U.S. Decisiveness on Kosovar Refugees and What It Should Mean for the Palestinians

By Sherri Muzher

“We’re proud of what we did because we think it’s what America stands for, that no one ever, ever should be punished and discriminated against or killed or uprooted because of their religion or their ethnic heritage,’’ said President Bill Clinton as he visited the Stankovic Camp in Macedonia in June.

Less than two weeks later, President Clinton said, “I would like it if the Palestinian people felt free and were free to live wherever they like, wherever they want to live.” Some have interpreted these comments to signify the president’s support of the right of return of the 3.6 million Palestinian refugees, although within hours of the second remark U.S. assurances were made to the Israeli Embassy that U.S. policy had not changed in this regard. That policy, according to a U.S. State Department official, is that the issue of the Palestinian right of return is to be decided in final status negotiations.

Further, the issue of compensation for Palestinian refugees who decide not to return is to be decided by Israel. As one Department official put it, so many years have gone by that it may not be “realistic” to give compensation.

Interestingly, however, a U.S. federal judge has appointed an American lawyer to assist in obtaining the recent $1.25 billion settlement for Holocaust survivors from two Swiss banks, and the Jewish holocaust had ended even before the Palestinian holocaust, al-Nakba (the catastrophe) as it is called in Arabic, had begun in 1948.

The State Department also noted that “times were different back in 1948.” After all, who would have fathomed that the victims of the Jewish holocaust were now the victimizers of another holocaust?

However, the basis for the right of Palestinian return is both legal and moral. U.N. Resolution 194—which State Department officials refer to as “non-binding”—says “that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property, which under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible.”

The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on Dec. 11, 1948, and has been endorsed annually since then. In addition, U.N. Resolution 237 addressed the displaced of 1967. That resolution calls on Israel to “facilitate the return of those inhabitants who had fled these areas since the outbreak of hostilities.”

The basis for the right of Palestinian return is both legal and moral.

In Kosovo, we saw the resolve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to make life miserable for the Serbians in Yugoslavia and the message was simple: We’ll stop the bombing when you stop driving the Albanian Muslims out of Kosovo.

Whether the use of NATO military measures was necessary continues to be a topic for debate, but the decisiveness to reverse the flow of refugees from their homeland was nothing short of remarkable and exemplary. Within days, busloads of refugees, escorted by representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) were heading back to the Kosovo capital of Pristina. Hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees have since returned to towns and villages all over Kosovo.

What was so strikingly different between the atrocities which befell the Kosovar refugees and those that befell the Palestinians of 1948? Consider these chilling testimonies, which would bring a sense of déjà vu for any Kosovar refugee.

“Outside the gate the soldiers stopped us and ordered everyone to throw all valuables onto a blanket. One young man and his wife of six weeks, friends of our family, stood near me. He refused to give up his money. Almost casually, the soldier pulled up his rifle and shot the man. He fell, bleeding and dying while his bride screamed and cried. I felt nauseated and sick, my whole body numbed by shock waves. That night I cried, too, as I tried to sleep alongside thousands on the ground. Would I ever see my home again? Would the soldiers kill my loved ones, too?”

—Father Rantisi of Ramallah’s Evangelical Home for Boys, author of Blessed Are the Peacemakers...The History of a Palestinian Christian.

“After the battle, the Jews took elderly men and women and youths, including four of my cousins and a nephew. They took them all. Women who had on them gold and money, were stripped of their gold. After the Jews removed their dead and wounded, they took the men to the quarry and sprayed them all with bullets…One woman had her son taken some 40 to 60 meters away from where she and the rest of the women stood by, and [they] shot him dead. Then they brought Jewish kids to throw stones at his body. They later poured kerosene on his body and set it ablaze while the women watched from a distance.

—Abu Yousef from the Palestinian Am’ari refugee camp near Ramallah.

Cleansed Villages

There is absolutely no difference in terms of the serious nature of the atrocities committed in Kosovo and Palestine. In fact, whole Palestinian villages were demolished and new Jewish villages were erected in their place. More than 400 villages met this fate.

