• To emphasize that Arab refugees were a result of the war that Arab nations launched against Israel hours after
it was established. Israel’s declaration of statehood did not create one refugee, and Israel offered citizenship to all those within its partition boundaries. One hundred sixty thousand Arabs living in what was then Palestine accepted the offer and became Israeli citizens.
• To emphasize that an almost equal (if not greater) number of Jewish refugees were also created by the 1948 War. Arab nations forced their Jewish residents out of their homes and their countries, even though many had lived in these Arab nations for millennia, long before even the Arab-Muslim conquest.
• To contrast how Arab and Jewish refugees were treated by their host nations. Israel absorbed its refugees.
Arab states refused to absorb theirs for political reasons, and the refugees became permanent wards of UNRWA and fodder for Palestinian violence.
• To contrast the different fate of Palestinian refugees from the fate of refugees in other conflicts in the 20th century. |
1. In many ways, the U.S., a land of immigrants, is also a land of refugees. Why did your families originally come to the U.S.—for new opportunities or because they could not remain in their original countries? How many people do you know who are refugees? What do you think are the main differences between refugees and immigrants who chose to come to the U.S.?
2. Compare and contrast what Arab and Jewish refugees faced after the 1948 War of Independence. How far did each group have to travel, how different was the culture and language they came to, and what were living conditions like for each group?
3. Over 850,000 Jews lived in Arab lands in 1947. Many had lived in these countries for millennia. After Israel’s victory in the 1948 War, rising persecution and anti-Jewish laws forced almost half a million of them to flee. Subsequent Israeli victories and rising persecution led to the flight of other Jews. Today, only 5,600 of the 850,000 remain in Arab countries. How would you explain this phenomenon, and what new insights does it give you about the “refugee problem?” Why do you think the Jewish refugees are not better known, and how do you think information about them might affect the debate about Palestinian refugees?
4. How is UNRWA unique, and how is its treatment of refugees different from the way the UN treats all other refugees under UNHCR (UN High Commission on Refugees)? What has been the effect of this different treatment? How do you think the Palestinian refugee problem should be solved? WHY do you think that the Arab countries do not absorb the Palestinians or improve their living conditions? Has this helped or hurt the
Palestinians?
5. What have Israel, the U.S., Arab countries, the UN and others done to assist Palestinian refugees? How has this assistance helped or hurt the Palestinian refugees?
6. The mid-20th century was called the “century of the homeless man” because tens of millions of people became
refugees in the aftermaths of World Wars I and II, the division of India and Pakistan (14 million refugees), the war between North and South Korea, and other conflicts. What happened to these refugees, and how did their experience differ from what happened to Jewish and Arab refugees?
7. “What ifs” often don’t work well when applied to history because one cannot predict what unexpected events would have occurred, but it has been argued that if Arab states had accepted the UN Partition Plan in 1947 to create an Arab state alongside a Jewish state, there would have been no war and no refugees, and today an Arab Palestine, like Israel, would be celebrating its 60th anniversary. How valid do you think this argument is?
8. What do you think would be the best solution for the refugee problem? How legitimate is the Palestinian refugee demand for a right of return? How many other refugees from other conflicts have demanded or exercised such a right? |
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Activity 4
Complete PDF |
