The Israel Government’s determination to solve the problem of the Palestine Arab refugees who are legally in Israel was underlined by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett today, speaking at the ceremonies inaugurating a new Arab village which will accommodate 60 families.
(In New York, members of the U. N. Palestine Conciliation Commission were informed that the Government of Israel will release at the end of this month $2,800,000 for Palestine Arab refugees from accounts blocked in the Jewish State.
Mr. Sharett said that the construction of this and similar Arab villages–the government has set up nine with a population of 370 families, so far–is “a living example” of the government’s policy of improving living conditions for the Israeli Arabs who were uprooted from their former homes by the War of Liberation. “We carry out this policy regardless of the situation on our borders and our neighbors’ stubborn refusal to make peace with us,” the Foreign Minister declared.
He explained that the refugees were given the choice of accepting new lands or compensation for the lands they lost during the war. In this village each family received a home and two dunams of land near the house and eight dunams at a distance from the house.
Most of the villagers formerly lived near Gedera and were evacuated by the Arab Legion to Hebron, while some of them were members of a weavers’ cooperative near Migdal Gad who were removed by retreating Egyptian forces to the Gaza strip. Both groups petitioned the Israel Government for permission to return, and it was granted.
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.
