This week, before an audience of peers and MPs, an 80-year-old Jewish refugee named Sarah told the story of her traumatic departure from Egypt in 1956 in the wake of the Suez crisis. She departed with nothing - along with 25,000 other Jews expelled by Nasser and forced to sign a document pledging that they would never return. Sarah was speaking at a House of Lords briefing as part of the Justice for Jews from Arab Countries congress. JJAC, an international coalition of 77 organizations, held its inaugural congress in London to highlight the neglected rights of (according to indisputable UN figures) 856,000 Jewish refugees like Sarah.
The Jewish "catastrophe" not only emptied cities like Baghdad (a third Jewish); it tore apart the cultural, social and economic fabric in Arab lands. Jews lost homes, synagogues, hospitals, schools, shrines and deeded land five times the size of Israel.
Their ancient heritage - predating Islam by 1,000 years – was destroyed.
June 26, 2008
Acknowledging the Plight of Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries
April 29, 2008
First Time: UN Hears from Jewish Refugees of Arab Lands
UN Watch Testifies Before UN Human Rights Council on Forgotten Refugees
The history of Palestinian refugees deserves international attention. So does the history of one million Jewish refugees from the Arab-Israel conflict. Yet the United Nations has devoted countless resolutions and debates to only one side of this story, completely ignoring the other.
For the first time ever in the UN Human Rights Council, at its recently concluded session, the suffering of Jewish refugees from Arab lands was also placed on the international agenda. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Congress adopted a historic resolution recognizing that all victims of the conflict must be treated equally.
Click here to watch video of UN speech.
Racism and Historical Truth:Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands
Agenda Item 9: Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Racism Doudou Diène
UN Human Rights Council, 7th Session, March 19, 2008
Delivered by UN Watch delegate Regina Bublil Waldman
To support the vital work of UN Watch, please contribute here.Thank you, Mr. President.
We thank the Special Rapporteur for his work against racism, and address two areas of his report.
Dr. Diene, in Addendum 1 you mention Libya’s treatment of ethnic minorities. In Addenda 3 and 4, you envision a multicultural society based on two principles: respect for historical truth and non-discrimination against minorities.
As a victim of Libyan discrimination, I agree: only with historical truth can we build a better future.
Today I wear my traditional ethnic dress to celebrate my heritage, but also to mourn its destruction.
One million Jews lived in the Middle East at the turn of the century. Today, less than five thousand remain.
Their plight has been ignored by the international community.
Their story is my story.
In 1948, there were thirty-six thousand Jews living in Libya. Today, there are none.
During the 1967 war between Israel and her Arab neighbors, mobs took to the streets and shouted, “Edbah el Yehud!” — “Slaughter the Jews!”
They burned my father’s warehouse and came to burn our home.
An honorable Muslim neighbor stopped them, and saved our lives.
The government ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Libya, where my family had lived for hundreds of years. They confiscated our homes and all our assets.
We were given this one-way travel document — never allowed to return.
My family was put on a bus to the airport. The bus driver got out, and tried to burn the bus with us in it. We were rescued from death by two Christian friends.
I come here today bearing no hatred -- only these historical truths:
Jews have been an indigenous people of the Middle East for over 2,500 years.
On the basis of race and religion, Arab regimes subjected Jews to arbitrary arrest, confiscation of property and expulsions. This is fully documented in this report by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries.
The UNHCR has ruled that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were ‘bona fide’ refugees, victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Dr. Diene, your report envisions a future of tolerance and equality. Applying the principles you set forth, we trust you will examine the actions of Libya and other Middle Eastern countries that forced out their Jewish minorities.Like in South Africa, only the acknowledgment of truth and history will lead to reconciliation.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(With special thanks to BBI as co-signatory.)
April 02, 2008
The Forgotten Refugees
Who are these Jews? What precipitated their mass-exodus in the 20th century? Where did they go? And why don't we know their stories?
Watch this video from The David Project.
Treatment of Jews Varied by Country
There has been an uninterrupted presence of large Jewish communities in the Middle East from time immemorial which includes the one thousand years before the creation of Islam. The ancient Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa (including in the Land of Israel) has existed for over 2,500 years before the birth of the modern Arab states.
Here is a list of countries and the dates of their Jewish Communities:
Algeria, 1st-2nd century CE
Egypt
Iraq, 6th century BCE
Lebanon, 1st century BCE
Libya, 3rd century BCE
Morocco, 1st century CE
Syria, 1st century CE
Tunisia, 200 CE
Yemen, 3rd century BCE
Restoring truth to the Middle East narrative
The world is greatly concerned about the Arabs who fled the state of Israel in 1948, but no mention is ever made of those Jewish refugees from Arab lands, and the homes and possessions they were forced to leave behind. Their history is as compelling and arguably more so than that of the Arab refugees from Israel.
And the US House of Representatives agree. From JTA:
The U.S. House of Representatives recognized the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab lands in any final peace deal. The nonbinding resolution, backed by a bipartisan slate of lawmakers, passed in a voice vote Tuesday. It urges any U.S. government to ensure that the rights of such refugees -- believed to number approximately 850,000 -- are part of a final peace deal between Israel and the Arabs. Pro-Palestinian groups criticized the legislation as undermining the claims of Palestinian refugees, but U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, (D-N.Y.), the legislation's lead sponsor, rejected such claims.
"This should not be an impediment to the peace process in any way," Nadler said in a conference call Wednesday. "It is important to raise the question of Jewish refugees and the property left behind in Arab countries. It does not in any way say that the rights of Palestinian refugees should not be handled."
Stanley Urman, the executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, the Jewish group that led the lobbying effort for the resolution, said it "restored truth to the Middle East narrative."
March 29, 2008
UN Rights Council Hears from Jewish Refugee
A UN body with a history of passing anti-Israel resolutions heard about a different side of the Arab-Israeli conflict last week when a Jewish refugee described her family's eviction from the home they had occupied in Libya for hundreds of years. Regina Bublil-Waldman told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that her family was expelled from Tripoli by the Libyan government after the 1967 Six-Day War. During that conflict, mobs turned out in the streets shouting "Slaughter the Jews."
"I appear before you today not alone, but representing the nearly one million Jews resident in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf region at the turn of the century," she said. "Today, less than 5,000 Jews remain. Their plight and flight from 10 Arab countries has been ignored by the international community."
March 27, 2008
U.S. House Resolution 185 Regarding Jewish Refugees
For background information on HR 185, see my post here.
This Resolution appears in its entirety at:
http://frwebgate.%20access.gpo.%20gov/cgi-bin/%20getdoc.cgi?
You may contact your congressperson through this website:
http://capwiz.%20com/hadassah/%20issues/alert/%20?alertid=
[Scroll to the bottom of the page for instructions]
February 11, 2008
Jewish refugees
Click here for the text of the legislation.
Please contact your Representatives, specifically members who are on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to express your support for H.Res.185.
A list of members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee can be found here.
January 23, 2008
Migron Sentenced to Destruction in Six Months
The Jewish town of Migron, mentioned in the 5,000 year old Jewish holy book in Samuel 1 14,2 and in Isaiah 10,28 is to be forcibly evacuated of all of its Jewisch citizens, by the left wing turds of Peace Now in order to make room for the thieves and barbarians of Arabia, so that it can turn into another sh'aria sh*thole the same way that Gaza has. May tragedy beset each member of Peace Now for dedicating their adult lives to the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people from their indigenous homeland. Via INN:
Responding to the Supreme Court and the radical Jew-hating Peace Now group, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister said that the 43 families currently living in Migron, north of Jerusalem, would be evicted by this coming August.Migron (Samuel I 14,2; Isaiah 10, 28) is a strategically critical hilltop community north of Jerusalem, overlooking the Jerusalem-Shomron highway. It grew very quickly following its founding in March 2002, swelling to 40 families within less than a year and a half - but the government then clamped down, and barely a single new caravan (trailer home) has been allowed in since then. Migron, as well as 25 other outposts in Yesha (Judea and Samaria), is considered "unauthorized" outpost because they were built after March 1, 2001 - the date ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised U.S. President George Bush that no new communities would be built.
Some of the land in Migron was clearly purchased by Jews, but the Supreme Court has been asked by Peace Now to rule that other parts of the community are situated on private, Arab-owned land - and to order the destruction of the entire community.
December 10, 2007
Shadow Of 1947
On December 8, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — UNRWA — will mark its 58th anniversary. That is quite a record for an agency created in 1949 as a temporary relief organization.Click here to read the rest of this excellent article.
