March 25, 1953 Arab Refugees

From the pen of an Egyptian officer, which appeared in the Egyptian military journal “At-Tahrir”:

“I spent three days in that uncomfortable country (e.g. Gaza) where I came to recognize as such all the lies that we read in the newspapers about refugee, disease, cold, hunger, misery and injustice… Hunger, misery and distress are NOT to be found in the refugee camps; they are in the villages and hamlets where the fellaheen live in the countryside of green Palestine, where gardens and oranges groves flourish amidst feudalism; for feudalism breeds hunger and misery. In the refugee camps, there is security and plenty”

“I visited seven of them: Al Bureige, Al Nusseirat, Deir el Balah, Khan Yunis, Gabalia, Gaza, Raffah, Al Bughazzi. In all of them (e.g. refugee camps) I saw the people eating their fill, drinking milk and living in comfort, the men lay on their backs in the warm sand and sunshine, or played dice; happy women carried their pink-cheeked babies, not the pale sickly babies which you see in our villages, where there are no refugees.”

“A young Egyptian officer told me that whenever a refugee complains of sickness, an ambulance with a doctor, a nurse and medicines, hastens to attend to him. Do the sick villagers of our country enjoy such treatment? Do our weakly children drink milk? Have you ever heard of an Egyptian fellah wearing shoes?”