Palestinian Refugee's

We note that the Arab population fled or were expelled during the war that created modern Israel. (Estimates of the final refugee count range from 600,000 to 900,000 with the official United Nations' count at 876,000. ).Many emigrated to other countries, such as the US and Canada; most, however, remained in refugee camps in neighboring countries. According to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the majority of refugees are located in three Arab countries, Jordan: 1,718,767; Syria: 409,662; Lebanon: 391,679. In 2004, there were 4 million Palestinian refugees registered with the UNRWA. [1].

We acknowledge areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, have 907,221 and 654,971 refugees respectively [4].

We think this situation is a parallel that can draw on to the time of the American Revolution, during which many colonists who were loyal to England fled to Canada. The British wanted the newly formed republic to allow the loyalists to return to claim their property. Benjamin Franklin rejected this suggestion in a letter to Richard Oswald, the British negotiator, dated November 26, 1782:

"Your ministers require that we should receive again into our bosom those who have been our bitterest enemies and restore their properties who have destroyed ours: and this while the wounds they have given us are still bleeding!"

We think that the readmission of the refugees would be the equivalent to the admission to the United States (U.S.) of nearly 70,000,000 sworn enemies of the nation. We note how the U.S. is dealing, badly, with over 10 million illegal aliens and their 5 million childern.

We note that the Palestinians are the only displaced persons to have become wards of the international community for decades.

We take not of Israel’s agreement to pay compensation to the Palestinians who fled during 1948 can be contrasted with the treatment of the 12.5 million Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia, who were expelled after World War II and allowed to take only those possessions they could carry. They received no compensation for confiscated property.

World War II's effects on Poland’s boundaries and population were considered "accomplished facts" that could not be reversed after the war. No one in Germany petitions today for the right of these millions of deportees and their children to return to the countries they were expelled from despite the fact that they and their ancestors had lived in those places for hundreds of years.

We rake note of another country seriously affected by the war was Finland, which was forced to give up almost one-eighth of its land and absorb more than 400,000 refugees (11 percent of the nation’s population) from the Soviet Union. Unlike Israel, these were the losers of the war. There was no aid for their resettlement and no UN resolutions.

We understand that UN General Assembly Resolutions have only a recommendatory character and that United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 [1] was passed on December 11, 1948, near the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

We have read section 11 of this resolution which says in whole, "Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;

Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations;"

Cincinnati Change and it's members are supportive of solutions to the problem of refugee's so as to bring about Global Change that brings about peace.