Hamas shut off the power to Palestine

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Here's an idea.... stop occupying Palestinian land and stop oppressing Palestinian civilians -- stop murdering, kidnapping, assaulting and torturing them, and stop stealing their property. Sheesh.

Here's another idea. Stop indiscriminately launching rockets at Israelis, stop destroying Jewish peoples' property and infrastructure, stop sending your children into Israel with the sole purpose of blowing themselves up and taking as many people as possible with them, stop hiding your terrorists behind women and children and then blaming the Israelis when you intentionally placed them in harm's way.

Edited to add: I agree that there are horrible things happening from both sides. But seriously, do you really think it's as simple as you state it?

just for the record... they didnt start "defending themselves" until the israelies started attacking them......TO EVERY ACTION THERES A REACTION.... would love to see what wd u do if someone bashed into ur house pulled u from your hair out side and calls u a terrorist when u try to claim whats originally urs back?!??! hmmmm yessss never thought of it that way have u!!!! lol

Ummm ok. But I'll point out that Muslims have been attacking Jews for centuries. It didn't start with the creation of Israel. They've been attacked countless times in places that nobody could claim didn't belong to them.

Actions and reactions go back centuries. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Is that true though? I'm not terribly familiar with that period of history but I thought that the Jews were treated rather better by the muslim states prior to the 19th-20th centuries (notably during the Ottoman Empire), and that there was much considerably less hostility toward them in that part of the world than there was in the European nations at that time.

Edited February 10, 2008 by Number 6

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Have you heard, for example, of the town that was called Ramle? Maybe you could talk to some of the people who's families lived there for generations upon generations who are now expelled and forbidden to even move back there and then come back and tell me how they were not driven from their homes by gunpoint.

Seriously I don't even enter into these discussions normally because they are fruitless. No one here is going to convince the other of their side so it's not even worth the energy it takes to type but to flat out say that the ones who left did so peacefully is just beyond my comprehension and proves that it's just pointless to argue.

I don't post in the hopes of changing Mawilson's mind -- of course, he is deeply committed to his perspective. However, there are many others reading, and I would venture to say that most of them have open minds and are quite willing to consider both sides of an issue.

But you are correct, Bridget -- there were large-scale expulsions of Palestinians at the twin cities of Lydda (now re-named Lod) and Ramle.

Just before the 1948 war, the residents of Lydda and Ramle made up almost 20% of the total urban population in central Palestine, including Tel Aviv. Today, the former residents of these cities and their descendants number at least a half a million, and most of them are still living in deplorable refugee camps in and around Ramallah and Amman.

In fact, the expulsions are all well-documented, particularly in Israeli historian Benny Morris' ground-breaking work "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949" (which was sourced largely from recently declassified Zionist records.)

At first, Morris' conclusions were hotly debated in Israel, particularly by Zionist white-washer Efraim Karsh (whom I'll come back to in one of my next posts.) But for the most part, historians on both sides of the fence have now come to accept the fact that approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled from what is now Israel as part of the 1948 war. Historians do, however, differ on whether or not this was justified, and what to do about it -- Morris claims this ethnic cleansing was "necessary" in order for the Zionists to forcibly create a Jewish majority in the land that would become Israel.

In fact, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin admitted the expulsions himself. He wrote in his diary soon after the occupation of Lydda and Ramle on July 10th-11th, 1948:

After attacking Lydda and then Ramla.... What would they do with the 50,000 civilians living in the two cities ..... Not even Ben-Gurion could offer a solution .... and during the discussion at operation headquarters, he [ben-Gurion] remained silent, as was his habit in such situations ....

Ben-Gurion would repeat the question: What is to be done with the population?, waving his hand in a gesture which said: Drive them out! [garesh otem in Hebrew]. 'Driving out' is a term with a harsh ring .... Psychologically, this was on of the most difficult actions we undertook.

- Rabin, quoted in Dan Kurzman's "Soldier Of Peace: The Life of Yitzhak Rabin," p. 140-141 & Benny Morris, p. 207

Later, Rabin acknowledged the cruelty of these expulsions, how many of his own soldiers were horrified at the operation, and how they had to be brainwashed afterwards in order to rationalize the complete injustice of it all. He stated during an interview with David Shipler from the New York Times on October 22, 1979 (the transcript of which is still censored in Israeli publications to this day):

Great Suffering was inflicted upon the men taking part in the eviction action. [They] included youth-movement graduates who had been inculcated with values such as international brotherhood and humaneness. The eviction action went beyond the concepts they were used to. There were some fellows who refused to take part. . . Prolonged propaganda activities were required after the action . . . to explain why we were obliged to undertake such a harsh and cruel action.

