Perhaps it's because he was sick of having his Haaretz article 'Hitching a ride on the magic carpet' of 2003 quoted ad nauseam that Sociology Professor Yehouda Shenhav, guru of the radical Left, has now written another piece decrying the linkage between Arab and Jewish refugees. This one appeared in ha' Oketz, a fringe publication produced by two North African Jewish professors.
Frankly, the new article is much the same as the old, although some detect a grudging acceptance of the current campaign for recognition and redress. Shenhav still maintains that Israel has responsibility for the Palestinian Nakba (a controversial view) and fails to see that Jews from Arab countries could be refugees as well as Zionists. Why the collection of testimonies from Jewish refugees would reduce Palestinian testimonies of the isolated instances of expulsion and looting is beyond comprehension. Shenhav never comes to grips with the chief difference between the two groups: scapegoated Jewish non-combatants versus Palestinians caught up in, and some actively abetting, a war of genocidal aggression. To fail to see the difference is moral blindness of the first order. Point of No Return is indebted to Sylvia for translating this article from Hebrew.
Calls to
define the Jews from Arab countries as refugees have been silenced in the past
by Israeli governments. The change of policy and Danny Ayalon’s intense
activity are related to the relatively new realization that Israel can no
longer evade its responsibility for the Nakba. It is, however, in the interest
of those leading the campaign to learn the history of this unrealistic proposal.
For the past
three years, we’ve witnessed an intensive campaign, the purpose of which is to
achieve political and legal recognition for Jews of Arab countries as “refugees”. The campaign seeks to create
in the public mind an analogy between Palestinian refugees and the Mizrahis
[Oriental Jews] who came to Israel in the fifties and sixties and present both
populations as victims of the 1948 war. Israel Foreign Ministry, under the
leadership of Danny Ayalon, is intensely involved in the collection of testimonies
that will reduce (like an exercise of algebra), the Palestinian refugee
testimonies on the expulsion, the looting and killing.
Two years ago,
the Knesset passed a resolution obligating every Israeli government engaged in negotiations
with Arab representatives (meaning Palestinians) to refer to Jews of Arab
countries as refugees. Last week, the National Security Council published its
administrative work recommending to the government “to create a bond between
the Palestinian refugees and the Jews from Arab Lands”. It was Uzi Arad who
decided upon his nomination as Head of the Council to set up a special team that will consolidate the
Israeli official position on the subject of “Jewish refugees from Arab
countries”. To that end Arad received Netanyahu’s blessing. He founded a
special administrative body at the National Security Council and even invited
people from the Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry and the Finance Ministry
to the discussions. Historians, economists, Jewish organization representatives
such as WOJAC - the World Organization for Jews of Arab Countries - and the Jewish
American Organization Justice for Jews of Arab Countries (JJAC) were invited to
those discussions as well. The Council recommended to the Prime Minister to make
“the Jewish refugees” and the compensation claim on their behalf an integral
part in negotiations on the Palestinian refugees issue.
Calls to define
the Jews of Arab countries as refugees have been silenced in the past by diverse
Israeli governments. Why then the change of policy? Among other considerations,
there is the relatively recent recognition that Israel can no longer evade its
responsibility for the Nakba. This gross ploy by the Foreign Ministry testifies
to fear of the Palestinian claim to return and compensation, a central
component of Palestinian demands. It proves that Israel recognizes that the 67
paradigm will not bring an end to the conflict due to its denial of the Nakba. With
that realization in mind the campaign leadership hopes by using the Orientals
to block the implementation of the Palestinian “right of return” and reduce the
amount of compensation that can be demanded of Israel for Palestinian assets
expropriated by the Custodian of “absentee” properties. This idea is
historically mistaken, is not politically smart, and is morally unjust as can
be determined from its biography.
