Crux of the Near East Problem

Suez carial, Arab Feudalism Attacked

Reproductions from the pages of "Al Tahrir" containing
'prosperous" way of life of the Arab refugees in Gaza.

(An AJP Feature)

The concern of Arabs in the
Middle East is not Israel, nor
Palestine, nor the refugee camps
which border the Jewish state—
the problem is the Suez Canal.
This invective against British
rule in the Canal area is part
of a report written by Ali el
Dali—an Egyptian, writing in
the Egyptian Army weekly, Al
Tahrir. The report was trans-
lated into English, and recently
appeared in the London Jewish
Observer and Middle East Re-
view.
It should be thoroughly un
derstood that the writer is
neither a lover of Israel nor the
Jews. Nevertheless, his observa-
tions, as an Arab, would indicate
that the trouble and unrest
Which exists in the Middle East
today is not in the refugee
camps (from which redound
tales of squalor and inhuman-
ity), but actually in British own-
trship of the Suez Canal and in
the unwillingness of rich Arab
landowners to aid their fellow
humans.
On a trip to the Gaza Strip,
Which is the basis for his article,
el Dali wrote:
"Hunger, misery and distress
are not to be found in the
refugee camps; they are in
the villages and hamlets where
the fellaheen (peasants) live,
in the countryside of green
Palestine where gardens and
orange groves flourish amidst
feudalism; for feudalism
breeds hunger and misery. In
the refugee camps, there is
security and plenty,
' "I visited seven of them: Al
Barege, Al Nusseirat, Deir el
Balah, Khan Yumis, Gabalia,
Gaza, Raffah, Al Mughazzi. In
all of them I have seen the peo-
ple eating their fill, drinking
milk and living in comfort. The
men lie on their backs in the
Warm sand and sunshine, or
play dice; happy women carry
their healthy, pink - cheeked
babies, not the pale, sickly ba-
bies which you see in our vil-
lages, where there are no refu-
gees."
The writer believes that should
there be a struggle, it should be
in the Canal Zone, and not in
Palestine—that the "imperialists
. divert us on the wrong road,
a road that leads not to the
cpanal Zone, but to Palestine."
Reporting further on his trip,
Dali writes of the great'
Wealth of many of the Arab
landlords, making a list of the
wealthiest while telling of pov-
erty among the people.

He relates the story of Mo-
hammad Abu Selim, the richest
man in Gaza, - who in one colony
alone possesses 1,500 dunams of
green gardens and groves. Mo-
hammad wanted to help solve
the refugee situation, so he
spent 15,000 pounds to build a
mosque.
"He invited the deputy gov-

poor, but the rich Palestinian
refused."

Despite their life of apparent
ease, the writer adds, the refu-
gees are not happy with their
plight. They have ties elsewhere
in lands where entry is refused.
They are tired of being beggars,
constantly seeking United Na-
tions aid.
But their existence, as refu-
ernor to the opening ceremony
gees, is not aided by either the
and wanted to hand him the British or their own wealthy
keys to the mosque. The, landowners, who contribute
Governor refused. He had ask-
mosques, but refuse to give up
ed the rich Palestinian to al- portions -of their land to aid
locate some of his lands to the their fellow men.

Strong evidence exists that
most medical schools in New
York State "appear to treat
Jewish applicants for admission
less favorably than non-Jewish
applicants," acording to a three
year study submitted to th?
State's Board of Regents by
Herman L. Weisman, chairman
of the Commission on Law and
Social Action of the American
Jewish Congress which conduc-
ted the study.
Weisman cited as evidence to
warrant this conclusion an an-
alysis of the disposition made
by the nine medical schools of
the state of applications sub-
mitted to them by 178 students
who had won scholarships on
the basis of written competitive
examinations conducted by the
Department of Education in
1950, 1951, and 1952.
In Violation of SFEPA
The Commission's study was
limited to a student group that
could meet the highest educa-
tional requirements in order to
discover whether students ap-
plying to these schools were be-
ing rejected for reasons of race,
religion or color in violation of
the State's Fair Educational
Practices Act.
The disposition of these ap -
plications over this three-year
period reveal that four of the
nine schools accepted so low a
proportion of Jewish scholar-
ship winners as to raise a strong