- Rabin, quoted in Simha Flapan's "The Birth of Israel: Myths And Realities," p. 101

However (and this should be repeated as many times as it takes for it to sink in) international law is crystal clear on this point -- civilians displaced by war (whether they are Jewish, German, Palestinian or even completely stateless and/or without ethnic identity) are *entitled* to return to their residences and/or receive compensation... the decisions of their leadership and their ethnic allegiances notwithstanding.

Edited February 10, 2008 by wife_of_mahmoud

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

When hostilities between Arabs and Jews broke out in 1947, there were 62,500 Arabs

in Haifa; by May 1948, all but a few were gone, accounting for fully a tenth of the total

Palestinian dispersion.

...

But what exactly happened in Haifa? Was there "an act of expulsion," as the Palestinians

and Israeli "new historians" have argued? Or was the older Israeli contention correct–

namely, that the Arabs who fled the city in 1947-48 did so of their own volition, and/or

at the behest of their leaders? During the past decade, as it happens, Israeli and Western

state archives have declassified millions of records, including invaluable contemporary

Arab and Palestinian documents, relating to the 1948 war and the creation of the

Palestinian refugee problem. These make it possible to establish the truth about what

happened in Haifa–and by extension, elsewhere in Palestine.

...

As the British Mandate in Palestine neared its end in 1947-48, the city of Haifa became

engulfed in intermittent violence that pitted Arab fighters, recruited locally as well as

from neighboring Arab countries, against the Jewish underground organization known

as the Hagana. The hostilities would reach their peak on April 21-22, 1948, when the

British suddenly decided to evacuate most of the town and each of the two parties

moved in quickly to try to fill the vacuum and assert control. But the first thing the

documents show is that Arab flight from Haifa began well before the outbreak of these

hostilities, and even before the UN’s November 29, 1947 partition resolution.

On October 23, over a month earlier, a British intelligence brief was already noting

that "leading Arab personalities are acting on the assumption that disturbances are

near at hand, and have already evacuated their families to neighboring Arab countries."

By November 21, as the General Assembly was getting ready to vote, not just

"leading Arab personalities" but "many Arabs of Haifa" were reported to be removing

their families. And as the violent Arab reaction to the UN resolution built up, eradicating

any hope of its peaceful enforcement, this stream of refugees turned into a flood.

Thus it was that, by mid-December 1947, some 15,000-20,000 people, almost a third

of the city’s Arab population, had fled, creating severe adversity for those remaining.

...

Even the stoic Stockwell was shaken. "You have made a foolish decision," he thundered

at the Arabs. "Think it over, as you’ll regret it afterward. You must accept the conditions

of the Jews. They are fair enough. Don’t permit life to be destroyed senselessly.

After all, it was you who began the fighting, and the Jews have won."

But the Arabs were unmoved. The next morning, they met with Stockwell and his advisers

to discuss the practicalities of the evacuation. Of the 30,000-plus Arabs still in Haifa,

only a handful, they said, wished to stay. Perhaps the British could provide 80 trucks

a day, and in the meantime ensure an orderly supply of foodstuffs in the city and its

environs? At this, a senior British officer at the meeting erupted: "If you sign your truce

you would automatically get all your food worries over. You are merely starving your

own people." "We will not sign," the Arabs retorted. "All is already lost, and it does not

matter if everyone is killed so long as we do not sign thedocument."

Within a matter of days, only about 3,000 of Haifa’s Arab residents remained in the city.

Were the Palestinians Expelled?

LMAO

Benjamin Netanyahu's website is your "authority" ? Nope, no bias there....

Efraim Karsh (the author you quote here) is hardly a neutral observer. He is a well-known hardline Zionist and blamer of all things Palestinian, who uses selective and questionable data, cherry-picking only that which confirms his bias -- to support his portrayal of tiny innocent Israel all alone against an anti-Semitic world that hates it simply for its religion. As Ilan Pappe aptly observed, Karsh is the self-appointed official "spokesperson for the Zionist narrative."

