Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume V, Part 2

501.BB Palestine/10–1748: Telegram

The Special Representative of the United States in Israel (McDonald) to President Truman ¹

secret   urgent

Tel Aviv, October 17, 1948—4 p. m.

Arab refugee tragedy is rapidly reaching catastrophic proportions and should be treated as a disaster. Present and prospective relief and resettlement resources are utterly inadequate. UN administrative machine is both inappropriate and inadequate and result in gross inefficiency and wastefulness. (All adjectives used above are realistically descriptive and are written out of fifteen years of personal contact with refugee problems.)

Of approximately 400,000 refugees approaching winter with cold heavy rains will, it is estimated, kill more than 100,000 old men, women and children who are shelterless and have little or no food. Situation requires some comprehensive program and immediate action that dramatic and overwhelming calamities such as vast flood or earthquake would invoke. Nothing less will avert horrifying losses.

Mediator’s administration is completely unsuited [to] energetic and competent handling emergency relief and resettlement problem. When Mediator was parenthetically given refugee responsibility, no one conceived present scope or urgency of tragedy. Mediator’s administrative machinery can deal only with governments and at top level remote from refugees.

Leaving to individual governments as Mediator must, distribution of relief results, as is inevitable under present system, in waste estimated by competent technicians as high as 90%. Other 10% is often delayed weeks or months in reaching individual refugees.

No criticism is hereby intended of Acting Mediator or his associate, Sir Raphael Cilento who is directly in charge. It is not men; it is the system which is at fault.

Inescapable conclusion that responsibility for raising funds and administering relief from top to individual recipients must be transferred promptly to International Red Cross. It alone is geared to do essential work in all phases. It would, I believe welcome and accept this challenge.

Some of difficulties and possible objections to this transfer are serious but none are insuperable.

1. UN action to transfer officially responsibility from Mediator to Red Cross need not imply any reflection on Bernadotte’s planning; rather it could be interpreted as carrying out his own Red Cross ideals.

2. Transfer would not involve delay because Red Cross staff already working in Arab Palestine and neighboring states.

3. Transfer would not weaken Mediator’s role, on contrary would free him from embarrassing responsibility not directly related mediation.

4. Arab Governments might at first cavil at proposal have whole administration under Red Cross, but prospect saving refugees should be compelling.

5. Israeli Government and Jewish organizations, once they understood purpose of change, could not reasonably object because Arab refugee problem unsolved will reflect, justly or not upon Israel and make its future relations with Arab states more difficult.

6. Program suggested above is non-partisan, non-sectarian. Properly presented it should win support of all party leaders and hence could not be criticized as campaign move.

7. Instead of confusing or making more difficult a solution of the Palestine political problem, Red Cross handling of refugees would be sorely needed evidence of world’s humanitarianism.

Though I have had no chance confer believe Basil O’Connor and Gower (latter now in Paris) of Red Cross and Herbert Hoover would approve.

Every consideration of mercy, justice and expediency call for this radical change at the earliest possible moment.

Department may care pass GADel and I personally see no objection pass Arab Capitals for comment our Missions.²

McDonald

1. Transmitted to the Department by Tel Aviv in telegram 188 “For President and Acting Secretary.”
2. The Department sent this telegram to Arab capitals, the United States Delegation at Paris, and Jerusalem for comment in a circular telegram of October 18, 3 a. m. (501.BB Palestine/10–1848). Ambassador Griffis, on October 20, commented in part as follows: “The telegram is entirely accurate and merely confirms what I have repeatedly stated that Arab refugee problem is tragic disaster, that substantially none of the relief goods or funds have actually reached the refugees; that Mediator’s administration is entirely incapable of coping with problem and that it should be promptly transferred to trained experts in relief problems.” (Telegram 1503 from Cairo, 501.BB Palestine/10–2048)