Paddy Ashdown Quotes
We have invented a new human right here - the right to return home after a war.
Ashdown, Paddy. Interview by Ed Vulliamy. The Guardian, 2 Nov. 2005.
When the United Nations partitioned Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian State the Arab Countries all jointly attacked the fledgling Jewish State of Israel. Despite the Israeli’s being overwhelmingly out numbered in man and weapons, they beat back the invaders. However while many Arabs stayed on their Israeli land and some helped the Jews defend against the Arab Armies some abandoned their homes and land and went to neighboring Arab Counties. This is what they had been asked to do by the Arab governments who wanted to be able to attack communities without worrying about killing Arabs. To spur the evacuation the spread false propaganda about Israeli atrocities and frightened them into leaving. As a motivation to leave they were told that they could move into the Jewish lands and property when the Jews had been driven out. To make matters worse, some Israeli radicals repeated the lies to induce the Arabs to abandon their lands. In at least one case Arabs who stayed were subjected to violence. After the defeat of the Arabs, the Israelis had a dilemma in that they could not tell which Arabs were residents who had just been frightened and which had fought on the Arab side or helped the invaders. The result was that with few exceptions, the Arab refugees were not allowed back. Meanwhile, the Arab countries would not allow the refugees to settle and become citizens of the Arab countries (except for Jordan). The Palestinian refugees were a particularly fertile population and were cared for by the United Nations and have multiplied to many times their original size maintaining a continuous festering problem.
This quotation is the basis of the Arab argument that the United Nations decided that the Palestinian refugees who left Israel upon its creation at the urging of some Arab leaders. Other’s opposing this point of view observe that only the Security Council’s resolutions are binding and the General Assembly resolutions have no weight in International Law. Further that the Arab Refugees do not want to “live at peace” as is required in the resolution. Numerous surveys demonstrate the desire of most of the Palestinian refugees to support efforts to expel the Jewish Israelis from Israel. The other barrier is that there are tens of thousands of Jews who were forcibly ejected from Arab countries for whom no country is offering a right of return. The irony of Resolution 194 is that it was opposed by every Arab country at the time.
His view, that America had no vested interest in Rwanda, was the prevailing thinking of the Republicans who controlled Congress and many of the Democrats as well. President Clinton considered intervention in Rwanda, but decided against it given all the opposition and little time to educate the American public to a different position. The result was the genocide in Rwanda where over 500,000 Tutsis were exterminated by the Hutus. Clinton, several years later not only admitted that he made a political and moral mistake, but officially apologized to Rwandan Tutsis who remained alive. He had intervened very successfully in Kosovo to prevent more murder of ethnic Muslims and was given a hard time politically by his opposition even though the brilliant effort cost no American lives. The United States and the UN, all bearing guilt for doing little in Rwanda, did help to set up the mechanism for the trials of the worst murderers and at least many of the most guilty were brought to justice.
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, CH, KBE, PC, known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. He achieved international recognition for his role as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, following his vigorous lobbying for military action against Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
