The Great Humanitarian’s Solution

B R U C E  B R I L L

In this article, Bruce Brill argues for a unique and long-forgotten solution to the Palestinian problem: the transfer of its population to Iraq.

Given today’s circumstances, this article from 2004 may appear irrelevant. However, today’s impending all-out war with its potential devastation makes Hoover’s humanitarian proposal more relevant than ever before. Nineteen years ago, when I published this piece, many laughed at Hoover’s proposal; no one is laughing today.

The Palestinians’ situation is terrible. Three-fourths of their population lives in poverty. The number of poor has tripled since September 2000 and over half the workforce is unemployed. Palestinians are more dependent on food and other forms of aid than ever before. Reports from social welfare organizations for the year 2003 note “pervasive and deepening poverty”, “worsening conditions and an economy in a state of ruin”, and point out that the ongoing “conflict [is] creating a major humanitarian crisis” and “widespread psychological trauma”. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has understated, “Our people are suffering”. President George Bush and other world leaders have lamented the sad plight of the Palestinians.

Something beyond talk is needed to alleviate Palestinian suffering. “Tell Bush: Good Speech! Now Take Action”, suggested a recent headline in the Jewish Voice for Peace, and urged Bush “to back his words with action”. Refugees International has called on President Bush to “take steps to give … jobs, education, medical services, and food” to the Palestinians. In describing the talking-versus-doing syndrome, Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States, from 1928 – 1932, said in 1920, long before his presidency, “Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.”

Hoover could never be accused of assassinating idealism: he was responsible for the rescue, feeding, clothing and resettlement of more victims of natural disasters and wars than just about anyone in recent history. During World War I, Hoover headed the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which fed 10 million people and carried out Belgian postwar reconstruction. In 1917, he served as U.S. Food Administrator. After the war, Hoover was sent by President Woodrow Wilson to Europe to direct the American Relief Administration. As Secretary of Commerce under Calvin Coolidge, he successfully resettled 325,000 Americans rendered homeless by the Mississippi River’s flooding in 1927. After World War II he brought relief to millions as Coordinator of the European Food Program.

As a Quaker, Hoover passionately believed in peace, was appalled by the human costs of war, and devoted his life to public service. Even with his most grandiose projects, he kept the worth of the individual paramount. His title, “The Great Humanitarian”, was well deserved. When war again broke out in Europe, Hoover, now in his 70’s, established the Polish Relief Commission, which fed 300,000 children in occupied countries. He became chairman of the Famine Emergency Commission, and in 1945 then-President Harry S. Truman asked him to organize food relief for war-torn countries.

“As a Quaker, Hoover passionately believed in peace, was appalled by the human costs of war, and devoted his life to public service. Even with his most grandiose projects, he kept the worth of the individual paramount. His title, ‘The Great Humanitarian’, was well deserved.”

Nor did the plight of the Palestinian Arabs escape the Great Humanitarian’s attention: In December 1945, he submitted his plan to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine. Hoover said it was “a process by which both Jews and Arabs would benefit materially”, and could be instrumental in “settling the Palestine question and providing ample Jewish refuge”. He insisted that it offered a “constructive humanitarian solution”, and the committee agreed that the proposal merited careful study.

What Hoover proposed was “that Iraq … be made the scene of resettlement of the Arabs from Palestine and this for their immediate relief and long-term benefit”. Unlike concurrent proposals for mass, forced transfer, there was an implicit assumption that this one would be totally voluntary.

By 1949, with the creation of half a million Palestinian refugees, Hoover’s plan took on a special urgency. He wrote the White House that the refugees “are in a deplorable condition”, and can be absorbed in Iraq. “It would give permanent solution to the problem of these unfortunate people.” He also said his plan “would strengthen the economy of Iraq”.

Could Hoover’s vision work today? The population of Iraq has been decimated during this past generation. The prolonged Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, the internecine fighting, the 1991 Gulf War, the subsequent U.N. sanctions, and most recently, the U.S.-led invasion and occupation, have all taken their toll on millions of Iraqis. Resettling the downtrodden Palestinian Arabs in Iraq would alleviate the Palestinians’ suffering and be a collateral blessing to Iraq. Palestinian Arabs excel in agriculture and construction, areas of greatest need in post-war Iraq.

Jimmy Carter warned recently that “the lack of real effort to resolve the Palestinian issue is a primary source of anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East and a major incentive for terrorist activity”. Hoover noted that his program “would contribute to a friendly gesture from the West to all Arab countries”.

The idea of Jordan as a Palestinian state is widely supported on the Israeli right, even though it is vigorously resisted by the Jordanian monarchy and people. The notion of Egypt as a partial homeland is strongly advocated by the leader of Israel’s National Religious Party (NRP) and others, even though it is firmly rejected by the Egyptian authorities. However unrealistic reviving Hoover’s idea may appear at first glance, it seems far more realistic than those widely endorsed approaches.

The main obstacle to implementing Hoover’s plan has been the presence of antagonistic regimes in Baghdad. Today, American control of Iraq presents a unique opportunity. Let’s remember: “Words without actions are the assassins of idealism”.

Bruce Brill is an independent journalist and former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Middle East analyst. He is author of the book Deceit of An Ally: NSA’s Secret Jew Room & 1973 Yom Kippur Treachery

Bruce Brill may be contacted at bruce.brill@gmail.com.