In London during the final days of the Olmert administration, Senior Citizens' Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan met representatives of Jews from Arab countries yesterday.
Introduced by Edwin Shuker, President of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), Minister Eitan told Jews from Libya, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen and Egypt that the Gaza war with Hamas had made it even more imperative to solve the refugee problem.
A new unit had been set up inside his ministry to collect claims from Jews from Arab countries.
The ministry Director-General, Dr Avi Bitzur, explained that people in Israel were ignorant of the Jewish refugees' story. He was determined to map out as complete a picture as possible of Jewish property and assets lost in Arab lands. According to Israeli inheritance laws, the descendants of refugees are entitled to claim compensation and restitution.
Israel was ready to take a leadership role in the Jewish refugee compensation issue, Eitan declared. There was some discussion with the Jewish representatives, however, whether Jews from the diaspora or Israel should conduct claims negotiations with Arab countries. Edwin Shuker hailed the foundation of the World Organisation of Jews from Iraq last June, which included both diaspora and Israeli Jews, as a possible model.
Eitan's attempts at the Annapolis conference in November 2007 to have Jewish refugees mentioned were thwarted by Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni, who viewed the issue as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The issue should be regarded as a bridge to reconciliation, said Edwin Shuker.
Rafi Eitan's Pensioners' party had lost all seven Knesset seats in the recent Israeli general election. However, he was hoping that his Senior Citizens' Affairs ministry will survive under the Netanyahu premiership, although he had not yet managed to secure the prime minister-designate's blessing.
Along the lines of the resolution passed by the US Congress in April 2008, the Senior Citizens' Affairs ministry has prepared a draft resolution for presentation to the government of Israel. If it is passed, the government will be committed to ensuring that any mention of Palestinian Arab refugees in official documents is matched by a mention of Jewish refugees.
Here is the full text of the proposed resolution:
*Whereas Jews lived throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf for approximately 2,500 years, more than a thousand years prior to the establishment of Islam;
*Whereas following the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, a systematic campaign had begun to eliminate the Jewish presence, which included approximately 850,000 Jews, through blatant violation of fundamental human rights, including forced deportation and disinheritance of private and community property;
*Whereas only some 7,000 Jews now remain throughout the entire Middle East (mostly in Morocco);
*Whereas since 1947 the United Nations General Assembly adopted 842 resolutions regarding the Middle East conflict and 126 resolutions regarding the Palestinian refugees, but not one resolution pertaining to Jews from Arab countries, despite the fact that the number of Palestinian refugees is similar to that of Jews who were forced to
leave the Arab states during the Arab-Israeli conflict;
*Whereas the UN and the international community hurried to assist the Palestinian refugees with billions of dollars, while Jews from Arab countries received no aid or compensation;
*Whereas justice was not served with those Jews and they were deprived of their right for many years;
*Whereas the State of Israel is the sovereign entity responsible for the rights of its citizens, among them many Jews from Arab countries and their descendants, and whereas Israel is the center of the Jewish people, and many Jews from Arab countries and their descendants are now residing in the Jewish Diaspora;
*Whereas the State of Israel strives for a comprehensive peace agreement which will include a resolution of all outstanding issues between the State of Israel and the Arab states, including problems relating to the right of recognition and to correcting the historic injustice caused to Jews from Arab countries;
*Whereas the international definition of refugees applies also to Jews from Arab countries, and the UN High Commission for Refugees stipulated on two separate occasions (in 1957 and 1967) that Jews who fled Arab countries are refugees who are entitled to every right according to international law;
*Whereas UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967 calls for a "just solution to the refugee problem" without making any distinction between Palestinian and Jewish refugees;
*Whereas Israeli governments emphasized on various occasions (Resolution 34 of 1969, Resolution 1544 of 2002, Resolution 1250 of 2003, Resolution 4279 of 2005, and Resolution 1263 of 2007) their obligation to promote the rights of Jews from Arab countries and to compensate them, and some even called for an effort to collect information, data, claims and documents regarding private and public property;
*Whereas all peace agreements, as well as other agreements, signed to date between Israel, Arab states and the Palestinians included a reference to the fact that a resolution to the conflict necessitated a "just solution" to the "refugee problem", which would include recognition of the rights and claims of all Middle Eastern refugees;
*Whereas developments in the field of human rights and international law support the right to compensate populations such as Jewish refugees from Arab countries, who suffered violations of fundamental human rights, and even include means of exercising the right for compensation;
*Whereas the United States proved, in a Congressional resolution of April 2008 (H. Res. 185), its concern about human rights violations, forced expulsion and disinheritance of Jews who were uprooted from Arab countries, and conditioned any assistance or restitution for Palestinian refugees on a similar aid or restitution for Jews from Arab
countries, as a precondition for a just and comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East;
In light of all the above, the Government of Israel:
*Sees fit to commend the members of the United States Congress,representatives of the American people, on their historic decision,which states that addressing the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries is a precondition to a just and comprehensive peace
agreement in the Middle East.
*Defines the refugee problem as a multi-national problem, which includes the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who were uprooted from their countries across the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf; it would be a distortion of history, as well as a fundamental injustice, to recognize the right of the Palestinians and to compensate them without simultaneously recognizing the rights and heritage of Jews from Arab countries and the need to correct the historic injustice that was inflicted on them. The case of displaced Jews is equivalent to, if not more than, the case of Palestinian refugees.
*Will act immediately to clarify its policy that a just, durable and comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East cannot be fulfilled without a resolution of the problem of Jews from the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf, and without an acknowledgment of their right to recognition and compensation.
The Government of Israel will instruct all its representatives in various countries and international organizations to act towards supporting and realizing this policy.
Will insist that a just, comprehensive and durable peace agreement in the region will be attained and realized only if it includes a just solution to the issue of Jews from Arab countries.
The Government of Israel will act so that in every debate on or implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 242 and its derivatives regarding a "just solution to the refugee problem" referring to a recognition of the refugees or defining the compensation mechanisms and the actual restitution for refugees the same rule will apply, in both principle and action, to Jewish and Palestinian refugees, according to the same criteria of justice and law.
*Will act so that every bilateral and multilateral agreement achieved in the framework of negotiations or settlement processes, which includes a reference to aid or compensation mechanisms for Arab refugees from the land of Israel, will also include an equal, specific reference, according to the same principle and law, to a solution to the problem of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
*Will instruct all its representatives in the various countries and international bodies to guarantee by stating, initiating proposed resolutions and engaging in public relations that all agreed upon decisions, including those adopted by the Government of Israel, pertaining to the Middle East refugees and referring to the Palestinian refugees, will include an equal, specific reference to a solution to the problem of Jewish refugees from Arab countries on the basis of the same principle and law.
*Will act through the Ministry of Senior Citizens, the Department for Restitution of Stolen Jewish Property, through the Ministry's project and in conjunction with the Jewish Agency, to locate, register and map the Jewish property in the various Arab countries, according to the country of origin, in order to use this information as a basis for future talks or future agreements.
*Will act to construct and expand the Department for the Restitution of Jewish Rights and Property, within the existing structure of the Ministry of Senior Citizens, and adapt it to the needs which may arise as the process to restore the rights and properties of Jews from Arab countries moves forward.
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