This next quote seems especially apt in light of current events involving UNRWA, which deals with PLO Arab refugees.
“Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homeland, while it is we who constrained them to leave it. Between the invitation extended to the refugees [to flee to the surrounding Arab countries] and the request to the United Nations to decide upon their return, there elapsed only a few months. We brought disaster upon Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure to bear upon them to leave. We have rendered them dispossessed. We have accustomed them to begging. We have participated in lowering their moral and social levels. We exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson, and throwing bombs upon men, women and children – all in the service of political purposes.”
– Former Prime Minister of Syria Khalid al-Azm, (al-Dar al Muttahida lil-Nashr, 1972)
