Define “Refugees”

Before we begin, let’s define the term “Refugees”. The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as “[a person who] owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” However this definition does not describe self acclaimed Palestinian refugees. These Palestinian refugees are perpetual; it is a generational term. Therefore, their numbers have more than quintupled and have reached nearly 5 million; all of whom are all recognized by the UN as refugees. We cannot deny that many of these Palestinian refugees are suffering wherever they are living in the Middle East; however, it’s important to acknowledge how and why these Palestinians initially left Israel.

Why did they leave Israel?

There were four different reasons Palestinians left Israel. The first one was after the UN Partition Plan in 1947, when many wealthy Palestinians moved out in anticipation of conflict. Not long afterwards Arab leaders told residents to leave and promised them that they would return in only a few weeks. When Israel was established as a state many Arab residents left because neighboring Arab armies attacked Israel and they were in search of a safe haven. The final reason behind the departure of Arabs was when the Irgun raided Arab villages, forcing the citizens out. This occurred in approximately 14 out of the 400 Arab villages. Out of those four reasons, there is one reason, which resulted in the least amount of Arabs leaving Israel, that is legitimately Israel’s fault.

What about those who didn’t leave?

Let’s take a look at some of the Arab villages that exist peacefully within Israel today. Villages like Abu Gosh and Ein Rafa have citizens that live happily in Israel and have Israeli citizenship because they didn’t flee or attack Israeli cities after the declaration of the State of Israel. These and the other 1.7 million Israeli Arabs enjoy full rights, are considered first class citizens, and are contributing members of Israeli society. They are granted rights and respected as equals under the law. Gay rights, freedom of expression, religion, press, education, health care and many more, are enjoyed by Israeli Arabs. No Arab country does this for its own but Israel, the Jewish state, does it for all.

Forgotten Jewish refugees

Has anyone ever thought about those Jewish “forgotten refugees”? Before WWII between 800,000 and one million Jews lived in Arab countries; and almost all of them fled or were expelled from their homes in the twenty years after Israel was declared a state. The key difference between these two different groups of refugees is that the forgotten Jewish refugees were not kept in refugee camps, but instead became members of Israeli society. Why haven’t the 22 existing Arab countries taken in their refugees?

Refugee camps

Israel is often accused for running the Palestinian refugee camps terribly and making these refugees live in terrible living conditions. However if one were to zoom in and actually look at who controls these refugee camps, one would realize that these refugee camps are actually under the control of the UNRWA, not Israel. In addition, the refugees that are spread across Arab countries are living in terrible conditions because these Arab countries won’t take them in, but instead make them second-class citizens. Why should these millions of refugees be crammed into one of the smallest countries in the Middle East, where they would only cause more Israeli Palestinian conflicts, when Arab countries can take them in? These refugees have been used as pawns by the Arab countries to make Israel look even worse in the media.

Change the brand

Sympathy for these Palestinian refugees should be acknowledged; however, let’s change the brand and define refugees of both sides equally and fairly.

Written by Adam Billig