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Pm*« < THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 9, 197*
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Arabs ‘use’ refugees;
Israel absorbs hers
by A loa Ben M«*r
Very little has been satd or
written about the Jews who were
expelled from Arab countries after
Israel became independent The
plight of these Jews has rarefy
been discussed ta international
forums, and the fact that almost
one million Jews lived in various
parts of the Middle East and North
Africa for the last 2,500 years is
little known and. if known, a
usually ignored.
The injustice and perserution,
pogroms and massacres to which
these Jews were subjected are
beyond the scope of this column to
describe or address. The fact that
these Jews were forcefully expelled
from their homes and that they had
a legitimate connection with the
land of their ancestors has been
ignored and distorted. The
international community has
become accustomed to believing
the fallacy that it was the Jews who
usurped Arab lands that had never
been theirs, and the Arab states
have successfully manipulated the
historical record to reflect their
version of the facts.
Unfortunately, neither the
Israeli government nor any Jewish
organization has effectively
contradicted this distorted picture.
Let us examine some of the
facts:
1) Between 1948 and 1963 more
than MA thousand Jews who had
been truing m Arab countries in the
MiMt East or North Africa were
expelled and their assets
cawfooated Between 1948 and
I95J, ia particular, entire Jewish
cooununities in such countries as
Syria. Iraq, Egypt and Algeria
were eradicated and their members
forced to become refugees. In some
Arab countries, Jews were
massacred, subjected to arrest and
imprisonment, or publicly
humiliated.
2) Six hundred thousand of
these refugees elected to settle in
Israel, the only state with which
they had real religious, historical
and cultural aflinities.
3) By I960 Jews from Arab and
African countries constituted
more than 53 percent of the entire
Jewish population of Israel.
4) The total number of Arab
Palestinians who fled from Israel
in 1948 and later was at least equal
if not less than the number of
Jewish refugees from Arab lands
who have been absorbed in Israel.
5) More importantly, the Arab
states have ignored the fact that
Jews from Arab lands have an
inherited right to live in the Middle
East and to give expression to their
ethnic and national identity in the
form of self-determination. It was
the Jews, not the Arabs, who were
expelled. Why then has the plight
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Chicken Breasts
$1.29 lb.
(In case lots-12 units per case)
Roasting Chickens
$1.19 lb.
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Bar BO Chicken (fully cooked)
$1.19 lb.
Country Fried Chicken
$2.49
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Turkeys
$1.25 lb.
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of the Jews from Arab lands been
forgotten?
To begin with, the Arab states
systematically ignored the Jewish
refugee problem while emphasiz
ing year after year the plight of the
Arab Palestinian refugees.
Israel, on the other hand, elected
(o de-emphastze the plight of the
Jewish refugees in the hope that
the Palestinian problem would
receive less attention from the
international community.
While the Arabs insisted on
perpetuating the Palestinian
refugee problem and using it as a
political tool against Israel, Israel
felt morally obligated to absorb
Jews from Arab lands with the
least possible hardship and to help
them integrate with the
mainstream of Israeli society.
The international community
saw in the creation of the state of
Israel an answer to the plight of all
the Jews, including refugees from
Arab lands, whereas the absence of
a national home for the
Palestinians made their case
appear moft acute than it really
was. The international community
has consistently ignored the fact
that the 21 Arab states, with the
exception of Jordan and to a much
lesser extent, Lebanon, have
refused to absorb any of the
Palestinian refugees except as
temporary aliens and contract
workers.
Finally, writers and historians
from the Arab world have
presented the Palestinian case as a
humanitarian problem for which
they hold Israel and the
international community
responsible. Israel, however,
turned primarily toward
diaspora Jewry for moral and
financial support and made no
effort to emphasize the refugee
status of Jews expelled from Arab
countries.
The Israelis, for humanitarian
reasons, and the Arab states, for
reasons of political expedience,
have permitted only limited
information about the plight of
Jews from Arab lands to become
public and often that information
has been distorted for the purpose
of misleading public opinion.
It is time to set the record
straight. Whether as a result of
political maneuvering or by devine
will, an exchange of population
has taken place. Arabs and Jews
have indirectly helped to shape
each others’ destiny. The Jews
existed in the Middle East more
than a thousand years before Islam
came into being. Their inherited
right to inhabit the region is at least
as great if not greater than that of
the Arabs. History has been
written and a judgement has been
passed. The Arab nations may
attempt to distort history, but they
will have two choices—to accept
the reality of a Jewish state and
work together for the benefit of all
people in the Middle East, or to
continue their blind hatred,
prejudice and intolerance, thus
subjecting their people to senseless
pain, suffering and destruction.