THE CARAVAN · Brooklyn, New York · 31 December 1959
CP-1959-006
STATEMENT ON ARAB REFUGEES
Dr. Izzat Tannous, Director of the Palestine Arab Refugee Office, before the Special Political Committee of the United Nations, 30 November 1959 · Part IV
Transcribed from the clipping
“I happen to be a Christian Arab of Christian parents born in Nablus in Palestine. My home is in Jerusalem where I lived all my life. I am not permitted to go back to my home by the Israelis… for the simple reason that I was not born a Jew… my home is only 300 yards away from the armistice line… I see them both in front of me and I see people in them going in and out, but I cannot move one inch forward… Give me the desert on Earth, Give me back my home.”
Context added by this archive
A Palestinian speaking at length, in the first person, in an American newspaper, in 1959. The same man had been quoted by the Associated Press in a Virginia daily five years earlier. The page around him carries a concert notice at Our Lady of Lebanon Church Hall and news of who is visiting whose family.
Cite this item
"STATEMENT ON ARAB REFUGEES," THE CARAVAN, 31 December 1959. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1959-006. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1959-006
More from THE CARAVAN
- Arab Refugees Get $5,000 From Jewish Charity FundTHE CARAVAN · 14 December 1961
More from the 1950s
- Plight of Refugees in Jordan DepictedChicago Sunday Tribune · 11 January 1959
- Plight Of The PalestinianOdessa American · 10 November 1959
- CARE Seeks To Help Hungry Arab Refugees From PalestineEnid Morning News · 18 November 1959
- Israelis Ease CurbsEvening Star · 26 November 1959
- Arab Refugees—A Jewish ProblemThe Daily Report · 3 December 1959
- Christmas in the Gaza StripEvening Star · 25 December 1959
- All 77 clippings from the 1950s →
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1799 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency 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.
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