Karsh is furious that even the State of Israel has started to admit some of the truth that he wants to suppress and has even started revising some of its school textbooks to admit the expulsions of Palestinians. Karsh denies everything that contradicts his story... I think he even denied that Ilan Pappe exists....

[simple_male 1]

Here's an idea.... stop occupying Palestinian land and stop oppressing Palestinian civilians -- stop murdering, kidnapping, assaulting and torturing them, and stop stealing their property. Sheesh.

Here's another idea. Stop indiscriminately launching rockets at Israelis, stop destroying Jewish peoples' property and infrastructure, stop sending your children into Israel with the sole purpose of blowing themselves up and taking as many people as possible with them, stop hiding your terrorists behind women and children and then blaming the Israelis when you intentionally placed them in harm's way.

Edited to add: I agree that there are horrible things happening from both sides. But seriously, do you really think it's as simple as you state it?

just for the record... they didnt start "defending themselves" until the israelies started attacking them......TO EVERY ACTION THERES A REACTION.... would love to see what wd u do if someone bashed into ur house pulled u from your hair out side and calls u a terrorist when u try to claim whats originally urs back?!??! hmmmm yessss never thought of it that way have u!!!! lol

Ummm ok. But I'll point out that Muslims have been attacking Jews for centuries. It didn't start with the creation of Israel. They've been attacked countless times in places that nobody could claim didn't belong to them.

Actions and reactions go back centuries. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Is that true though? I'm not terribly familiar with that period of history but I thought that the Jews were treated rather better by the muslim states prior to the 19th-20th centuries (notably during the Ottoman Empire), and that there was much considerably less hostility toward them in that part of the world than there was in the European nations at that time.

Number 6, yes, I agree with you. It is a big lie that Muslims have been attacking Jews for centuries. This is how, the false propaganda takes place. Rather, Jews ran to the Arab/Muslim lands for shelter when they were persecuted by the Christians. Jews were treated much better by Muslim states, as you stated.

Edited February 11, 2008 by simple_male

[mawilson 2,133]

LMAO

Benjamin Netanyahu's website is your "authority" ? Nope, no bias there....

Ooh yes, and your Palestinian sources are competely unbiased, of course.

[mawilson 2,133]

I wonder how you'd accept someone claiming that Jews who fled the Holocaust "chose to leave" and thus *weren't* forced out of their homes. I wonder how you'd accept someone claiming that this meant they'd abandoned their property rights. Oh wait a minute -- Israel has demanded (and gotten) billions in reparations for the losses of those victims and their families -- about $95 billion from Germany alone.

Exactly. The key word is reparations. I fully agree that Israel should pay reparations to the

families of Palestinian civilian noncombatants driven from their homes in 1946-47.

However, that's where Israel's obligations end. The Jews who fled the Holocaust do not have the

"right of return" to their former homes in Germany, why should the Palestinians have that right?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

LMAO

Benjamin Netanyahu's website is your "authority" ? Nope, no bias there....

Ooh yes, and your Palestinian sources are competely unbiased, of course.

Derrrrrrrrrr..... guess you didn't realize that Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe and Simha Flapan (and David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin) are/were all Israelis.....

....and I believe Dan Kurzman may be an MOT as well....

Edited February 10, 2008 by wife_of_mahmoud

[mawilson 2,133]

Derrrrrrrrrr..... guess you didn't realize that Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe and Simha Flapan (and David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin) are/were all Israelis.....

Doesn't mean they are unbiased. Israel has its fair share of Michael Moores.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Derrrrrrrrrr..... guess you didn't realize that Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe and Simha Flapan (and David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin) are/were all Israelis.....

Doesn't mean they are unbiased. Israel has its fair share of Michael Moores.

You're funny.

First you claim:

No-one was "kicked out of their homes". They had a choice and chose to leave.

And you post Efraim Karsh as your authority.

I point out that Karsh is decidedly in the minority, and that *most* historians (both inside and outside Israel) now agree that about 750,000 Palestinians were driven out in 1947-1948. I point out that even the State of Israel has conceded the fact, and is now starting to mention this in Israeli school textbooks. I post my sources, including quotes from Israeli leaders at the time who *admitted* it.

