To  contact us

Phone: 020 8455 5140

Fax: 020 8731 760

Or emails as under officers (see home page, left hand side).

Postal Address 31 The Vale London NW11 8SE

 

The best way to end the dispute over the territories is for the Palestinians to fulfil their obligations under the Oslo agreements and other agreements, reform the PA, stop the terror and negotiate a final settlement based on a two-state solution.

 Myth # 7 “The Jews created the refugee problem by expelling the Palestinians.”

FACT

 Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN resolution to create two states in Palestine, not a single Palestinian would have become a refugee. An independent Palestinian state would now exist alongside Israel.

Myth # 8 “ Israel refused to allow Palestinians to return to their homes so Jews could steal their property”

 FACT

 Having won the 1948 War, which the Arabs had begun by invading Israel and refusing to countenance partition, Israel could not realistically have agreed to simply allow all Palestinians to immediately return, at a time when neither the Palestinians nor the Arab states recognised Israel or were willing to negotiate with it, remaining as they did in a state of war with Israel, contrary to Israel’s constantly expressed willingness to negotiate peace.

The Israeli government was not indifferent to the plight of the refugees; an ordinance was passed creating a Custodian of Abandoned Property "to prevent unlawful occupation of empty houses and business premises, to administer ownerless property, and also to secure tilling of deserted fields, and save the crops...."

  Some refugees were able to return..  Israel offered to take back a substantial number as a condition for signing a peace treaty. In 1949, Israel offered to allow families that had been separated during the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks (eventually released in 1953), to pay compensation for abandoned lands and to repatriate 100,000 refugees.

The Arabs rejected all the Israeli compromises. They were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel. Repatriation was made as a precondition for negotiations, something Israel rejected. The result was the confinement of the refugees in camps.

Myth # 9 “ Israel discriminates against its Arab citizens.”

 FACT Israel is one of the most open societies in the world. Out of a population of 6.7 million, about 1.3 million - 20 percent of the population - are non-Jews (approximately 1.1 million Muslims, 130,000 Christians and 100,000 Druze). Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights and representation in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament; in fact, Israel is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote.

The sole legal distinction between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel is that the latter are not required to serve in the Israeli army. This is to spare Arab citizens the need to take up arms against their brethren.

                       

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Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN resolution to create two states in Palestine, not a single Palestinian would have become a refugee.

Israel is one of the most open societies in the world. Out of a population of 6.7 million, about 1.3 million - 20 percent of the population - are non-Jews (approximately 1.1 million Muslims, 130,000 Christians and 100,000 Druze). Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights.