The United Nations should abandon its one-sided approach to the Arab-Israel conflict, particularly in its dealing with the refugee issue, Dr. Avi Beker, Secretary-General of the World Jewish Congress, wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week.
The WJC has lately been promoting the fact that while the Arab refugees have garnered much world attention, the plight of 900,000 Jews expelled from Arab states has been ignored. "Understanding the underlying facts which brought about the departure of these refugees from the Middle East," a recent WJC statement reads, "is a precondition to... creating a lasting and durable peace between Jews and Arabs." The WJC emphasizes that focusing on only one aspect of the Middle East refugee story hinders the search for a fair and true solution. "For years," Beker wrote, "the UN General Assembly has adopted the Palestinian position on this issue."
"A Palestinian 'right of return' is simply a formula to supercede the Jewish State, and in essence, rejects a two-state solution," wrote Dr. Beker, noting that the UN has built a cumbersome and costly bureaucracy ostensibly devoted to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian refugees - but in fact has turned a blind eye to the misuse of UNRWA camps by terrorist forces.
"Recently, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution calling for the resettlement of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab states where they now live or in third countries," wrote Dr. Beker in the letters to UN member states. "The Council's resolution provides an opportunity to find - in the words of the Roadmap - a 'just, fair and realistic' solution to the Middle East refugee problem."
The WJC has lately been promoting the fact that while the Arab refugees have garnered much world attention, the plight of 900,000 Jews expelled from Arab states has been ignored. "Understanding the underlying facts which brought about the departure of these refugees from the Middle East," a recent WJC statement reads, "is a precondition to... creating a lasting and durable peace between Jews and Arabs." The WJC emphasizes that focusing on only one aspect of the Middle East refugee story hinders the search for a fair and true solution. "For years," Beker wrote, "the UN General Assembly has adopted the Palestinian position on this issue."
"A Palestinian 'right of return' is simply a formula to supercede the Jewish State, and in essence, rejects a two-state solution," wrote Dr. Beker, noting that the UN has built a cumbersome and costly bureaucracy ostensibly devoted to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian refugees - but in fact has turned a blind eye to the misuse of UNRWA camps by terrorist forces.
"Recently, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution calling for the resettlement of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab states where they now live or in third countries," wrote Dr. Beker in the letters to UN member states. "The Council's resolution provides an opportunity to find - in the words of the Roadmap - a 'just, fair and realistic' solution to the Middle East refugee problem."