Your comeback:

Ooh yes, and your Palestinian sources are competely unbiased, of course.

Between snickers, I point out that these are Israeli sources I'm referencing (which you should have known at first glance.) You now have no leg to stand on, so you flail around and resort to calling them all "Michael Moores."

Bwaaahahahhahaaha. Actually you surprised me -- I was sure your next line would be "they're all self-hating Jews."

Anyway, I guess the State of Israel didn't get your memo before they starting changing the school textbooks. Teehee.

Now you'll have to get back in line -- there are posts that were made before today that I need to respond to (more stuff you don't want anyone to read, so you're trying your best to distract me from it.)

[mawilson 2,133]

Between snickers, I point out that these are Israeli sources I'm referencing (which you should have known at first glance.) You now have no leg to stand on, so you flail around and resort to calling them all "Michael Moores."

Bwaaahahahhahaaha. Actually you surprised me -- I was sure your next line would be "they're all self-hating Jews."

Self-hating American, self-hating Jews - same thing, really.

I bet I can find a whole lot of "inconsistencies" in your posts by quoting selected sentences out of context.

You still haven't explained why the Jews who fled the Holocaust aren't trying to claim "property rights" in Germany...

Edited February 10, 2008 by mawilson

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Here's an idea.... stop occupying Palestinian land and stop oppressing Palestinian civilians -- stop murdering, kidnapping, assaulting and torturing them, and stop stealing their property. Sheesh.

Here's another idea. Stop indiscriminately launching rockets at Israelis, stop destroying Jewish peoples' property and infrastructure, stop sending your children into Israel with the sole purpose of blowing themselves up and taking as many people as possible with them, stop hiding your terrorists behind women and children and then blaming the Israelis when you intentionally placed them in harm's way.

Edited to add: I agree that there are horrible things happening from both sides. But seriously, do you really think it's as simple as you state it?

just for the record... they didnt start "defending themselves" until the israelies started attacking them......TO EVERY ACTION THERES A REACTION.... would love to see what wd u do if someone bashed into ur house pulled u from your hair out side and calls u a terrorist when u try to claim whats originally urs back?!??! hmmmm yessss never thought of it that way have u!!!! lol

Ummm ok. But I'll point out that Muslims have been attacking Jews for centuries. It didn't start with the creation of Israel. They've been attacked countless times in places that nobody could claim didn't belong to them.

Actions and reactions go back centuries. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Is that true though? I'm not terribly familiar with that period of history but I thought that the Jews were treated rather better by the muslim states prior to the 19th-20th centuries (notably during the Ottoman Empire), and that there was much considerably less hostility toward them in that part of the world than there was in the European nations at that time.

Number 6, yes, I agree with you. It is a big lie that Muslims have been attacking Jews for centuries. This is how, the false propaganda takes place. Rather, Jews ran to the Arab/Muslim lands for shelter when they were persecuting by the Christians. Jews were treated much better by Muslim states, as you stated.

That was my understanding also.

[sandinista! 1,816]

so if a jew doesn't agree with your politics, they must be "self-hating". that's brilliant. do you think condoleezza rice, clarence thomas, colin powell are all "self-hating" blacks too cause they aren't democrats? what's the basis for this standard anyways? mawlison's rules of what you must believe to be a self-respecting jew? was rabin being a self-hating jew when he wrote in his diary too? me, i'll leave the status of someone's jewishness up to that particular individual. it's not anyone else's place to do otherwise.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Continuing in order of appearance.... wow it's Mawilson again:

If the Arabs had accepted the 1947 UN resolution, not a single Palestinian would have become

a refugee. The refugee problem was caused by a war that was started by the Palestinians

as well as the five Arab states whose armies invaded Israel the day it declared independence.

This is a cornerstone of the Zionist fairy-tale, and it often gets cut and pasted word-for-word into just about any discussion of the conflict. I'm not sure who originally wrote it, but you can find the two sentences nearly verbatim ("had the Arabs" changed to "if the Arabs had") in two articles by Mitchell G. Bard of the Jewish Virtual Library, so perhaps he is the author.

