Home Cultural Issues Other Cultural Issues Prager 5 Minute Videos Why Are There Still Palestinian Refugees? | 5 Minute Video
Prager 5 Minute Videos

Why Are There Still Palestinian Refugees? | 5 Minute Video

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It’s been seven decades since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and yet there are still an estimated 4 million Palestinian refugees…and zero Jewish refugees. With so many nearby Arab allies of the Palestinians, how did this happen? What does it say about Israel? What does it say about its Arab neighbors? Dumisani Washington, Diversity Outreach Coordinator for Christians United for Israel, explains.
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Script:

Visit Israel and you’ll be startled by how many colors you’ll see. I don’t mean the colors of the buildings or landscape; I mean the colors of the people — black, white, olive, brown and everything in between. Israel is a true United Nations. That’s because Israel is a nation of refugees — from everywhere.

And more than half of them are from — are you ready? — Arab countries.

Over 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from the Middle East and North Africa following the Arab countries’ attack on Israel when it gained its independence in 1948.

For over two thousand years these Jews had lived in the Arab countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq — and in the Muslim but non-Arab countries such as Turkey and Iran. Today, they form over half of Israel’s Jewish population.

Many of these Jews from Middle Eastern lands look, well, just like other people from Middle Eastern lands — of darker complexion with dark hair. Other Jews migrated from North Africa. So, why is their story so unfamiliar to most people?

The most important reason is that they didn’t remain refugees for long. But refugees they most certainly were: the vast majority forced to leave their homes, possessions and businesses behind. In other words, they came to Israel with nothing.

Some 650,000 of the Jews forced to flee North Africa and the Middle East became citizens of Israel. The other 200,000 fled to the United States and other Western countries.

To give you an idea of how few Jews remain in Arab countries, consider these numbers: There were 150,000 Jews in Iraq in 1948; today there are less than 10. There were 140,000 Jews in Algeria; today there are less than 50. There were 75,000 Jews in Egypt; today less than 20. The pattern is the same across North Africa and the Middle East.

Now contrast these forgotten Jewish refugees with the most celebrated refugees in the world — the Palestinians. How is it that the Jewish refugees are not even an afterthought, but the Palestinians are the longest lasting, most lavishly supported refugee population in the history of the world?

The answer is purely political.

After Israel gained its independence in May of 1948, the surrounding Arab nations attacked the new Jewish state. As a result about 700,000 Arabs living in Israel fled. Many left because of the war, and many did because they were told by Arab leaders to leave the Jewish areas. The idea was that they would return once the Jews and their state had been destroyed.

Khalid al Azm, the Syrian Prime Minister in 1948-49, admitted this Arab role in persuading Palestinians to leave. In his memoirs, he wrote: “Since 1948, we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave.” That’s how the Arab, later re-named Palestinian, refugee crisis was created.

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25 Comments

  4. Arab inhabitants are not originally from Palestine; they are considered external invaders who arrived in the 7th century, similar to the Turks who invaded in the 15th century. The indigenous populations of Palestine included Jews in Jerusalem and Galilee, Samaritans in Samaria, Chalcedonian and Miaphysite Christians, Greeks and Romans, Arameans, Edomites in southern Palestine, and Phoenicians along the northern coast. Among these groups, only Israel established a state with Jerusalem as its capital. There has never been a country called Palestine in history, including by the Arabs. The key question is, what percentage of today’s Palestinians are descendants of these groups with DNA tracing back to the Levant or Canaanites? Currently, 95% of Palestinians are Arabs, many of whom migrated from neighboring countries during the British Mandate to find works. The Palestinian cause was largely promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood, leading to the current situation. When it became clear that eliminating Israel was impossible, the 22 Arab countries withdrew their support or abandoned the Palestinians. Ironically, Iran has since taken up the cause, viewing Israel as the main obstacle to its ambitions in the Middle East.

  5. There were millions of Jewish settlements in the Middle East right from the time prior to Jesus Christ, who himself was a Jew. At that time, there was no Palestine land and how come Arabs are now fighting for a Palestinian State by eliminating the Jews of Israel?

  8. Thank you PragerU for your great videos. As a Hispanic liberal I look at Israel and the Middle East in a logical and informed way not from some Woke myopic way. I don't want to be popular and hip. I want to be well informed and logical!

  9. The ppl who hate Israel say it’s a “white supremacy state”-lmao. If they only knew that the Jews started out in the Middle East as a ppl of color (it’s true!). In fact, white people are only about 1/3 of Israel’s population!

  12. I'm not so sure about the argument that the Palestinians were called to leave before the war escalated. I think no radio record was ever found confirming this (even while there was massive listening in on each other at the time). But I don't disagree with the overall analysis.

  13. Palestinians of Gaza and Cisjordania live already in Palestine. But they are called refugees and get UNWRA money.
    It is like calling refugee an american citizen coming from Boston to live in New York city.

  20. It is a little known fact that, while 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel, 36% live here in the United States. Yes, over 76% of all Jews live in just two countries. There are about 6.6 million in Israel (remember that not all Israelis are Jews) and about 6 million here in the US. The next three countries down the list are not even close. #3 is France with 440,000. #4 is Canada with 393,000. #5 is the UK with 292,000. Argentina, Russia, German, and Australia follow them. From #10 on, the total is less than 100,000 and it quickly drops below 20,000. That means that, effectively, there are only two countries that Jews can go where they are completely free to practice their faith without persecution. (Remember that when you're a very small minority, you are forced to live under restrictions simply because you're not large enough to have a voice in how the place is run and, thus, people naturally don't consider your desires in their decisions.)

  22. Your omissions of information shows your poor attempt at manipulation. Israel gets $4 billion/year from American tax payers alone which is 4 times what you stated what Palestinians receive from the UN. So who is lavishly supported? Many of the Jews that returned to Israel had been European (Not North African) for quite some time and had the advantage of investment capital. It is a horrible situation and nobody deserves to be murdered, kidnapped, raped etc because of the actions of their government but your video is slightly misleading. Gaza has been referred to as an open air prison for quite some time and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank are referred to as an archipelago because they are not contiguous whereas much of the area occupied by settlers is. You neglected to mention: the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre; The annexation of the Golan heights is considered null and void by the United Nations. While I despise Hamas, whose leadership is calling the shots from 5-Star hotels in Qatar and agree that Palestinians would be better off with different leadership and that the money they use for weapons could serve them better when used for constructive things Israel is not perfect either. At several points in time you can find fault in one side or the other. If the battle of Jericho in the book of Joshua is true, well you decide what that means. If it is not true, then again, you decide. It does puzzle me why more "Palestinians" do not live in Jordan. There much to this issue to boggle one's mind but again, this video is somewhat manipulative. One could make the argument that the area belongs to Canaanites, Philistines, Egyptians … Also as a side note, the term anti-semitism is odd because Palestinians are Semites.