An unfortunate history that should be memorialized
The campaign to recognize the Jews of Arab Countries as
refugees was in effect launched by Bill Clinton already in June 2000 in an
interview with Channel One. Ehud Barak repeatedly stated his “achievement” in
August 2000 in an interview with Dan Margalit. It is important to remember that
in the past the Israeli governments avoided coming out with a declaration on
the Jews of Arab countries as refugees. First, from fear that this kind of
declaration will bring back what Israel has tried to erase and forget: the
Palestinian claim to return. Secondly, for fear that such a declaration will
spur Jewish claims against Arab Countries and Palestinian counter-claims;
third, because Israel had then to update the history textbooks and rewrite the narrative
according to which the Oriental Jews came to Israel not because of their
Zionist yearnings but against their will. Any historian who would have made that claim
would have been called a Post-Zionist.
Those who at the time concocted the equation between
the Oriental Jews and the Palestinian refugees for Barak and Clinton were the
Prime Minister’s Adviser to Diaspora Affairs Bobi [Roni?] Bar-On with people
from his office along with representatives of organizations such as the World
Jewish Congress, the World Federation of Sephardic Jews and the Conference of
Presidents. Dr. Avi Bekker, Secretary of the Jewish Congress, and Malcolm Hoenlein,
Secretary General of the Conference of Presidents, met with Professor Irwin
Cotler, member of the Canadian Parliament and expert in international law, and
convinced him to join the campaign. The umbrella organization founded under the
name “Justice for the Jews of Arab Countries” didn’t succeed in generating
massive enthusiasm for the campaign, not even in the Jewish world. The campaign
has failed, until recently, to generate any noteworthy statements on the part
of major Israeli politicians. This isn’t surprising. This campaign has an unfortunate
history that they should do well to remember because history can be a very
practical business.
WOJAC, the World Organization for Jews of Arab
Countries, was founded in the 1970s. Igal Alon, then Foreign Minister, feared
that WOJAC would be used as a hotbed for what he dubbed “ethnic organizing”. As
already mentioned, WOJAC was not founded to help the Oriental Jews but rather
to create a deterring balance to bloc claims by the Palestinian National
movement, principally refugee claims and right of return. Allegedly, the use of the expression
“refugees” was not unreasonable, indeed the concept has become central in the
historical debate and international law after WWII. Resolution 242 of the UN
Security Council of 1967 spoke of a “just solution to the problem of refugees
in the Middle East”. In the 1970s the Arab countries demanded to mention
explicitly the Palestinian refugees, however, the US government through its
representative at the UN, Arthur Goldberg, opposed the move.
In a working paper prepared by Cyrus Vance, then
Secretary of State, in 1977, in anticipation of a potential meeting of the
Geneva Convention, it was introduced, under Israeli pressure, that a solution
to “the refugee problem” must be found, without specifying to which refugees it
is being referred. WOJAC, who tried to
popularize the concept “Jewish refugees”, has failed. In addition to the Arabs,
many Zionist Jews throughout the world opposed the initiative as well. I
recommend to the current campaign’s organizers to examine the anatomy of an
organization that has turned in the course of its activities, from Zionist to
Post-Zionist, and to learn a chapter in the theories of unexpected result of
political action.
The advocate of the concept “Jewish refugees” inside
WOJAC was Yaakov Meron, Director of the Department of Arabic Law at the Justice
Ministry. Meron redacted the equation in
the most extreme thesis on the issue of the Jews of Arab Lands. He claimed that
Jews were expelled from Arab countries in an operation coordinated with the
Palestinian leadership and called it “ethnic cleansing”. Meron harshly
criticized the Zionist Epos which he
claimed sprouted romantic nicknames such as “Magic carpet” or “Operation Ezra
and Nehemiah” which led to forget “the fact” that the flight of the Jews was in
fact the consequence of an “Arab policy of expulsion”. In order to complete the
analogy between the Palestinians and the Oriental Jews, the WOJAC people even claimed the Orientals lived
in the 1950s in refugee camps (read: Maabarot) just like the Palestinian
refugees. This claim gave rise to harsh reactions on the part of the
Integrating institutions who called it “treason”.
The arguments of the Organization shocked many
Mizrahim who defined themselves as Zionists. In 1975, immediately after WOJAC
was founded, Israel Yeshayahu, then Chairman of the Knesset, clarified: ”We are
not refugees. We also came to this country before the founding of the state...