Anyway, Israel's so-called "War of Independence" (I have always wanted to ask -- independence from whom ???) certainly did not start on May 14, 1948 (which was the day Ben-Gurion actually declared Israel to be an independent state.) Nor did it start in "self-defense" against the Arab countries who entered the war the next day (not the "same day.")

As historians know (and as anyone can look up for themselves) hostilities had been flaring for decades before 1948. It got much worse when the UN Partition plan was announced in late November, 1947. And in December, 1947, the British made it clear they would no longer provide a buffer between the two sides, announcing plans to withdraw their forces (largely due to repeated attacks from Zionist terror groups) by the following May 15th. General strikes were called in Jerusalem and Jaffa, and fighting broke out in the streets of Jerusalem almost immediately.

This was actually the first phase of the war, starting in December 1947, and the violence quickly escalated. By April (reasonable people will notice that this was BEFORE that announcement of Israel's independence and BEFORE the invasion of the Arab armies that Zionists keep claiming started all the trouble) Jewish terrorists were conducting massacres, like this one at Deir Yassin:

For the entire day of April 9, 1948, Irgun and LEHI soldiers carried out the slaughter in a cold and premeditated fashion...The attackers 'lined men, women and children up against the walls and shot them,'...The ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin shocked Jewish and world opinion alike, drove fear and panic into the Arab population, and led to the flight of unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country.

- Simha Flapan, "The Birth of Israel"

Before the end of the mandate, and therefore before any possible intervention by Arab states, the Jews, taking advantage of their superior military preparation and organization, had occupied...most of the Arab cities in Palestine before May 15, 1948. Tiberias was occupied on April 19, 1948, Haifa on April 22, Jaffa on April 28, the Arab quarters in the New City of Jerusalem on April 30, Beisan on May 8, Safad on May 10 and Acre on May 14, 1948...

- Henry Cattan, "Palestine, The Arabs and Israel"

All of this BEFORE what Zionists claim was the beginning of the war, and BEFORE the Arabs states got involved.

During that fateful April of 1948, eight out of thirteen major Zionist military attacks on Palestinians occurred in the territory granted to the Arab state.

In contrast, the Palestine Arabs did not seize any of the territories reserved for the Jewish state under the partition resolution.

- Henry Cattan, "Palestine, The Arabs and Israel"

The atrocities, expulsions and dispossessions conducted by Zionists against the Palestinian population (which took place BEFORE May 15, 1948) are what prompted the Arab states to enter the war. Yes, they waited until the British Mandate ended to do so.

Only Zionists, in their perpetual perceived victimhood, can't seem to come to terms with what actually happened.

By the way, here's another little tidbit that Zionists like to ignore -- it wasn't just Arabs who were unhappy about the UN resolution to partition Palestine. The Zionists didn't like it at all -- they thought they should be given all of Palestine, and their leaders had no intentions of abiding by the UN resolution:

In internal discussion in 1938 [David Ben-Gurion] stated that 'after we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish partition and expand into the whole of Palestine'...

In 1948, Menachem Begin declared that: 'The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature of institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel (the land of Israel) will be restored to the people of Israel, All of it. And forever.

- Noam Chomsky, "The Fateful Triangle."

And that's exactly what the Zionists have been attempting to do ever since....

[Risto 0]

To say that Israel is an innocent nation is the same as saying Hamas in innocent IMO. I mean really is this about Hamas and the Israeli government or about the millions of innocent on BOTH sides suffering on a daily basis. Israel is NO better than Hamas,

If Israel was playing by the same rules as hamas, the conflict wouldn't last for more than few days.

[Risto 0]

More than one million jews were kicked out from the arab countries after the creation of Israel

Soon after they become proud citizens of their adoptive countries not like the palestinians who were kept in refuge camps for generations in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria etc.

http://www.hsje.org/jews_kicked_out_of_arab_countrie.htm

Jews kicked out of Arab countries, including Egypt

part 1

Article Provided by : Flutie54@cs.com

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN SYRIA BEFORE 1948

The last Jews who wanted to leave Syria departed with the chief rabbi in

October 1994. Prior to 1947, there were some 30,000 Jews made up of three

distinct communities, each with its own traditions: the Kurdish-speaking Jews

of Kamishli, the Jews of Aleppo with roots in Spain, and the original eastern

Jews of Damascus, called Must'arab. Today only a tiny remnant of these

communities remains.

