Farbstein Tells Histadrut U.S. Must Take New Steps on Arab Refugees

Rep. Leonard Farbstein, New York Democrat and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said here today that he would introduce into Congress this week a resolution demanding that the United Nations revise the relief rolls of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, as a condition for continued U.S. contribution to the UNRWA relief program which supports the Arab refugees. Since the U.N. agency was established, in 1950, the U.S.A. has consistently contributed 70 percent of the funds expended by UNRWA.

Addressing the midwinter conference of the National Committee for Labor Israel, Rep. Farbstein said that the resolution, which would be introduced as part of the 1967 Foreign Aid Bill, would call on the United Nations to “cancel all outstanding ration cards” of the Arab refugees and replace them with new ones, and would require a full census of the Arab refugees. The resolution would also bar from the UNRWA relief rolls “known agitators, particularly members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

Dr. Sol Stein, national director of the Israel Histadrut Campaign, announced at the conference that a total of $1,250,000 in cash, one-fourth of the Histadrut’s 1967 goal, had been brought in by the 1,000 conference delegates.

Rep. Farbstein told the conference delegates that UNRWA “is largely run in the refugee centers by Arabs whose sympathy is with the political ends of the Arab leaders, and who have a vested interest in their jobs. They help perpetuate the chaos in the refugee situation. Every attempt to cleanse the rolls of the free-loaders had failed, to the point that it is estimated that almost a half-million people maintain registered refugee status but, in fact, have jobs away from the refugee camps and live reasonably normal lives in a number of countries.”

Other speakers at the conference included Izhar Harari, member of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and Yona Kesse, member of the Israel delegation to the United Nation