Israel Gets U.S. Aid; Faces Jordan Danger

. Continued from Page 1

Arab states face different, but
no less serious problems which
Israel-Arab peace, the report are deserving of equally sympa-
said, "would bring nearer to real- thetic consideration on the part
ization the hopes for a Middle of the United States."
East defense organization and
would also make possible a bet-
ter co-ordinated regional attack U. S. May Seek to Curb
on the economic problems of the Jordan's Violation of
area."
The committee said it was Israel's Frontiers
American diplomatic action at
"under no illusions that the pro-
gram of military, economic, and Amman aimed at curbing Jorda-
technical assistance for the Mid- nian violations of Israel's fron-
dle • East recommended in this tier is expected by Israel sources
bill is by itself a solution to the here. This was learned in the
area's problems, or that it will wake of an urgent call by Am-
by itself solve even the United bassador Abba Eban on the
States' problems in the area. State Department. The Depart-
A great deal more needs to be ment indicated concern over the
done, politically and diplomati- incidents, but expressed a wish
cally and particularly in the ap- for further consideration of the
proach to the area as a whole in facts.
American policy making."
Israel sour c e s anticipate,
Speaking of the Arab refugees, meanwhile, that action will be
the committee said : "Primary taken by Israel at the United
responsibility for these unfor- Nations to draw attention to the
tunate victims of hostilities continuation of attacks from the
rests upon the states of the Near Jordan side of the border.
East, as would readily be appar- Jordan May Agree to Talks
ent if the United Nations were On the Border, Situation.
to curtail or stop its program.
JERUSALEM, (JTA) — Jordan
It is incumbent upon- these may agree to Israel's proposal
states, therefore, to do their ut- that high level talks be held be-
most to reconcile their interests tween the two states to elimin-
with each other to the end that ate border tension, it was indi-
progress may be made during cated in informed quarters after
this necessary limited period Jordan representatives had con-
while assistance from outside sented in principle to such talks
the area is available."
during negotiations to halt infil-
"Israel," the committee said, trations.
"faces the most difficult kind of
Major General Vajn Bennike,
economic problems. A large pop- new United Nations truce chief
ulation, principally with an ur- in Palestine, arrived and im-
ban background, has been im- mediately went into conference
posed upon a small agricultural with Lt. Gen. William E. Riley,
country with few resources. An whom he is replacing.
economic boycott is maintained
The United Nations Pales-
against Israel by the Arab tine Conciliation Commission
states with whom it is techni- issued a statement here an-
cally still at war."
nouncing that arrangements
According to the report, "the for the resumption of the

Farband Labor Zionists to Buy
Nachla in Israel Through JNF

launched immediately and will
continue through the summer
months.
Each branch will be approached
to appoint a committee to rep-
resent it on the service com-
mittee, and to begin contacts
at once.
"There should be no problem,"
said Mr. Harold, "to raise the
necessary funds, and culminate
the campaign by presenting the
full amount for the Nachla to
the Jewish National Fund, at
the special event being planned
for this Fall by the Farband in
Detroit, when the order cele-
Farband b r anchea will be brates its 40th anniversary,"

The Farband-Labor Zionist
Order of Detroit, will buy a
liachla in Israel.
The decision for this major
undertaking was made at a
meeting of the City Committee
of Farband on June 18.
Ben Harold, chairman of the
City Committee, Simon Rich-
ardson and David Silver were
appointed co-chairmen to
spearhead the drive to raise the
funds for the project.
Plans are now being formu-
lated whereby the campaign,
mainly among members of the

original article, showing the

AK Study Reveals Discrimination
Exists in N.Y. State Medical Schools

scheme for the transfer to
Arab refugees of their ac-
counts blocked in banks in Is-
rael has now been completed.
As a result of assurances given
to the UN Commission by the
Government of Israel and of
the revised procedure for ap-
plication, the Council of Min-
isters in Jordan passed a res-
olution on June 3, permitting
Jordan citizens to sign the re-
vised application forms.

"In accordance with the agree-
ment reached between the spe-
cial representative of the
UNCCP and the Jordan Council
of Ministers and accepted by the
Government of Israel, the UN-
CCP is issuing, under its auth-
ority, an additional sheet to be
attached to the application
forms," the announcement said.
"This additional sheet sets out

briefly the terms of the release
of blocked accounts and states
also the firm assurance given
by the Government of Israel to
the Conciliation Commission
that the 10 per cent compulsory
loan will be refunded in full on -
all accounts when they are paid,
and that the availability and
payment of amounts over five
hundred pounds sterling is in no
way affected by their transfer
to the custodian of absentee
property. These accounts will be
fully available in future releases
that are made."
Before the suspension of the
scheme and up to the end of
May, more than 900 applications
had been rceived by the banks.
Of this number, more than 600
had already been approved for
payment by the Custodian of
Absentee Property. By the end
of June the transfers on ap-
proved accounts, at the rate of
fifty pounds sterling per month
on each account, will amount to
approximately fifty thousand
pounds.