“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushu’a in the place of Tal al- Shuman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”

—Moshe Dayan, address to Technion, Haifa (as quoted in Ha’aretz, April 4, 1969).

Fifty-one years later the misery continues for millions of Palestinian refugees. While it is true that the United Nations established the United Nation Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), it is important to note that unlike the UNCHR, UNRWA does not have the mission of repatriating refugees. Instead UNRWA, which provides much-needed social and health services to Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East, seems to have created a substitute home. In fairness to the U.S., it is UNRWA’s largest contributor, donating approximately $80 million of an annual budget of $250 million. However, despite UNRWA’s good-faith efforts, conditions are difficult and remain oppressive for Palestinian refugees.

Jordan

Palestinians make up two-thirds of Jordan’s population, yet are treated as second-class citizens. They do not enjoy legislative representation proportionate to their population. King Abdallah has publicly recognized the discrepancies and discrimination against the Palestinian majority and reforms have been planned.

Syria

According to a 1996 statistic, there are more than 350,000 refugees in Syria, where Palestinian refugees enjoy freedom of access to government services. But as in Lebanon, freedom of movement is restricted for Palestinians and the procedures can be agonizing when trying to enter the country with their refugee documents. While Palestinian refugees enjoy full residency rights, they are prevented from owning property unless it is for a personal residence and after following certain procedures.

Lebanon

There are 372,700 refugees in Lebanon. Overcrowding is commonplace and basic civil rights are denied. Palestinians who obtain second passports run the risk of being “crossed off” a residency list. It has been a systematic policy of Lebanon’s Department of General Security to reduce the numbers of Palestinians with residency rights. It is necessary for non-Lebanese to obtain work permits for regular occupations, and such permits generally are not issued to Palestinian refugees. Note that no additional consideration is given even to the Lebanese-born children of Palestinians.

The Gulf

There are tens of thousands of Palestinians who reside in the Gulf region. In some of these states, Palestinian children are not allowed to attend government schools or higher educational institutions, and in most of the Gulf states Palestinians who are employed by the government are not entitled to the same social benefits as nationals, even though they pay the same social contributions. The majority of Gulf states require that a worker have a certain income level before being able to bring his family into the country.

These examples are certainly not an exhaustive list, since Palestinian refugees also reside in many other parts of the Middle East. However, it should give the reader some idea as to the miserable conditions endured by Palestinian refugees who for many years have overstayed their welcome in countries that meant only to provide temporary refuge.

Much of the world’s shock and horror at Serb ethnic cleansing of Kosovars stemmed particularly from Serbian atrocities intended to frighten Kosovars away. Again, comparisons to the Palestinian nakba are haunting. The infamous massacre at Deir Yassin was cited by Israeli forces to instill fear in other Palestinians that if they did not flee, they would meet the same fate as the massacred men, women and children of that village, seized by Jewish militias in April 1948. Essentially the massacre was perpetrated by design, as were the recent Serbian atrocities. Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who ordered the Deir Yassin massacre, once referred to it as one of the greatest victories of Zionism because its “political and economic significance…can hardly be overestimated.”

As the optimism over Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s election turns into realism, it is important that the U.S. use its status as the chief broker of the peace process to resolve the Palestinian refugee crisis once and for all. It is the unrequited crimes against the Palestinians that underlie all U.S. problems in the Middle East, not to mention the menace of terrorism faced by Americans overseas.

Yes, times were different back in 1948. That is all the more reason for the U.S. to end the suffering of Palestinian refugees in 1999. The U.S. prides itself as a nation that not only is a military superpower but also a moral superpower. To merit that label, then it’s time to stop referring to U.N. resolutions relating to Palestinian refugees as “non-binding.”

In an era when human rights have become a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics and Israel’s well-heeled lobbying groups should take a backseat. A true peace in the Middle East will have to provide for Palestinians to live with dignity. Otherwise, our rhetoric in Kosovo was meaningless.

Sherri Muzher is a law student at Michigan State University Detroit College of Law.