The Israeli government has given renewed impetus to the pursuit of Jewish property claims worldwide by setting up a new National Council for the restoration of Jewish property rights. (With thanks: Edwin, Yitzhak)
The Council, set up recently by government resolution, will advise the Israeli Prime Minister and government on policy regarding property lost or seized from Holocaust victims in Europe and North Africa and from Jews who left Arab countries as refugees. Such property ranges from real estate, financial assets, art and Judaica to private and communal property.
The Council will submit recommendations to the government at least every six months. Of the eight members serving for four years on the Council, two will be experts representing Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Nine members will come from government ministries.
Under the Olmert government, a new ministry for Senior Citizens' Affairs, reporting to the Prime Minister, was created under the leadership of Rafi Eitan, head of the Pensioners' party.
The government resolution formalises the transfer of responsibility for Jewish property rights and registration from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry for Senior Citizens' Affairs.
Read announcement by the Prime Minister's Office (Hebrew)
http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2009/10/northern-california-baghdad-to-bombay.html
ReplyDeletebh.
Note that the govt decision says that the Holocaust took place both in Europe and North Africa.
ReplyDeleteא. להקים מועצה לאומית להשבת זכויות ורכוש יהודי (להלן – המועצה) שתייעץ לממשלה ולראש הממשלה בדבר השבת זכויות ורכוש יהודי בכל העולם, הן לעניין השבת זכויות ורכוש מתקופת השואה באירופה ובצפון אפריקה והן לעניין זכויות ורכוש של יהודים שעזבו את ארצות ערב כפליטים.
I suppose we could add the Farhud in Iraq to places where the Holocaust took place, although in Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya labor camps for Jews were set up, and some Jews were sent to the death camps in Europe, not to mention Libyan Jews killed in pogroms while the country was under German occupation. I don't know of labor camps set up in Morocco but I can't be sure.
Yes, Eliyahu, there were labour camps on the Algerian Moroccan border during WW2
ReplyDeleteI've amended the post to include the Holocaust in N Africa
ReplyDeletebataween
For an examination of the Holocaust in North Africa, I recommend Satloff's recent "Among the Righteous", documenting both Arab collaboration and a few Arab Righteous.
ReplyDeleteTwo chapters are available online here and here.
For reviews and sundry stuff, search 'Robert Satloff' on this blog
ReplyDeleteMichel Abitbol has written at least one book and several articles about North Africa during WW2/Holocaust. These are all in French and, in some cases, Hebrew.
ReplyDeleteGitta Amipaz-Silber, an Israeli originally from Belgium, who spent the war years in Morocco, wrote a book on the marvelous Jewish underground in Morocco and Algeria.
The book was published in Hebrew [Ministry of Defense Publishing House], 1942-1940
מחתרת יהודית באלג'יריה
La Resistance juive en Algerie, 1940-1942 [Jerusalem: Rubin Mass]
I don't know the English title.
what about the palistinians whos land was taken by jewish immigrants?
ReplyDeletewill they be granted the same rights?
Angie, the Palestinian Arab leadership --most notably Haj Amin el-Husseini-- took part in the Holocaust, urging the Germans to kill more Jews. That happened several years before 1948. Let's start with Arabs compensating Jews for those whose lives were taken by Arabs whether in Iraq or Egypt, etc., or in Europe because of the Arab influence on Hitler, on the German leadership, and on the satellite states of Nazi Germany.
ReplyDeleteSo we can start with the Farhud massacre in Iraq in 1941, then talk about Jews massacred in Libya during the German occupation by Arabs collaborating with the Germans, then we can take an inventory of Jewish property destroyed in Egypt in pogroms up to 29 November 1947. Then we can ask compensation from the Arabs collectively for starting the war with Israel shortly after the UN General Assembly vote on that date.
Meanwhile, Jews from Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary and Yugoslavia can submit claims for Jews from those countries who were killed because of Arab influence. You do know, Angie, that Husseini urged the German satellite states of Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, to send Jews, specifically including Jewish children to Poland, where he said, these children would be under "active supervision"?? You do know what it meant for Jews to be sent to Poland in those years??
Angie, first things first. Let's take up claims from the Holocaust period first. And after that, maybe we can ask Syria about the fire set in the synagogue in Aleppo [Haleb] where the most precious copy of the Torah was kept. First things first, Angie.