The Jewish presence in Syria dates back to biblical times and is intertwined

with the history of Jews in neighboring Eretz Israel. With the advent of

Christianity, restrictions were imposed on the community. The Arab conquest

in 636 A.D, however, greatly improved the lot of the Jews. Unrest in

neighboring Iraq in the 10th century resulted in Jewish migration to Syria

and brought about a boom in commerce, banking, and crafts. During the reign

of the Fatimids, the Jew Menashe Ibrahim El-Kazzaz ran the Syrian

administration, and he granted Jews positions in the government.

Syrian Jewry supported the aspirations of the Arab nationalists and Zionism,

and Syrian Jews believed that the two parties could be reconciled and that

the conflict in Palestine could be resolved. However, following Syrian

independence from France in 1946, attacks against Jews and their property

increased, culminating in the pogroms of 1947, which left all shops and

synagogues in Aleppo in ruins. Thousands of Jews fled the country, and their

homes and property were taken over by the local Muslims.

For the next decades, Syrian Jews were, in effect, hostages of a hostile

regime. They could leave Syria only on the condition that they leave members

of their family behind. Thus the community lived under siege, constantly

under fearful surveillance of the secret police. This much was allowed due to

an international effort to secure the human rights of the Jews, the changing

world order, and the Syrian need for Western support; so the conditions of

the Jews improved somewhat.

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN EGYPT PRIOR TO 1948

Jews have lived in Egypt since Biblical times, and the conditions of the

community have constantly fluctuated with the political situation of the

land. Israelite tribes first moved to the Land of Goshen (the northeastern

edge of the Nile Delta) during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV

(1375-1358 B.C).

During the reign of Ramses II (1298-1232 B.C), they were enslaved for the

Pharaoh's building projects. His successor, Merneptah, continued the same

anti-Jewish policies, and around the year 1220 B.C, the Jews revolted and

escaped across the Sinai to Canaan. This is the biblical Exodus commemorated

in the holiday of Passover. Over the years, many Jews in Eretz Israel who

were not deported to Babylon sought shelter in Egypt, among them the prophet

Jeremiah. By 1897 there were more than 25,000 Jews in Egypt, concentrated in

Cairo and Alexandria. In 1937 the population reached a peak of 63,500.

Friedman wrote in "The Myth of Arab Tolerance", "One Caliph, Al-Hakem of the

Fatimids devised particularly insidious humiliations for the Jews in his

attempt to perform what he deemed his roll as "Redeemer of mankind", first

the Jews were forced to wear miniature golden calf images around their necks,

as though they still worshipped the golden calf, but the Jews refused to

convert. Next they wore bells, and after that six pound wooden blocks were

hung around their necks. In fury at his failure, the Caliph had the Cairo

Jewish quarter destroyed, along with it's Jewish residence, in".

In 1945, with the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the cultivation of

anti-Western and anti-Jewish sentiment, riots erupted. In the violence, 10

Jews were killed, 350 injured, and a synagogue, a Jewish hospital, and an

old-age home were burned down. The establishment of the State of Israel led

to still further anti-Jewish feeling: Between June and November 1948, bombs

set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly

200. 2,000 Jews were arrested and many had their property confiscated.

Rioting over the next few months resulted in many more Jewish deaths. Between

June and November 1948, bombs set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more than

70 Jews and wounded nearly 200.

Jews In 1956, the Egyptian government used the Sinai Campaign as a pretext

for expelling almost 25,000 Egyptian Jews and confiscating their property.

Approximately 1,000 more Jews were sent to prisons and detention camps. On

November 23, 1956, a proclamation signed by the Minister of Religious

Affairs, and read aloud in mosques throughout Egypt, declared that "all Jews

are Zionists and enemies of the state," and promised that they would be soon

expelled.

Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave the country. They were allowed to

take only one suitcase and a small sum of cash, and forced to sign

declarations "donating" their property to the Egyptian government. Foreign

observers reported that members of Jewish families were taken hostage,

apparently to insure that those forced to leave did not speak out against the

Egyptian government. AP, (November 26 and 29th 1956); New York World

Telegram).

