The New York Times of 16 May 1948 contained details of an Arab plan based on Nuremberg laws to 'ethnically cleanse' their JewsTime for Israel to counter-attack on the issue of Jewish refugees, argues Guy Bechor in a fascinating piece for the Hebrew medium G-planet. Here is a paraphrase. (With thanks: Janet, Michal)
For decades almost no-one referred to Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Why? Arab regimes claimed these Jews left voluntarily for fear of a 'spontaneous' uprising by Arabs angry at the establishment of Israel. In the Oslo talks, the Israeli leadership conceded the lie that the only refugees worth bothering about were the Palestinians.
While the Nuremberg Laws drawn up by the Nazis are well known and part of human history, the Nuremberg Laws for 'Arab' Jews are not known to this day. It's time to break the silence and use it to counterattack. New documents prove it.
Alarmed at the surge of immigration of Jews from Europe and the imminent declaration of a Jewish state, Arab League states met in Syria in 1946 and Lebanon in 1947 under the guiding spirit of Iraqi PM Saleh Jaber. A Justice for Jews from Arab Countries report in 2008 found that the Arab states had agreed a draft plan to rob their Jews of their property, threaten them with imprisonment and expel the impoverished Jews, knowing Israel would have no choice but to absorb them.
A spy in the Egyptian delegation blew the whistle, but Israel was by then too preoccupied with the threat of war to be concerned at the ethnic cleansing of Jews. In January 1948 a worried World Jewish Congress brought a copy of the document to the Lebanese UN Economic and Social Committee chairman, Charles Malik. He refused to discuss it.
Years later, Guy Bechor met and challenged Malik over this antisemitic document. The Lebanese government had no choice - it had to toe the line, he said.
Original article (Hebrew)
Google Translation
A number of those countries were under European rule at the time, which is why they had to wait until the independence to implement it (pogroms, etc). This accounts for the fat that they were implemented at different times. Although pogroms took place periodically despite European presence.
ReplyDeleteYet the Oujda and Djerada pogroms broke out in 1948 in Morocco.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, it is true that Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco did not align themselves with Arab League policies until after independence
I didn't finish reading Bekhor's full article in the original Hebrew but I think the extra details there make it worthwhile. Moreover, Bekhor's exposition of the matter is, I think, more helpful than that of the Foreign Ministry. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Jewish_refugees_from_Arab_and_Muslim_countries-Apr_2012.htm
ReplyDelete