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February 8, 2002
Right of return is valid
Letters
Editor: The issue of the Palestine refugees has emerged again,
and is being discussed in your paper. This is a welcome development.
The refugee issue is the big piece of unfinished business remaining
from the time of the creation of the state of Israel. Through the
decades of Arab-Israeli wars and the various attempts at a "peace
process," the refugees have been kept on the back burner. Israeli
politicians are responsible for this neglect, as are the Arab states.
As we work for an end to the violence and contemplate a new round
of talks, it is entirely appropriate for the refugee issue to be
front and centre. There is ample historic evidence to show that
the flight of the refugees was achieved by an Israeli policy that
would now be characterized as "ethnic cleansing." The
undeniable fact is that the Palestine refugees - those who fled
and those who were forcibly removed from their lands and villages
- are not permitted to return. In modern Israel, there are clearly
identifiable landmarks to almost 500 Arab towns and villages that
stood before the 1947-'48 war and are no longer there. These ruins
are a lasting monument to the unfinished business of the 1948 war.
The plight of the Palestine refugees is well-known. A half-century
of life in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, as well as in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has not made the refugees disappear.
The Arab states are at fault for the non-integration of the refugees.
The Israeli state is at fault for not permitting the refugees to
return.
Jewish people have every reason to see things from the refugees'
point of view. Most Canadian Jews are descendants of refugees from
European pogroms and the Holocaust. The first massive aliyah to
Israel was of Jewish refugees from the displaced persons camps of
Nazi-occupied Europe.
The demand of the Palestine refugees to have their right of return
recognized is, in effect, a plea to acknowledge their humanity and
realize their human rights. Jewish people are honor-bound to be
in the forefront of the campaign to recognize the right of return.
It is not our task now to debate (not to mention, determine) the
practical, logistical and financial arrangements under which the
right to return will be implemented. Our task now is to clearly
proclaim our commitment to the right of the Palestine refugees to
return to their towns and lands. By doing so, we will be clearly
stating that we do not identify with a "Jewish state"
that is founded on expulsion, discrimination, racism, persecution
and apartheid. We would be placing our struggle squarely on moral
ground. We would be guided by the moral imperative to "love
our neighbor as we love ourselves."
The ongoing fight against anti-Semitism goes hand-in-hand with the
fight against racism and apartheid. The struggle for the return
of the Palestine refugees is a struggle against a form of racism
and, eventually, for the security of the Jews who now live in Israel.
One day - let us hope it comes soon - the refugees will return,
there will be true reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, and peace
will become possible in the land that was promised to the seed of
Abraham.
Naftali Lavie
Toronto
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