Episcopal Press and News
Team Surveys Middle East Refugee Situation
Diocesan Press Service. September 30, 1968 [69-12]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- Middle East Churches -- Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox -- are faced with critical problems, following last year's "Six Day War. " They "long for understanding of their situation by Western Churches. They expect the Western Churches to be adequately informed, unbiased in judgement and supportive in fellowship."
A three-man deputation which went on behalf of the National Council of Churches to Middle Eastern areas where refugees from the Arab-Israeli conflict receive asylum reported to the NCC's General Board when it met in Houston in September, and they stated that this was the attitude of Christians whom they met.
The Rev. Raymond E. Maxwell of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Edwin Luidens of the Reformed Church in America and the Rev. Rodney Sundberg of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. -- members of the deputation -- were sent to survey the refugee situation, to greet the churches in the area and to express concern for those in distress.
Since the Six Day War in 1967 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has registered more than 400, 000 newly displaced Arabs. On the Agency's rolls on May 31, 1967 were 1,300, 000 refugees, making a total Middle East refugee population of well over one and a half million.
The functions of UNRWA are two-fold: it provides material relief for refugees in need and a wide range of services for the health, welfare, education and training of refugees.
Observing the medical and educational programs for hundreds of thousands of refugees, still sheltered in tents or huts, the deputation reported that much had been accomplished, in spite of shifting conditions which have prevailed since June 1967.
In the nearly twenty years that UNRWA has worked among the Middle East refugees, there have been no major epidemics of communicable diseases. Clinics run by UNRWA saw each refugee an average of five times, making a total of almost five and one half million visits.
The deputation also noted that in the UNRWA-UNESCO elementary school program, the number of girls has increased steadily since 1950, so that the school attendance of girls now almost equals that of boys. The average number of years of school attendance is also steadily increasing.
Very few of the thousands of families who fled from the old refugee camps at Jericho and on the East and West Banks of the Jordan River have been permitted to return to their homes. The old camps stand empty while 100, 000 refugees dwell in tents. These refugees have fled as often as three times during the last 12 months -- escaping the winter snows of the Jordanian uplands which made tent life unbearable, and again fleeing from "cease fire line" attacks in the Jordan valley where they had gone to seek milder weather.
In the light of the present refugee situation, the deputation enumerated several steps which American churches and church agencies can take for relief and rehabilitation. They recommended that the churches, through Church World Service, increase their support of CWS family service centers, vocations training programs, self-help employment projects, scholarship aid to refugee students, and assistance to YMCA and YWCA programs in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The deputation further called upon the churches, through CWS, to give emergency aid to church-related and other private schools as long as bank accounts remain frozen, and to build prefabricated shelters for those refugees in tents. The Israeli government also should be urged to consider the return of the 1948 refugees to the camps on the west bank from which they fled, the deputation recommended.
The vocational training and self-help programs of the voluntary agencies, notably the World Council of Churches and Church World Service, are an invaluable adjunct of UNRWA, which has very limited resources.
The Near East Council of Churches, through its Committee on Refugee Work, for example, along with Roman Catholic and other agencies, has now erected more durable shelters in one or two locations. This program will have to be extended and church agencies are being asked to provide prefabricated huts at a cost of $250 per unit. These huts would be 9 x 13 feet for a family of five; and, inadequate as they may be, would provide more protection than tents against winter snows and storms.
In Amman, Jordan, the deputation met with the Rt. Rev. Najib Cuba'in, Anglican Bishop of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and with the Rev. John D. Zimmerman, Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, during their survey. Canon Zimmerman, representative of the Episcopal Church to the Jerusalem Archbishopric, was among the community leaders in Jerusalem with whom refugee matters were discussed.
When the American Ambassador in Jordan, the Hon. Harrison Symmes, was asked by the three-member team to state his opinion of what the Churches of America could do to alleviate the desperate refugee situation in that country, he challenged the churches to spread knowledge and understanding of the facts. The opinion of the Ambassador, an Episcopal layman from Wilmington, N. C. was echoed again and again by both nationals and foreigners.
The first concern, the deputation told the General Board, must be for the welfare of those who have seen their human rights and hopes frustrated. They cautioned, however, that the background of the situation must be understood.
While long term solutions await the future, the many refugees in the Middle East face the prospects of another harsh winter. Episcopalians can continue to help alleviate their immediate plight through contributions to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017.
