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Chairman of Congressional Group Reports on Arab Refugees

January 5, 1954
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The chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee returned to Washington from the Near East today with a report stating that the Arabs want “assurances that Israel will not expand its borders.” The chairman, Rep. Lawrence Smith, Wisconsin Republican, headed a five-week study of the Arab refugee problem and plans to make a formal report to Congress later this week.

Rep. Smith stated he found 750,000 displaced Arabs, who, he said, “want: 1. The right to go back into Israel to resettle there if they wish; 2. Adequate compensation for the property seized, including bank accounts, and, 3. Assurances that Israel will not expand its borders.”

The Congressman declared it was a “must” that problems creating the Arab refugee tension be solved and called on the United States and Britain to work toward that end. Israel-Arab tension represented “a potential for war,” he stated. Rep. Smith is known to have inserted anti-Zionist matter in the Congressional Record in past years and has collaborated in activities of anti-Israel groups.

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