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In 2003, H.Con.Res. 311 was introduced into the House of Representatives by pro-Israel[203] congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In 2004 simple resolutions H.Res. 838 and S.Res. 325 were issued into the House of Representatives and Senate by AIPAC-member[204]Jerrold Nadler and Rick Santorum, respectively. In 2007 simple resolutions H.Res. 185 and S.Res. 85 were issued into the House of Representatives and Senate. The resolutions had been written together with lobbyist group JJAC,[106] whose founder Stanley Urman described the resolution in 2009 as "perhaps our most significant accomplishment"[205] The House of Representatives resolution was sponsored by AIPAC-member[204] Jerrold Nadler, who followed the resolutions in 2012 with House Bill H.R. 6242. The 2007-08 resolutions proposed that any "comprehensive Middle East peace agreement to be credible and enduring, the agreement must address and resolve all outstanding issues relating to the legitimate rights of all refugees, including Jews, Christians and other populations displaced from countries in the Middle East," and encourages President Barack Obama and his administration to mention Jewish and other refugees when mentioning Palestinian refugees at international forums. The 2012 bill, which was moved to committee, proposed to recognize the plight of "850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries", as well as other refugees, such as Christians from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Jerrold Nadler explained his view in 2012 that "the suffering and terrible injustices visited upon Jewish refugees in the Middle East needs to be acknowledged. It is simply wrong to recognize the rights of Palestinian refugees without recognizing the rights of nearly 1 million Jewish refugees who suffered terrible outrages at the hands of their former compatriots."[206][207][208] Critics have suggested the campaign is simply an anti-Palestinian "tactic",[209] which Michael Fischbach explains as "a tactic to help the Israeli government deflect Palestinian refugee claims in any final Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, claims that include Palestinian refugees’ demand for the “right of return” to their pre-1948 homes in Israel."[106] Israeli government position The issue of comparison of the Jewish exodus with the Palestinian exodus was raised by the Israeli Foreign Ministry as early as 1961.[210] In 2012, a special campaign on behalf of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries was established and gained momentum. The campaign urges the creation of an international fund that would compensate both Jewish and Palestinian Arab refugees, and would document and research the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.[211] In addition, the campaign plans to create a national day of recognition in Israel to remember the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries, as well as to build a museum that would document their history, cultural heritage, and collect their testimony.[212] On 21 September 2012, a special event was held at the United Nations to highlight the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor asked the United Nations to "establish a center of documentation and research" that would document the "850,000 untold stories" and "collect the evidence to preserve their history," which he said was ignored for too long. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that "We are 64 years late, but we are not too late." Diplomats from approximately two dozen countries and organizations, including the United States, the European Union, Germany, Canada, Spain, and Hungary, attended the event. In addition, Jewish refugees from Arab countries attended and spoke at the event.[211] Jewish "Nakba" In response to the Palestinian Nakba narrative, the term "Jewish Nakba" is sometimes used to refer to the persecution and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries in the years and decades following the creation of the State of Israel. Israeli columnist Ben Dror Yemini, himself a Mizrahi Jew, wrote:[213] However, there is another Nakba: the Jewish Nakba. During those same years [the 1940s], there was a long line of slaughters, of pogroms, of property confiscation and of deportations against Jews in Islamic countries. This chapter of history has been left in the shadows. The Jewish Nakba was worse than the Palestinian Nakba. The only difference is that the Jews did not turn that Nakba into their founding ethos. To the contrary. Professor Ada Aharoni, chairman of The World Congress of the Jews from Egypt, argues in an article entitled "What about the Jewish Nakba?" that exposing the truth about the expulsion of the Jews from Arab states could facilitate a genuine peace process, since it would enable Palestinians to realize they were not the only ones who suffered, and thus their sense of "victimization and rejectionism" will decline.