One of the FAQS on the UNRWA Web site asks, "If UNRWA was set up as a temporary Agency, why is it still working after over 50 years?" The question is worth considering, not only because the Web site does not answer it — the explanation simply cites the Palestinians' "continuing needs" — but because the answer bears directly on the Annapolis Conference that America initiated. Originally, UNRWA was established to serve 652,000 Arabs after the 1948 war against Israel. On its Web site, UNRWA says it now has "over 28,000 staff," provides aid to "over 4.4 million refugees" in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and is "by far the largest U.N. operation" in the Middle East.
In comparison, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, established in 1950 to serve all other refugees in the world, has a staff of 6,300 that currently serves, by its count, 32.9 million refugees in 111 countries.
Pursuant to the Annapolis understanding, Israel and the Palestinian Authority will address the question of "refugees" over the next year. To properly tackle that issue, however, it is necessary to understand: a) UNRWA's unusual definition of a "refugee," b) the status of the Palestinians currently so categorized, and c) the reason their problems have not been solved in 58 years, despite a massive U.N. agency devoted exclusively to them.
The common conception of a "refugee" is an individual who had to leave his country because of political upheaval or war and resettle in a new place. The common conception of a refugee relief organization — particularly a temporary one — is an agency assisting such people to resettle into new homes in new countries.
For the Palestinians, however, UNRWA uses a unique definition — one that focuses not simply on the refugees themselves, but on conferring "refugee" status on successive generations born and raised in new locations. On its Web site, UNRWA proudly calls itself unique not only in terms of its "commitment to one group of refugees," but its contributions to "four generations" of them. If there are "four generations" of Palestinian refugees, including parents and children who never lived in Israel but simply had grandparents or great grandparents who did, then there are also "four generations" of Jewish refugees — the approximately 820,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries in 1948 plus their succeeding generations born and raised in Israel.
No discussion of Palestinian "refugees" can fairly take place without a simultaneous discussion of the even larger number of Jewish "refugees" under the same definition, who had their homes and property taken by Arab states — states that also waged war against the nascent state of Israel that absorbed the refugees they created.
November 21, 2007
With Annapolis Approaching, Jewish Refugees Speak Up
Please read the entire article here.Jews originally from Arab countries demand a say at Annapolis, particularly in light of UN archives papers proving Arab plots against Jews in 1947.
Two organizations representing Jews originally from Arab countries demand to be heard at Annapolis - particularly in light of documents from the UN archives revealing official Arab collusion and laws against Jews back in 1947. Violence, arrests and confiscation of property were part of official policy towards Jews in several Arab countries, the papers show.
In addition, it is estimated that the 850,000 Jews who fled Arab countries after Israel's founding in 1948 left behind assets currently worth more than $300 billion.
Heskel M. Haddad, president of the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries, said last week that when the Palestinian Authority negotiators at Annapolis raise the issue of Arab refugees, the Israelis must remind them of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who left their homes and property in Arab countries.
In addition, Stanley Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), says that justice cannot be served unless the forced exodus of Jewish refugees, and the conditions under which they left, are included on the agenda at the upcoming conference.The information on the Arab League's official persecution of Jews has been long-known, even if not well-publicized. On May 16, 1948, the New York Times reported, "Already in some Moslem states such as Syria and Lebanon there is a tendency to regard all Jews as Zionist agents and 'fifth columnists.' There have been violent incidents with feeling running high. There are indications that the stage is being set for a tragedy of incalculable proportions. In Syria a policy of economic discrimination is in effect against Jews. 'Virtually all' Jewish civil servants in the employ of the Syrian Government have been discharged. Freedom of movement has been 'practically abolished.' Special frontier posts have been established to control movements of Jews. In Iraq no Jew is permitted to leave the country unless he deposits £5,000 ($20,000) with the Government to guarantee his return. No foreign Jew is allowed to enter Iraq even in transit. In Lebanon Jews have been forced to contribute financially to the fight against the United Nations partition resolution on Palestine. Acts of violence against Jews are openly admitted by the press, which accuses Jews of 'poisoning wells,' etc. Conditions... are worst in Yemen and Afghanistan, whence many Jews have fled in terror to India. Conditions in most of the countries have deteriorated in recent months, this being particularly true of Lebanon, Iran and Egypt."
