THE JEWISH NEWS

Lots of Obstacles Still Left

Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
•
Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35. Mich.,
VE. 8-9364. Subscription $5 a year Foreign $6.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich.. under Act of March 3, 1879

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

SIDNEY SHMARAK

FRANK SIMONS

Editor and Publisher

Advertising Manager

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the ninth day of Sivan, 5716, the following Scriptural selections will be
'ead in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion,- Naso, N11711. 4:21-7:89. Prophetical portion, Judges 13:2-25.

Licht Benshen, Friday, May, 18, 7:30 p.m.

VOL. XXIX No 11

Page Four

May 18, 1956

Vital Facts About the Arab Refugees

No other question on the world
agenda has been so distorted as that re-
lating to the Arab refugees. Their num-
bers have been exaggerated, its causes and
its genesis have been clouded in misstate-
ments, the manner in which the refugees
are being treated by their own Arab kins-
men is being kept a dark secret, and the
world at large is unaware of the strenuous
efforts that are being made by the Arab
nations to perpetuate the problem by
making it the chief weapon against
Israel.
Every move in the direction of clari-
fying the issue must, therefore, be wel-
comed and encouraged. •
In a letter to the New York Times,
in which he 'takes issue with figures of-
fered in the discussion of the Arab refu-
gee problem, Johan J. Smertenko, execu-
tive vice-chairman of the Committee to
Save the Middle East from Communism,
presents the following facts:

"In three of these (articles) the figure
of 1,000,000 was used loosely as the number
of Arabs in the refugee camps. In Lindesay
Parrott's article the official figures of the
United Nations Relief and Work Agency for
Palestine Refugees were presented, totaling
905,986.
"That these statistics are inaccurate is
proved in the article itself. Mr. Parrott cites
last year's report stating that 835,928 were
fed 'whole rations,' and he quotes Director
Henry R. Labouisse of U. N. W. R. A. to the
effect that 'there are at least 70,000 names
on the rolls against which rations are drawn,
which should be deleted.' This brings the
figure down to 765,928. Actually the last
figure is as inaccurate as all the others.
"There can be no more than 500,000
genuine refugees in the Arab camps. Even
this figure is based on the statistics of the
British administration in Palestine, which
were admittedly estimated on exaggerated
reports by Arab village chiefs. For in 1948
there were less than 500,000 Arabs in the
area which is now Israel. Of these, slightly
more than 100,000 remained in that territory
and about 20,000 _returned to it after the
invasion of Israel by the Arab states.
"Simple arithmetic thus shows that not
more than 380,000 Arabs permanently obeyed
the order of the Supreme Arab Command
to leave that territory. Immediately after
the Arab-Israeli war, the Arab press, which
is not noted for understatement, stated re-
peatedly that there were 300,000 refugees.
"Assuming that the Arabs have • been
multiplying at the highest birth rate known
in the world, 4 per cent a year, these 380,000
refugees could not have increased to a figure
beyond 500,000. How, then, does U. N.
W. R. A. arrive at the figure of 905,986 or
835,928 or '765,928?
"The fact is that the census figures of
the refugee camps are falsified by not regis-
tering the dead and by a multiple count of
the inhabitants, especially the children, be-
cause the refugee organization lacks the
means to conduct a proper census and to
control the camp population on census days.
As some of the U. N. W. R. A. officials have
testified, children are moved from tent to
tent and registered several times in order
to enable the occupants of these tents to
receive large allotments of food and clothing.
"But even these falsifications do not
account for the vast increase and the great
discrepancy between the actual number of
genuine refugees and the number of inhabi-
tants in these camps. The difference is made
up by the infiltration of Arabs from the
surrounding countries, Arabs who have never
seen the soil of Israel but who prefer life
in these camps to the wretched existence in
their own villages.
"In view of the importance that has been
given to the refugee question in the solution
of the Arab-Israeli problem, it is vital to have
accurate statistics and to understand the
reasons for the inaccuracy that has been so
well propagated. It makes nonsense of the
lachrymose propaganda of the Arab states
when we realize that the action of the fella-
kin contradicts the complaints of the Arab

spokesmen in the United Nations and else-
where on the plight of the Arab refugees.
"These spokesmen use the number and
condition of the refugees as a potent weapon
in their campaign against Israel and as a
plausible excuse for their refusal to make
peace. The impression that a million human
beings are living in misery is both wrong
in fact and prejudicial in its implications.
When American newspapers repeatedly ac-
cept these inaccurate statistics, they unwit-
tingly play into the • hands of those who are
exploiting the situation."

