A memorial day, a museum, a Yad Vashem-style archive and a media event at the UN are among the initiatives being planned by the Israeli government. In the run-up to a conference in Jerusalem on 10 September, deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon has vowed to bring the Jewish refugee issue to the fore 'front and centre'. The Jerusalem Post *reports :
The Foreign Ministry – along with the World Jewish Congress and the Pensioners Affairs Ministry – is ramping up its campaign to bring the issue of Jewish refugee rights to public and diplomatic attention.
According to the Foreign Ministry more than 850,000 Jews from Arab states fled their countries of birth following persecution that ensued after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Many also had their property confiscated.
Speaking with The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Deputy Pensioners Affairs Minister Lea Nass said the government was currently finalizing plans to institute a national day of recognition for Jewish refugees from Arab countries. It is also planning to build a museum to document the historical events of these communities, as well as their cultural heritage; collate testimony from thousands of refugees; and bring the issue front and center on the diplomatic stage.
Ayalon also pointed to legislation passed in the Knesset in 2010 obliging any government conducting peace negotiations with the Palestinians to include the issue of compensation for Jewish refugees as part of any final status talks.
“This is one of the core issues,” the deputy minister said. “It is not separate and certainly, when it comes to negotiations, it will be part and parcel of the refugee issue as a whole.”
Ayalon denied that the campaign was designed to hinder the peace process, adding that even if that were the case Israel was already being accused of obstructionism.
“They say we’re not ready for peace anyway, but this is not a reason not to do what is just and right for hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
“This is not a reason not to show a mirror in front of the entire world, in particular the Arab countries.”
Ayalon also insisted that Israel-Palestinian negotiations were the correct forum for advancing the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, saying the linkage stemmed from historical precedents following wars on the Indian subcontinent and Europe.
He added that part of the proposals made in the Arab Peace Initiative suggesting that an Israeli settlement with the Palestinians should bring peace and normalization with the entire Arab world, meant that the Jewish refugee issue should be dealt with in this comprehensive manner.
The Pensioners Affairs Ministry, which was given responsibility for the issue in 2009, has taken the lead on the documentation of testimony from refugees and their descendants. Nass explained that it was critical to record the stories of the refugees, who, she said, had largely been forgotten.
“The Jewish people left behind their property, their stories and their history,” said Nass. “It’s important in our religion to first of all tell the story. The story has disappeared, and when we meet these people they express great pain that it has not been told.”
The ministry has digitized 20,000 documents pertaining to the Jewish refugees and will next week actively begin to collect further such documents and testimony, in coordination with various interest groups representing Jews from Arab countries.
The project, named “I am a refugee” and having an initial budget of NIS 2 million, calls on refugees and their descendants to come forward and present their stories, documents, pictures and other records to create an archive similar to that in Yad Vashem for victims of the Holocaust.
*I have two reservations about this article: one is the headline containing the expression 'Jewish Arab refugees' and the other is the picture of wretched-looking Jews from Yemen. While appreciating the subeditor's need to compress as many words into the headline as possible, Jews in Arab countries were not Arabs. As the picture (taken in Iraq) shows, not every Jew was dressed in rags - ed
"Jews in Arab countries were not Arabs. As the picture (taken in Iraq) shows, not every Jew was a primitive - ed
ReplyDeleteDoes it even dawn on you what a racist expression this is?
Primitive:
• the character of an early stage in the evolutionary or historical development of something: primitive mammals
• relating to or denoting a preliterate, nonindustrial society or culture characterized by simple social and economic organization: primitive people.
Racial heritage has noting to do with primitiveness.
Your declaration, in fact, as unenlightened, bigoted and shallow as it is, only being concerned with appearance or race is the very epitome of primitive thought.
Mizrahim comprise 50% of the population of Israel and are Arabs, they are not sephardic or Ashkenazi.
They even share DNA haplotypes with the Palestinians.
I expect you'll delete this, but nevertheless, you ought to be ashamed.
You are confusing two separate issues. I never said that racial heritage had to do with primitiveness (in the second sense of the word).
ReplyDeleteLet me reiterate: Jews in Arab countries were not Arabs. This question is discussed at length on this website if you care to look.
As for primitives, the media like to show pictures of Jews from Yemen or Kurdistan, rather Jews in westernised dress from Iraq or Egypt.
Bataween, "primitive" is an unfortunate word. This kind of utterance should remain in the domain of people like Natan Zach and his ilk.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should cut the whole sentence.
Anonymous: I am sick and tired of those descendants of immigrants three or four times removed who come to tell US - the boat and the camp generation - who we are as if we don't have enough sense or knowledge to know how we call ourselves.
Your contempt for us makes your remark utterly hypocritical - because your own racism is disguised.
Take a trip to Wikipedia and learn what "Arab" identity entails, then you may come and discuss it ... again.