The Arab refugees

[Music] the situation of the refugees worse this time than it has been before certainly i mean the first time the people at least got temporary settled down they've built some huts in the area where i was working but now as you would see the thing went back to how it was in 1949 back in 10th with the condition of the weather here the dust and the nature of the land no water so far and the temperature can be around 40 today 40 centigrade east jordan 1967 for the third time war in the middle east has forced many palestinian arabs to become refugees these new refugees are added to the million 300 000 whose plight has a history of nearly 20 years the planes were flowing very low over our camps and the situation was horrifying because the people started running out of the camp as few of the bombs fell here and there and we had to go out i was planning to take my family to a safer place so i just brought them down to our man izak nashishibi is an area officer for the united nations relief and works agency he has been a refugee since 1948. how do you feel about all this yourself [Applause] well i don't think anybody would be pleased from the situation we are living in [Applause] how would you how would you feel yourself being a refugee twice in your life in 20 years not good that's how i'm feeling [Music] [Applause] an arab refugee in gaza how did your children feel when the fighting was going on around here oh they were very afraid they were very afraid and they were hiding between their families weeping and chowing well they were very afraid you can say how did you feel about the fighting around here how did you feel about when all the noise of the bombs [Applause] he was afraid he was hiding under the trees hiding in the under the trees and he when he was hearing the bombs and the guns he was very afraid every one of us had been and yeah i was always asking me father father stop this war stop this bumps as if i can stop this war [Applause] this is the this is his own feelings but you can't imagine defeating with a father when he finds his children afraid of war 1947 november 19 the united nations general assembly resolves to partition palestine into an arab state and a jewish state 1948 may 14 the mandate of the united kingdom in palestine expires a jewish state is proclaimed under the name of israel the following day the arab states institute armed action in palestine one result of the conflict is that seven hundred thousand arabs become refugees a few months after the 1948 war seven hundred thousand arabs who had formerly lived in what had now become israel were scattered throughout the middle east they were in the remaining parts of palestine the gaza strip and the west bank of the jordan they were also in the neighboring states of jordan lebanon and syria at that time the united nations was just three years old and the middle east became one of the un's earliest major areas of concern it was there that the u n first learned the art of peacekeeping first used soldiers to supervise an armistice but the huge refugee population was a constant reminder that the war which had made them homeless had never reached the peace table it could break out again as the years went on many ways of solving the problems of the middle east were suggested at the united nations none was adopted meanwhile the refugees went on living in exile their families grew larger their condition remained precarious [Applause] to meet the first needs of the refugees the united nations in 1949 had created unra the united nations relief and works agency for palestinian refugees dealt with the basics housing food health education at first it built crude shelters for the refugees in dozens of camps and educated their children in modern school buildings on ra helped find jobs for many but grateful as the refugees were for the humanitarian efforts of unra they never regarded the agency as anything more than a stop gap and on occasions when they felt that unra's well-intentioned efforts were threatening to make their situation permanent the refugees were sharply critical because their strongest desire was to return to their homeland the ezra aliens attacked us on 1948 hamdi herzella a palestinian refugee in gaza and those who were able to leave their country they left it is not by our own wish as we hear many times that the palestinians left their country by their own wish who i we want to use our minds who likes to leave his house his properties his land and to become as a refugee living on charity to say please other people give me russian this is unlogic well let me let me pose a very difficult situation just for the sake of an argument suppose suppose it is impossible to go back to palestine whatever is built on on hope of returning and i think you can't find any refugee any palestinian can argue if you say to him suppose that you will not return with something else he can't share you the argument at all believe me if anybody knows or he will be well informed about the problem we believe he will not support the palestinian arab refugees he will support the justice and we used all always to say that right over might and this is what we are asking for but now as an example gaza strip is a limited area 45 kilometers length with five to eight kilometers wet in this small area lives about 450 000 people the density here is higher than the netherlands then we are increasing and living in the same limited area what will happen in the future somebody says that you can go to the other arab countries but if anybody goes back to the report of mr davis dr davis he was the ex-commissioner general of onowa he says even this is not a practical solution because the arab countries they still have the non-employed people it means that they cannot economically absorb the palestinian refugees a fifth of the refugees from the 1948 conflict re-established themselves in the arab world they have never been a charge on unrwa the others were mostly poorer people of farming stock and it was their misfortune that the countries where they found refuge already had a surplus of peasant farmers those countries were facing grave problems in providing livelihood for their own citizens even so many of these poorer refugees found homes for themselves in towns and villages and the number of refugees living in the on rock camps never exceeded forty percent of the total refugee population but for them the temporary camps became permanent homes there was nowhere else to go the best they could hope for was gradual improvement of living conditions and that in fact happened sometimes to a marked degree and particularly in areas where there were opportunities for employment consequently some of the camps developed into thriving communities even though still at a fairly low economic level onra's area officer in jerusalem is tony becker john as they started living in tents they had nothing when their economic situation improved and when we were in the business of building shelters for them they started buying bedsteads mattresses thymuses rather than cook on you know wood i started buying some chairs perhaps a cupboard for the family perhaps a radio and throughout the years we really took great pride in the struggle for survival that these refugees put in trying to supplement what they got from us uh through their earnings no matter how modest they were so that they could feed their families and the fact that we never had any epidemic or any