We completely share the view that
misrepresentations about the Arab refu-
gees assist in creating tensions and that
they play into the hands of those who
seek to perpetuate a state of war in the
Middle East. We repeat what we have
stated time and time again: that the refu-
gee problem is being exaggerated, that it
is being totally distorted, that Israel's
enemies would vanish once they become
informed about the truth of the situation.
More than that: it is our contention that
the refugee problem can and should be
settled speedily. But the Arab politicians
stand in the path of progress and seek to
prevent the integration of the refugees
into a wholesome economic society. That's
where all the trouble comes in. That's
wherein obstruction hinders a lasting
peace in the Middle East.
Mr. Smertenko may have underesti-
mated figures. He has merely scratched
the surface in dealing with the refugee
problem. There are issues ,involving com-
pensation, partial resettlement in Israel
and the willingness of the Arab states to
cooperate in a humane program of re-
patriation. But insofar as vital figures are
concerned, he has called attention to mis-
statements that must be corrected.
A protagonist of the Arabs, Prof. Millar
Burrows, of Yale University,—the author
of one of the popular books on the Dead
Sea Scrolls—in a reply to the Smertenko
letter, also published in the New York
Times, insists that "freedom to return to
the places from which they fled must be
given to those who still wish to return.
This is one point on which Isrealis must
differ with him and on which the practical
men in the United Nations agree with the
Israelis. A return 'of the refugees, whose
minds have been poisoned during eight
years of inactivity in concentration camps
that were created for them by Egypt and
other Arab countries, would mean the in-
jection of a fifth column in Israel and the
inevitable destruction of the country. This,
Israel will not submit to, and Israel's
friends will not yield to it.
Prof. Burrows calls for "real and ade-
quate compensation." Israel has offered it.
Israel has made it possible for relatives of
Arabs now residing in the Jewish State
to return to their former homes and to
rejoin their families. Why do the apolo-
gists for the Arabs overlook this important
fact? The United Nations and the United
States are prepared to assist in a refugee
rehabilitation program which must be
made effective in the only workable area:'
in the underpopulated Arab states where
labor is at a premium. These countries, as
well as the Arab refugees, can be helped in
that fashion, and a world problem thus
can be solved. But the Arab politicians
find it more convenient to keep their
kinsmen enslaved, to perpetuate their
problem as a weapon against Israel. The
wisdom of the statesmen of the Western
world is needed to impress upon the ob-
structionists the advisability of a speedy,
realistic solution. And realism dictates that
these unfortunate people can not return
to Israel; that the sooner they are resettled
in Arab countries the healthier for all in-
volved. Then we may indeed have peace in
the world.

Hayim Hazaz's 'Mori Sa'id'

Novel About Yemenite Jews

Thanks to Eretz Israel, the world has been introduced to
a very romantic people. From the backward country of Yemen
has come a very fine element. The Yemenite Jews now are an
important factor in Israel's life. They help in the State's up-
building. They assist in its de-
fense. They are wholesome and
productive.
They also have a personal life.
They laugh and they cry. They
dream and they also sin — al-
though, to qualify the latter,
they are perhaps the most re-
ligious element in Israel.

•

But few people know or un-
derstand them. That is why the
new novel, about these Sephar-
dim, "Mod Sa'id," by the able
Ashkenazi writer, Hayim Hazaz,
assumes such great importance.
"Mori Sa'id," published by Abel-
ard Schuman (404 4th, NY16)
was ably translated from the
Hebrew by Ben Halpern, editor
of the .Jewish Frontier.
The author was born in the Ukraine in 1898 and came to
Israel in 1931. Thirty years ago he began his writing career
with three stories about the October Revolution and its effect
on"Jewish life in Russia. From that time on he became widely
known and admired as a Hebrew writer. His "Mori Sa'id" en-
hances his career.
The story is fascinating. Mori Sa'id is a dreamer. He is
a pious Yemenite whose auguries are listened to with - awe,
especially by his admirer Mori Alfekah.
Mori Sa'id tells stories. He relateS legends. He prophesies
about the inevitable rise of the State of Israel.

They are not alone in the cast of characters. There is Sa'id's
son Sion who fails to support his family, whose wife and daugh-
ter must do housework for the Ashkenazim., who buys a donkey
and by leasing it for rides is enabled finally to earn hand-
somely. But Sion does not give his family any money. He turns
instead to the immoral Habiba who becomes his mistress. Even
that does not last, when Habiba runs off to Jaffa with an Arab.
Then there is the pathetic Naama, Sion's wife, who must
work and take care of the children. Their daughter Rumyeh
falls in love and later defies her family by, running off and
enlisting in a kibbutz.
The life of the old and of youth, the discussions of problems
of the working youth, the search for a younger wife by Mori
Alfekah — all combine to make a fine tale and to take the
reader into the interesting Yemenite circle. This reviewer was
especially intrigued by this description of the Yemenites by
Mori Sa'id:
"We Yemenites are the descendants of those corpses whom
Ezekiel resurrected, and a hasty tribe we are! We didn't wait
till we raised flesh and grew sound, -but no sooner had our
bones come together bone unto bone, and the sinews came
upon us, then at once—ha! ha!—we sprang and stood on our
feet."

"Mori Sa'id" reveals anew that Israel has a culture, that
her people lend themselves to narratives and to fiction, that
the new State is a normally functioning entity. Hayim Hazaz's
fine literary work adds to this cultural development.

Numerous other novels about Israel, and from Israel, are
making their appearance. It is a revealing phenomenon of an
infant state's creativeness in spite of security difficulties. It it
part Of the strength of a reborn spiritual community.