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The Miami Herald · Miami, Florida · 29 May 1977

CP-1977-008

The Palestinians

Will Thousands of Refugees Ever Have Their Homeland Again?

The Palestinians — The Miami Herald, 29 May 1977
The Miami Herald · Miami, Florida · 29 May 1977

Transcribed from the clipping

“More than 600,000 Arabs still live in 63 refugee camps in Israeli-occupied territories, like Gaza… But who are the Palestinians, where are they, and what do they want? Can they have a homeland as Carter has suggested, and if so, where? What are the major obstacles to finding a solution to the ‘Palestinian problem’?… This camp is a good place to start looking for an answer… It is called the Beach Camp. It is in a traditionally Arab area called the Gaza Strip, some 20 miles south of Israel’s Tel Aviv, on the shores of the Mediterranean. The site should be a land developer’s dream. But for nearly 30 years it has been one of the world’s most miserable slums. More than 36,000 Palestinian Arabs live here, supported in part by the United Nations… One young man on the street is Mohammed, 20, who was born in this camp, as were five brothers and a sister. His father, a hospital worker, fled Askelon in 1949, seeking shelter from the Israelis in an Arab area. Mohammed makes his living selling soft drinks in the hot sun but hopes to build a house outside the camp on government land. He has never had a full-time job. Another is Rafi, 23, father of three and expecting a fourth. He lives with his parents, also from a small Arab town now in Israel. He also was born in the camp and he makes some money laying tile. ‘I must get out of this camp,’ Rafi says. ‘I’m working to do it. It is the difference between day and night to be out of this camp.’ He pauses and then blurts: ‘There should be peace. Everybody is waiting for peace.’… There are an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians scattered throughout the world… Nearly half of all Palestinians live under Israeli control, either in occupied territories or in Israel itself. This is a potent political time bomb for the Israelis… ‘Does it make sense?’ asks Dr. Ramzi Rihan, a professor at Bir Zeit University on the West Bank. ‘Economically, I would say no. It is an arid land, largely devoid of natural resources. The Gaza Strip has great potential as a port, however, and Gaza might be developed for light industry.’ Dr. Mohammad Hallaj says: ‘It would fall into the category of a minor, underdeveloped country. But no one really knows what’s here. No studies have ever really been made.’… ‘We did not take the Palestinian problem seriously,’ acknowledges one high U.S. official. ‘We thought the Palestinians would be absorbed by neighboring countries.’ That hasn’t happened, and today we realize it is a major key to a solution in the Middle East. Arabs have claimed that for years. Almost any Palestinian will tell you instantly what he wants: ‘We want our land back.’… Mohammed Esa Dudir, a moderately well-to-do farmer near Hebron, who was born on the West Bank and whose ancestors have farmed land near Hebron for generations, has no vision of what needs to be done. ‘What we need here is peace. We do not want an army,’ he says. ‘What we want is the right to think and act for ourselves.’ He suggests that the West Bank be placed under international trusteeship and totally demilitarized for ‘five or six years’ to learn to get on its own feet. Then he advocates a vote on what should happen next. ‘Maybe we would join Jordan, maybe Syria, maybe neither. I don’t know. But we would like to decide that for ourselves.’”

Context added by this archive

Five Palestinians named and quoted: two men born in the Beach Camp in Gaza who have never had steady work, two professors at Birzeit, and a farmer near Hebron who wants a demilitarised trusteeship and then a vote. The farmer’s answer is the longest in the piece and the least quoted anywhere since. The feature shares its page with a column on the Anita Bryant campaign in Dade County, an essay on how the word gay changed, and the week’s bestseller list.

Cite this item

"The Palestinians," The Miami Herald, 29 May 1977. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1977-008. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1977-008

Elsewhere in the archive

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-1977-008.

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