Israel Demands UN Action
on Mt. Scopus Area Pact
TEL AVIV, (JTA)—Requesting

the restoration of a "lawful sit-
uation in the Mount Scopus area"
in accordance with the Israel-
Jordan agreement of July 7,
1948, the Israel Foreign Ministry
has asked UN truce chief, Gen.
William Riley, to take the neces-
sary steps to bring about the
agreed upon situation in the
village of Issawiya, in the Mt.
Scopus region. -
According to the 1948 pact,
only 150 Arab inhabitants were
permitted to return to Issawiya,
which was evacuated during the
Arab-Israel war. Israel claims
that there are now more than
1,000 Arabs living in the village.
Israel also complains that
"nothing has been done" to re-
open the Hadassah Hospital in
the Mt. Scopus demilitarized
zone whereas United Nations
agencies have set up a hospital
in the Augusta Victoria Building,
in violation of the general arm-
istice agreement.

Grave concern over the fu-
ture of Israeli villages in the
Jordan valley which have been
using Yarmuk River waters is
felt here following announce-
ment of a Jordan-Syrian pact
for use of the Yarmuk River
for power stations and irriga-
tion projects in the Arab
states. Diversion of the Yar-
muk for these purposes would
dry up irrigation systems in

some Israeli villages,

presumption of discrimination.
These were:
Universities Cited
Columbia University's College
of Physicians and Surgeons
which accepted 18.8 percent of
Jewish scholarship winners as
against 52.6 percent of the non-
Jews;
Cornell University's Medical
College, with 11.5 percent of
Jews as against 50 percent of
the non-Jews;
Rochester University's School
of Medicine which numbered
13.5. percent Jewish scholarship
winners as against - 55 percent
of the non-Jewish winners;
The New York State Univer-
sity. School of Medicine at Syr-
acuse which accepted only 27
percent of the Jewish scholar-
ship winners as against 87.5 per
cent of non-Jewish winners.

.

Two Non Offenders

The admission record of two
schools, Albany Medical College
and Buffalo University's School
of Medicine, with 25 and 33.3
percent of Jewish applicants ac-
cepted, respectively, as against
81.8 and 87.5 percent, respec
tively, of non-Jewish applicants,
indicated discrimination, al-..
though not as strongly as in
the case of the four schools.
mentioned.
Only New York University's
College of Medicine and the
New York State University's
College of Medicine at Long
Island University had accept-
ance records "strongly indicat-
ing that they pass on applica-
tions without regard to reli-
gion." NYU's admittance record
was 66.3 percent of the Jewish
scholarship winners and 46.2
percent of the non-Jewish. The
state operated college of LW,
in contrast to its sister school
at Syracuse, accepted 92.2 per-
cent of the Jewish scholarship
winners who applied and 100
percent of the non-Jews.
Contrasting Percentages
One hundred twenty-two
Jewish students had to file 1,006
applications to New York and
out-of-state medical schools be-
fore gaining admittance, for an
average of 8.2 applications. The
56 Christian students filed only
270 such applications for an av-
erage of 4.9.
The average of applications
to the nine New York schools
was somewhat lower for both
groups-5.3 for Jewish students,
on the basis of 647 applications;
and 3.3, representing 186 appli-
cations made by the non-Jews.
All told, New York's medical
schools accepted 39.5 percent of
the applications filed by Jewish
scholarship winners as against
62.5 percent of the others. Ex-
cluding NYU's and LIU's rec-
ords, however, the percentage
of Jewish applications accepted
by the other seven schools
drops to 18.8 as contrasted to
the high of 61.1 percent achiev-
ed by other members of the
scholarship group.
`Result Is Discrimination'
The survey analyzes the vari-
ous factors that might explain
away the discrepancy in treat-
ment of Jews and non-Jews and
in particular, discusses in de-
tail the theory that a large
number of Jews are turned
down because they come from
New York City.
Admitting that "statistical
analysis does not enable us to
determine whether this situation
(of g e o g r a phical preference)
prevails because of hostility to
the large proportion of Jews
and members of other minority
groups in the New York City
area," the researchers declare:
"Whether or not there is a con-
scious intent to discriminate,
the result •is discriminatory."
The Board of Regents was
urged by Weisman to have the
files of the New York medical
schools examined. Then "if the
implications of our study are
borne out, the Board of Regents
should take firm action to ac-
quire full compliance with the

law."

24—DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, June 26, 1953