July 30, 2007
Congress mulls Jewish refugee cause
Two resolutions currently before Congress aim at requiring that any international discussion mentioning palestinian refugees refer to Jewish refugees as well. It is the latest attempt to bring greater attention to the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Groups advocating on behalf of Jewish refugees from Arab countries have stepped up efforts over the last year to bring the issue to the forefront of discussions relating to Middle East refugees. Last fall, a conference on "rights and redress" for this population launched a campaign in Jerusalem to register all families who lost assets when Jews fled Arab countries following the creation of the State of Israel. In May, the House Foreign Affairs Middle East and South Asian Subcommittee Chairman Gary Ackerman held a hearing on the subject, the first such Congressional hearing, according to his staff. The two resolutions currently before Congress were introduced at a Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing last week that addressed the mass displacement of minority populations from Arab countries.
It is estimated that 850,000 Jews fled - and were forced out of Arab states - following the creation of the State of Israel. The resolutions - one in the House and the other in the Senate - instruct the president to ensure that any international discussion of Middle East refugees make mention of Jewish, Christian and other refugees "as a matter of law and equity.
"Since 1947, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted 681 resolutions on the Middle East conflict, including 101 resolutions on Palestinian refugees. "During that same period there were no UN resolutions, nor any recognition or assistance from the international community, forJewish and other refugees from Arab countries," said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), a member of the Caucus, at the briefing.
The principal parties involved in the Mideast peace process must restore "fidelity" to the narrative, said Irwin Cotler, human rights activist and former justice minister and attorney-general of Canada. Cotler blamed the UN for "distorting" this narrative.
"We need to rectify a historical injustice that has gone on for 60 years, and return the narrative of Jews from Arab countries to the Mideast narrative," Cotler told The Jerusalem Post.Cotler was unable to attend the briefing, but submitted writtentestimony that focused on the themes of "truth, justice and reconciliation." Any Mideast peace process needed to address the "rights and redress" of Jews from Arab countries, said Cotler. More than that, he said, the US, in the course of its foreign policy, should ensure that any resolution regarding refugees must include reference to Jewish refugees.
"We are not saying we should exclude Palestinian refugees, but certainly should not be excluding consideration for Jewish refugees," said Cotler.The hearing is the latest in a series of ongoing efforts to give the cause a higher profile.
"There haven't been too many times that Jewish refugees havebeen mentioned in Congress, and this [briefing] certainly shows that we are putting it on the radar screen," said Stanley Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, a coalition of Jewish communal organizations that worked with the Caucus to plan this briefing. Of late, interest in the issue has permeated beyond the Jewish world. In late June, The Guardian published an article on this very issue, "The other right of return," by Egyptian journalist Khaled Diab. And Al Hura, an Arabic television station, covered the Congressional briefing last week.
"This shows that we are not only making the Jewish radar screen, but the Arab community is beginning to pick up interest," saidUrman. Groups like Justice for Jews from Arab Countries and Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) asserted that the goal was not financial compensation, but rather recognition.
"We have targeted the US, made a representation to members of the European parliament, and to Russia's Foreign Ministry, and we hope to bring it to the UN in the fall," said Urman.
"Ourgoal on the political level is to ensure that this is on the table for discussion - we have to move from truth, to justice, to reconciliation."
At the briefing, Regina Bubil-Waldman, co founder and chair of JIMENA, told the story of how her family was nearly murdered while escaping from Libya in 1967. Waldman has brought her story and the larger issue of Jewish refugees to university campuses throughout the US to raise awareness. The story of Jews who were forced to flee Arab countries has largely been left out of hasbara efforts, said Waldman.
"Most of the people advocating campus hasbara, or to general audiences, bring good talking points, but neglect the fact that we have a good balancing narrative, namely that more Jews were made refugees than Palestinians," said Waldman.
"The fact that we have been successfully absorbed by Israel doesn't take away from the fact that our home civilization has been destroyed, and that we are extinct from North Africa, where we were for 2,500 years."
July 22, 2007
"Rectify Injustice" Against Israel, Cotler Tells U.S.
Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler and other Canadian scholars presented the U.S. Congress Thursday with its first testimony on Jews driven from Arab lands following Israel's creation in 1948. The group was among experts helping U.S. lawmakers decide on a pair of bills that would oblige the Bush administration to actively oppose the Arab-led practice in Middle East peace efforts to speak only of Palestinian refugees. General discourse for decades has all but ignored tens of thousands of Jews, Christians and other minorities who were similarly turned into refugees. "The time has come to rectify this historical injustice," Cotler told members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington.
June 09, 2007
Video: How Can We Help the Terrorized People of Sderot?
April 21, 2007
Arabs and erev rav Israelis plan to march against Israel on Yom HaAtzmaut
The Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced (ADRID) is planning to hold its tenth annual Procession of Return. The march, which last year drew hundreds of participants, is set to take place Tuesday, April 24, in the village of Al-Lajjun, adjacent to the northern Arab-Israeli city of Umm Al-Fahm. ADRID was established with the goal of returning Arabs to the houses and villages they or their families left during and after the 1948 War of Independence.
In the 2006 Procession of Return, Arab and left-wing marchers waved PLO flags and black flags "as a clear and decisive statement in the face of the Independence Day celebrations across other Jewish areas of the country," according to Ido Tzvieli, writing in the website of the Israel-based Jewish-Arab Zochrot organization. Zochrot, which will be taking part in the procession in Al-Lajjun, is dedicated to promoting the Arab view of the establishment of the State of Israel as a "day of catastrophe" (Al-Nakba).
Leading Middle East researchers, however, note statements on the issue made by Arab leaders and spokespeople during and after the War of Independence, indicating that Arabs in the land of Israel mostly fled due to Arab propaganda. The Arab leadership promoted libelous accusations against the Jews of Israel and warned Arab villagers to make way for conquering Arab armies.
For example, the New York-based Lebanese daily Al-Hoda wrote that in 1948, Arab League secretary Azzam Pasha "assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade.... Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes and property, and to stay temporarily in neighbouring fraternal states."
Also during the War of Independence, hundreds of Jews were forced to abandon towns and communities that were conquered by Jordanian, Egyptian and other Arab forces, such as in Jerusalem, Gaza, Hevron and other parts of Judea and Samaria. The lands and homes abandoned by Jews were quickly taken over by Arab soldiers and civilians. In most cases, the properties taken over by Arabs have remained in their possession, even after the 1967 Six Day War, when Israeli forces returned to the areas in question. In addition, in the aftermath of the War of Independence, acts of official and unofficial retaliation against Jewish communities in Arab countries forced upwards of 700,000 Jews to flee their homes and emigrate to Israel and the West, in most cases leaving their possessions behind.
April 13, 2007
Jewish Refugee Families Press for Equity
A little-noticed U.S. Supreme Court decision has reopened a forgotten chapter in Middle East history with far-reaching implications. The court recently declined Coca-Cola Co.'s request to review a lower court's decision allowing a Canadian Jewish family to sue the soft-drink giant for trespass. The case was brought by the heirs of Joshias Bigio, a businessman in Egypt until its government expropriated his enterprises in the 1960s. Thirty years later, Bigio's son, Refael, discovered that Coke was using one of his father's factories as part of its Egyptian bottling operations and asked for compensation.
The Bigios are Sephardim - Jews whose ancestors lived in Muslim countries for centuries before fleeing a wave of anti-Semitic violence and intimidation that began at the founding of Israel in 1948. The Bigios' case enables Zionists to point out that Arabs weren't the only ones to lose their homes; Arab hostility to the Jewish state made Jews homeless too.
March 31, 2007
Jews in the Muslim World Today
As Passover approaches, Jewish families the world over are preparing to come together for the traditional Pesach seder commemorating the Jewish people’s Exodus from Egypt approximately 3300 years ago. While the Exodus is a universally known event, not that long ago there was another, less known, mass exodus of Jews from the Arab world to Eretz Yisrael. This time the Jews were fleeing modern day despotic rulers of the Arab world and this time they were arriving on the shores of a new, modern State of Israel.
These Jewish communities had grown and often prospered throughout much of the Middle East and North Africa from as early as the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. On the eve of the birth of the State of Israel, in 1948, there were approximately one million Jews living throughout the Arab/Muslim world. Through forced emigration, pogroms and natural attrition, the once great Jewish communities of the Arab world have dwindled to no more than 10,000-12,000 scattered remnants. This mass migration from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, among others, has left most of the Arab world virtually devoid of the Jewish presence.
