Israël, toetssteen van de vredeswil der volkeren!

efjort to perstiade the Arab populace to remain and settle back into their normal lives in the town. Another convoy left Tiren for Transjordan and the evacuation by sea continues. The quays and harbour are still crowded with refugees and their household effects, all waiting an opportunity to get a place on one of the boats leaving Haifa. Some families have lived and slept on the quaysldes for several days waiting a chance to get away. Life in the New Business Centre has returned to normal with all shops and businesses functioning.

The steam trawler „TADORME” renamed the Haganah ship „OPERATION GASTEL” was brought into Haifa harbour at 5.30 a.m. with a total of 559 persons on board made up of 332 males, 182 females and 45 children. The illegals were transferred in the usual manner to the Empire Conford and the Empire Rest. During the transhipment the illegals twice refused to move from their ship and had to be get on the move again by naval and marine personnel. The transhipment was completed at 11.15 a.m. and the illegals left for Cyprus.

(Sgd.) A. J. Bidmead for SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE. ¹⁰) De Libanese krant „Sada al-Jamib” van 16 augustus 1948.

ⁿ) In een officiële publicatie van de Israëlische regering „The Arab Refugees” wordt gezegd: „The one and only instance of a jewish atrocity in this war, the destruction of the Arab village of Deir Yassin by a group of Jewish extremists, acting throughout in defiance of the Jewish national and military authorities and sternly disowned by them, added fuel to the flames”. Zij hebben daarmede de Arabieren gelegenheid gegeven om hun voorstelling van Joods gedrag jegens de bevolking als juist voor te stellen. Zulks in besliste tegenspraak met de waarheid. Zoals gedurende de oorlog afdoende werd bewezen.

¹²)    Dit nummer van Davar met een vertaling van dit vers kan op verzoek worden verkregen.

¹³)    Van belang voor een goed begrip van de achtergrond van de Arabische uittocht is wat hij schrijft op blz. 30 en 31 van zijn boek „New Star in the Near East” (New York 1950).

¹⁴)    Official Records of the fourth session of the General Assembly. Annex to the summary records of meetings Volume II.

Aanwezig in de boekerij Kon. Instituut voor de Tropen.

Vergelijk ook The Middle East Journal (Vol. 5 11951). Aanwezig in Instituut voor Moderne Nabije Oosten.

General Assembly. Official Records. Sixth session Supplement 16 (A-1905) Parijs 1951.

Progress Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine. General Assembly official Records Sixth Session Supplement 18 (A-1985).

¹⁵)    Op 25 maart 1953 verscheen er van de hand van een Egyptisch officier in Al-Tahrir een artikel waarin o.m. stond:

„I spent three days in the uncomfortable country (= Gaza) where I came to recognize as such all the lies that we read in the newspapers about the refugees, disease, cold, hunger, misery and injustice . . .

Hunger, misery and distress are not to be found in the refugee camps; they are in the villages and hamlets where the fellaheen live in the countryside of green Palestine, where gardens and oranges 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 Bureige, AI Nusseirat, Deir el Balah, Khan Yunis, Gabalia, Gaza, Raffah, Al Bughazzi. In all of them I saw the people eating their fill, drinking milk and living in comfort. The men lay on their backs in the warm sand and sunshine, or played dice; happy women carried their pink-cheeked babies, not the pale sickly babies which you see in our villages where there are no refugees.

A young Egyptian officer told me that whenever a refugee complains of sickness an ambulance with a doctor, a nurse and medlcines, hastens to attend to him. Do the sick villagers of our country enjoy such a treatment? Do our weakly children drink milk? Have you ever hcard of an Egyptian fellah wearing shoes?”

¹⁶)    In een verklaring van de Ad Hoe Political Committee op 19 november 1954 liet de vertegenwoordiger van de V.S. James J. Wadsworth, duidelijk merken, dat volgens hem te veel personen steun van de U.N.R.W.A. kregen, die daarvoor niet in aanmerking kwamen. Op 24 november 1954 herhaalde hij dit met nadruk. De hoogste getallen worden gegeven door Elmer Berger van de in Joodse huizen algemeen als Quislings beschouwde American Council for Judaism.

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