Cloakedvessel
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Some Q & A about Arab Jews:
Shouldnt the Palestinian issue be dealt with separately from the Jewish refugees from Arab states?
No. The Jews who were forced out of their homes by Arab governments, which then confiscated their property, were the victims of the same aggression carried out by the Arab states against the newly founded State of Israel. On May 15, 1948, five Arab armies invaded Israel with the intention of destroying it and murdering or expelling the Jewish population. Even before this, life for Jews in the Arab states became intolerable. With the United Nations resolution on the partition of Palestine in 1947, riots broke out against numerous Jewish communities throughout the Arab world. Arab mobs attacked Jewish shops and homes; synagogues were burned and looted; hundreds of Jews were murdered in the streets, thousands were imprisoned in the subsequent months, movement was restricted and many Jews were deprived of their citizenship.[13] Arab governments instituted a number of anti-Jewish actions: Jews suddenly lost their property; bank accounts belonging to them were frozen, and property personal and communal valued at billions in todays dollars was gradually confiscated. Jews lost their means of survival; many became hostages in their own countries of origin. Remaining was becoming increasingly dangerous, and many were compelled to flee in large numbers because of these deteriorating conditions.[14] As part of an overall Middle East peace accord, the Palestinians claims must be dealt with fairly and practically and on an equal footing with the Middle Eastern and North African Jews within the framework of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership as part of a peace process resulting in a final settlement and an end to any further claims.
Shouldnt the Jews from Arab states be invited to return to their former homes?
Such an invitation exists already, but virtually none of the Jewish refugees or their children,want to return to those lands where they suffered intolerable violence and persecution. They simply want justice. They want the international community to recognize their plight and integrate full compensation of their lost property as part of a final Middle East peace agreement.
Were Jewish refugees from Arab states treated differently than the Arab refugees from Palestine?
Yes. Nearly 50 percent of Israels Jewish population today has their roots in Arab countries, while the Arabs who left Israel constitute less than 2 percent of the total Arab population in Arab states. Even so, the Jewish refugees were in spite of tremendous difficulties, especially in the early years of Israels independence economically and socially absorbed and given a secure haven in the State of Israel, whereas the Palestinian Arab refugees were deliberately herded into refugee camps by their host Arab states, devoid of the minimal conditions for decent life, so that they might become a political and propaganda tool in the hands of the Arab governments in their relentless fight against the State of Israel. Furthermore, Jewish refugees from Arab states received no financial support whatsoever from the international community: their absorption was financed, to the last cent, by the Israeli government and by their Jewish brethren in Israel and abroad. Jewish refugees from Arab states have not been granted any international political recognition of their plight. There are no UN resolutions calling for this population to receive just compensation and restitution. Palestinian Arab refugees, on the other hand, have received massive political and material support from the United Nations, whose agencies primarily the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have spent billions of dollars, from May 1950 to date, on their maintenance. Despite propaganda in many Arab countries, which has succeeded in establishing the concept of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians and their right of return in the organs of world public opinion, the world community is only now beginning to recognize the fact that the Jewish refugees from Arab countries have no less legitimate rights, and that these rights should be fully acknowledged and restored.
Did the Egyptian Government ever put its Jewish Community members in Concentration Camps?
Yes. Known in Egypt as Abu Zaabal and Tora, 500 of Egypts Jewish men including the Chief Rabbi of the community were forced to live in these prison camps during a three year period following Egypts 1967 Six-Day War with Israel. Internees were all Egyptian nationals who suffered great humiliation and a lack of sanitation at the hands of the guards as punishment for no crime but being Jewish. Internees at Abu Zaabal and Tora Prison Camps
What were the 1969 Hangings in Iraq?
On January 27, 1969 Saddam Hussein ordered the hangings of nine innocent Iraqi Jews accused of being Israeli spies. Eight of the nine were from Basra while one was from Baghdad. In the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War the Iraqi government had already issued decrees preventing Jews from attending universities, prohibiting Jews from holding employment, phone lines in Jewish houses were cut and Jews were denied the right to travel outside of Iraq. Saddam Husseim began a campaign of scare tactics which included posting agents in front of Jewish houses and businesses, random abductions of Jews by police forces and the governments seizure of Jewish assets. The nine Jewish men were put on a televised mock military trial and their hanging was met with much public fanfare and celebration. At the time of the hangings, there were 2,500 Jews still living in Iraq but the hangings marked the beginning of the end of the Iraqi Jewish Community. Almost the entire Jewish Community fled Iraq after the hangings.
JIMENA | FAQ on Jewish refugees
Arabic and English website tells story of Middle Eastern Jews
A non-profit organisation, modelled on Holocaust research groups, has launched 11 new websites to detail the exodus of Jews from 11 countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
The story of more than 850,000 Jews who fled to North America from Iran, Turkey and nine Arab countries during the 20th century has been documented in a series of videos, photographs and testimonies by the US-based organisation Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (Jimena).
