Category: Israel and refugees

Al Qaeda is looking into disguising terrorists as refugees to get into Israel

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have scarcely any time to post these days, but I wanted to bring this article from Haaretz to your attention:

The Yemen-based arm of Al-Qaida is examining the possibility of infiltrating terrorists into Israel disguised as Somali refugees crossing the border from Egypt or even as new immigrants from Ethiopia.

Shi’ite rebels yesterday sent another letter to Haaretz, the latest of several, in which they quote from a letter sent by Al-Qaida to members of a Salafist group in the Gaza Strip that is opposed to Hamas.

(Italics are because the icon for indenting has disappeared and I don’t have time to figure it out. That’s a quote from the newspaper. My comment follows.)

Israel has traditionally had a humane policy toward refugees, lax even until recently. Trust Islamic terrorists to find a way to take advantage of it.

Solution to the Palestinian “refugees” problem: show they are not refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Nitzia Nachmias, a senior researcher at the Jewish-Arab Center who also teaches in Asheklon College and the University of Maryland, has a new approach to the Palestinian “refugee” problem that is probably the correct one.  In a recent interview she  explained to Arutz Sheva:

“there’s no such thing as Palestinian refugees. If people would stop calling the places in which they live ‘refugee camps,’ then they would see that these places are just like villages and towns anywhere else, and the inhabitants are totally rehabilitated… Refugee camps are like the maabarot [in which Israel housed its hundreds of thousands of new immigrants from North Africa and elsewhere] in the 1950’s or the camps now in Haiti – not the villages with streets and stone houses in what is known as Palestinian refugee camps of today.”

She also noted that most of those Palestinians living abroad who claim to be refugees have been fully integrated into their host countries, meaning they are technically no longer refugees.  There has been a lot of fuss lately about Palestinians in Lebanon who are barred from certain professions, making it seem as if this situation is widespread.  Lebanon should be pressured to change that, but as Nachmias said: “Only in Lebanon are there refugees who are not allowed to work in certain professions; they are a small fraction of the total.”

Professor Nachmias also pointed out that the Palestinian “refugees” do not fit the definition under international law. That law defines a refugee as “an individual or family that was forced to run away – but this definition does not extend to children, a community or a group.”  And certainly not to the descendants of these people in perpetuity.

Her recommendations are these. First:

“We can’t simply push it off to the ‘final status talks’ and say, ‘We don’t accept the demand for the right-of-return because it will destroy the Jewish character of our state;’ what do they care about our Jewish character? If they deserve to be here, then it’s tough luck on us! Rather, Israel should take a pro-active approach, basing itself on international law and precedents, and declare that the Palestinian refugee issue no longer exists. They are no longer refugees!”

And second:

“Israel must nullify the status of Palestinian refugee camps; there is no other place where the UN controls territory. We must send the UNRWA out and transfer the control of these places to the Palestinian Authority, and then when the status of each individual resident there is reviewed, we will see that none of them match the legal definition of a refugee, and they are established citizens.”

This is brilliant and it’s true. If her recommendations were followed, Israel might be able to solve the seemingly intractible problem of the “refugees” in a fully legal way. I don’t know how the countries where Palestinians live would be forced to give them citizenship, but that would be necessary. Such a solution would greatly benefit the Palestinians. Almost anything the UN runs messes up the lives of the people it controls, and UNRWA, the agency for these “refugees,” has been a force for great misery and evil. Where Palestinians have gained some autonomy and stopped depending on UNRWA for their existence they have built up an economy and thrived, as is the case in some of the West Bank towns.  

I can’t find any reaction from the Israeli government or anyone else in the more than two weeks since this interview, but to my mind this is an important development.

Debbie Schlussel obtained the affidavit in the Somali illegal alien case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a further update on the case of the 270 Somali illegal aliens who have come into the US across the Mexican border (the 270 we know of!). Hat tip:  Janet   See the affidavit and Schlussel’s commentary here.   Schlussel makes these important points in her introduction to the post:

Anthony Joseph Tracy a/k/a Yusuf Tracy a/k/a Yusuf Noor (strangely none of the press reports use his Muslim names–why?) sold out America, after converting to Islam in prison in the 1990s. Then, he went to Somalia, made contact with Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen a/k/a Al-Shabaab, the Somalian chapter of Al Qaeda, and helped the group smuggle in 270 Somali Muslims–likely all Islamic terrorists–into America. And I’m sure he isn’t the only one doing this. Just the only we’ve caught.

