Israel Matzav

Jews own land in Arab countries equal to five times Israel

The World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries said on Thursday that Jews who were expelled or fled from Arab countries have deeds to prove that they own 100,000 square kilometers of land, an area equal to five times the State of Israel. They are hoping that the issue of compensation to Jews who were expelled or fled from Arab countries will be raised at the Annapolis conference mugging. Most of the property is located in Egypt, Iraq and Morocco.

About 850,000 Jews fled Arab countries after Israel's founding in 1948, leaving behind assets valued today at more than $300 billion, said Heskel M. Haddad.

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The Baghdad-born Haddad fled Iraq in 1951, and, after a brief stop in Israel, made his way to the United States where he went on to become a prominent New York optometrist.

In an interview, he said that it was imperative for Israel to bring up the issue of the Jews who fled Arab countries at any future peace talks - including those scheduled to take place in Annapolis in the coming weeks - since no Palestinian leader would sign a peace treaty without resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians - with estimates ranging from 400,000 to 750,000 - left Israeli-controlled territory in 1948 and 1949, and they, along with their millions of [purported CiJ]descendants, make up one of the prickliest issues to be dealt with by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators as part of any resolution to the conflict.

Haddad said that the key to resolving the issue rested with the Arab League, which in the 1950s passed a resolution stating that no Arab government would grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees, keeping them in limbo for over half a century.

At the same time, the Arab League urged Arab governments to facilitate the exit of Jews from Arab countries, a resolution which was carried out with a series of punitive measures and discriminatory decrees making it untenable for the Jews to stay in the countries.

"No Jews from Arab countries would give up their property and home and come to Israel out of Zionism," Haddad said. [He's right about that. Zionism was largely - if not nearly entirely - a European movement. CiJ]

He said that the Israeli government was "myopic" not to utilize this little-known information, which he said should be part of a package financial solution to solving the issue of Palestinian refugees. [More likely, the Jews give up their claims for compensation - and in return the 'Palestinians' give up their much smaller claims. Of course in the ridiculous situation in which we currently find ourselves, that is unlikely to happen. CiJ]

An Israeli ministerial committee on claims for Jewish property in Arab countries, which is currently headed by the Pensioners Minister Rafi Eitan, has been virtually dormant since it was established four years ago. [And isn't that typical of the Israeli government? CiJ]

I want to give you some idea of the order of magnitude of the number of Jews who left Arab countries and what they left behind. This is from WOJA's web site:

Country	1948	2004	Number of Immigrants in Israel	Year
Algeria	140,000	0	110,000	1960
Egypt	100,000	300 or less	90,000	1948-56
Iraq	150,000	11	125,000	1947-51
Lebanon	6,000	0	1,000	1948
Libya	35,000	0	33,000	1950
Morocco	300,000	4,000 or less	250,000	1949
Syria	40,000	100	35,000	1948
Tunisia	100,000	500 or less	75,000	1950
Yemen & Aden	80,000	500 or less	75,000	1948
Total	951,000	5,400 or less	794,000

Populations of Jews in Arab Countries and in Israel

*There are no Jews in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan or the emirates or sheikdoms of the Arabian Peninsula.

Most of the Jews who arrived in Israel from Arab countries arrived penniless and were placed in 'ma'abarot' (transit camps) where they lived in metal shacks until more permanent housing was found. There's a classic movie about this by Ephraim Kishon that was very popular when I was a kid. It's called Salah Shabati (movie logo at the top of this post) and you can buy it on DVD by pointing your browser here. The movie is extremely funny, family safe (I was 9-years old the first time I saw it) and is in Hebrew with English and French subtitles for those who want to work on their Hebrew.

But we have no more 'ma'abarot' because we don't hold our people hostage to be able to return them to the country they fled. Unlike certain other people....

Bottom line: I will be pleasantly surprised if the Olmert-Barak-Livni government even raises this issue at Annapolis. But I'm willing to play it up for its propaganda value.

Here's an interview with Ephraim Kishon that includes portions of the movie. Sorry, Hebrew only.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:31 AM