JEWS–THE FORGOTTEN MIDDLE EAST REFUGEES
In Israel on November 30th the Jewish state celebrated JEWISH REFUGEE DAY, a group of refugees the world has forgotten . These Jews numbered more than 850,000 and ironically, to the detriment of the Arabs, had a great deal to do with the success of the state. For your information about 711,000 Palestinians left the present state of Israel. These Israeli Jews heralded from Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Yemen and other local states and these states were left, literally with no Jewish citizens. Billions of dollars worth of property was confiscated, they faced many restrictions and some were executed as spies. There are areas in Israel populated by descendants of Kurdish and Iraqis in an area called ” Kurdish Enclave” The descendants of Jews from Arab lands now make up more than 50% of the Jewish Israeli population and when Israelis talk of mixed marriages, they are usually (jokingly) referring to Ashkenazi-Sephardi ties. There are plenty of Sephardi (and Yemenite) families who lived in Israel for centuries but the majority came after the creation of Israel in 1948 . The exodus of Jews from Arab lands was one of the largest mass migrations of non-Muslims from the region until the mass flight of Iraqi Christians…Mizrahi Jews, whose communities predate Islam by 1000 years have been written out of history. In world opinion, the Palestinians alone are the victims. And the Palestinians spend more effort on perpetrating this status with the very willing help of the U.N. The Palestinians could have had a state in 1948 if the Arab world had not been more interested in eliminating “JEWS”
Name of author
Name: Murray Rubin
Short Bio: I was born in Toronto in 1931 to a wonderful mother who divorced shortly before my birth. I owe a great deal of my success to her. I am Jewish but not at all religious, yet my culture plays an important part of my personality. I attended Harbord Collegiate and U. of T. Faculty of Pharmacy. A unique mail-order pharmacy was the first of my endeavours in the profession, followed by many stores throughout Ontario. I have a loving wife, 3 children and grand-children and I am now retired from pharmacy. But what do I write about? Everything! My topics are funny, serious, whimsical, timely, outrageous, inspiring, and inventive. I promise that if you take the time to read any one of these topics – you will not be sorry.
Thank you for writing about this. My father and his entire family left Iraq between 1948 and 1952. One side of my grandmother’s family were Mizrahi Jews, the other side came from Aleppo Syria in the early 1700’s (my sixth Great-Grandfather, Rabbi Sadka Hussein-there’s references to him on the internet).
Each of my father’s family was able to take one suitcase with them when leaving Baghdad, and they certainly weren’t able to sell their property. Most went to Israel, my father went to the U.K. He was fortunate enough to have gotten a rare quota spot in medical school in Baghdad and in the U.K. Was persuing post graduate specialty training as a surgeon.
If only the Palestinians were able to “get on with their lives” the way the Jews did. Sadly, the UNWRA doesn’t help matters, nor does the world press.
So unfair and so true. The western press never mentions this. It is anti-Semitism at its worst