Once again I will remind new readers that the US State Department is beefing up the Somali refugee numbers for this fiscal year.  6000 who could not get along with other camp inhabitants are on the way from Uganda and inside sources indicate that as many as a total of 13,000 Somalis are in the pipeline from around the world.  We even bring illegal alien Somalis that arrive in Malta to the US (Update:  I see more are on the way from Malta just today, here)

If you work with Somalis or have any interaction with them and learn of some mysterious new arrival(s) (the 270 possible al-Shabaab jihadists have surely melted into cities with large Somali populations*), you must contact authorities. 

*Of course the top of the list is Minneapolis.  But, other cities with large Somali populations include:  Seattle, WA, San Diego, CA, Phoenix, AZ, Lewiston and Portland, ME, Boston, MA, Columbus, OH, Rochester, MN, Atlanta, GA, Nashville, TN, Greeley and Ft. Morgan, CO, Grand Island, NE, and Kansas City, MO (those are just the ones off the top of my head!).

For new readers:

For information on Somali missing youths, American citizens who have gone to Somalia to learn the Jihad trade, some leaving through Mexico, use those search words.  We have written dozens of stories on the case.  For more on Al-shabaab (sometimes spelled Al-shabab) also use our search function.

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US (this linked post continues to be one of the most widely read posts we have ever written) in the last 25 years and then in 2008 had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened (that we know of), but will be soon. 

Nevertheless, thousands of Somali Muslims continue to be resettled as I write this. We recently learned that we will be taking 6000 Somalis this year from one camp in Uganda and as many as 11,000-13,000 total from around the world.

Israel wants to bring issue of Jewish refugees into peace talks

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When Israel was founded, hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Arab countries, or forced to leave in other ways and their property was seized without compensation. You haven’t heard much about them until recently, but in the last couple of years some groups, individuals and legislators have been bringing this chapter of history into public consciousness. We posted on it here where we discussed the film, The Forgotten Refugees, and here, where we give an overview and more links.

The issue has been in the news lately because the Israeli Knesset (parliament) has been discussing a bill dealing with these refugees. Here’s the most complete report I’ve seen, in the Jerusalem Post of February 18, 2010. It begins:

Israeli lawmakers are seeking a law that will make compensation for Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries after 1948 an integral part of any future peace negotiations.

Lawmakers put together a bill demanding compensation on behalf of current Jewish Israeli citizens, who were expelled from Arab countries after Israel was established in 1948, leaving behind a significant amount of valuable property.

Originally submitted almost a year ago to the Knesset, the bill passed its first hearing two weeks ago. Now various interest groups are pushing the bill with the Knesset’s 120 members before it is subjected to a second and third hearing next week. 

The bill was sponsored by MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) and follows a resolution passed in the US House of Representatives in 2008, calling for refugee recognition to be extended to Jews and Christians similar to that extended to Palestinians in the course of Middle East peace talks.

We reported on the Congressional effort here. As the updates to that post show, the resolution passed by voice vote on April 1, 2008.

Compensation is not the only issue, according to a Canadian former justice minister who was at the Knesset during the discussion of the bill.

“We’re not just speaking about financial compensation or indemnification,” Cotler said. “We’re talking about justice for Jews from Arab countries. This speaks to the question of, among other things, rectifying the justice and peace narrative of the last 62 years where the question of Jews from Arab countries has not been part of the narrative.”

“There have been more than 160 UN resolutions on the matter of refugees,” he continued. “All 160 dealt with Palestinian refugees only. I’m not saying they shouldn’t address Palestinian refugees, but I’m saying there’s no justice and no truth if it does not also address the plight of Jews seeking justice from Arab countries.”

The bill is specifically directed at any peace talks with Arab countries.