In 1979, the Egyptian Jewish community became the first in the Arab world to

establish official contact with Israel. Israel now has an embassy in Cairo

and a consulate general in Alexandria. At present, the few remaining Jews are

free to practice Judaism without any restrictions or harassment. Shaar

Hashamayim is the only functioning synagogue in Cairo. Of the many synagogues

in Alexandria only the Eliahu Hanabi is open for worship.

By 1957 it had fallen to 15,000. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, there was a

renewed wave of persecution, and the community dropped to 2,500. By the

1970s, after the remaining Jews were given permission to leave the country,

the community dwindled to a few families. Jewish rights were finally restored

in 1979 after President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords with

Israel. Only then was the community allowed to establish ties with Israel and

with world Jewry. The majority of Jews reside in Cairo, but there are still a

handful in Alexandria. In addition there are about 15 Karaites in the

community. Nearly all the Jews are elderly, and the community is on the verge

of extinction.

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ PRIOR TO 1948

The Iraqi Jews took pride in their distinguished Jewish community, with it's

history of scholarship and dignity. Jews had prospered in what was then

Babylonia for 1200 years before the Muslim conquest in AD 634; it was not

until the 9th century that Dhimmi laws such as the yellow patch, heavy head

tax, and residence restriction enforced. Capricious and extreme oppression

under some Arab caliphs and Momlukes brought taxation amounting to

expropriation in AD 1000, and 1333 the persecution culminated in pillage and

destruction of the Bagdad Sanctuary. in 1776, there was a slaughter of Jews

at Bosra, and in bitterness of anti Jewish measures taken by Turkish Muslim

rulers in the 18th century caused many Jews to flea.

The Iraqi Jewish community is one of the oldest in the world and has a great

history of learning and scholarship. Abraham, the father of the Jewish

people, was born in Ur of the Chaldees, in southern Iraq, around 2,000 A.D.

The community traces its history back to 6th century A.D, when Nebuchadnezzar

conquered Judea and sent most of the population into exile in Babylonia.

The community also maintained strong ties with the Land of Israel and, with

the aid of rabbis from Israel, succeeded in establishing many prominent

rabbinical academies. By the 3rd century, Babylonia became the center of

Jewish scholarship, as is attested to by the community's most influential

creation, the Babylonian Talmud.

Under Muslim rule, beginning in the 7th century, the situation of the

community fluctuated. Many Jews held high positions in government or

prospered in commerce and trade. At the same time, Jews were subjected to

special taxes, restrictions on their professional activity, and anti-Jewish

incitement among the masses.

Under British rule, which began in 1917, Jews fared well economically, and

many were elected to government posts. This traditionally observant community

was also allowed to found Zionist organizations and to pursue Hebrew studies.

All of this progress ended when Iraq gained independence in 1932.

In June 1941, the Mufti-inspired, pro-Nazi coup of Rashid Ali sparked rioting

and a pogrom in Baghdad. Armed Iraqi mobs, with the complicity of the police

and the army, murdered 180 Jews and wounded almost 1,000.

Although emigration was prohibited, many Jews made their way to Israel during

this period with the aid of an underground movement. In 1950 the Iraqi

parliament finally legalized emigration to Israel, and between May 1950 and

August 1951, the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government succeeded in

airlifting approximately 110,000 Jews to Israel in Operations Ezra and

Nehemiah. This figure includes 18,000 Kurdish Jews, who have many distinct

traditions. Thus a community that had reached a peak of 150,000 in 1947

dwindled to a mere 6,000 after 1951.

Additional outbreaks of anti-Jewish rioting occurred between 1946-49. After

the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionism became a capital crime.

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ AFTER 1948

In 1950, Iraqi Jews were permitted to leave the country within a year

provided they forfeited their citizenship. A year later, however, the

property of Jews who emigrated was frozen and economic restrictions were

placed on Jews who chose to remain in the country. From 1949 to 1951, 104,000

Jews were evacuated from Iraq in Operations Ezra and Nehemiah; another 20,000

were smuggled out through Iran. In 1952, Iraq's government barred Jews from

emigrating and publicly hanged two Jews after falsely charging them with

hurling a bomb at the Baghdad office of the U.S. Information Agency.

With the rise of competing Ba'ath factions in 1963, additional restrictions

were placed on the remaining Iraqi Jews. The sale of property was forbidden

and all Jews were forced to carry yellow identity cards. After the Six-Day

War, more repressive measures were imposed: Jewish property was expropriated;

Jewish bank accounts were frozen; Jews were dismissed from public posts;

businesses were shut; trading permits were cancelled; telephones were

disconnected. Jews were placed under house arrest for long periods of time or

restricted to the cities.

Persecution was at its worst at the end of 1968. Scores were jailed upon the

discovery of a local "spy ring" composed of Jewish businessmen. Fourteen

men-eleven of them Jews-were sentenced to death in staged trials and hanged

in the public squares of Baghdad; others died of torture. On January 27,

1969, Baghdad Radio called upon Iraqis to "come and enjoy the feast." Some

500,000 men, women and children paraded and danced past the scaffolds where

the bodies of the hanged Jews swung; the mob rhythmically chanted "Death to

Israel" and "Death to all traitors." This display brought a world-wide public

outcry that Radio Baghdad dismissed by declaring: "We hanged spies, but the

Jews crucified Christ." (Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam Hussein and

the Crisis in the Gulf, p. 34).

Jews remained under constant surveillance by the Iraqi government. Max

Sawadayee, in "All Waiting to be Hanged" writes a testimony of an Iraqi Jew

(who later escaped): "The dehumanization of the Jewish personality resulting

from continuous humiliation and torment...have dragged us down to the lowest

level of our physical and mental faculties, and deprived us of the power to

recover.".

In response to international pressure, the Baghdad government quietly allowed

most of the remaining Jews to emigrate in the early 1970's, even while

leaving other restrictions in force. Most of Iraq's remaining Jews are now

too old to leave. They have been pressured by the government to turn over

title, without compensation, to more than $200 million worth of Jewish

community property. (New York Times, February 18, 1973).

Only one synagogue continues to function in Iraq, "a crumbling buff-colored

building tucked away in an alleyway" in Baghdad. According to the synagogue's

administrator, "there are few children to be bar-mitzvahed, or couples to be

married. Jews can practice their religion but are not allowed to hold jobs in

state enterprises or join the army." (New York Times Magazine, February 3,

1985).

In 1991, prior to the Gulf War, the State Department said "there is no recent

evidence of overt persecution of Jews, but the regime restricts travel,

(particularly to Israel) and contacts with Jewish groups abroad.".

Persecutions continued, especially after the Six-Day War in 1967, when many

of the remaining 3,000 Jews were arrested and dismissed from their jobs.

Finally In Iraq all the Jews were forced to leave between 1948 and 1952 and

leave everything behind. Jews were publicly hanged in the center of Baghdad

with enthusiastic mob as audience.

The Jews were persecuted throughout the centuries in all the Arabic speaking

countries. One time, Baghdad was one-fifth Jewish and other communities had

first been established 2,500 years ago. Today, approximately 61 Jews are left

in Baghdad and another 200 or so are in Kurdish areas in the north. Only one

synagogue remains in Bataween, - once Baghdad's main Jewish neighborhood.-

The rabbi died in 1996 and none of the remaining Jews can perform the liturgy

and only a couple know Hebrew. (Associated Press, March 28, 1998).

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN ALGERIA PRIOR TO 1948

Jewish settlement in present-day Algeria can be traced back to the first

centuries of the Common Era. In the 14th century, with the deterioration of

conditions in Spain, many Spanish Jews moved to Algeria. Among them were a

number of outstanding scholars, including the Ribash and the Rashbatz. After

the French occupation of the country in 1830, Jews gradually adopted French

culture and were granted French citizenship.

On the eve of the civil war that gripped the country in the late 1950s, there

were some 130,000 Jews in Algeria, approximately 30,000 of whom lived in the

capital. Nearly all Algerian Jews fled the country shortly after it gained

independence from France in 1962. Most of the remaining Jews live in Algiers,

but there are individual Jews in Oran and Blida. A single synagogue functions

in Algiers, although there is no resident rabbi. All other synagogues have

been taken over for use as mosques.

In 1934, a Nazi-incited pogrom in Constantine left 25 Jews dead and scores

injured. After being granted independence in 1962, the Algerian government

harassed the Jewish community and deprived Jews of their principle economic

rights. As a result, almost 130,000 Algerian Jews immigrated to France. Since

1948, 25,681 Algerian Jews have emigrated to Israel.