Jewish Naqba النكبة /Catastrophe (Videos)
I would like to recommend the below videos, which gives us some history regarding the pogroms and other atrocities incurred by Jews residing in Muslim countries. Jewish people living in Muslim countries were never treated as equal, but as sub-humans, as “second-class citizens” under state-sponsored discrimination and actively persecuted by Islamic militants apart from the government.
Those Jews from New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal are not unfamiliar with Persian, Syrian, Moroccan, and even Yemenite Jewish culture and history. Yet, most others still appear to be rather ignorant of their existence, let alone their histories, which which has paralleled their own.
Some people tent to think that Jewish people in Muslim countries had an easy life, compare to those in Europe. Think again.
In the 1940s, close to a million Jews from Arab countries were expelled from lands in which they had lived for 3000 years. They lost billions of dollars in property and came penniless to Israel. While we hear so much about the "Palestinian" refugees, the plight of the Mizrahi Jews has all but been forgotten.
An estimated 850,000 Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab/Muslim lands. All were absorbed.
The Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Islamic countries. The migration started in the late 19th century, but accelerated after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
About 800,000 to 1,000,000 Jews were either forced out or fled their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s; 260,000 reached Israel in 1948-1951, 600,000 by 1972. The Jews of Egypt and Libya were expelled while those of Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa left as a result of a coordinated effort among Arab governments to create physical and political insecurity. Most were forced to abandon their property. By 2002 these Jews and their descendants constituted about 40% of Israel’s population. One of the main representative bodies of this group, the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries, (WOJAC) estimates that Jewish property abandoned in Arab countries would be valued today at more than $300 billion and Jewish-owned real-estate left behind in Arab lands at 100,000 square kilometers (four times the size of the State of Israel). The organization asserts that the Jewish exodus was the result of a deliberate policy decision taken by the Arab League.
To read more about the Jewish Naqba go here
“Why does the Torah start with the creation, instead of the first commandment given to the Jewish People? Because if the nations of the world ever accuse the Jews of stealing the Land of Israel, the Jews will be able to respond to the nations of the world that the entire world belongs to G-d, He created it and He choose to give the Land of Israel to the Jewish People.” -Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzhak (Rashi)
Publicizing story of Jewish refugees could facilitate genuine peace process
ReplyDeleteOne of the main causes of the modern wave of anti-Semitism currently sweeping through Europe is the Palestinian propaganda campaign, which created an anti-Jewish climate. In order to counter this basic element, we must present the truth about the expulsion of the Jews from Arab states.
The world only heard about the injustice causes to the Palestinian refugees, but there is almost nothing out there about the disaster suffered by the Jews expelled from Arab states, and especially from Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. A comparison between the events reveals that while the number of Palestinian refugees in 1948 totaled 650,000 people, the number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries was higher, and stood at 900,000 people (according to UNWRA.)
The property which the Jews were forced to leave behind in Arab states – both private and communal assets – was of much greater value than what the Palestinians left behind in Israel, as documented by the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
In fact, the Jews suffered “ethnic cleansing” in Arab states. Only a few Jews live there today. Egypt’s Jewish community, for example, comprised 90,000 Jews in 1948. Today, only 38 Jews live there. On the other hand, the Arabs (who prefer to call themselves Palestinians) who live in Israel today constitute 20% of the population.
Explaining these facts would be very beneficial and allow for change, shifting from prejudice to fairness, justice, and truth. Once the Palestinians realize they were not the only ones who suffered, their sense of victimization and rejectionism will decline. Moreover, if the Jews from Arab states, who along with their descendents constitute almost half of Israel’s population today, will see that their history and their “Nakba” is being considered an integral part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, they may be willing to offer concessions for genuine peace.
Matter of dignity
During a course I taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the head of the Palestinian student group, Fouad, said with amazement: We’re surprised that you, the Jews, who are known as smart people, did not publicize this important historical affair - the Nakba of Jews in Arab states. Why do you leave it tucked away in your drawers for 60 years?
I asked him: Why do you want Israel to publicize it? And He replied: Because the Nakba narrative of Jews in Arab states salvages my dignity and that of my people! It makes us realize we are not the only ones who suffered in the conflict. Familiarity with the historical facts allows us to hold up our heads and opens up reconciliation opportunities.
Fouad added: For us, reconciliation means erasing all the hatred and ill feelings. Yet the condition for it is that the side that did the harm pay the aggrieved side for the reconciliation. The research in this course taught us that Jews from Arab states today comprise about half the Jewish people in Israel. We didn’t know that. So Israel already paid for the reconciliation, with half its population losing all its property in Arab states. People were forced to leave the countries they were born in, just like us Palestinians, and they too spread worldwide. It is so clear to us now that we are not the only refugees who suffered from this tragic conflict.
Fouad noted that should the Israeli government present this issue properly, both peoples would be able to advance towards a process of real peace. We, the Palestinians, will feel that our dignity has been salvaged, and as you know dignity is the most important thing for us, he said. I was thinking to myself: My students were able to understand what all Israeli governments have failed to grasp thus far.
Jerusalem 1948 - The Jewish Naqba
ReplyDeletePosted by JoeSettler at 6/01/2011 11:51:00 PM
Everyone talks about the Nakba, but no one ever stops to think about what the Jews of Jerusalem went through when 5 Arab states and the local Arabs attacked the fledgling Jewish state to destroy it. Jerusalem was divided. Jews were kicked out of their homes with nothing more than what they could carry on their backs.
The Jews of Jerusalem became refugees.
I received an email today from Hadar-Israel with reprints of old Life Magazine photographs taken by John Phillips in May and June 1948. I share them with you. (Life Magazine's Pictures of Jerusalem 1948 - all photos by John Phillips © Time Inc., Courtesy of LIFE.com)
No Return: The Million Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries - Now Majority live in Israel - Draiman
ReplyDelete