Today, these communities largely consist of elderly Jews, too old to make the move to Israel or the United States, who are living out their days in difficult circumstances. In 1948 there were approximately 265,000 Jews in Morocco; today there are about 5500. Tunisian Jewry numbered over 100,000 in 1948, and today there is less than one percent of that. In Algeria there were 140,000; now, fewer than 100. In the land of Babylon (now Iraq), home of the great Jewish academies and birthplace of the Talmud, there were over 150,000 Jews in 1948, and now there are perhaps 35.
Just last month, members of the tiny community of Jews in Yemen, numbering less than 1000 souls, were physically forced to leave their homes when faced with a threat from Islamic extremists associated with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida terrorist network. Locals and Yemenite Jews in Israel have stressed that this is not a government-sponsored threat and that the Jews of Yemen are not in imminent danger; however, they also admit that the community lives in difficult conditions with little hope of survival after this last generation slowly dies away.
Read the rest of this important article, here.
The Forgotten Refugees: Why does nobody care about the Jewish refugees from Arab lands?
What are the facts?
Jews in Arab countries. Jews have lived since Biblical times in what are now Arab countries. After the Roman conquest, Jews were dispersed, mostly to what are now the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East. Many Jews migrated to the Iberian peninsula – Spain and Portugal. They were expelled from those countries at the end of the 15th century. They mostly migrated to the Arab countries, where, by now, they have been living for almost 500 years, many Jews for over 2,000 years.
There is a myth that Jews had an easy life in Muslim/Arab countries. The opposite is the case. Jews under Islam were treated as second-class citizens and worse. The relationship was governed by a system of discrimination, intended to reduce the Jews in those Arab countries to conditions of humiliation, segregation and violence. They were excluded from society, from government, and from most professions. They were barely tolerated and often, under the slightest pretext or no pretext at all, were victimized by vicious violence.
When Israel declared its statehood in 1948, pogroms broke out across the entire Arab/Muslim world. Thousands died in this violence. Their homes and businesses were destroyed, their women violated. The vast majority of those Jews fled from where they had lived for centuries. They had to leave everything behind. Most of those who were able to escape found their way to the just-created state of Israel.
Over 850,000 Jews were driven from Arab countries, most of them in 1948, at the birth of Israel. Most of the remainder were chased out during or immediately following the Six-Day War in 1967, when, in fury about the disastrous defeat, the “Arab street” erupted and subjected its Jewish population to bloody pogroms. Israel received every one of those Jewish refugees from Arab countries with brotherly open arms; it housed, fed, and quickly integrated them into Israeli society. They and their descendants now make up more than one-half of the country’s population.
A different history. It is instructive to compare the history of those Jewish refugees with that of the Arabs who fled from Israel during its War of Independence. There were about 650,000 of them. Most left following the strident invocations of their leaders, who urged them to leave, so as to make room for the invading Arab armies. After victory was to be achieved, they could return to reclaim their property and that of the Jews, all of whom would have been killed or would have fled.
In contrast to the Jewish refugees, who were quickly integrated into Israel, the Arab countries resolutely refused to accept the Arab refugees into their societies. They confined them into so-called refugee camps. Those camps are essentially extended slum cities, where their descendants — now the fourth generation — have been living ever since. The reason for the Arabs’ refusal to accept them was and still is the desire to keep them as a festering sore and to make solution of the Arab/Israel conflict impossible. These “refugees,” whose number has by now miraculously increased from their original 650,000 to 5 million, are seething with hatred toward Israel and provide the cadres of terrorists and suicide bombers.
The Palestinian refugees occupy a unique place in the concern of the world. Since 1947, there have been over 100 UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian refugees. But there has not been one single resolution addressing the horrible injustices done to the nearly one million Jewish refugees from the Arab states.
There have been many millions of refugees in the wake of the Second World War. With only one exception, none of those refugee groups occupy the interest of the world and of the United Nations in a major way. That one exception are the Palestinian refugees. In fact, a special branch of the United Nations (UNWRA) exists only for the maintenance of those “refugees.” In the almost sixty years of the existence of this agency it has cost many billions of dollars, most of it — you guessed it — contributed by the United States.
