NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress welcomed the passage in Israel of a law naming 30 November as the national day for commemorating the flight of Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
“I am pleased that the Knesset has designated a day for public institutions to mark the flight of Jews from Arab lands,” said World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder.
“The history of this tremendous exodus has been obscured for far too long. The World Jewish Congress has been at the forefront of championing the cause of Jewish refugees from Arab lands from 1948 onward, including by convening important conferences at the United Nations in the past two years urging that the rights of such refugees be considered on an equal footing with those of other Middle East refugees in peace negotiations. We look forward to training the world’s attention on this issue on November 30 and many other days,” he declared.
In November of 2012 and 2013, Israel's Mission to the United Nations, the World Jewish Congress and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Justice for Jews from Arab Countries convened conferences at the UN urging that American and international diplomacy recognize the rights of the Middle East’s Jewish refugees on an equal footing with those of other refugees in the region, including Palestinian Arabs.
“The world has long recognized the Palestinian refugee problem, but without recognizing the other side of the story – the 850,000 Jewish refugees of Arab countries,” Lauder said at the 2013 conference. “Yet for any Middle East peace process to be credible and enduring, it must ensure that all bona fide refugees receive equal rights and treatment under international law.”
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The World Jewish Congress also held a major conference on the topic with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem in 2012. The law was passed Monday night by a vote of 27 to nothing, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Background
Jews lived in the lands of the Arab world for 2,500 years, but in the 20th century, with the rise of Arab nationalism and the conflict in Palestine, the new Arab regimes began a campaign of massive violations of the rights of their Jewish citizens. Arab states expropriated property of their native Jews, and denaturalized, expelled, arrested, tortured and murdered many of them. The persecutions of Middle Eastern Jewries started even before the establishment of the Jewish state, and they continued with the outbreak of the 1967 war.
A 1968 World Jewish Congress publication details the abuses inflicted on the remnant of Jews in Arab countries as the Israelis drove to victory: 18 Jewish deaths from mob violence in Libya; pillaging of the central synagogue and burning of shops in Tunisia; 2 Jews killed in Morocco; hundreds of arrests of Jews in Egypt. “In some places the mob reaction was spontaneous; in others it was stimulated by local politicians and agitators,” the publication states. Waves of refugees left starting in 1948 and continuing after the 1967 war – a group that was at least as large as the Palestinian Arab refugees.
After World War II and the establishment of the State of Israel, the World Jewish Congress was perhaps the foremost organization assisting Jews in Arab and other Muslim countries. In the 1950s, the WJC negotiated the safe passage of Jewish refugees with a number of Arab governments, especially in North Africa. The issue of Jewish refugees from Arab lands continues to be a focus of the organization.
The WJC is committed to raising the plight of Jews who fled from, or still live in, Arab lands and their specific concerns with governments and international organizations. Where illegal seizure of assets took place, these should be returned to their former owners, or adequate compensation should be paid. Jews remaining in Arab lands, as well as other religious minorities, should be granted religious freedom and allowed to practice their faith according to their traditions. Jewish communal sites in Arab countries must be preserved and respected.
Materials
Ronald Lauder oped on Jewish refugees from Arab countries:
Full video of 21 November 2013 conference on “The Untold Story of the Middle East: Justice for Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands”:
