Jordan Fails To Halt Refugees

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31407, 28 June 1967, Page 17

Jordan Fails To Halt Refugees

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ALLENBY BRIDGE (Jordan), June 27. The Jordanian Government tried in vain yesterday to stop the flow of refugees from the Israeli-occupied west bank of the River Jordan, the Associated Press reported. The Jordanian Government, which had announced that no more refugees would be allowed to cross the Allenby Bridge, later reversed its decision, United Press International said.

Efforts to persuade the refugees to remain in their homes or old refugee camps failed.

The Government allowed private transport to pick up refugees at the east bank of the river.

King Hussein had twice broadcast appeals to inhabitants of the west bank not to flee, but thousands continued to cross the river.

Yesterday the trucks, buses and taxis that have flocked daily from Amman to the east bank to pick up farepaying refugees were stopped outside the city.

Refugees who crossed the improvised foot bridge on the wreckage of the Allenby bridge were deprived of transport, but they started walking towards Amman. At a military roadblock two miles from the river, the people were stopped and ordered to return to the west bank. They went back to the river but Israeli soldiers guarding the bridge refused to let them return. Witnesses estimated 2000 to 3000 refugees were squatting by the roadside between the river and the roadblock when the Government relented. Trucks and buses arrived in late afternoon to pick them up. Jordan’s Aim The Government has tried to prevent a repetition of what happened during the first Arab-Israel war in 1948. Then, about 800,000 Palestinians left their war-threat-ened homes. They have spent 19 years in squalid refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and their numbers have grown to 1.3 million.

In Jordan, particularly, they were an unstable political element, often rioting. The Jordan Government wants to keep down its refugee population and also discourage the population of Israeli - occupied territory from fleeing so as not to give the Israelis any excuse to resettle empty property. The fear in Amman, the capital, is that the Israelis will seek to keep the west bank detached from Jordan and refuse to allow any who flee now to return. Still the Government does not want to refuse shelter and safety to Arabs.