The following article, entitled “Israel Welcomes Bosnian Muslim Refugees”, appeared in

Gettysburg Times on 17 February 1993.

Israel Welcomes Bosnian Muslim Refugees

TEL AVIV, Israel – Israeli officials welcomes 84 Slavic Muslims as refugees from Bosnia-
Herzegovina on Tuesday and promised them shelter as long as the ethnic war rages in their
homeland.

But the officials, headed by Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, were forced to change housing
arrangements for the visitors after mayors of Arab towns withdrew an earlier offer to take the
refugees in.

Israeli Arabs said they feared the move to bring in the Bosnian Muslims was a publicity stunt to
draw attention away from the Jewish state’s expulsion of more than 400 Muslim activists from
the occupied lands two months ago.

Arab anger over the expulsions has disrupted the resumption of the Middle East peace talks.

Sarid welcomed the Bosnians [Bosniaks], including 33 children, saying, “I hope your stay in
our country is as brief and as pleasant as possible.” He added: “Hopefully both Bosnia and
Israel will have peace by the end of 1993.”

Sarid rejected the Israeli Arabs’ charge that the move was a ploy to counter bad publicity over
the Palestinian deportees, who have been stranded in tents on a snowy hill in southern Lebanon
since Dec. 17.