Jewish refugees from the Arab countries are the forgotten refugees. The world, and especially of course the Arabs, claim compensation from Israel for the Arab refugees and insist on their return to what has been Israel for almost 60 years. The Jewish refugees from Arab countries, all Israelis now, have no desire to return to their ancient homelands, where they had been treated so shabbily and so brutally. But if there is to be any compensation, those forgotten Jewish refugees are certainly entitled to such compensation as much as the Arab refugees. Anything else would be an outrage and a great injustice.
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Facts and Logic About the Middle East
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Gerardo Joffe, President
February 26, 2007
Resolutions Introduced in US Congress Recognizing Rights for Jews from Arab Countries
Rarely is any consensus reached on final status issues in the Middle East peace process. Yet, remarkably, US Congressional leaders have agreed on the rights of Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries. In a rare display of bi-partisanship, four Senators and four Congressmen, representing both political parties, have introduced landmark Resolutions on Middle East refugees that call attention to the fact that Jews living in Arab countries suffered human rights violations, were uprooted from their homes, and were made refugees.
These Resolutions signify that "it would be inappropriate and unjust for the United States to recognize rights for Palestinian refugees without recognizing equal rights for former Jewish, Christian, and other refugees from Arab countries."
On February 16, 2007, formal bicameral resolutions were introduced in the Senate (S.Res 85) and in the House (H.Res 185). These far-reaching Resolutions seek to ensure that all victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict are treated with equality, including Jewish, Christian and other refugees from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf. Concretely, the Resolutions urge the President to ensure that in all international forums, when the issue of 'Middle East refugees are discussed, representatives of the United States should ensure:
"That any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees is matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees, as a matter of law and equity."This bi-partisan effort is being spearheaded in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) along with Rep. IleanaRos-Lehtinen (R-FL); Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-NJ); and Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY). In the Senate, sponsors are Sen. FrankLautenberg (D-NJ); Trent Lott (R-MS); Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN); and Sen. Richard Durbin . The Resolutions will be the strongest declarations adopted by the U.S. Congress, on the rights of Jewish and others refugees that were forced to flee Arab countries.
"When the Middle East peace process is discussed, Palestinian refugees are often addressed. However, Jewish refugees outnumbered Palestinian refugees , and their forced exile from Arab lands must not be omitted from public discussion on the peace process. It is simply not right to recognize the rights of Palestinian refugees without recognizing the rights of Jewish refugees," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).
"There can be no true and lasting peace in the Middle East unless the legitimate claims of all refugees displaced by the years of conflict are recognized by the international community," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN).
"Large numbers of both Arabs and Jews have been forced to flee their countries and it is only right and equitable that the President acknowledge and include Jewish and other refugees in any discussion of Palestinian refugees in pursuing this issue in the international arena."
"It would be constitute an injustice were the United States to recognize rights for one victim population - Palestinian refugees - withoutrecognizing equal rights former Jewish refugees from Arab countries " said Stanley Urman, Executive Director of Justice for Jews fromArab Countries.
"Both were victims of the very same Middle East conflict and the rights of Jewish refugees must be addressed."
Additional information and materials can be found at: Justice For Jews
August 07, 2005
The status of Gaza right now
The barrier around the Gaza Strip will be wholly within Israeli sovereign territory, following the map that Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and the depraved psychopath Egyptian-not-palestinian Arafat signed more than a decade ago.
Palestinian barbarians might launch ranged from cross-boundary shooting and incursions to kidnappings and attacks on strategic Israeli targets near Gaza.
IDF officers know full well that the intifada is not over. The thieves will be engorged with a sense of victory of having "forced" the Israelis out and there is no certainty that hostilities would stop.
At the moment Israel can try and stop palestinians long before they reach the fence. However, once Israel formally leaves Gaza it cannot order the murderers to keep away.
Anyone who wanted to penetrate may go right up to the boundary line and would need less time to cross. The new barriers Israel is building are designed, mainly, to delay infiltrators and prevent roadside bombs from hitting patrols.
All this will not stop the rockets and mortar bombs that palestinian barbarians have been sending over the fence. According to the army spokesman last month the palestinian murderers fired 166 mortar bombs and 40 Kassam rockets into Israel.
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"Hinei ma tov uma na'im shevet achim gam yachad." "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is to be united like brothers and...
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Below are some photos, originally printed on celluloid, of the Temple Mount and the mosques on top of it just before the birth of modern Zio...
