New York, NY (PRWEB) October 24, 2007 -- They have been called the 'forgotten refugees' of the Middle East but after a landmark summit and press conference in New York early next month, the narrative and plight of displaced Jews from Arab lands will be difficult to forget.
On Nov. 4 -5, 2007, 40 delegates from 8 countries and 5 cities across the United States will travel thousands of miles to attend the groundbreaking New York Summit, organized by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC).
The highlight of JJAC's New York Summit will be a press conference on Monday, November 5th at the offices of the American Jewish Committee (165 East 56th St. Manhattan, 12:30pm). At the conference, the Hon. Irwin Cotler, former Justice Minister of Canada, will release documents from 1948, recently discovered in U.N. archives, that reveal collusion among Arab countries to use their Jewish populations as virtual hostages in their struggle against the creation of the State of Israel.
The proof of such documentation broadens the narrative of the Jewish refugees from Arab Lands, revealing gross human rights violations.
When the issue of refugees is raised within the context of the Middle East, people invariably refer to Palestinian refugees. Neither the mass violations of human rights, nor the displacement of up to one million Jews from Arab countries, have ever been adequately addressed by the international community.
Rectifying this moral injustice is one of the goals of the New York Summit, said Stanley A. Urman, executive director of JJAC. "It is about recognizing the fundamental reality that Jews were an indigenous people that lived in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf region for 2,600 years…1,000 years before Islam, before Mohammed walked the face of the earth."
One of the "reasons" that caused some US Government officials to oppose the creation of Israel in 1948 was the CIA estimate that half the Jews in Arab lands would be killed in the ensuing violence.
ReplyDeleteThe CIA did not correctly assess Israel's military capabilities in that conflict. It is unclear how much of CIA opinion on the situation of Jews in Arab countries was based on the facts, and how much was based on a desire to tilt policy against Zionism.