Jimena Director Sarah Levin said the collection of stories, photos and recipes in both Arabic and English would "enable us to reach individuals in Arabic speaking countries who otherwise may know very little of the Jewish history of the region.
"So many stories of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews have not been documented and shared with audiences around the world.
"This project was partially inspired by various international efforts to document and share testimonies of Holocaust survivors."
Testimonies on the Jimena site come from Jews who fled Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
Iran-born Laudie Freed, who left Tehran in 1966, said experiences of "some of the Jews in Iran were like the Jews in Germany. After all the oil money had poured into the country in the 1970s and the country was prosperous, [the Jewish community] didn't think anything could happen to them."
Ms Freed says her uncle Habib Elghanian, a well-known Iranian Jewish philanthropist, was executed for building a skyscraper in Tehran because "you cannot build a building higher than a mosque".
The mother of three also recalled a time when her father was called a "dirty Jew" as he tried to buy vegetables from a cart owner. "I have never been back to Iran and I never want to go back," says Ms Freed, who now lives in California. "I don't know how safe it is [for Jews] there."
Surprisingly, Ms Freed has praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been accused of antisemitism and saying that Zionists control the world. "At least he speaks the truth of his heart and doesn't disguise it," she says. "He brings to light the true fanaticism in the Iranian government."
Luci Cohen-Zimering, from Tunisia, said she grew up in a Jewish area in Tunis at a time when "Jews were respected and highly ranked professionally. For Pesach, we all gathered around a table covered in a white table cloth and adorned with crystals," she recalled. She says in 1967, after the Six Day War, "Jews were attacked in the streets and the synagogue was burned." Returning to Tunisia in 2000 felt "like total chaos. The taxi driver could not even find the street where we lived because the names were different. The Great Synagogue was heavily guarded by soldiers for safety."
Doris Nachum, 53, recalled a mass of attacks against Jews in Libya, when the Six Day War started in 1967. She lived above a synagogue in Tripoli and reports that "whenever something happened in Israel - there would be Arabs out in the street rioting and looking for Jews. [At the start of the Six Day War] our home was the first target - they were banging at the door - it was horrible. They were chanting, 'kill the Jewish'." The family later escaped to Israel before Doris moved to the US in 1989. It is believed that 40,000 Jews lived in Libya in 1948. The number fell to 7000 in 1967 and today no Jews live there.
Arabic and English website tells story of Middle Eastern Jews | The Jewish Chronicle
Which Arab Jew in his right mind would go back to an Arab country?
Shouldnt the Palestinian issue be dealt with separately from the Jewish refugees from Arab states?
No. The Jews who were forced out of their homes by Arab governments, which then confiscated their property, were the victims of the same aggression carried out by the Arab states against the newly founded State of Israel. On May 15, 1948, five Arab armies invaded Israel with the intention of destroying it and murdering or expelling the Jewish population. Even before this, life for Jews in the Arab states became intolerable. With the United Nations resolution on the partition of Palestine in 1947, riots broke out against numerous Jewish communities throughout the Arab world. Arab mobs attacked Jewish shops and homes; synagogues were burned and looted; hundreds of Jews were murdered in the streets, thousands were imprisoned in the subsequent months, movement was restricted and many Jews were deprived of their citizenship.[13] Arab governments instituted a number of anti-Jewish actions: Jews suddenly lost their property; bank accounts belonging to them were frozen, and property personal and communal valued at billions in todays dollars was gradually confiscated. Jews lost their means of survival; many became hostages in their own countries of origin. Remaining was becoming increasingly dangerous, and many were compelled to flee in large numbers because of these deteriorating conditions.[14] As part of an overall Middle East peace accord, the Palestinians claims must be dealt with fairly and practically and on an equal footing with the Middle Eastern and North African Jews within the framework of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership as part of a peace process resulting in a final settlement and an end to any further claims.
Shouldnt the Jews from Arab states be invited to return to their former homes?
Such an invitation exists already, but virtually none of the Jewish refugees or their children,want to return to those lands where they suffered intolerable violence and persecution. They simply want justice. They want the international community to recognize their plight and integrate full compensation of their lost property as part of a final Middle East peace agreement.
Were Jewish refugees from Arab states treated differently than the Arab refugees from Palestine?
Yes. Nearly 50 percent of Israels Jewish population today has their roots in Arab countries, while the Arabs who left Israel constitute less than 2 percent of the total Arab population in Arab states. Even so, the Jewish refugees were in spite of tremendous difficulties, especially in the early years of Israels independence economically and socially absorbed and given a secure haven in the State of Israel, whereas the Palestinian Arab refugees were deliberately herded into refugee camps by their host Arab states, devoid of the minimal conditions for decent life, so that they might become a political and propaganda tool in the hands of the Arab governments in their relentless fight against the State of Israel. Furthermore, Jewish refugees from Arab states received no financial support whatsoever from the international community: their absorption was financed, to the last cent, by the Israeli government and by their Jewish brethren in Israel and abroad. Jewish refugees from Arab states have not been granted any international political recognition of their plight. There are no UN resolutions calling for this population to receive just compensation and restitution. Palestinian Arab refugees, on the other hand, have received massive political and material support from the United Nations, whose agencies primarily the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have spent billions of dollars, from May 1950 to date, on their maintenance. Despite propaganda in many Arab countries, which has succeeded in establishing the concept of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians and their right of return in the organs of world public opinion, the world community is only now beginning to recognize the fact that the Jewish refugees from Arab countries have no less legitimate rights, and that these rights should be fully acknowledged and restored.