deterioration in health standards we always thought was the best proof that they were really putting up a heroic fight for survival and over and above that there was marked improvement in their houses so the refugees were not rotting in idleness there was some progress in their lives due chiefly to three factors first the accelerated economic development of the arab countries in which the refugees lived second the energy intelligence and adaptability of the refugees themselves who showed themselves eager for work and capable of seizing any opportunity given to them and third the education and training which host governments voluntary agencies and unra were able to provide for the young refugees which enabled them to take advantage of better employment opportunities now if any refugee is not educated it would be very hard for him to find a job because he is living in its educated community in addition the educated people can reach or gain or regain their rights better than the uneducated [Music] foreign established vocational training centers where thousands of young refugees learned trades and skills the jobs for which they were trained are in great demand throughout the arab world what what what is the name of the course uh this is the wilderness what what what's the name of the course what's the name of this course telecommunication what kind of a job will you get when you get out of this course what what kind of job what kind of work you do when you yes make uh kitchen sinks bathrooms [Laughter] you have wrong idea that women cannot work here and many many many many women are working really i thought that women really didn't get a chance to work here at all many do yeah well you get this impression all the time that in this part of the world people don't get a chance that women don't get a chance to work you have a wrong idea about it she has the right as a man what's that she has the right as a network really true yes why not i want to become a man and make money and build a house it's like this you think you'll get good job yes you think you're good at that what you're good at very yes my heart is very good [Applause] 1967 june the 5th war breaks out again between israel and the arab states [Applause] on the fifth it was monday [Applause] we stayed the whole night of course hearing the radio and the next day my brother my mother and me left from jericho to ant-man in the afternoon and we don't know what will happen time has not been a healing force in the middle east it is not likely to be one in the future by june of 1967 the refugee population had grown to a million three hundred thousand during and immediately after the june war another two hundred thousand arabs became refugees there are now twice as many refugees as there were in 1948 thing went back to how it was in 1949 back in 10th and no water so far what's gonna happen to these people here can they find jobs i don't see any jobs so far unless something unexpected develops in the meantime but i don't see any jobs they are relying totally on us i am only giving them fresh meals foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] [Applause] if you find any resistance on the part of the people i should think they'd be very frustrated at this point they are frustrated and i think these people have lost confidence in everybody in this world they were having and building big hopes on returning back to their homes and now they find themselves again in the wilderness living under tents and the under the worst circumstances a human being can ever live they are losing confidence in anything in the world now even the conscience of the world because they believe as they have put it to me i say again that in this world there is no justice but there are interests only and where interest goes justice disappeared [Applause] in this world there is no justice but there are interests only and where interest goes justice disappeared is yes [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] you know i hope that after i was graduated of course my my father died 20 years ago and we were very small we were older than four children with our mother and my mother wasn't working then we grew up and we began to work until we could be make our house completely with its furniture and to live like the other people not the in the high society but like other people and now at once all of it together nothing at all under the sun under the sky [Applause] [Applause] the first time from ramly near lidda to jericho of course before to madabad and to sultan then to ramallah and we stayed in jericho until now and now from jericho to amman and we don't know what will happen this is the time that's everything we are planning to give them some blankets them [Applause] during the 20 years they have suffered in addition to the miserable and bad life they have suffered from three wars 19. 1956 1967. they have lost their properties they have lost their sons they have lost their supports some of their families i can give an example of myself for instance in 1947 i have lost all my properties in in my village in 1948 my home in uh when i was a refugee in the village here the plans bombed my home my mother my brothers was killed we were a family with 25 persons 12 of them were killed in 1948 in this village in denver and in 1956 we have suffered we lost some of our properties and now we are suffering from losing some of our men for supports how can i think it is the same feeling my tribe they are feeling very sad and very miserable because any nation in the world if you put him under these circumstances will feel the same no improvement in their situation refugees suffering suffering from poverty suffering from need to everything to every kind of of help suffering from war three times within 20 years this is the situation a very simple word okay [Music] [Music] what uh these people have lost confidence in everybody in this world [Applause] i like to return to my country in sufficient [Music] if this is the this is the best thing i i hope from my god to to to happen if i can see my my village if i can return to to live there as a as a human being this is my my only wish we don't find the solution in due course and if the world will not be cooperative or us and help us may will we leave all the world to a to a damageful work because wise people in due course will not be heard if there are pressure and pressure and pressure you think that white men are still listening to now very limited for limited uh this time but but the time is coming where the wise men will be will not be heard at all and mad men will work and then can't know what no one can can imagine what will happen this is a very dangerous part of the world the middle east and everyone must take care of it because any kind of war may be widened and maybe stretch them may lead to a very damageable war secretary general uthant in my view the failure of the united nations over these years to come to grips with deep seated and angrily festering problems in the middle east has to be considered as a major contributing factor to the war of last june although naturally primary responsibility inescapably rests with the parties involved i am bound to express my fear that if again no effort is exerted and no progress is made towards removing the root causes of conflict within a few years at the most there will be in electively a new eruption of war released by the u.s broadcasters committee for the united nations you