an archive. Ask to speak to those who fled or whose families fled and get their personal stories. Read firsthand transcripts in their archives.





Less than a year after Israeli independence was declared in 1948, repressive measures were taken in Iraq. Thousands of Jews
were imprisoned or taken into "protective custody" on charges of "Zionism". Jews applied in large numbers for exit permits
to Israel, but legislation was quickly passed freezing Jewish bank accounts and forbidding Jews to dispose of their property
without special permission. Jewish emigrants who succeeded in obtaining exit visas were allowed to take only fifty kilograms
of luggage per person. Soon after, a decree was issued blocking the property of all Iraqi Jews who, by leaving the country,
"had relinquished their nationality" and Jewish property was sold at public auction. A year later, laws were passed,
restricting the movements of Jews, barring them from schools, hospitals and other public institutions, and refusing them
import and export licenses to carry on their businesses. The program was so effective, that by the middle of July 1950 more
than 110,000 Iraqi Jews had registered for emigration.


snip



In 1956 the Egyptians undertook ruthless economic and political measures aimed specifically at the Jews in their midst.
Many leaders of the large Egyptian-Jewish community were arrested, led through the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, and
some were stoned. Jewish families who had resided in Egypt for generations but had not been granted citizenship, were
evicted. Only 5% of the Jews of Egypt had been allowed to become Egyptian citizens, the others were "Apatride" - with
no citizenship at all, in the land of their birth. A government order was read in the mosques that Jews were to be regarded
as "enemies". (In 1967, 600 Jews were imprisoned, beaten and held for long periods without food or water.) We hear that such
slogans are again used in mosques today, all over the Middle East, even in Israel.



snip



Jews had begun to leave Yemen in the 1880s, when some 2,500 had made their way to Jerusalem and Jaffa.
But it was after World War I, when Yemen became independent, that anti-Jewish feeling in that country
made emigration imperative. Anti-Semitic laws, which had lain dormant for years were revived, as for example:
Jews were not ermitted to walk on pavements - or to ride horses. In court, a Jew's evidence was not accepted
against that of a Moslem. Jewish orphans had to be converted to Islam, and anyone who helped such children to
escape did so on pain of death. When a Jew immigrated, he had to leave all his property. In spite of this,
between 1923 and 1945 a total of 17,000 Yemenite Jews left and immigrated to Palestine 7.


snip



http://jac.up.co.il/


http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_%28gen%29.html


http://www.middleeastfacts.com/Articles/jewsinarabcountries.html



http://www.dangoor.com/issue76/articles/76018.htm

this went over like a lead balloon.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

By definition a refugee is someone seeking sanctuary in a foreign land. Or is this yet another example of words losing their meaning in Israeli-USA propaganda?

If you are saying Israeli behaviour is similar to that of Saudi Arabia and Iraq I couldn't agree more.

...the refugees get money spent on security for Israel.

I work in refugee studies and have witnessed on multiple occasions the shrub administration seek discretionary funding ostensibly to be used to aid refugees whenever the New York Times writes a few articles about why it is that we are no longer helping refugees and Congress starts to make noises. But the instant the public's back is turned, the administration goes right back to business as usual and the allocated funds either don't get used or they get sureptitiously channeled into enforcement programs.

This year's much the same: the shrub authorized the admission of 50,000 refugees from around the world (about half what the ceiling has been historically), State Department prepared their budget to Congress based on those figures, took the money Congress gave them, but have advised all of the ngos that do resettlement work that they have no intention of admitting anywhere near that many refugees and than anyone who requests funding based upon the figures State Dept used in its budget proposal to Congress will have their proposal summarily shredded without even reading it. Thus far, with the end of the fiscal year less than 2 months away, the US hasn't even admitted 10,000 refugees, much less 50,000, nor, evidently, do they have the slightest intention of even trying to reach the goals they publically stipulated.

owes the PA nearly $500 million in withheld taxes on wages and customs duties. So while Shrub is doling out money, he could remind his pal Sharon to kick in what he owes.

Israel Pays Its Bills
20:17 Aug. 04, '03 / 6 Av 5763


Israel has transferred 1.2 billion shekels to the PA over the past few months, thus paying off the outstanding balance of its debts. The money comes from port taxes that Israel collects for the PA in exchange for goods destined for the Arab-populated areas. In truth, the balance was to have been over two billion shekels - but in accordance with court orders, 850 million shekels were held back to pay debts owed by the PA to Israeli companies such as Bezeq, Mekorot, and Israel Electric.

link the source of this info?

"Israel owes the PA nearly $500 million..."

$400 million (plus interest)
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk020208/1b.shtml

post #22. BBC reports that 10% of the money owed "will be" released.
So either Israel is paid in full as your unreferenced post asserts or
10% will be released sometime in the future as reported by the BBC.

some information is extremely difficult to find when it is more than a week old. I heard the same report. Israel has transfered all revenues from taxes owed to the PA.

hopefully things like this will create a more peaceful atmosphere.