The Arab Refugees: A Changing Problem

Abstract

THE Arab refugee problem is no longer the principal ob stacle to peace between Israel and the Arab states. This was indicated in the recent United Nations Palestine de bate. Concern of most Arab speakers about the refugees was secondary to their fear of the Zionist enclave in the Arab heart land. Nevertheless, the United States and the United Nations con tinue to regard the refugee problem as the key to peace in the 15 year-old conflict. The appointment of Joseph Johnson, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as Special Representative of the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine to devise ways of giving the refugees a free choice about their future homes, was based on the premise that the refugee prob lem is central in the Palestine conflict. After several rounds of parleys with both Israelis and Arabs, Dr. Johnson put for ward a series of still unpublished proposals which neither side has accepted. These envisage a scheme in which the refugees would be given an opportunity to make known whether they de sire to settle in Israel, in the Arab host countries or elsewhere. The process by which they would indicate their preferences would be administered by the United Nations. Israel would not be com mitted to accept all those desiring to return, but it would be ex pected to accept a limited number who could be absorbed with out jeopardizing its economic or military security. Dr. Johnson's plan is based on the belief that, although few refugees would want to live in the Jewish state, the opportunity to do so would give them a certain psychological satisfaction. With such a free choice they would, it was hoped, subsequently abandon their resistance to rehabilitation in permanent homes and jobs outside of Palestine.