[214] Additionally, Canadian MP and international human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler has referred to the "double Nakba". He criticizes the Arab states' rejectionism of the Jewish state, their subsequent invasion to destroy the newly formed nation, and the punishment meted out against their local Jewish populations:[215] The result was, therefore, a double Nakba: not only of Palestinian-Arab suffering and the creation of a Palestinian refugee problem, but also, with the assault on Israel and on Jews in Arab countries, the creation of a second, much less known, group of refugees—Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Objecting views The assertion that Jewish emigrants from Arab countries should be considered refugees has received mixed reactions from various quarters. Within Israel Iraqi-born Ran Cohen, a former member of the Knesset, said: "I have this to say: I am not a refugee. I came at the behest of Zionism, due to the pull that this land exerts, and due to the idea of redemption. Nobody is going to define me as a refugee". Yemeni-born Yisrael Yeshayahu, former Knesset speaker, Labor Party, stated: "We are not refugees. [Some of us] came to this country before the state was born. We had messianic aspirations." And Iraqi-born Shlomo Hillel, also a former speaker of the Knesset, Labor Party, claimed: "I do not regard the departure of Jews from Arab lands as that of refugees. They came here because they wanted to, as Zionists."[12] Historian Tom Segev stated: "Deciding to emigrate to Israel was often a very personal decision. It was based on the particular circumstances of the individual's life. They were not all poor, or 'dwellers in dark caves and smoking pits.' Nor were they always subject to persecution, repression or discrimination in their native lands. They emigrated for a variety of reasons, depending on the country, the time, the community, and the person."[216][better source needed] Iraqi-born Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, speaking of the wave of Iraqi Jewish migration to Israel, concludes that, even though Iraqi Jews were "victims of the Israeli-Arab conflict", Iraqi Jews aren't refugees, saying that "nobody expelled us from Iraq, nobody told us that we were unwanted."[217] He restated that case in a review of Martin Gilbert's book, In Ishmael’s House.[218] Yehuda Shenhav has criticized the analogy between Jewish emigration from Arab countries and the Palestinian Arab exodus. He also says "The unfounded, immoral analogy between Palestinian refugees and Mizrahi immigrants needlessly embroils members of these two groups in a dispute, degrades the dignity of many Mizrahi Jews, and harms prospects for genuine Jewish-Arab reconciliation." He has stated that "the campaign's proponents hope their efforts will prevent conferral of what is called a 'right of return' on Palestinians, and reduce the size of the compensation Israel is liable to be asked to pay in exchange for Palestinian property appropriated by the state guardian of 'lost' assets."[219] Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath has rejected the comparison, arguing that while there is a superficial similarity, the ideological and historical significance of the two population movements are entirely different. Porath points out that the immigration of Jews from Arab countries to Israel, expelled or not, was the "fulfilment of a national dream". He also argues that the achievement of this Zionist goal was only made possible through the endeavors of the Jewish Agency's agents, teachers, and instructors working in various Arab countries since the 1930s. Porath contrasts this with the Palestinian Arabs' flight of 1948 as completely different. He describes the outcome of the Palestinian's flight as an "unwanted national calamity" that was accompanied by "unending personal tragedies". The result was "the collapse of the Palestinian community, the fragmentation of a people, and the loss of a country that had in the past been mostly Arabic-speaking and Islamic. "[220] In the Arab World Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi has argued that Jews from Arab lands are not refugees at all and that Israel is using their claims in order to counterbalance to those of Palestinian refugees against it.[221] Ashrawi said that “If Israel is their homeland, then they are not ‘refugees’; they are emigrants who returned either voluntarily or due to a political decision.”[221] Property losses and compensation In Libya, Iraq and Egypt many Jews lost vast portions of their wealth and property as part of the exodus because of severe restrictions on moving their wealth out of the country. In the Maghreb, the situation was more complex. For example, in Morocco emmigrants were not allowed to take more than $60-worth of Moroccan currency with them, although generally they were able to sell their property prior to leaving,[222] and some were able to work around the currency restrictions by exchanging cash into jewelry or other portable valuables.[222] This led some scholars to speculate the Maghrebi Jewish population, comprising two thirds of the exodus, on the whole did not suffer large property losses.[223] However, opinions on this differ.[citation needed] Yemeni Jews were usually able to sell what property they possessed prior to departure, although not always at market rates.