Any mass repatriation of Arab refugees who fled Israel during the fighting would mean bringing a fifth column into the Jewish state, and this the Israeli Government will never allow, Mrs. Israel Goldstein, president of Pioneer Women, the women’s labor Zionist Organization in America, said today, upon her return from Israel.
“There is a Custodian of Enemy Property in the Israeli Government who will arrange compensatory payment for the Arabs who left property behind, but Israel will not allow them to return to strategic places and create havoc among the Jewish citizens, The Arabs who fled had nothing to fear from the Jews but abandoned their homes voluntarily. Those who remained are working at higher wages than they ever received in their lives.”
She related that some Arabs who had returned to the northern part of the country had committed acts of robbery and sniping. She suggested that the money Great Britain has given to Tran Jordan for military purposes be used instead to settle the Arab refugees in the vast, uninhabited sections of Trans Jordan territory–a step which would also be of economic aid to the poverty-ridden Arab country.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
