Jews from Arab Lands
It has been announced that Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit has re-established a unit in his Ministry to work for the compensation of Jews from Arab countries and today a conference was held in Jerusalem by several organizations with official Government support to work for the "rights and redress" for this group.
This is an area where the State of Israel has been totally deficient in its responsibilities. Partly because the State was founded and run mostly by Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, the mizrachi (Eastern) Jews were ignored by them and usually constituted the poorest elements of society, many having come here with nothing from relatively primitive backgrounds.
This included Jews from north Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya) and other backwaters, like Yemen and Aden. However, some came from sophisticated and affluent societies, like the Jews of Iraq and Egypt. But, many of them were unable to deal with Israeli society and left for the west, particularly France and the US. The total number of Jewish refugees from Arab Lands was estimated to have been ca. 850,000, a pitiful number considering that they had been resident in this huge expanse for over 2,000 years, long before the advent of Islam! It is believed that there are now ca. 10,000 Jews left in the whole Arab world. Of those who left ca. 650,000 are known to have settled in Israel. Most were either expelled (as in Iraq) with nothing, or were chased out in fear for their lives after the establishment of Israel in 1948, and an unknown number were killed. It is believed that the total value of assets stolen from them was of the order of b$100! However, while noone thinks it is likely that much of this can be recouped, the State of Israel never made an effort to make their case, preferring not to treat them like refugees, but to integrate them into Israeli society, in theory. In that repect Israel lost a great opportunity not only to help these people, but also to make a good PR case!
This should be compared with the total number of Palestinian refugees in 1948 of ca. 650,000, whose case has been made so effectively that most people are totally unaware of the fact that there were an equal number of Jewish refugees from Arab Lands who entered Israel at the same time as the Palestinians left it, a true population exchange! Certainly the value of the assets of these Jews had been far greater than those of the Palestinians. Because the Israeli Govt. did nothing for these refugees outside Israel, their case was forgotten and they received no attention from the world, the UN or international agencies.
Israel also failed to raise the fate of these people in any negotiations with the Arabs, and had let their case die by default. One reason for the change now is that several organizations have been established to work for their cause. One is the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) that was established here and I heard about it when we came here for a sabbatical year in 1976-7. I met the Executive Director then, Maurice Roumani from Libya, and I invited him to talk at the Weizmann Inst. But, they made few inroads in Israel because of official indifference.
Another organization is the American based Justice for Jews from Arab Countries. It is partly because descendents of Jews from Arab countries are now prominent in Israeli society, for example Sheetrit's parents were from Morocco, and because of American Jewish organizations, that there has been this belated turnaround in Israel. Also, there are now many Jews from France emigrating to Israel, whose families originally came from north Africa. Hopefully it is not too late, because these Jews have a genuine case of "ethnic cleansing" and human rights abuses.
Now if you ask Arabs about this they will tell you two things. First, "the Jews in Arab countries were treated very well, they were our friends and they chose to leave for Israel because they were traitors." This is definitely untrue, since even though there were good relations between individual Jews and Arabs, in general Arab society was extremely hostile to Jews, and throughout Arab history Jews were over-taxed and murdered. Secondly the Arabs will tell you that Jews were rich at Arab expense, that they exploited the Arabs, and this is another case of classic anti-Semitism, often copied from Europe, through the French influence in Lebanon that spread to other Arab countries. Even today when some Arab countries are undergoing changes to more "democratic" and tolerant norms, there is a strong antagonism and even hatred of Jews that is expressed in disgusting and common cartoons in newspapers. Certainly Arabs hardly distinguish between Jews living in the diaspora and Israelis, they hate us all.
Let us hope that the destiny of the Jews who fled or were expelled from Arab Lands can finally be redresssed.
This is an area where the State of Israel has been totally deficient in its responsibilities. Partly because the State was founded and run mostly by Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, the mizrachi (Eastern) Jews were ignored by them and usually constituted the poorest elements of society, many having come here with nothing from relatively primitive backgrounds.
This included Jews from north Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya) and other backwaters, like Yemen and Aden. However, some came from sophisticated and affluent societies, like the Jews of Iraq and Egypt. But, many of them were unable to deal with Israeli society and left for the west, particularly France and the US. The total number of Jewish refugees from Arab Lands was estimated to have been ca. 850,000, a pitiful number considering that they had been resident in this huge expanse for over 2,000 years, long before the advent of Islam! It is believed that there are now ca. 10,000 Jews left in the whole Arab world. Of those who left ca. 650,000 are known to have settled in Israel. Most were either expelled (as in Iraq) with nothing, or were chased out in fear for their lives after the establishment of Israel in 1948, and an unknown number were killed. It is believed that the total value of assets stolen from them was of the order of b$100! However, while noone thinks it is likely that much of this can be recouped, the State of Israel never made an effort to make their case, preferring not to treat them like refugees, but to integrate them into Israeli society, in theory. In that repect Israel lost a great opportunity not only to help these people, but also to make a good PR case!
This should be compared with the total number of Palestinian refugees in 1948 of ca. 650,000, whose case has been made so effectively that most people are totally unaware of the fact that there were an equal number of Jewish refugees from Arab Lands who entered Israel at the same time as the Palestinians left it, a true population exchange! Certainly the value of the assets of these Jews had been far greater than those of the Palestinians. Because the Israeli Govt. did nothing for these refugees outside Israel, their case was forgotten and they received no attention from the world, the UN or international agencies.
Israel also failed to raise the fate of these people in any negotiations with the Arabs, and had let their case die by default. One reason for the change now is that several organizations have been established to work for their cause. One is the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) that was established here and I heard about it when we came here for a sabbatical year in 1976-7. I met the Executive Director then, Maurice Roumani from Libya, and I invited him to talk at the Weizmann Inst. But, they made few inroads in Israel because of official indifference.
Another organization is the American based Justice for Jews from Arab Countries. It is partly because descendents of Jews from Arab countries are now prominent in Israeli society, for example Sheetrit's parents were from Morocco, and because of American Jewish organizations, that there has been this belated turnaround in Israel. Also, there are now many Jews from France emigrating to Israel, whose families originally came from north Africa. Hopefully it is not too late, because these Jews have a genuine case of "ethnic cleansing" and human rights abuses.
Now if you ask Arabs about this they will tell you two things. First, "the Jews in Arab countries were treated very well, they were our friends and they chose to leave for Israel because they were traitors." This is definitely untrue, since even though there were good relations between individual Jews and Arabs, in general Arab society was extremely hostile to Jews, and throughout Arab history Jews were over-taxed and murdered. Secondly the Arabs will tell you that Jews were rich at Arab expense, that they exploited the Arabs, and this is another case of classic anti-Semitism, often copied from Europe, through the French influence in Lebanon that spread to other Arab countries. Even today when some Arab countries are undergoing changes to more "democratic" and tolerant norms, there is a strong antagonism and even hatred of Jews that is expressed in disgusting and common cartoons in newspapers. Certainly Arabs hardly distinguish between Jews living in the diaspora and Israelis, they hate us all.
Let us hope that the destiny of the Jews who fled or were expelled from Arab Lands can finally be redresssed.
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:43 PM
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