Jewish refugees of Arab-Israeli conflict

 Historically, there was an exchange of populations in the Middle East and the number of displaced Jews exceeds the number of Palestinian Arab refugees. Most of the Jews were expelled as a result of an open policy of anti-Semitic incitement and even ethnic cleansing. However, unlike the Arab refugees, the Jews who fled are a forgotten case because of a combination of international cynicism and domestic Israeli suppression of the subject. The Palestinians are the only group of refugees out of the more than one hundred million who were displaced after World War II who have a special UN agency that, according to its mandate, cannot but perpetuate their tragedy. An open debate about the exodus of the Jews is critical for countering the Palestinian demand for the "right of return" and will require a more objective scrutiny of the myths about the origins of the Arab- Israeli conflict.

The story of Arab refugees of Israeli-Arab conflict is widely heard of (though some details are not particularly well known). The story of Jewish refugees of the same conflict is nearly not known. There are many myths about refugees of this conflict and some of them are very powerful. So I would like to give some facts. I will try to comment as little as possible. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions, but there has to be regard for truth. And in this particular story truth has been often victim of politics, local conflicts, presumptions and so on.

1. In 1947 between 900,000 and 1,000,000 Jews lived in Arab countries. Some of these communities were 2,500 years old. Many dated back to Roman and Byzantine times. Others, specially in Northern Africa, were created after expultion of Jews from Spain in 1492. After UN partition resolution (rejected by Arabs) and specially after the creation of Israel these people have been expelled from their homes and forced to leave, quite often with no possessions at all. At the present moment in all Arab countries there is less than 10,000 Jews and it is disappearing minority.

2. There were pushing and pulling factors in this huge exodus of Jewish people from Arab countries. The pulling factor for many was yearning for living in their own country or simply living in a country not hostile to them (many left to the USA or Australia). Pushing factor were much more sinister. Following the Partition Plan, Arab governments started confiscating Jewish property. Simultaneously riots and massacres broke out against the Jewish communities throughout the Arab world. Jewish-owned stores and synagogues were looted and burned, hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands were imprisoned. As Israel was established as an independent state in May 1948, the Arab League Political Committee convened and drafted a series of recommendations for all Arab and Muslim countries on how to take action against the Jews in their countries. Among other recommendations, the citizenship of Jews was revoked, and they were henceforth considered citizens only of the newly established Jewish state. Their assets were confiscated, their bank accounts frozen, and property worth millions of dollars nationalized. Jews were barred from government ministries, their entry in to the civil service was severely restricted, and many lost their means of livelihood.

3.  The plight of refugees at the beginning of this two-way exodus was much harsher for Jewish refugees. They quite often were forced to leave with nothing left, many times after the period of imprisonment and persecution in the country they were leaving. Arab refugees for most part left of their free will when 5 armies attacked Israel the day after she was created. They were promised that in few weeks when "the problem of Zionist state will be addressed" they will be free to come back. Of course there were some who were forced out but they were able to leave with whatever they could carry. Generally the ratio of refugees was 2:3 with more Jewish ones.

4. Subsequent plight of refugees was different for those two groups. Jewish refugees who came to the state of Israel were welcomed (at the great expense of very poor newborn country; reglamentation of goods including food was long and the battle to build a prosperous country uphill). They have been absorbed into society and their descendants account nowadays for nearly half of the population of Israel. Those who have chosen emigration to the USA, Canada or Australia were able to organise good life for themselves and their children and many of their descendants create now flourishing Jewish communities. The fate of Arab refugees was never addressed by recipient Arab countries (in Western ones they were given the refugee status and had/ have exactly same chances as any other recognised refugees: be it Tibetan, Burmese, Jewish, Cuban; and due to many pro-Palestinian organisations they often have more means than others in similar situation). Arab countries (notably Syria, Egypt and Lebanon) decided to leave these people and their descendants in refugee camps for years. They avoided giving them citizenship, work-permit, state-help. It was done for political reasons to be able to show those "victims of Israelis" (in fact victims of dictatorships of recipient countries). The only country that originally tried to deal with Arab refugees in humanitarian way was Jordan. But at one point it came to a moment when majority of Jordanian population was consisting of people considering themselves to be "Palestinians" (coming from the territory out of original Trans-Jordan as established by British rulers). That, together with their pro-military attitude lead to few attempts to overtake power in Jordan and attempts to assasitane Jordanian king. The result was what we know as "Black September".

5. As may be seen the situation was and is far from one-sided.The ratio of Jewish to Arab refugees was 3:2. The difference was their attitude (Jews expelled from Arab countries had been willing to start a new life in other place and were not fixed on "going back") and the attitude towards them but that is the policy and sin of recipient Arab countries and must not in any way be treated as Israel's responsibility. Let me also state that any major changes in political situation on international level (and XX century had seen more than the usual share of those) are connected to big moves of people. It was the case with India and Pakistan (possibly the biggest such move), with Irish at the time of great famine, with Germany and Poland after IIWW, with Poland and USSR after IIWW, so had it happened with Jews and Arabs. It was two way traffic of refugees. It is very likely that had we looked deep enough the absolute majority of Earth population would have been traced back to refugees. What makes this case different is the universal amnesia as to the existance of Jewish refugees of the conflict and the special, unheard of in other cases, status of Arab refugees of that situation (including special UN agency which, as all bureaucracies do, is now trying to prove useful feeding in fact conflict).