Population Transfer in Perspective, Dr. Alex Grobman (Israel National News)
Excerpts;
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, said that the primary way to achieve peace in the Middle East would be for Jews and Arabs – including Israeli-Arabs – to live separately. “Minorities are the biggest problem in the world,” he claimed.
Asked if Arab Israeli citizens should be removed, he said: “I think separation between two nations is the best solution. Cyprus is the best model. Before 1974, the Greeks and Turks lived together and there were frictions and bloodshed and terror. After 1974, they constituted all Turks on one part of the island, all Greeks on the other part of the island, and there is stability and security.”
When reminded that they were removed forcibly from their homes, he replied, “Yes, but the final result was better.” Later, he explained, “Israeli Arabs don’t have to go…. But if they stay, they have to take an oath of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish Zionist state.”
Lieberman’s remarks set off a firestorm of criticism in the Knesset and around the country. But whether you support Lieberman or find his proposals abhorrent, the idea of population transfer should be seen in historical perspective.
After World Wars I and II, transferring populations was considered legal and moral, and the most favored response to inter-ethnic strife. This is no longer true. Population transfer is now seen as illegal and a crime, notes Eyal Benvenisti, professor of law at Tel Aviv University.
As Benvenisti points out, the first population exchanges involved Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. The Treaty of Nueilly of November 27, 1919 provided for 46,000 Greeks from Bulgaria and 96,000 Bulgarians from Greece to switch countries. After the defeat of the Greek army in the Greek-Turkish War following World War I, and the Turk assault against Greek communities in Turkey, Greek refugees began fleeing their homes in Turkey. Greece and Turkey exchanged populations – about 2,000,000 Greeks of Turkish citizenship and about 500,000 Turks of Greek citizenship were uprooted.
The exchange of populations worked so effectively, Benvenisti observed, that in post-World War II, the Allies decided to transfer 15 million Germans living in Eastern Europe, primarily in the eastern part of Germany, after it had been granted to Poland. According to the Potsdam Declaration, Germans living in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria were to be transferred to Germany “in an orderly and humane manner.” Although the West attempted to ease the transition, there was much distress, suffering and a large numbers of deaths. After the borders in Europe were redrawn, smaller transfers were made in parts of Central and Eastern Europe.
Population transfer was also used to settle the inter-religious enmity between Hindus and Muslims in British India in 1947. Once it became clear that the communities could not live together, the sub-continent was partitioned into two states — India and Pakistan — requiring the resettlement of millions of people.
Dr. Grobman’s new book, Nations United: How the UN Undermines Israel and the West, will be published by Balfour Books in late November.