CHAPTER ONE
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The study of emigration of Jews from Arab countries to Israel has largely been motivated by sectarianism and political partisanship. Authors with Zionist inclinations tend to see this emigration as the result of Muslim persecution of Jews, while at the same time viewing the process of aliyah to Israel as a redemption. According to this narrative, Jews in Arab coun- tries lived in an almost constant state of longing for Zion. Messianic impulses, coupled with constant persecution, drove Jews to immigrate to Israel as soon as they had the opportunity to do so.1 Recently, this narrative has been appropriated by those wishing to attribute refugee status to Jews from Arab countries. Several organizations have been formed to advocate for restitutions for those Jews, individually or as communities, who left or lost property and assets in Arab countries.2 One author, Yaʿakov Meron, goes as far as to call this emigration an expul- sion, yet as he points out regarding Yemen: “A bribe from the American Joint Distribution Committee to Yemen’s ruler, Imam Ahmed ibn Yahya, led to his agreeing to the mass exodus of Jews to Israel in 1949–1950…”3
1 On messianism see Eraqi-Klorman, Jews of Yemen in the Nineteenth Century, 90–119; Ahroni, Yemenite Jewry; Parfitt, Road to Redemption. On persecution see Bat Yeor, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam (Rutherford; London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Associated University Presses, 1985); Devorah Hakohen and Menahem Hakohen, One People: The Story of the Eastern Jews (New York: Adama Books, 1986); Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine (New York: Harper & Row, 1984); Tawil, Operation Esther. 2 See, for example, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries at http://www.justiceforjews .com. According to their home page, the objective of their international campaign is “to ensure that in all Middle East discussions, any explicit reference to the rights of Palestinian refugees is matched by an explicit reference to the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countires.” See also, World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries at http://wojac.com which states that “Between 1948 and 1951 there were two refugee movements in the Middle East. One was the exodus of about 600,000 Arabs from the Palestinian areas that became Israel. The second was the movement of about one million Jews from Arab countries into Israel.” and Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa at http://www.jimena.org whose home page states that “In 1948, nearly 900,000 Jews – indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa – lived in what are now known as the “Arab States.” ~ Today, 99% of these indigenous Jewish communities no longer exist. ~ Arab governments forced us to leave, con- fiscated our personal and communal property and stripped us of our citizenships.” 3 Yaʿakov Meron, “Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries,” The Middle East Quarterly 2, no. 3 (1995), available at http://www.meforum.org/article/263/.
This belies his claim a few lines later that: “this case provides the clearest example of Jews’ being persecuted and expelled for reasons having to do with Islamic law.”4 Meron does not attempt to reconcile this obvious con- tradiction, since his motive, like most in this trend, is to link the problem of Jewish “refugees” from the Arab world to the problem of Palestinian refugees so as to undermine Palestinian claims. His conclusion states this clearly: “A recognition of the full wrong done to the Jews of Arab countries should put to rest Palestinian claims for restitution by Israel.”5 In July 2002, the World Union for Progressive Judaism submitted a statement to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights claim- ing that the “key stumbling block” to Middle East peace has always been the Palestinian refugee problem, and that “…the time has come for the international community to remember the other victim – the forgotten millions of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.”6 Point eleven of the statement makes it abundantly clear that the motivation is as much to undermine Palestinian claims as to promote the rights of Jewish “refuges.” It reads: George Orwell’s remark about everyone being equal – except that “some are more equal than others” – could be applied also to refugees. Indeed, some refugees are considered more equal than others. But the forgotten millions – those Jewish refugees from Arab lands – were not helped by the UN, nor were they kept for over half a century in refugee camps breeding hopelessness and frustration, and a culture of hate and death. Orwell’s remark might also be applied to scores of millions of refugee, on all conti- nents, who were displaced during the many tragic conflicts throughout the 20th century.7 It is also worth pointing out that the statement’s use of the term Judenrein8 to describe the demographic condition of the Arab world after the mass Jewish emigrations is a clear example of both incongruous application of European terminology and concepts to the Arab world, and the uncon- scionable use of the Holocaust to further a contemporary political agenda. Another historical narrative does exist, but it is equally problematic. Anti-Zionist authors portray the Jewish experience in the Arab world as
4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Fifty-fourth session, E/CN.4/Sub.2/2002/NGO/26, 29 July 2002, available at http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/e06a5300f90fa023802 5668700518ca4/2fb737ca43b65818c1256c0800385ca4/$FILE/G0214420.doc, 2. 7 Ibid., 3. 8 Ibid., 2.