tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post5747749182156709823..comments2024-03-29T11:39:42.348+00:00Comments on Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries: Israel a refuge for most Jews from Muslim landsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-11187893656947215212008-01-07T16:27:00.000+00:002008-01-07T16:27:00.000+00:00Thanks for this. I covered this story on 14 Decem...Thanks for this. I covered this story on 14 December 2007<BR/>Bataweenbataweenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15829104245735619972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-1880817942914372992008-01-07T14:21:00.000+00:002008-01-07T14:21:00.000+00:00Muslims and Jews demand highest Yad VaShem honour ...Muslims and Jews demand highest Yad VaShem honour for His Majesty Mohamed V, the World War II King of Morocco, of blessed memory<BR/> <BR/> <BR/><BR/>A group of Jews and Muslims has submitted a formal written request to Yad Vashem the Holocaust Memorial in the Israeli capital to confer the highest postume honour upon His Majesty Mohamed V, King of Morocco during the Second World War. The group is pushing for the former Monarch to be admitted to Yad Vashem s Righteous Among the Nations, who have risked their lives to recue Jews during the Shoa.<BR/> <BR/> Mohamed V (1909-1961) <BR/> <BR/> <BR/>The formal demand has been submitted by letter and email. The demand is the beginning of a long formal procedure. The Director of the Washington based Institute for Near East Policy wrote a most favourable book on the personal conduct and policies of the war-time Moroccan Monarch. Robert Satloff describes the anti-Semitic persecutions suffered by Jews in Arab lands during the Shoa. He put the positive role His Majesty Mohamed V played into new perspectives. <BR/> <BR/>The formal request to have King Mohamed V as the first Arab leader to be named amongst the Righteous of the Nation has obvious goals; to rapidly improve the ties between the State of Israel and the Arab League Member States, enhancing the U.S. initiated Arab-Israeli Peace Process. <BR/> <BR/>The formal request was already endorsed by His Excellency Shimon Peres, the President of the State of Israel , Tzipi Livni, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Interior Minister His Excellency Meir Shitreet and numerous Israeli politicians of Moroccan extraction. In Morocco Serge Berdugo, the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities formally endorsed the demand to Yad Vashem. <BR/> <BR/> Whether King Mohamed V will be eligible to receive the Yad Vashem honour remains uncertain, given the strict eligibility rules. According to the initiators of the formal demand the King risked his personal life to save Jews from the Nazi´s and their French accomplices, since it was their policy to send partisans hiding Jews from Nazi-persecution directly to the destruction camps such as Auschwitz. Moroccan King Mohamed V, quietly resisted against French anti-Semitic edicts in Morocco. A 1941 telegram from the French Foreign Ministry, uncovered in the mid-1980`s, discussed the worsening tensions between the Vichy-French authorities and the King following is unwillingness to distinguish between his subjects. <BR/> <BR/>The history of war-time King Mohamed V teaches coming generations about the excellent relations between Jews and Arab and Berber Muslims in Northern Africa during the passed millennia. This lesson is an important teaching aid for Holocaust Studies. <BR/> <BR/>Moroccan-Dutch educator Mustafa Shlimani, after visiting Yad Vashems Holocaust Studies Department in Jerusalem states: "When teaching Holocaust Studies to Dutch Muslim teenagers in Holland I always diffuse the students own hostility towards Jews and Israel. I use the rising Islamophobia to help them connect to the persecution of Jews. We, like the Jews, are circumcised too. The Nazi´s used to pull down pants to see if a boy was circumcised. Such a boy always ended up being send to a concentration or destruction camp. So Muslims in Europe would receive the same treatment from the Nazi´s. Drawing parallels between Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism can work in certain cases. Beside this I always remind my Muslim students of our shared mono-theistic values and our shared history in the Maghreb, which are equally powerful educational tools. Moroccan youngsters must be tought democratic values and profound respect for Jewish-Christian-Humanist cultural heritage in Europe." <BR/> <BR/>"Maghrebian religious-humanistic values have a huge impact on Israeli society, the Moroccan presence there with 1.000.000 citizens is enormous. They really push the Middle East Process forward. Exactly that is what this world needs. We wholeheartedly embrace the Christmas speech of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands." <BR/> <BR/>www.souss.nl<BR/><BR/><BR/>Morocco has interesting opportunity to be 'healer', 'unifier' in Middle East, US president<BR/><BR/>Washington, Jan.5 - Morocco has an interesting opportunity to be a healer and a unifier in the Middle East, mainly because of the presence of a large Moroccan Jewish community in Israel and in the north African Kingdom, said American president George W. Bush on Friday.<BR/> <BR/> Speaking at a roundtable interview with foreign print media, the American head of State, who expressed his great appreciation of the leadership in the King of Morocco, noted that the presence of "a lot of Moroccan Jews" in Israel and in Morocco "provides the King an interesting opportunity to be a healer and a unifier" with regard to the peace process in the middle East.<BR/> The U.S. President, who is expected to visit the Middle east region as of January 9, regretted the fact that his tour will not include the Maghreb region –a regional grouping mustering, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya – due to a heavy schedule.<BR/> "The contribution of those (countries), of that area would be a significant contribution to achieving peace" in the Middle East, he pointed out.<BR/> Touching on his visits to the Kingdom, Mr. W. Bush said "one of my great trips as a civilian – I guess you'd call me a civilian - non-President, non-political figure - was when I went to Morocco." <BR/> "I had the great pleasure of going to Marrakech (...), and enjoyed the wonders of the desert, and then was able to see snow-capped mountains shortly in the distance, in the short distance," he concluded.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>Last modification 01/05/2008 12:54 PM. <BR/>©MAP-All right reserved <BR/><BR/>www.map.ma/engAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com