Aftermath of anti Jewish Pogrom Fez, Morocco 1912. A recurring theme in the debate about Israel, its legitimacy and indeed its right to exist is the familiar complaint that Arabs are being made to pay for Europe’s sins through the displacement that they allege was caused by the establishment of the State of Israel.
Thanks to Globe Tribune
The State of Israel has, unfortunately fed into this argument by failing to present the case of the one million Jews from Arab countries who fled to Israel, ending a presence in Arab countries that dated back many centuries.
The Jews of Arab countries were forced into a second class alien status that in many ways resembled and perhaps even inspired the Nazi laws restricting Jewish life in Germany. Distinctive badges based upon the same concept as the infamous yellow star were a recurring theme in Jewish history under Muslim rule.
It would be possible to build an ironclad case for the argument that Arab nations precipitated a crisis for their Jewish populations that made flight and absolute necessity. Indeed, the numbers of displaced Jews and displaced Muslims are about equal. The value of Jewish property of which Jews were stripped in Arab countries was far greater than the value of the property left behind by Muslims who fled Israel. Additionally, the Arabs who stayed behind and remained in what is today Israel now have citizenship and representation in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
A focus solely upon Israel’s Jews from Arab countries would cast the debate about Israel in a far different light. It would help to make the case that Israel and the Arab nations of the Middle East have created as an acomplished fact a population exchange that has never been legaly ratified, as have the population exchanges of Greece and Turkey,of Germany and its neighbours, as well as that of India and Pakistan.
There has never been a population exchange that does not cause heartache, loss and displacement. In the context of other population exchanges, the one between Israel and its neighbours can be seen in a different light.
The facts about the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries is a story that must be told and put on the table. An honest look at Israel’s demgraphics, which include over a million Jews from Arab countries should put to permanent rest the myth that Israel is a colonial outpost of European Jews in the Middle East. The true story of Israel is that its population almost had statehood forced upon it as a necessity of physical survival.
It is time for the full facts to be presented to a world that judges Israel by standards never before employed in judging nations. It is for this reason that Globe Tribune.Info presents Dhimmis – To Be a Jew in a Muslim Land.