The Israeli bill stipulates that “The state of Israel will not sign, directly or by proxy, any agreement or treaty with a country or authority dealing with a political settlement in the Middle East without ensuring the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries according to the UN’s refugee treaty.”

“In any discussion where the Palestinian refugee issue is brought up in the framework of peace negotiations in the Middle East,” it continues, “the Israeli government will bring up the issue of compensation for loss of property and giving equal status to Arab refugees who left their property after the state was established and to Jewish refugees from Arab countries.”

One website is reporting the bill passed, but as there’s nothing in the Jeruslam Post I’m not announcing that yet.

Update 2/24/10: The World Jewish Congress reports the bill passed in the Knesset. It comments:

Stanley Urman, the head of the advocacy group Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, welcomed the Knesset decision, saying: “The world must realize that Palestinians were not the only Middle‐East refugees; that there were Jewish refugees who also have rights under international law. This recognition is good for the State of Israel and it is good for the people of Israel.”

Arab mistreatment of Palestinians raises no outcry

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I was surprised and pleased to see that the Huffington Post published this column by David Harris, head of the American Jewish Committee, about the “rank hypocrisy and transparent double standard” (his headline) when it comes to reporting on the Palestinians. Harris writes:

In a recent edition of The New York Times, after seeing 25 column inches on p. A4 devoted to an article entitled “Israel Rebukes 2 in Attack on U.N. Complex,” I read a short news item two pages later. It wasn’t quite eight lines long, the fourth of five items under “World Briefing.”

Here are the first two (of three) sentences: “A human rights group criticized Jordan on Monday for stripping the citizenship of nearly 3,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin in recent years. Concerned about increasing numbers of Palestinians, who make up nearly half the population, Jordan began in 2004 revoking the citizenship from Palestinians who do not have Israeli permits to reside in the West Bank.”

He goes on to point out that this is indicative of the double standard and hypocrisy when it comes to Arab misdeeds regarding Palestinians compared to Israel’s (real or invented):

Since the story surfaced nearly a week ago, I’ve looked in vain for editorials, columns, op-ed pieces, or letters-to-the-editor on the citizenship policy. Couldn’t find a thing.

I checked on the usual addresses that profess to care about the Palestinian fate – the UN General Assembly, UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, Arab League, Organization of the Islamic Conference, and Non-Aligned Movement, among others – and found nothing.

I looked at the usually loquacious individuals and groups for whom the Palestinian issue is the alpha and omega of human rights questions – the first and last example of refugees ever produced by conflict – and met a blank slate.

Silence from the mayor of Malmo. Silence from the London School of Economics Student Union. Silence from the British trade unionists who want to boycott Israel. Silence from the Norwegian academics who wish to shun their Israeli counterparts. Silence from those who seek to remove Israeli products from Trader Joe’s and Carrefour supermarkets. Silence from the media outlets that can be counted on to slam Israel for every perceived violation of Palestinian rights. Well, you get the point.

Harris then brings up two other such instances of the silence about Arab mistreatment of Palestinians. One was in 1990 when Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait.

 After the Iraqi military was ousted, Kuwaiti officials ordered the expulsion of 3-400,000 Palestinians who had been living in the country, in some cases for decades. The Palestinians were accused of having served as a fifth column for Iraq. Out they went.

Think of it: 400,000 Palestinians who were integral members of society, kicked out just like that. Do you remember that incident? I learned about it only in the last few years, when Ann and I began RRW and I began paying attention to refugeee issues. And then there’s the more recent situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon, again around 400,000, most of whom have been there for decades.

 “Foreigners,” meaning Palestinians, are restricted from working in over 70 different professions in Lebanon, including medicine, dentistry, law and accounting.

Moreover, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon cannot today purchase property, and those who bought land before 2001 are barred from passing it on to their children. Only Lebanese citizens have the right to form non-governmental organizations. Palestinian refugees must do so through others since they are not accorded the chance to acquire Lebanese nationality.

In Israel, by contrast, Palestinians and anybody else can do all the things the Palestinians are barred from in Lebanon. Those who didn’t flee during the 1949 war, and their descendants, are citizens of Israel with voting rights, political parties, and members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, representing them. You might not have known that. It’s not the sort of thing the self-righteous of the world want to publicize.