Refugees
When a war is
declared, there are always refugees, and they are often the
innocent ones. This is one of the evils for which those who
start wars are responsible.
World War II caused death and disruption across the Eurasian landmass, from Europe, through the Soviet Union, to the Middle East, to Pakistan, India, and China. Of the 72 million people killed during World War II, most were civilians. Even after the war ended, the migrations, starvation, and dying continued.
Throughout the early 1940s, millions of people became refugees when fleeing destruction at the hands of the Nazis. When World War II ended in 1945 there were many millions of homeless refugees, living in thousands of "displaced persons" camps scattered across Europe. The winter of 1946-47 was the coldest in a hundred years, and was a cruel blow in addition to the shortages of food, shelter, and heating supplies. People died in the camps and died while wandering in search of a home.
The 1940s, from beginning to end, was a decade of bloody chaos and homelessness for civilians around the world. In many cases, the discord and tension has yet to be resolved.
When the British withdrew from India in 1947, India and Pakistan split into two separate nations. About 12 million people became homeless – Muslims moved from India to Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to India. Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike to pressure the government of India to transfer funds to Pakistan to help the Muslims resettle, and this angered some Hindu extremists, who assassinated him January 1948.
In this same period, hundreds of thousands of Jewish concentration camp survivors had no homes to return to in Europe. With great difficulty, they made their way to their ancestral homeland in Palestine, seeking sanctuary in the only place that would take them in. The Arab nations of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, instead of being hospitable and welcoming Israel into their midst, decided to declare war. In so doing they created a situation in which over a million Arab and Jewish residents of the Mideast became refugees. Over 600,000 Arabs living in the Palestine area fled, in order to avoid being in the path of the five Arab armies that were invading Israel. Arab attacks forced 900,000 Jews living in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan to be expelled from those countries. Their homes and businesses were confiscated and they fled to Israel.
"The Arab states encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies. And it was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades." - The London Economist (1948), reporting on an eyewitness account of the flight of Haifa's Arabs.
The tragedy of the Palestinian people is real, and must somehow be healed. Everyone deserves a home. There is room on the earth for everyone.
The New York Times from May 18, 1948
World War II caused death and disruption across the Eurasian landmass, from Europe, through the Soviet Union, to the Middle East, to Pakistan, India, and China. Of the 72 million people killed during World War II, most were civilians. Even after the war ended, the migrations, starvation, and dying continued.
Throughout the early 1940s, millions of people became refugees when fleeing destruction at the hands of the Nazis. When World War II ended in 1945 there were many millions of homeless refugees, living in thousands of "displaced persons" camps scattered across Europe. The winter of 1946-47 was the coldest in a hundred years, and was a cruel blow in addition to the shortages of food, shelter, and heating supplies. People died in the camps and died while wandering in search of a home.
The 1940s, from beginning to end, was a decade of bloody chaos and homelessness for civilians around the world. In many cases, the discord and tension has yet to be resolved.
When the British withdrew from India in 1947, India and Pakistan split into two separate nations. About 12 million people became homeless – Muslims moved from India to Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs moved from Pakistan to India. Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike to pressure the government of India to transfer funds to Pakistan to help the Muslims resettle, and this angered some Hindu extremists, who assassinated him January 1948.
In this same period, hundreds of thousands of Jewish concentration camp survivors had no homes to return to in Europe. With great difficulty, they made their way to their ancestral homeland in Palestine, seeking sanctuary in the only place that would take them in. The Arab nations of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, instead of being hospitable and welcoming Israel into their midst, decided to declare war. In so doing they created a situation in which over a million Arab and Jewish residents of the Mideast became refugees. Over 600,000 Arabs living in the Palestine area fled, in order to avoid being in the path of the five Arab armies that were invading Israel. Arab attacks forced 900,000 Jews living in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan to be expelled from those countries. Their homes and businesses were confiscated and they fled to Israel.
"The Arab states encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies. And it was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades." - The London Economist (1948), reporting on an eyewitness account of the flight of Haifa's Arabs.
The tragedy of the Palestinian people is real, and must somehow be healed. Everyone deserves a home. There is room on the earth for everyone.
The New York Times from May 18, 1948