Long Road to Jericho

In the land of the good Samaritan, it has been UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) that has met the stranger on the road to Jericho and given him succor--or, in modern specifications, emergency medical treatment, food, clothing and shelter. For ten years, since the end of the Israeli war in 1949, UNRWA has been helping support 1,000,000 Arab refugees in 58 camps around Israel's borders. Richer Arabs say it is up to the West to help their poor Arab brethren, because it was the West that invited Israel in to become a nation. The Israelis, for their part, are willing to take back only a selected few of the refugees. The U.S., which pays 70% of UNRWA's $33 million annual budget, wants the U.N., before UNRWA's mandate runs out in 1960, to find some better solution to one of the world's most intractable and heart-rending problems.

Thanks to tireless and often unappreciated effort, refugee camp conditions are much improved, but refugees still live as political hostages in an atmosphere of hatred. Egypt's President Nasser still says, "The sole way of settling the refugee problem is by restoring the land, which was stolen, to its owners," but he hardly expects any more to conquer Israel. U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, avoiding the inflamed question of repatriation altogether, suggests that to get the refugees off the dole, UNRWA's vocational training program should be greatly expanded. Then if UNRWA disappears, a new agency, possibly with World Bank financial backing, should give refugees jobs building such public works as dams and irrigation schemes in the Arab countries in which they now live. Jordan and the United Arab Republic have approved the plan "in principle."

Last week in Beirut, in a marked break from past refugee attitudes, four Palestinians formed a committee to petition Arab countries to allow them to accept compensation from Israel for their lost lands, thus giving up all hope of returning. Not many years ago for any Arab to make such a proposal would have been to invite assassination.

As one indication of Arab-Israeli feelings, Lebanon's Parliament exploded in rage for 3 1/2 hours last week at the conduct of Lebanon's foremost international statesman, U.N. General Assembly President Charles Malik. Malik's crime: he had stepped into the Israeli pavilion while touring an international trade fair at Manhattan's Coliseum, and actually sipped champagne with Israeli officials. "Shameful and treacherous," said Foreign Minister Hussein Oweini. "He should have died of thirst rather than drink Israeli champagne," cried Deputy Jean Aziz.

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