A blight unto the nations

In 1939, the world Jewish population was 17 million, but it was slashed to only 11 million in 1945.

As reported by the Jerusalem Post (“Global Jewish population reaches 14.7 million,” September 9) the world’s Jewish population is now 14.7 million, of which US Jewish community numbers 5.7 million.

Let’s say you were a 23-year old Egyptian who could not find work and moved to the Palestine Mandate for better employment opportunities, living there from June 1, 1946 to May 15, 1948. Let’s say you returned to Egypt due to the 1948 invasion by Arab countries. You would be eligible for UNRWA services, as well as your children, their children and grandchildren.

More than five million “Palestine refugees” are eligible for United Nations Relief Works Agency services, according to UNRWA. If we are to trust numbers provided by them, “Palestine refugees” eligible for UNRWA services will soon outnumber the entire US Jewish community. Using 500,000 as the number of “refugees” who left Israel in 1948 and 5,000,000 as their number 70 years later, in another 70 years (using the same rate of increase) there will be 50 million “refugees” eligible for UNRWA services.

Israel had to resettle a larger number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries than the number of Arabs who fled advancing Arab troops and who sought shelter in neighboring Arab countries. Israel did not have a UN agency created specifically to provide endless international aid to Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries.

UNRWA is a blight unto the nations. JULIA LUTCH

Davis, CA