We had Messianic yearnings....” Shlomo Hillel, a Minister in the Israeli
government who was active in bringing the Jews of Iraq to Israel, decisively
opposed the claim: “I do not refer to the departure of Jews from Arab Countries
as refugees. They came because they wanted to come. As Zionists”. An emotional Ran
Cohen declared in a Knesset debate: “I am informing you: I am not a refugee.” And he added: “I came drawn by the force of
Zionism, drawn by the attracting force of this country and the idea of
redemption. No one will define me as a refugee”.
The opposition was so strong that Orah
Shweitzer, Chairwoman of WOJAC policy committee, asked the Secretariat of the
organization to stop the campaign. She reported that the members of the
Strasbourg community were so offended by the term that they threatened her and
the Leader of the community that if the Sephardi Jews were to be defined as
refugees again they will boycott the meetings. The Foreign Ministry too became fearful
of WOJAC’s energy and advised to stop the campaign based on the argument that
to define the Mizrahis as refugees is a two-edged sword. In the past, Israel
has always maintained a policy of ambiguousness around this complex issue. In
1949, she even rejected a British-Arab offer of a population exchange (Iraqi
Jews vs Palestinian refugees) for fear she would have to care for a “surplus of
refugees” in Israel. The Foreign Ministry called WOJAC divisive and separatist and
demanded that it stops managing itself independently in opposition to the
country’s interests.
The Foreign Ministry finally stopped its fund
transfers to WOJAC. Justice Minister Yossi Beilin went as far as fire Yaakov
Meron from his post at the Arabic Law Department at the Foreign Ministry. Mention must be made of the fact that today,
no serious researcher in Israel or out, has adopted the extreme claims of the
organization. Furthermore, in an attempt to reinforce the Zionist thesis and
assist in Israel’s war on Palestinian nationalism, WOJAC achieved the opposite.
It presented a confused Zionist position on the conflict, angered many Oriental
Jews throughout the world because it represented them as lacking positive
motivation to come to Israel, and mortgaged the interests of Mizrahi Jews
(mainly on the issue of Jewish assets in Arab countries) for what it mistakenly
defined as national interests. The organization didn’t understand that to
define Mizrahi Jews as “refugees” opens a Pandora box and harms every party
involved in the conflict, Arabs and Jews alike.
Refugees and Free Will
Out of a desire to find a magic solution to the
refugee question, the State has again adopted the formula and is promoting it
with great enthusiasm throughout the world. It would be interesting to hear the
Education minister’s position with regard to the narrative presented by the
Jewish representatives in the campaign. Will
the Ministry of Education form a committee to rewrite history textbooks to
match the new Post-Zionist genre? Any honest person whether Zionist or not,
must admit that the analogy between Palestinians and Mizrahi Jews is
unrealistic. The Palestinian refugees
didn’t want to leave Palestine. In 1948
many Palestinian villages were destroyed. And about 750 000 Palestinians were
expelled from historic Palestine. Those who fled didn’t do so of their own free
will.
On the other hand, the Jews of Arab countries arrived
here due to the initiative of the State of Israel and Jewish organizations.
Some arrived of their own will and some
against their will. Part lived at ease and in security in the Arab countries, part
in fear and oppression. The history of the Mizrahi immigration is complex and does
not allow for one single simplistic explanation. A great number has lost a
great amount of properties, and there is no doubt that they must be afforded the
opportunity to file individual claims against Arab countries, which the State
of Israel and WOJAC have blocked to this day. For example, the peace treaty
with Egypt doesn’t allow the filing of individual claims against Egypt. Jewish
Egyptian assets are perceived as being the State of Israel’s assets, and inventory
is important in order to reduce future Palestinian property claims. Another example: during the Gulf war, property
belonging to a Ramat-Gan Jewish-Iraqi family was damaged. In the framework of the claim for damages, a
seasoned lawyer suggested to include the claim for the house that was
confiscated by the Iraqi government in 1952. The Foreign ministry prohibited it,
in keeping with Israeli government policy to hold those assets as part of the inventory
in future negotiations with the Palestinians.
The analogy between the Palestinian refugees and the Oriental
Jews is unrealistic, not to mention criminal and immoral. It causes friction between
Orientals and Palestinians. It insults the dignity of many Orientals and harms chances
for genuine peacemaking. Furthermore, it denotes lack of understanding of the
meaning of the Nakba. The Nakba doesn’t refer only to the events of the war.
