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Het Verbazende Vertrek Van De Mizrahim

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Het Verbazende Vertrek Van De Mizrahim Het verbazende vertrek van de Mizrahim Hoe de Joden uit de Arabische landen alles achter zich lieten en in een paar jaar naar elders vertrokken MA Scriptie voor het vak Midden-Oosten Studies Maarten Jan Hijmans Student nr. 10-444076 Supervisor dr Robbert Woltering (daarvoor dr Roel Meijer) Tweede lezer Lucia Admiraal Amsterdam, 23 september 2018 Inhoudsopgave Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Voorwoord ............................................................................................................................................ 5 1 Inleiding ....................................................................................................................................... 6 2 Jemen: Joodse bevolking op zoek naar betere levensomstandigheden ...................................... 21 3 De verdrijving van de Joden uit Irak .......................................................................................... 35 4 Egypte: klem tussen nationalisme en zionistische dadendrang ................................................. 64 5 ''Wenen bij de wateren van Zion'' ............................................................................................... 83 6 Conclusie .................................................................................................................................... 98 Literatuurlijst .................................................................................................................................... 100 Abstract Before 1948 the various Middle Eastern countries had a Jewish population of about 900.000 people. After the birth of the State of Israel this changed at a remarkable speed. Yemen and Iraq lost their Jewish populations almost entirely between 1949 and 1951. The rest followed suit and in the sixties this chapter was closed with migration of the bulk of the Jewish populations of Morocco and the rest of North Africa. Israel maintains that the departure of the Jewish populations was caused by the antisemitism of their respective countries of origin and that the fact that most of the Jews headed for Israel was due to their zionist convictions. This thesis maintains that neither is true. The Jewish populations of Iraq, Yemen or Egypt (or any other Arab country for that matter) were in majority no zionists, and antisemitism was not the reason for their departure, even though the birth of Israel, and the way the Palestinian question was handled by the zionists, gave them a hard time. An important reason, though not the only one that the Jews left, was the fact that zionists needed them. In 1943 the Jewish Agency, the de facto zionist government in Palestine, adopted a ''Plan of the Million'' to bring the ''eastern Jews'' in, because the stream of Jews from Europe had come to a standstill as a result of the Holocaust. The zionists adopted many means to convince or even coerce the Jews to leave their countries from that time on. They sent emissaries, put (indirect) pressure on governments, used terrorist tactics, or paid money and provided the means of departure. The version that the Jews had been expulsed, was adopted later, as a counterargument against the PLO's emphasis on the “Right of Return''. From then on Israel maintained that there had been an exchange of refugees, Palestinians against Jews from the Arab countries. 4 Voorwoord De afgelopen jaren heb ik met veel plezier Arabische taal en letterkunde gestudeerd. Ik wil van de gelegenheid gebruikmaken om de docenten van deze opleiding allemaal hartelijk te bedanken voor de uiterst prettige wijze waarop het onderwijs plaatsvond. Het was de bedoeling dat die studie met deze scriptie zou worden afgerond. Als oud-Midden Oostencorrespondent viel mijn keus op het mysterie van het vertrek van de Joden uit de Arabische wereld, dat nog steeds veel vragen oproept. Het was een complexe keuze, die waarschijnlijk meer geschikt was geweest voor een dissertatie dan een scriptie. De studie van de bronnen vereiste veel meer tijd dan ik had verwacht. Een tweede grote moeilijkheid was dat er nauwelijks Arabische bronnen over het onderwerp bleken te zijn en zeker geen bronnen die in Nederland beschikbaar waren. Niettemin was gebruik van Arabisch bronmateriaal een vereiste in een scriptie waarmee het vak Arabisch moet worden bekroond. Na lang zoeken en een vertraging van maanden vond ik een hoeveelheid Iraakse krantenknipsels, die ooit waren verzameld door de joodse gemeente van Bagdad. Zij werden bij de Amerikaanse invasie van 2003, tezamen met andere joodse bezittingen, aangetroffen in een kelder van de mukhabarat (geheime dienst) in Bagdad. De knipsels stonden op internet, en