In the presence of the film maker Vivienne Roumani-Denn
As a teenager in Jerusalem many decades ago, our favourite social game was called "The Elephant and the Jewish Question" the essence of the game was to link any word one might suggest with a Jewish connection even if that was totally tenuous. It was a way of entertainment yet now when I look back at it, I believe that in our psychological makeup we carry the responsibility not to look upon ourselves as individuals but as far as the Jewish collective and care about it. "Kol Yisrael Arevim ze Laze" the dictum which reminds us daily of our collective responsibility to our brethren has become a second nature for us (and was incidentally the official theme of this year's Yom Ha-Atzmaout. This when something dramatic or worrying happens somewhere in the world our first instinct is to find out what actually happens or to the Jews in that place - after all we are members of the same extended family. When all our eyes are turned to Libya and to Khadaffi , his sons and grandchildren we wish to know what happened to the Jews in Libya.
An interesting interview was given about the fate and the history of the Jews of Libya by Dr Joseph Maimon, an electrical engineer who was thrown out of Libya in 67 at the breakout of the 6 days War.
The humiliation of the Arab shameful defeat in that war resulted in pogroms: Jewish shops in the central square in Tripoli were burnt. Jews were afraid to leave their houses knowing that they would be locked and attacked by their neighbours. They could not even go to buy bread or milk. In the 42 days that they were locked in their houses, they were often helped by Italians who were still living in Libya. The same Arabs who were colleagues at work until 67 became foes. Libya announced that they would create camps to gather Jews in then and provide them protection. The first families which left for the camp, one of which families was the Luzon family were murdered as soon as they arrived at the camp. Libya wanted to get rid of their Jews. England and France refused to give their refuge but Italy accepted them. It was relatively easy to integrate in Italy as they spoke Italian.
Every Jew who was allowed to leave could take with them one suitcase of 20kg and the sum of £20. In Italy they were put into refuge camps. All their possessions remained in Libya: shops, factories, property. It amounted to the fortune.
When this issue was raised at one point Khadaffi himself declared that he would compensate those who left behind all that they possessed in his country and even signed a .... Since then nothing of course happened. When Khadaffi visited Italy, Libyan Jews approached him to remind him of this undertaking. Israeli government did not do anything in the matter and there is of course the question of lack of meticulous documentation.
Now, that Palestinians are coming to Israel with demands of compensation for their lost property - this is the right time for the Israeli government in any negations of the kind to raise the topic of Jews from Libya and other Arab countries like Iraq who have left all their houses and fortunes in the countries where their Jewish ancestors lived at time thousands of years.
The film "The Last Jews of Libya" is the last document of a community which is no longer there. In all the news about Libya, it is forgotten that a thriving and ancient community of 36,000 Jews lived there at the end of World War II. Not a single Jew lives there today.
The Last Jews of Libya documents the final decades of the community through the lives of the Roumani family. A tale of war, cultural dislocation, and one Libyan family's perseverance, this 50-minute film traces the story of the Roumanis of Benghazi from Turkish Ottoman rule, through the age of Mussolini and Hitler, to the final destruction and dispersal of Libya's Jews in the face of Arab nationalism.
In the near future when the world's eye is turned to the question of Palestinian refugees, let us take this opportunity and remind ourselves and others about the plight of hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who were all led to normal lives by the state of Israel.
As Palestinians and their supporters mark 63 years since their Nakba, the world forgets that the largest single group of refugees arising from the Arab-Israeli conflict was Jewish.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Jewish refugees were soon absorbed in Israel and the West, Arab states have never recognised their responsibility for some 800,000 Jewish refugees. Neither have they offered compensation for their suffering and losses.
The current turmoil in the Arab world presents an opportunity for Arab peoples to re-evaluate the rights of non-Muslim minorities in their midst, and to start afresh in their relationship with the Jews of the region, whose near-extinct communities predate Islam by 1,000 years. One hundred years ago, 40 percent of Baghdad was Jewish. Now there are seven Jews left in the whole of Iraq.
At an event taking place on Sunday in central London organised by Harif, an association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, we shall hear testimonies from individual Jewish refugees, and a person who helped in their rescue will be presented with a special award by the media commentator Tom Gross. In addition, you will learn of new ideas for raising awareness of this very important issue, which we believe is the key to peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world.
The Jewish Nakba: remembering Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Sunday 15 May 2011
Jewish Naqba النكبة /Catastrophe (Videos)
ReplyDeleteI 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)
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« Los Palestinos (Filisteos) los invasores (Videos)Arabs Will Invade Israel (May 15, 2011) » Filed Under: Israel, Jewish Roots, News, Zionism
P.S. How many holidays do the Arabs celebrate due to historical events in the land of ancient Israel. The Jewish people celebrate most of their holidays and fast days in memory of and the goal and aspiration to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem – where it was before it was destroyed and desecrated by the enemies of the Jews. Many of the Jewish prayers for thousands of years recite the love of Israel and the Jewish aspirations to return to their ancestral land and bring back its glory and holiness. In our daily blessing after meals we thank G-d and pray to return to Jerusalem to build the Temple.
