Today marks the commemoration of the expulsion of Mizrahi Jews from Arab lands worldwide. This is the event's second year.
Y.J. Draiman writes:
Arabs expelled over a million Jews from Arab countries and confiscated their land and assets totaling over 15 trillion dollars. 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. According to official Arab statistics, over 989,000 Jews were forced out of their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970's. Some 650,000 resettled in Israel, leaving behind personal property valued today at more than $990 billion. Jewish-owned real-estate left behind in Arab lands has been estimated at 120,000 square kilometers (four times the size of the State of Israel). Valued today at about 15 trillion dollars. More at The Jerusalem Post
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The Times of Israel staff writes:
At Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed that there be an expansion of education on the heritage of Jews from Arab countries and Iran, and that consideration be given to a proposal to establish a Prime Minister’s Prize for academic research into the issue. More at The Times of IsraelIt would be better for the world if the Jewish refugees were treated on a parity with the Arab ones. Read this: Jewish Nakba can no longer be ignored
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Zvika Klein, an Israeli journalist, found a creative way to help ordinary people among the nations understand what happens to Israelis when headlines concerning their country are slanted by the likes of the BBC. The Algemeiner explains:
Klein told The Algemeiner...shortly after the clip was posted to YouTube for the first time, and following a morning of stabbing attacks in Jerusalem — that the purpose of the video “is to convey a message to the world media about Israel reportage. There are many mistakes, as we saw in the BBC headline on which we modeled our own.” (After exposure on the part of watchdogs the Committee for Accurate Middle East Reporting in America and HonestReporting*, Israel’s Government Press Office demanded a correction and apology from the BBC, threatening to rescind its press accreditation in the country. The BBC complied.)
Reactions to a headline covering the Paris massacre.
Do you like it when terrorists are portrayed as victims in your country? No? Don't do it to Israel!
Klein added that because France was a nation in mourning, he did not consider it appropriate to tell the people he interviewed that they were part of an experiment, and to ask them if they now understand why Israel gets angry when treated that way by the media.
“Everyone was still in a state of trauma,” he explained, adding that the effect of the newly posted video remains to be seen. “But in its first few hours on line, it has been viewed by approximately 50,000 people worldwide.”
I hope this video will not be noticed only by Israelis, or only by Jews, but be a lesson learned by the world. Also, I hope people will realize that Jewish refugees count too!
...[I]t happened that a certain [non-Jew] came before Shammai and said to him, 'Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.' Thereupon he repulsed him with the builder's cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he said to him, 'What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.' (Shabbat 31a)
*link not found in the original
Hava, you did a good job weaving together hypocrisy and reality.
ReplyDeleteAround Yom Kippur many of us Jews declare often, "it should be a kappora" (for something worse that might happen). If we lose money, or incur a large fee for something we feel is unfair, and so on. These are things we gladly acknowledge, because we want HaShem to look on us favorably on the day of Atonement and for another year of life in this world.
This could even be relevant for the Sephardim from Arab lands. Retaining their lives while losing their possessions. The merit attained for them from this seeming 'injustice' provided for the bulk of Jews creating the newly formed State of Israel. They became the backbone of what we know as Israelis, with their varied cultural customs to this day. (to the chagrin of the early socialists/communists/leftists of today)
I read about the Iraqi Jews' expulsion and airlift to Israel and am preparing a post for my blog IY"H also. This is indeed a hushed up story of Israel's recent history.
Again great post.
Thank you, Neshama.
ReplyDeleteA couple more observations:
-this could apply to other events that were influenced, if not ordered, by the nations, such as the expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Shomron; the putting off of declaring sovereignty over the lands won back in 1967, etc., etc....
Evelyn Gordon recently wrote an article demanding an answer to No Labels for Occupied Catalonia? She would have pressed for Spain to give up Catalonia altogether -- and I wouldn't doubt that she has already -- if that were the issue of the day.
The more they allow us, without all the name-calling and nasty commentary, to do right by ourselves instead of slowly committing suicide in public, the better it will be for them when Judgment Day comes. The opposite is proving true now.
But only Amalek would see Israel harmed at his own expense.
-the Jewish refugees we're discussing are the ones from after WWII! never mind what's happening today. Many Jews can't sell their property now, so will have to leave with next to NOTHING - for their non-Jewish neighbors to take over. Nothing has changed except the generations. Sigh.
Finally got my Iraqi post done http://habayitah.blogspot.co.il/2015/12/iraqi-jews-jewish-nakba-and-ingathering.html
ReplyDeleteDoes the absence of a Jewish presence negate the right to property? Short answer: No.
ReplyDeleteBut if absentia were the case, Israel wouldn't Occupy the Temple Mount. Vacation homes would be obsolete. The neglect of Greater Israel from Aza-Sinai toward east of the Jordan is becoming untenable. The longer that's ignored, the faster Judgment Day comes for all the Nations. Expect action near Golan, if Incompetence pervades.
I think, the game of Monopoly is Lost on most. You acquire houses. Not abdicate them. The ability to administrate the entire planet without actually being there is a Messianic concept. Jews should think more highly of themselves.