November 24, 2020
When will Jewish refugees from Arab nations get the justice they deserve?
Dear Friend of FLAME: When the mainstream media and United Nations refer to refugees in the
context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they’re usually referring only to the so-called Palestinian refugees.
While much can be said about the Palestinian refugees and their
controversially unique and privileged status globally, the media and
international organizations rarely address hundreds of thousands of Jews
who were forcibly exiled from their homes and communities in the
Middle East and North Africa during the mid-20th century.
While many, if not most, Palestinian refugees had only arrived in their new
homes in the Holy Land during the previous century, Jews had been living in
places like Iraq for over 2,500 years. In fact, the Jewish presence in the
wider Middle East predates the rise of Islam—as well as the Arab
conquest, occupation and colonization of the region—by over 1,000 years.
In the early part of the 20th century, some 850,000 Jews lived
in what is today known as the “Arab World.” However, today
there are no more than a few thousand Jews left in that
region—meaning this was one of the most successful ethnic-cleansing events in modern history.
In 2014, the Israeli Knesset passed a law mandating that November 30th
would be the Day to Commemorate the Expulsion of Jews from the Arab
Countries and Iran. The Jewish refugees from Arab countries issue remains an unresolved issue, even though international law and
United Nations resolutions mandate a redress.
On two separate occasions the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) ruled that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were indeed 'bona fide'
refugees who fall under its mandate. Many of the most pertinent and
relevant resolutions on the conflict that reference
refugees—including UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and UN Security
Council Resolution 242—do so without defining the type of refugee.
This means that such resolutions—whether referencing compensation or
assistance—can and should also apply to Jewish refugees.
Meanwhile, there have been 172 resolutions specifically on Palestinian
refugees, 13 UN agencies and organizations mandated or newly created to
provide protection and relief to Palestinian refugees, and tens of billions
of dollars disbursed by the international community to provide services and
assistance to Palestinian refugees.
During that same period, the U.N. offered no specific resolutions, no
support by UN agencies, nor any financial assistance from the international
community to reduce the suffering of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
Unlike Palestinian refugees, the Jews from Arab countries were not involved
as combatants, Jewish leaders had not called for the destruction of the
countries they lived in nor the annihilation of its inhabitants, and were
not even in a theater of war. They lived as law-abiding citizens, under
repressive dhimmi subjugation—a special discriminatory legal system for Jews, who had to pay special
anti-Semitic taxes and endure pogroms and massacres.
Overnight, in 1946—two years prior to Israel’s declaration of
independence—thanks to a decision by the Arab League, all Jews in
member states were considered enemies: Their citizenships were
revoked, bank accounts frozen, tens of thousands thrown out of certain
professions and many imprisoned, simply because of their identity.
While the number of 1948 Palestinian refugees is around two thirds of the
number of Jewish refugees, the difference in personal and communal assets
was stark. Though the average Palestinian refugee was rural and had few
assets, the Jews of places like Baghdad and Cairo were urban, cosmopolitan and wealthy.
According to the research undertaken by an international accountancy firm,
the total assets of these dispossessed Jews in today’s currency would
be worth around $250 billion. The calculations took into account
land, real estate in cities and villages, business value, loss of income
and income potential, movable property and Jewish public and community
property.
In 2009, the U.S. Congress passed a bill recognizing the plight of the
Jewish refugees, noting that for any "comprehensive Middle East peace
agreement to be credible and enduring, that agreement must address and
resolve all outstanding issues relating to the legitimate rights of
refugees, including Jews, Christians and other populations displaced
from countries in the Middle East."
The U.S. resolution encourages the President and their administrations to
mention Jewish and other refugees when mentioning Palestinian refugees at
international forums. This was followed by a law in the Knesset that also
mandated the Israeli government to bring up the issue of the Jewish
refugees whenever the issue of refugees is raised.
Most Jews in Israel are Mizrahim (literally meaning
“Eastern”)—from the Middle East and North Africa. They or
their descendants, were kicked out of their homes with next to nothing, and
many were murdered or died during their flight.
Israel, as the national homeland of the Jewish people, took them in as they
did all Jews fleeing persecution and helped them integrate and be absorbed
to their new-old home, where they created new lives for themselves. This
does not, however, mean their pain and suffering should be
forgotten, or that redress should not be demanded.
The crux of this conflict—and the reluctance of media and
international bodies to address it—has always been about recognizing
the Jews as a nation who reconstituted national sovereignty in their
indigenous and ancestral homeland. The attacks and ethnic cleansing of Jews
in Arab countries was one of the most egregious examples of the violent rejectionism of Jewish human rights by Arab leaders.
While some measures—like the Clinton Parameters, guidelines for an
end to the conflict presented by then-President Bill Clinton in
2000—did refer to an international fund for both Arab and Jewish
refugees displaced by the conflict, the issue remains on the sidelines.
Ideas such as an international compensation fund, or one funded by Arab
countries that expelled the Jews, or the proposal for one refugee
crisis to annul the other, have all been raised at one point or another.
I hope that in conversations with friends, family, colleagues and elected
officials—as well as in letters to the editor—you’ll
emphasize that in order for the Israel-Arab conflict—including the
Israel-Palestinian conflict—to be solved, the crime of ethnic
cleansing of Jews has to be acknowledged. Then generous redress must be demanded and granted.
I hope you'll also take a minute, while you have this material front
and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME's lively
Facebook page
and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME's new hasbarah
campaign—which exposes the outrageous, false accusation that
Israel is an “apartheid state.”
Best regards, Jim Sinkinson President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)
P.S. |
Every year, dozens of major American colleges and universities host
Israel Apartheid Week, sponsored by radical pro-Palestinian groups like
Students for Justice in Palestine. In addition, critics of Israel also
assert that Israel is or will soon become an apartheid state. As you know, nothing is further from the truth. Israel guarantees equal rights to
all its citizens and its laws bear zero resemblance to any of the hateful
rules of apartheid South Africa, where the term was invented. To clarify
this point, FLAME has created a new hasbarah message called
“The Israel Apartheid Lie.” I hope you'll review this convincing, fact-based paid editorial,
which will run in USA Today, the Washington Post, and
other media nationwide. It spells out specific tenets of apartheid and
refutes the apartheid calumny against Israel point by point. This piece
will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Pence and
President Trump. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on
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