The Nakba is essentially the prevention of the return of the expelled to their
homes, their lands and their families in the aftermath of the founding of the
State of Israel. The Nakba is a clear activity of the State of Israel, and not
only a sequel of war chaos.
Israel’s
temptation to use the reduction concept is understandable, but it should not
use diverse scarecrows in order to dismiss the moral and political claims of
the Palestinians. Such manipulation adds insult to injury and increases the
psychological distance between Jews and Palestinians. Even if part of the
Palestinians relinquish implementation of their right of return (as Dr. Halil
Shakaki for example claims) that must not be obtained through ploys of this
sort. Any peace accord must pass through Israeli recognition of past wrongs and
a fair solution proposal. The accounting exercise is turning Israel into a
bookkeeper lacking a political and moral backbone.
The leftist blog +972 has now published its version of Shenhav's Hebrew article. See the very interesting comments
The leftist blog +972 has now published its version of Shenhav's Hebrew article. See the very interesting comments
Ha'Oketz has expanded from a blog to a regular alternative (leftist generally) socially oriented online news and analysis publication and today. At a time when established newspapers like Maariv and Haaretz are on the verge of bankruptcy "because of Israel Hayom" according to them Ha'Oketz is becoming attractive to many.
ReplyDeleteThe "two North-African Jews" are Professors and their opinion is often sought on national radio.
I took the time to look through it more carefully, it has a "Mizrahi" section.
Later on Yehuda Shenhav's article..
Jonathan Tobin's very good treatment of the subject of Jewish refugees:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/09/21/no-peace-without-justice-for-jewish-refugees-israel-palestinian-conflict/#more-806284
a report on the UN conference on Jewish refugees from Arab lands:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4284546,00.html
There are cases where expectations are set so low that every little bit of progress should be hailed as victory. I am speaking, of course, of Yehouda Shenhav.
ReplyDelete1) In his 2002 paper for the
"British Journal of Middle East Studies (29(1): 27-56, 2002)"
In 1941 a two-day pogrom (known as the farhud) was perpetrated in Baghdad. It was the only pogrom in the history of Iraqi Jew ...Historians agree that this was an exceptional event in the history of Jewish-Muslim relations in Iraq
2) 2003 article in "Haaretz"
“Some came of their own free will; others arrived against their will. Some lived comfortably and securely in Arab lands; others suffered from fear and oppression.”
The history of the "Mizrahi aliyah" (immigration to Israel) is complex, and cannot be subsumed within a facile explanation. Many of the newcomers lost considerable property”....
3) 2012 article in "Ha'Oketz"
Some arrived of their own will and some against their will. Part lived at ease and in security in the Arab countries, part in fear and oppression. The history of the Mizrahi immigration is complex and does not allow for one single simplistic explanation. A great number has lost a great amount of properties, and there is no doubt that they must be afforded the opportunity to file individual claims against Arab countries, which the State of Israel and WOJAC have blocked to this day. For example, the peace treaty with Egypt doesn’t allow the filing of individual claims against Egypt. Jewish Egyptian assets are perceived as being the State of Israel’s assets, and inventory is important in order to reduce future Palestinian property claims. Another example: during the Gulf war, property belonging to a Ramat-Gan Jewish-Iraqi family was damaged. In the framework of the claim for damages, a seasoned lawyer suggested to include the claim for the house that was confiscated by the Iraqi government in 1952
The progress in the last article is that he acknowledges on his own that property was "confiscated".
ReplyDeleteYou gotta love how Shenhav and ashrawi and Larry Derfner are able to split hairs with a range of accuracy of two microns. That is when they scientifically determine who is a refugee and who is not.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet he knows better. They all know.
ReplyDeleteSylvia
ReplyDeleteI would very much like to know where Shenhav got this idea that Israel 'blocked' individual claims from Jewish refugees against Arab governments.
As far as I can tell Shenhav does admit that property was confiscated in his Haaretz article, but that it is up to indivudal Jews to pursue claims - in other words, Israel should not get its hands on the money, not get any credit.