Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Algeria will not honour Jewish restitution claims

Israel's new initiative to set up a ministerial office to collate Jewish claims, reported in YnetNews among others, has raised a storm of controversy and alarm in the Arab media. Algeria is among the first to say it will not honour any Jewish claims for restitution:

The article published in Yedioth Ahronoth covering the Ministry of Pensioners' Affairs initiative to sue Arab states for the restitution of property and assets left behind by Jews fleeing the countries to Israel has resonated in the Arab world. Algeria, in particular, has said that it will not honor a request for restitution.

Dozens of Arab newspapers and websites ran the article prominently. The Ministry for Pensioners' Affairs recently called upon about one million immigrants from Arab countries to fill out letters of claim in preparation for a lawsuit the ministry is preparing in order to return their property. The ministry also raised the possibility of holding indirect negotiations with the relevant countries as a means of establishing compensation.

According to the plan, which was initiated by Deputy Minister Lea Nass, a department will be formed within the ministry to handle the claims.

The Yedioth article was widely run in a number of newspapers and was cited in many Arab websites. Among the news outlets that ran the article are: Egypt's al-Akhbar, the Palestinian News Agency, the website Syria News, and Egyptian el-Fagr, and others.

"The media coverage throughout the Arab world proves that the citizens of the Arab countries are also aware of the injustice done to Jews from Arab and Islamic countries," said Deputy Minister Nass.

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