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No Longer Refugees

(FrontPageMagazine) Stephen Schwartz - Most of the Palestinian supporters of terror are no longer refugees; they are the children and grandchildren of the refugees of 1948. Rather, they are young people with the energy, and in many cases the schooling, to improve their situation by entering the thriving Israeli economy or by finding new opportunities outside Israel. Many have benefited from an educational system established and paid for by Israel, and many have studied in the best Israeli universities. Had the Palestinians of 1948 left the camps and reestablished themselves in neighboring countries, they would today constitute a prosperous elite. For many Arab states, however, that would have been inconvenient. There are no refugee camps today, in the sense of people living in tents without facilities. All of the so-called camps are now towns with houses, electric power, water, and other services. The so-called "refugee camp" at Jenin, which attracted much attention last year, is in fact a city with streets, houses, and mosques. One aspect of Arab and Muslim life in Israel and the territories that goes unmentioned in the Western media is that Israel does not interfere with the Muslim religion. It does not prevent the call to prayer from being heard, nor does it obstruct the teaching and practice of Islam. Under the tenets of traditional Islam, therefore, Muslims should not object to being citizens of Israel. Recognition of this fact was the basis for granting full citizenship to Israeli Arabs, and it is also the foundation of Arab participation in Israeli elections. Israeli Arabs have the right to elect their representatives freely - a right uniformly absent from the rest of the Arab world.
2003-05-23 00:00:00
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