U. N. Aids Arab Refugees

United Nations Department of Public Information

Transcribed from the clipping

“For no other word than ‘disaster’ can better describe the desperate plight of a swarming mass of refugees—nearly half a million men, women and children—who fled from their former homes in Palestine… Most of the refugees are poverty-stricken Fellaheen and Bedouins dislodged by the hazards and strategy of the armed [fighting] between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Their exodus resulted from panic created by fighting in their communities, and by rumors concerning alleged acts of terrorism or expulsion… The Israeli Government refused to re-admit the Arab refugees to the territory under its control because of ‘overriding immediate security considerations.’ It believed that the return during the truce of thousands of displaced Arabs to the state of Israel, which is still surrounded by hostile armies, would gravely prejudice its position… An early settlement is a matter of life and death to both peoples most immediately concerned, the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs.”

Photograph caption

“EPIDEMICS KNOW NO FRONTIERS—Countless flies that follow the swarming mass of refugees, harass children, can spread infection on disastrous scale… 850 new cases were reported in one small area alone.” · “VICTIMS OF THE [WAR] — Young woman and child. It is estimated that roughly 66 per cent of refugee population consisted of children up to 18 years of age, while slightly more than 10 per cent were pregnant women and nursing mothers, and 8 per cent were aged, sick and infirm people.”

Context added by this archive

The earliest security-reasons explanation in this archive by thirty-seven years, and it is given for refusing to let people go home. The word Fellaheen is still ordinary English here.

Cite this item

"U. N. Aids Arab Refugees," Tampa Bay Times, 5 December 1948. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-051. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-051

Elsewhere in the archive

U.N. report says Israel tortures Arab prisonersTampa Bay Times · 10 November 1977 · the same newspaper
JEWS TAKE TWO FORTS FROM ARABSMt. Vernon Register-News · 1948 · the same year
CRISIS NEARS CLIMAXChicago Tribune · 9 February 1948 · the same year
ISRAEL CALLS FOR U.N. STEPS TO STOP ARABSChicago Tribune · 9 February 1948 · the same year

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1948-051.

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