Did the Egyptian Government ever put its Jewish Community members in Concentration Camps?
Yes. Known in Egypt as Abu Zaabal and Tora, 500 of Egypts Jewish men including the Chief Rabbi of the community were forced to live in these prison camps during a three year period following Egypts 1967 Six-Day War with Israel. Internees were all Egyptian nationals who suffered great humiliation and a lack of sanitation at the hands of the guards as punishment for no crime but being Jewish. Internees at Abu Zaabal and Tora Prison Camps
What were the 1969 Hangings in Iraq?
On January 27, 1969 Saddam Hussein ordered the hangings of nine innocent Iraqi Jews accused of being Israeli spies. Eight of the nine were from Basra while one was from Baghdad. In the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War the Iraqi government had already issued decrees preventing Jews from attending universities, prohibiting Jews from holding employment, phone lines in Jewish houses were cut and Jews were denied the right to travel outside of Iraq. Saddam Husseim began a campaign of scare tactics which included posting agents in front of Jewish houses and businesses, random abductions of Jews by police forces and the governments seizure of Jewish assets. The nine Jewish men were put on a televised mock military trial and their hanging was met with much public fanfare and celebration. At the time of the hangings, there were 2,500 Jews still living in Iraq but the hangings marked the beginning of the end of the Iraqi Jewish Community. Almost the entire Jewish Community fled Iraq after the hangings.
JIMENA | FAQ on Jewish refugees
Arabic and English website tells story of Middle Eastern Jews
A non-profit organisation, modelled on Holocaust research groups, has launched 11 new websites to detail the exodus of Jews from 11 countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
The story of more than 850,000 Jews who fled to North America from Iran, Turkey and nine Arab countries during the 20th century has been documented in a series of videos, photographs and testimonies by the US-based organisation Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (Jimena).
Jimena Director Sarah Levin said the collection of stories, photos and recipes in both Arabic and English would "enable us to reach individuals in Arabic speaking countries who otherwise may know very little of the Jewish history of the region.
"So many stories of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews have not been documented and shared with audiences around the world.
"This project was partially inspired by various international efforts to document and share testimonies of Holocaust survivors."
Testimonies on the Jimena site come from Jews who fled Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
Iran-born Laudie Freed, who left Tehran in 1966, said experiences of "some of the Jews in Iran were like the Jews in Germany. After all the oil money had poured into the country in the 1970s and the country was prosperous, [the Jewish community] didn't think anything could happen to them."
Ms Freed says her uncle Habib Elghanian, a well-known Iranian Jewish philanthropist, was executed for building a skyscraper in Tehran because "you cannot build a building higher than a mosque".
The mother of three also recalled a time when her father was called a "dirty Jew" as he tried to buy vegetables from a cart owner. "I have never been back to Iran and I never want to go back," says Ms Freed, who now lives in California. "I don't know how safe it is [for Jews] there."
Surprisingly, Ms Freed has praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been accused of antisemitism and saying that Zionists control the world. "At least he speaks the truth of his heart and doesn't disguise it," she says. "He brings to light the true fanaticism in the Iranian government."
Luci Cohen-Zimering, from Tunisia, said she grew up in a Jewish area in Tunis at a time when "Jews were respected and highly ranked professionally. For Pesach, we all gathered around a table covered in a white table cloth and adorned with crystals," she recalled. She says in 1967, after the Six Day War, "Jews were attacked in the streets and the synagogue was burned." Returning to Tunisia in 2000 felt "like total chaos. The taxi driver could not even find the street where we lived because the names were different. The Great Synagogue was heavily guarded by soldiers for safety."
Doris Nachum, 53, recalled a mass of attacks against Jews in Libya, when the Six Day War started in 1967. She lived above a synagogue in Tripoli and reports that "whenever something happened in Israel - there would be Arabs out in the street rioting and looking for Jews. [At the start of the Six Day War] our home was the first target - they were banging at the door - it was horrible. They were chanting, 'kill the Jewish'." The family later escaped to Israel before Doris moved to the US in 1989. It is believed that 40,000 Jews lived in Libya in 1948. The number fell to 7000 in 1967 and today no Jews live there.
Arabic and English website tells story of Middle Eastern Jews | The Jewish Chronicle
Which Arab Jew in his right mind would go back to an Arab country?
Just saying
