Israel will urge the creation of an international fund to provide “adequate housing” for Palestinian refugees, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir announced Wednesday night.
“There is no reason why Arabs have to be forced in the ’90s to live in appalling conditions in refugee camps which they established more than 40 years ago as a temporary measure,” the Prime Minister told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, at the closing dinner of its three-day gathering here.
“The international community, including the rich Arab countries, must provide decent living conditions — housing, education and medical facilities — and take the people out of the refugee camps,” he said.
Shamir noted that the Palestinian Liberation Organization has not spent “one cent” of the billions of dollars it received from Arab countries on reducing the plight of the Palestinians in the camps.
“This is not the only refugee problem in the world. But it is the only one that has been perpetuated for political reasons for more than four decades,” he said.
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