H.E. Mr. Ophir Kariv:

With the Chairman's permission, I will make one remark about refugees.

Deputy Brady mentioned the Palestinian refugees of 1947. I remind all members here and those watching that while around 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes in the war the Palestinians initiated in 1948, 850,000 Jews became refugees. These were not Jews from Europe but Jews who were deported and forced to leave their homes in the Arab world in the months leading up to the establishment of the state of Israel and its aftermath. There were 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab states. Nobody speaks about them. Most of them found their home in Israel. They were not confined to refugee camps because we do not see our brothers as refugees. Unfortunately, on the Palestinian side, Palestinians who moved to other parts near Palestinian population centres were put in refugee camps by their own brothers and with assistance from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA.