Palestine question – Palestine Commission hears from refugees – Press release

UNITED NATIONS

Department of Public Information

Press and Publications Bureau

Lake Success, New York

Press Release PAL/475

25 March 1949

PALESTINE CONCILIATION COMMISSION HEARS OF

ARAB REFUGEES' DESIRE TO RETURN TO THEIR HOMES

(The following was received at UN Headquarters from the UN Press Officer

with the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Beirut.)

The Conciliation Commission yesterday (24 March) heard representatives of organizations speaking for various large and small groups of Arab refugees.

Some of these representatives submitted written memoranda;  all were given the opportunity to present their cases verbally and to answer questions put to by them by members of the Commission.  Three groups, which had applied for hearing and were scheduled to be heard, did not appear.  They were the Arab Higher Committee, which sent a statement on its position, the so-called Arab Palestine Government, and a spokesman for refugees of the Tyre District.

Those who appeared claimed to represent the interests and wishes of varied groups of refugees coming from various localities and belonging to different social levels. The Commission was impressed by expressions of these spokesmen for the return of refugees to their homes to live there in peace their neighbors.  The import of those statements was that a majority of Arab refugees wish to return to the homes.

In addition to the problem of refugees, some spokesmen raised the question of Jerusalem, and voiced anxiety to see the city internationalized as the only effective means of providing protection for the holy places and workable political conditions for the people there.

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