Page 80 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

THE WINTER OF ISLAM AND THE SPRING TO COME
78 Palestine Chronicle, November 13, 02

In addition to attacks by Israeli forces, the Palestinian people are
also struggling with economic difficulties, hunger and drought.
of years. Joseph Weitz, the head of the Israeli government's transfer
committee of 1948, wrote in his diary in December 20, 1940: "It must be
clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country. No devel-
opment will bring us closer to our aim, to be an independent people
in this small country. After the Arabs are transferred, the country will
be wide open for us; with the Arabs staying, the country will remain
narrow and restricted. The only way is to transfer the Arabs from here
to neighboring countries, all of them. Not a single village, or a single
tribe must be left." Heilburn, the chairman of the committee for the
10
re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, expressed
the atheist Zionist view of the Palestinian people in these words: "We
have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as
slaves." 11

Refugee Camps
By far the greater part of the Palestinian Muslims who were
forcibly removed from the places they had lived in for hundreds of
years are still living in refugee camps. The number of Palestinians liv-
ing in refugee camps, and in those in neighboring countries such as
Lebanon and Jordan, is some 3.5 million. (This figure is based on statis-
tics completed at the end of the 1990s.)