[224] Estimated value Various estimates of the value of property abandoned by the Jewish exodus have been published, with wide variety in the quoted figures from a few billion dollars to hundreds of billions.[225] A body representing the Jewish refugees, the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) estimated in 2006, that Jewish property abandoned in Arab countries would be valued at more than $100 billion, later revising their estimate in 2007 to $300 billion. They also estimated Jewish-owned real-estate left behind in Arab lands at 100,000 square kilometers (four times the size of the state of Israel).[5][226][226][227][228] The type and extent of linkage between the Jewish exodus from Arab countries and the 1948 Palestinian exodus has also been the source of controversy. Advocacy groups have suggested that there are strong ties between the two processes and some of them even claim that decoupling the two issues is unjust.[11][229][230] Holocaust restitution expert Sidney Zabludoff, writing for the Israeli-advocacy group Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, suggests that the losses sustained by the Jews who fled Arab countries since 1947 amounts to $700m at period prices based on an estimated per capita wealth of $700 multiplied by one million refugees, equating to $6 billion today, assuming that the entire exodus left all of their wealth behind.[231] Israeli position The official position of the Israeli government is that Jews from Arab countries are considered refugees, and it considers their rights to property left in countries of origin as valid and existent.[232] In 2008, the Orthodox Sephardi party, Shas, announced its intention to seek compensation for Jewish refugees from Arab states.[233] In 2009, Israeli lawmakers introduced a bill into the Knesset to make compensation for Jewish refugees an integral part of any future peace negotiations by requiring compensation on behalf of current Jewish Israeli citizens, who were expelled from Arab countries after Israel was established in 1948 and leaving behind a significant amount of valuable property. In February 2010, the bill passed its first reading. The bill was sponsored by MK Nissim Ze'ev (Shas) and follows a resolution passed in the United States House of Representatives in 2008, calling for refugee recognition to be extended to Jews and Christians similar to that extended to Palestinians in the course of Middle East peace talks.[234] Films about the exodus I Miss The Sun (1984), USA, produced and directed by Mary Hilawani. Profile of Halawani's grandmother, Rosette Hakim. A prominent Egyptian-Jewish family, the Halawanis left Egypt in 1959. Rosette, the family matriarch, chose to remain in Egypt until every member of the large family was free to leave. The Dhimmis: To Be a Jew in Arab Lands (1987), director Baruch Gitlis and David Goldstein a producer. Presents a history of Jews in the Middle East. The Forgotten Refugees (2005) is a documentary film by The David Project, describing the events of the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries The Silent Exodus (2004) by Pierre Rehov. Selected at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris (2004) and presented at the UN Geneva Human Rights Annual Convention (2004). The Last Jews of Libya (2007) by Vivienne Roumani-Denn. Describes how European colonialism, Italian fascism and the rise of Arab nationalism contributed to the disappearance of Libya's Sephardic Jewish community. "From Babylonia To Beverly Hills: The Exodus of Iran's Jews" Documentary. [3] Further reading Whole region Abu Shakrah (2001). "Deconstructing the Link: Palestinian Refugees and Jewish Immigrants from Arab Countries" in Naseer Aruri (ed.), Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return. London: Pluto Press:208-216. Cohen, Hayyim J. (1973). The Jews of the Middle East, 1860–1972 Jerusalem, Israel Universities Press. ISBN 0-470-16424-7 Cohen, Mark (1995) Under Crescent and Cross, Princeton, Princeton University Press. Cohen, Mark (1986) "Islam and the Jews: Myth, Counter-Myth, History", Jerusalem Quarterly, 38, 1986 Fischbach, Michael R. (2008), Claiming Jewish Communal Property in Iraq, Middle East Report, retrieved 2010-04-05 Fischbach, Michael (2013), Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries, Columbia, ISBN 9780231517812 Goldberg, Arthur. 1999. "Findings of the Tribunal relating to the Claims of Jews from Arab Lands." in Malka Hillel Shulewitz (ed.) The Forgotten Millions. London:Cassell:207-211. Gilbert, Sir Martin (1976). The Jews of Arab lands: Their history in maps. London. World Organisation of Jews from Arab Countries : Board of Deputies of British Jews. ISBN 0-9501329-5-0 Harris, David A. (2001). In the Trenches: Selected Speeches and Writings of an American Jewish Activist, 1979–1999. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. ISBN 0-88125-693-5 Landshut, Siegfried. 1950. Jewish Communities in the Muslim Countries of the Middle East. Westport: Hyperion Press. Levin, Itamar (2001). Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-97134-1 Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00807-8 Lewis, Bernard (1986). Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice, W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-02314-1 Lewis, Bernard (2010). In Ishmael's house: a History of Jews in Muslim Lands. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300167153. Massad, Joseph. 1996. "Zionism's Internal Others: Israel and The Oriental Jews." Journal of Palestine Studies, 25(4):53-68. Meron, Ya'akov. 1995. "Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries." Middle East Quarterly, 2(3):47-55. Morris, Benny. Black, Ian. (1992). Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services. Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3286-4 Parfitt, Tudor. Israel and Ishmael: Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations , St. Martin's Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-312-22228-4 Roumani, Maurice (1977). The Case of the Jews from Arab Countries: A Neglected Issue, Tel Aviv, World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries, 1977 and 1983 Schulewitz, Malka Hillel. (2001). The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands. London. ISBN 0-8264-4764-3 Shapiro, Raphael. 1984. "Zionism and Its Oriental Subjects." in Jon Rothschild (ed.) Forbidden Agendas: Intolerance and Defiance in the Middle East. London: Al Saqi Books: 23-48. Shohat, Ella. 1988. "Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims." Social Text 19-20:1-35. Stearns, Peter N. Citation from The Encyclopedia of World History Sixth Edition, Peter N. Stearns (general editor), © 2001 The Houghton Mifflin Company, at Bartleby.com. Stillman, Norman (1975). Jews of Arab Lands a History and Source Book. Jewish Publication Society Stillman, Norman (2003). Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8276-0370-3 Swirski, Shlomo. 1989. Israel The Oriental Majority. London:Zed Books. Woolfson, Marion. 1980. Prophets in Babylon: Jews in the Arab World. London: Faber and Faber. Zargari, Joseph (2005). The Forgotten Story of the Mizrachi Jews. Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal (Volume 23, 2004 – 2005). Country or region specific works Maghreb Chouraqui, Andre (2002), Between East and West: A History of the Jews of North Africa, ISBN 1-59045-118-X Laskier, Michael (1994), North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, NYU Press, ISBN 9780814750728 Laskier, Michael (2012), The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962, SUNY Press, ISBN 9781438410166 De Felice, Renzo (1985). Jews in an Arab Land: Libya, 1835–1970. Austin, University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-74016-6 Gruen, George E. (1983) Tunisia's Troubled Jewish Community (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1983) Simon, Rachel (1992). Change Within Tradition Among Jewish Women in Libya, University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97167-3 Goldberg, Harvey E. (1990), Jewish Life in Muslim Libya: Rivals and Relatives, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226300924 Roumani, Maurice (2009), The Jews of Libya: Coexistence, Persecution, Resettlement, Sussex Academic Press, ISBN 9781845193676 Egypt Beinin, Joel (1998), The Dispersion Of Egyptian Jewry Culture, Politics, And The Formation Of A Modern Diaspora, University of California Press, ISBN 977-424-890-2 Gudrun Krämer, The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914-1952, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989 Lagnado, Lucette (2007) The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World . Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-082212-5 Gorman, Anthony (2003), "The Mutamassirun", Historians, State and Politics in Twentieth Century Egypt: Contesting the Nation, Psychology Press, ISBN 9780415297530 Iraq Bashkin, Orit (2012). New Babylonians : A History of Jews in Modern Iraq. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804778749. Cohen, Ben. 1999. Review of "The Jewish Exodus from Iraq". Journal of Palestine Studies, 27(4):110-111. Gat, Moshe (1997), The Jewish Exodus from Iraq, 1948–1951, Frank Cass, ISBN 9781135246549 Haim, Sylvia. 1978. "Aspects of Jewish Life in Baghdad under the Monarchy." Middle Eastern Studies, 12(2):188-208. Hillel, Shlomo. 1987. Operation Babylon. New York: Doubleday. Kedourie, Elie. 1989. "The break between Muslims and Jews in Iraq," in Mark Cohen & Abraham Udovitch (eds.) Jews Among Arabs. Princeton: Darwin Press:21-64. Meir-Glitzenstein, Esther (2004), Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s, Routledge, ISBN 9781135768621 Rejwan, Nissim (1985) The Jews of Iraq: 3000 Years of History and Culture London. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78713-6 Shiblak, Abbas (1986), The Lure of Zion: The Case of the Iraqi Jews, Al Saqi Books Yemen Nini, Yehuda (1992), The Jews of the Yemen 1800–1914. Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 3-7186-5041-X Parfitt, Tudor (1996), The Road to Redemption: The Jews of the Yemen 1900-1950, Brill's Series in Jewish Studies vol. XVII, ISBN 9789004105447 Ariel, Ari (2013), Jewish-Muslim Relations and Migration from Yemen to Palestine in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, BRILL, ISBN 9789004265370 Other Schulze, Kristen (2001) The Jews of Lebanon: Between Coexistence and Conflict. Sussex. ISBN 1-902210-64-6 |
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