Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, The Near and Middle East, Volume IX, Part 1

611.80/5–953

No. 610
Department of State Position Paper¹

confidential
STA D-l/2a

[Washington, May 8 [?], 1953.]

The Arab Refugee Problem

As a result of the Arab-Israeli hostilities in the spring of 1948, about one million Arabs were driven from their homes in what then was Palestine and became refugees in the neighboring Arab states.

Our efforts toward a solution of the refugee problem are channeled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), with headquarters in Beirut. At the Sixth Session of the General Assembly, 49 countries voted for a three-year plan for UNRWA. The three-year period ends June 30, 1954, and commits a fund of $250 million—$200 for rehabilitation and $50 million for relief on a descending scale of annual appropriations.

Progress on the refugee problem, while disappointing has made some headway. The number of refugees registered with UNRWA on January 31, 1953, was as follows:

475,233	—	In Jordan
206,005	—	In the Gaza Strip (held in Egypt)
103,149	—	In Lebanon
85,746	—	In Syria
868,133

810,000 “rations” are distributed to the group, a “ration” consisting of flour and other foodstuffs calculated to yield 1600 calories daily. The reduction of the relief rolls from approximately one million to 868,133 refugees has been made possible in part through a number of UNRWA’s small-scale projects, in part through the initiative of individual refugees who have found employment legally or otherwise and in part through the Agency’s more stringent conditions for granting relief. General agreements have been entered into between Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Libya with respect to projects enabling refugees to become self-supporting. The Syrian agreement is designed to furnish self-support opportunities so that the refugees in that country will no longer require relief from UNRWA. Large scale irrigation projects in Jordan are being planned to remove substantial numbers from relief rolls—estimates vary from 100,000 to 300,000 (see paper entitled “Outstanding issues between Jordan-Israel in Connection with Use of Waters of the River Jordan”).² At present it looks as though Lebanon offers little opportunity for absorbing permanently the 103,000 refugees in the country, but the government has indicated tentatively that it might consider settling 20,000. Current negotiations with Egypt look toward projects in the Sinai to provide employment for approximately 70,000 Gaza refugees. The UNRWA has an agreement with Libya to settle 1,200 families in that country. Iraq has taken responsibility for its 4,000 refugees, and these no longer are listed on the UNRWA relief rolls.

The refugees are an embittered group, subject to subversion, for obvious reasons.

John B. Blandford, Jr. has resigned as Director of UNRWA and pending the appointment of a successor who will be an American, British Deputy Director Leslie J. Carver is Acting Director.

U.S. Position

We must acknowledge that the task of settling the refugees cannot be completed by June 30, 1954, the end of the three-year period, and we must shortly lay the groundwork for an extension of this program, which course will involve eventual action in the General Assembly. The initial extension should be for perhaps two years, though we recognize it will require much longer to settle the problem.

An eventual solution requires:

(1) Possible territorial concessions by Israel, and agreement by Israel to relinquish claims to a substantial volume of the Jordan waters or some arrangement for the cooperative development of the Jordan and Yarmuk waters. This could be the moral equivalent of partial repatriation. Alternative to the above may be partial repatriation.

(2) A determination by the UN, backed by the United States and the United Kingdom, to continue programs looking to economic development in the Near East, from which the refugees can benefit.

(3) An extension of direct economic development assistance by the United States to Syria, Jordan, and to other nations willing to provide homes to the refugees, so that the native populations can see benefits accruing to themselves as well as to the refugees.

(4) Preparation by Israel for payment of its debt, for compensation, and continued efforts to appraise this debt by the UN. Expeditious payment of all blocked refugee accounts in Israel.

1. One of a series of position papers on regional problems in the Near East prepared for the briefing book for the Secretary’s trip to the Middle East and South Asia; see footnote 1, Document 604.
2. Not further identified.