Ben-zvi Sees Population Exchange As Solution of Arab Refugee Problem

President Izhak Ben-Zvi of Israel has proposed that the Arab refugees be regarded as a fair exchange of population for the Jews expelled from Moslem countries and resettled in Israel. The Israeli President voiced this proposal in an interview with Agnes E. Meyer, published today in the Washington Post. Mrs. Meyer, respected Journalist and co-owner of the paper, is currently visiting Israel.

Mr. Ben-Zvi pointed out that Israel has adopted over a half-million Jews from Moslem countries. Since only about a half-million Arabs have left the country, this amounts to an exchange of population, according to Mr. Ben-Zvi. The detailed figures for Jewish immigration to Israel from Moslem countries given in the interview are: 50,000 from Yemen, 150,000 from Iraq, 200,000 from North Africa, 35,000 from Egypt, a few thousand from Syria and Lebanon, and many thousands from other non-Arab Moslem countries. Further more, President Ben-Zvi predicted that, in the future, Israel should get something like 300,000 additional immigrants from Moslem countries.

Citing precedents of peaceful population exchange, Mr. Ben-Zvi noted that the Turks and the Greeks made an exchange in 1923 and 1924, when about 1,500,000 Greeks from Turkish Anatolia came to Greece and, in exchange, about 1,000,000 Turks left Greece for Turkey. This was done with considerable assistance from the League of Nations. Mr. Ben-Zvi added that, likewise, Pakistan and India were examples of countries arranging their own population exchanges numbering a total of over 15,000,000.

“If these actual facts were admitted by objective governments such as the United States, Canada, England, etc. the question of Arab refugees would be settled, neither by sending Arab refugees to Israel nor Iraqi Jews back to Iraq,” the President said. He stated that the only way to settle the question is this: “The Arabs must accept the fact that Arab refugees should be resettled in their respective countries in the same way as Jewish refugees from Arab countries were settled in Israel.”

Mr. Ben-Zvi said that the United Nations should understand that this is the only way of solving the problem. “It would, of course, require financial support from the United Nations to help resettle the Arab refugees. Israel will certainly be ready to assume its proportionate share of the burden. We must, however, not forget that Israel has claims on behalf of Jewish refugees from the Arab countries who were forced to leave all their property behind them.”

In its introduction to the interview, the Washington Post remarked that “although the proposal that the Arab refugees be resettled in Arab countries has been a long standing Israeli position, President Ben-Zvi’s comparison of the numbers of Arab and Jewish refugees adds a new dimension to the discussion.”