ReplyDeleteIn a Jewish wedding, they break a glass in memory of Jerusalem and the aspiration of the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Jewish Temple.
In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
Ben Gurion
“Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its ‘right to exist.’ [As a Jewish State] Israel’s right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia and 152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved. Israel’s legitimacy is not suspended in midair awaiting acknowledgement. . . .There is certainly no other state, big or small, young or old, that would consider mere recognition of its ‘right to exist’ a favor, or a negotiable concession.”
Abba Eban
"No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel.
No Jew has the authority to do so.
No Jewish body has the authority to do so.
Not even the entire Jewish People alive today has the right to yield any part of Israel.
It is the right of the Jewish People over the generations, a right that under
no conditions can be cancelled.
Even if Jews during a specific period proclaim they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations.
No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People. Our right to the country - the entire country - exists as an eternal right, and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and complete redemption is realized."
The Jewish people war of survival was not won when Hitler lost. It continues to this day, against enemies with far more effective tools of mass murder at their disposal. Plus we are easy to find now.
Ben Gurion at the 1937 Zionist Convention in Basel, Switzerland
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHow many holidays do the Arabs-Muslims celebrate due to historical events in the land of ancient Israel and Jerusalem.
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish people celebrate most of their holidays and fast days in memory of Jerusalem and Israel since 70 AD (that is over 2,000 years).
Pleading the Jewish goal and aspiration to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem - where it was before it was destroyed and desecrated by the enemies of the Jews. Many of the Jewish prayers for thousands of years recite the love of Israel and the Jewish aspirations to return to their ancestral land and bring back its glory and holiness.
At Jewish weddings they break a glass in memory of Jerusalem and the aspiration to return and build the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
Every day at the end of the meal the Jews recite a blessing and thank G-d for providing sustenance and beseech G-d to return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
YJ Draiman
How many holidays do the Arabs-Muslims celebrate due to historical events in the land of ancient Israel and Jerusalem.
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish people celebrate most of their holidays and fast days in memory of Jerusalem and Israel since 70 AD (that is over 2,000 years).
Pleading the Jewish goal and aspiration to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem - where it was before it was destroyed and desecrated by the enemies of the Jews. Many of the Jewish prayers for thousands of years recite the love of Israel and the Jewish aspirations to return to their ancestral land and bring back its glory and holiness.
At Jewish weddings they break a glass in memory of Jerusalem and the aspiration to return and build the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
Every day at the end of the meal the Jews recite a blessing and thank G-d for providing sustenance and beseech G-d to return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
YJ Draiman
How many holidays do the Arabs-Muslims celebrate due to historical events in the land of ancient Israel and Jerusalem.
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish people celebrate most of their holidays and fast days in memory of Jerusalem and Israel since 70 AD (that is over 2,000 years).
Pleading the Jewish goal and aspiration to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem - where it was before it was destroyed and desecrated by the enemies of the Jews. Many of the Jewish prayers for thousands of years recite the love of Israel and the Jewish aspirations to return to their ancestral land and bring back its glory and holiness.
At Jewish weddings they break a glass in memory of Jerusalem and the aspiration to return and build the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
Every day at the end of the meal the Jews recite a blessing and thank G-d for providing sustenance and beseech G-d to return and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
YJ Draiman
Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria is Jewish territory - No annexation is required
ReplyDeleteIf anything it may need to be re-incorporated or re-patriated.
Let me pose an interesting scenario. If you had a country and it was conquered by foreign powers over a period of time. After many years you have taken back you country and land in various defensive wars. Do you have to officially annex those territories. It was always your territory and by retaking control and possession of your territory it is again your original property and there is no need to annex it. The title to your property is valid today as it was many years before.
Annexation only applies when you are taking over territory that was never yours to begin with, just like some European countries annexed territories of other countries.
YJ Draiman
Jews hold title to the Land of Greater Israel even if outnumbered a million to one.
The fact that more foreigners than Jews occupied the Land of Israel during certain periods of time does not diminish true ownership. If my house is invaded by a family ten times larger that mine does that obviate my true ownership?
Do you know the Rothschild family purchased about 20,000 acres of land in the Golan Heights and Syria. The deed are in the hands of the Israeli government. There are more and similar purchases that have not been disclosed to the public.
Israel must rebuild all 58 Synagogues destroyed by the Jordanians and the Arabs in the old city of Jerusalem as soon as possible.
YJ Draiman
Any Israeli leader promoting the uprooting of Jewish Towns, Villages or Settlements is a traitor to the people of Israel. Any Jewish leader authorizing the uprooting Jews from their homes in Greater Israel should be prosecuted for crimes against the Jewish people and ejected from office permanently.
Under all the Treaties and agreements after WWI and the 1920's. It states: Jewish people have the right to settle and live anywhere in the Mandate for Palestine.
Throughout history, Jewish people have been persecuted and uprooted from their homes and lands in the world at large.
Now that the Jewish people have returned to their ancestral lands and are resettling it. Thus it is the ultimate crime against the Jewish people to uproot them from their own homes in the Jewish homeland by a Jewish government.
YJ Draiman.