ik gebruikte ze voor een (verplichte) ''term paper'' over Irak (ook in deze scriptie opgenomen), die als opstapje voor de scriptie diende. Mijn bedoeling was dat ik de knipsels verder zou bewerken en ook in deze scriptie zou gebruiken. Mijn begeleider vond het echter beter dat ik in plaats van het onderwerp Irak, dat immers al was beoordeeld, nog een ander land behandelde. Dat werd Jemen. Daarmee vervielen de Iraakse kranten in het te beoordelen gedeelte als bron. Andere mogelijke bronnen als Egyptische publicaties of bijvoorbeeld de Egyptische film “'An yahud masr'', pasten, hoewel curieus door de nostalgie naar het verleden die zij onthulden, niet in de opzet van deze scriptie. Mijn afstudeerrichting is daarom, wat ik betreur, de ''algemene'' Midden-Oosten Studies geworden en niet Arabisch. Niettemin: veel dank aan mijn supervisor dr Robbert Woltering, die mij constant uitdaagde (en waardoor het resultaat uitgesprokener, en daardoor vast ook duidelijker is uitgevallen dan het aanvaneklijk was), aan dr Roel Meijer, die daarvóór mijn begeleider en raadgever was, en aan tweede lezer Lucia Admiraal, die bezig is aan een proefschrift over een verwant onderwerp en mij een aantal waardevolle suggesties meegaf. Amsterdam, september 2018 5 1 Inleiding Vóór de Tweede Wereldoorlog woonden er tussen de 800.000 en 900.000 Joden in diverse Arabische landen.1 Na de stichting van de Staat Israel in 1948 nam dat aantal in hoog tempo af. Het begon in het begin van de jaren vijftig in Jemen. Kort daarna in Irak. Andere landen volgden. De meeste emigranten gingen naar Israel, maar grote aantallen kozen ook bestemmingen als Engeland, Frankrijk, Zwitserland, de VS of Latijns-Amerikaanse landen. Van de Joden in Noord-Afrika gingen grote aantallen ook naar Frankrijk. De Algerijnse Joden deden dat zelfs en masse. Zij verkeerden in de uitzonderingspositie dat zij via het Decreet van Crémieux van 1870 de Franse nationaliteit hadden. Frankrijk was voor hen bijna allemaal het land waar ze naartoe vertrokken toen Algerije in1962 onafhankelijk werd. In 1967 waren er nog slechts enkele duizenden Joden achtergebleven in de diverse landen. Nu, in de 21ste eeuw, wonen er nog ongeveer 3.000 in Marokko, enkele honderden in Tunesië en verder verwaarloosbaar kleine aantallen in landen als Egypte, Syrië of Jemen. In het Midden-Oosten hebben, behalve Israel, alleen de niet Arabische landen Turkije en Iran nog een redelijk omvangrijke Joodse bevolking. De daadwerkelijke exodus begon in 1950 met de Joden uit Jemen. De Joden uit Irak volgden een jaar later. De Joden uit andere landen kwamen niet lang daarna. De meerderheid ging naar Israel en een tijdlang vormde deze groep, de mizrahim, of mizrachische Joden (die aanvankelijk 'sefardim' werden genoemd), de meerderheid van de Israelische bevolking. Dat duurde totdat de komst in de jaren negentig van de vorige eeuw van grote aantallen Russen de balans in het voordeel van de Ashkenazische (Europese) Joden herstelde. De komst van de mizrahim leidde tot een tweedeling in de Israelische maatschappij, onder meer door de wijze waarop ze als tweederangsburgers werden behandeld, en veelal naar de randen van het land werden gedirigeerd. Daar moesten zij de dunbevolkte periferie bevolken. Intussen werden ze als ''achterlijk'', ''onderontwikkeld'' en vooral ''Levantijns'' in alle opzichten gediscrimineerd. Ik beschrijf hun situatie in deze scriptie in een apart hoofdstuk: ''Wenen bij de wateren van Zion''. Het vertrek van de Joden uit de Arabische landen had ingrijpende gevolgen. Landen die honderden, of zelfs duizenden, jaren een Joodse minderheid in hun midden hadden gehad, waren deze 1 Norman A. Stillman, Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 5764/2003. Er bestaat geen unanimiteit aangaande het aantal. Stillman noemt het getal 800.000. Het Israelische ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken spreekt van 850.000. Andere bronnen komen tot 900.000. 6 minderheid plotseling kwijt. Een stad als Bagdad verloor in een jaar tijd een derde van haar bevolking, Irak raakte het grootste deel van zijn binnenlandse handel kwijt die vooral in Joodse handen was. Jemen verloor vrijwel al zijn handwerkslieden en edelsmeden. In Marokko verdween zo'n 2 tot 3 procent van de bevolking en 10 procent van de inwoners van de grote steden. Het is niet ondenkbaar dat de afwezigheid van Joodse medeburgers bij jongere generaties Arabieren het Israelisch-Arabische conflict mede aan scherpte heeft doen toenemen. Deze scriptie gaat over de achtergronden van deze exodus. Waarom gingen de Joden weg? De Israelische overheid, en een meerderheid aan Israelische wetenschappers, hebben op deze vraag twee simpele antwoorden: hun zionistische gezindheid en de antisemitische opstelling van hun Arabische landen van herkomst. Deze scriptie
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