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June 9, 2009
The studiously avoided refugees
In his speech in Cairo last week President Obama referred to himself as a "student of history." A number of writers have pointed out that there's a dimension of the Middle East's history that the President failed to mention.
A half year ago Reut Cohen wrote:
My paternal grandfather vividly recalls his experiences living as a Jew in Baghdad and the Farhud pogrom, which was a Nazi pogrom coordinated by Haj Amin al-Husseini. In a two-day period Arab mobs went on a rampage in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. Nearly 300 Jews were killed and more than 2,000 injured; some 900 Jewish homes were destroyed and looted, and hundreds of Jewish-owned shops were robbed and destroyed. My older family members recall witnessing how Iraqi soldiers pulled small children away from their parents and ripped the arms off young girls to steal their bracelets; pregnant women were raped and their stomachs cut open. My grandfather hid his baby brother underneath his t-shirt when the violence began and ran home. My great-grandfather saved his entire family during the riots that broke out in Baghdad by claiming to be a Muslim when Iraqi troops came into their home with the intent of looting, raping, and killing. Eventually, when being a Jew was practically criminalized, my father's family escaped to Israel with only the clothes on their backs -- their belongings were confiscated -- leaving behind everything that they knew. Their experience was not a unique one and was shared by several thousand Baghdadi Jews.Other Islamic countries treated their Jewish populations similarly. My maternal grandmother escaped from Syria during the mid-1940s. Her parents had died and she was forced to live with an older sister. As a 16-year-old girl, she decided to pay a Druze man with the gold her mother left to her and made the long, tedious journey to modern-day Israel. Because Syrian officials would incarcerate any Jew fleeing in the direction of Israel, my grandmother and other individuals making their way from Syria to what eventually became Israel would only be able to walk at night. Several Syrian Jews found it nearly impossible to flee. The last few Jews from Syria made their escape in the early 1990s. Our male relatives who arrived in Israel in the 1990s shared their stories with us. They were taken by Syrian authorities and tortured for unspecified amounts of time, experiencing unspeakable cruelty at the hands of Syrian officials.
Daniel Dagan writes (h/t Crossing the Rubicon):
For much too long Israel has been portrayed as a project of Western immigrants who seized a foreign country in the Orient and drove out its population. Yet I am an Israeli, and I come from the Orient. So I know for sure that I don't fit this routine story - and I am certainly not alone. Nearly half the Jewish population in Israel are refugees from Arab or Muslim countries. Considering their plight is an indispensable part of any debate on promoting accommodation between Muslims and Jews, let alone between Arabs and Israelis.
Andre Aciman, in a similar vein writes:
With all his references to the history of Islam and to its (questionable) "proud tradition of tolerance" of other faiths, Mr. Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.Nor did he bother to mention that with this flight and expulsion, Jewish assets were -- let's call it by its proper name -- looted. Mr. Obama never mentioned the belongings I still own in Egypt and will never recover. My mother's house, my father's factory, our life in Egypt, our friends, our books, our cars, my bicycle. We are, each one of us, not just defined by the arrangement of protein molecules in our cells, but also by the things we call our own. Take away our things and something in us dies. Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn't die right away; it took four decades of exile to finish him off.
Still, it's worth noting the many things Obama got wrong, not to denigrate him but to retain clarity. While I certainly hope Obama's aspirations materialize, pretending history didn't happen is a fine tactic for a speech, but a poor strategy for changing things.
By juxtaposing the mention of the Holocaust with his mention of the Palestinians, President Obama effectively endorsed the view that Israel was founded as a response to the Holocaust. The Arab world has little problem with this. Their approach, in general, is "the Holocaust was European crime, why should the Palestinians suffer?"
So instead of encouraging reconciliation the President's approach more likely perpetuated the grievances.
Mentioning the Jewish refugees would have accomplished two things. The first, is that it would have served as a reminder that Israel serves as a refuge to all Jews whose hosts no longer want them. Jews in Arab and Muslim lands have suffered depredations; the population of those countries are just as responsible for the creation of a Jewish homeland as are the Europeans. (And yes, it still goes on today.)
And given the integration of Oriental Jews into Israel, also shows that self determination need not be the responsibility of others. President Obama clearly stated that he held Israel responsible for the failure of the Palestinians to have a country of their own. But this absolves their leadership from its own failures to create the institutions of civil society. The contrast in the treatment of Jewish refugees and Arab refugees from 1948 is stark, and the President would have done well to mention it. After all he's the one who called for "honesty" even if it's inconvenient.
(h/t Crossing the Rubicon)
Crossposted on Yourish.
Posted by SoccerDad at June 9, 2009 8:05 AM
Hezbollah in passive voice
A cynical and mistrusted offer
Wapo: peace process succeeding because of the great work of the administration
Council speak 100610
Nyt: peace process failing despite the great work of the administration
Do we have enough regulations yet?
Iranian General: "US, Mossad played roles in 9/11 event"
Absolving arafat, ten years later
Rahm can't run? antisemites!
The politics of peace
The Mizrahim suffered far more than the Palestinian Arabs ever did. In any negotiations over a peace settlement terminating the conflict, their just claims must be put on the table. The Arabs have a moral and a financial debt to pay - and it must not be allowed to be forgotten.
Posted by: NormanF at June 9, 2009 1:35 PMBut, as you know all too well, the "Palestinian" Arabs had nothing whatever to do with the Holocaust....
http://www.shalomjerusalem.com/mohammedism/mohammedism22.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/1751
http://www.hmwatch.org/Fact%20Sheet2.html
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_during_ww2.php
...except when they were up to their bloody little necks in it, as they remain to this day.
Posted by: HasItBeen4YearsYet? at June 9, 2009 11:45 PMWell said! The Jewish refugees from Arab countries lost everything and were left with literally just the clothes on their backs. Israel welcomed them all and absorbed them, even though she's a tiny country.
Any one of the Islamic or Arab countries could have done the same for the Palestinian Arabs. Instead, they prefer to let them remain in camps, as a way to get world sympathy. It's pathetic.
As for Obama's speech - oh purleeease, I needed a bucket, frankly, after reading the transcript. That man wouldn't know integrity if it came up and slapped him round the face.
Posted by: Jew With A Jew at June 10, 2009 1:22 PM
it was the arabs which caused the palestinians to become refugees . it was the arabs who colluded with the nazis to exterminate the jews. it was the arabs which drove the jews from iraq. finally it was the arabs which help create israel .
thank god for israels 'miraculous' birth or the jews were certainly stuffed.
modern zionism -the savior of the jewish people .
I've been saying for years. I'm sure glad I live in Santa Barbara and far from all the subhuman sand monkeys. Nuke them now! They're vermin. Allah is garbage. Mohammed sprang from a rat's anus. And Islam is Satan.
Posted by: Bud winston at June 11, 2009 7:10 AM"it was the arabs which caused the palestinians to become refugees . it was the arabs who colluded with the nazis to exterminate the jews. it was the arabs which drove the jews from iraq".
...............................................
Actually yes this is all true notwithstanding your intended sarcasm. The Arabs by rejecting the UN partition plan to divide the remainder of palestine into Jewish and Arab states(there already had been an Arab state, Jordan, created in Palestine years earlier out of the original Palestine mandate from 1922 which was to be set aside for the reconstitution of the Jewish homeland)and instead invading Israel, are fully responsible for the displacement of these Arab refugees.
And yes the Arabs and muslims were indeed allied with the nazis. Friend of hitler, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, haj amin al hussein encouraged hitter to extend the final solution to the Middle East and there were muslim SS divisions in the Balkans.
And yes again, Iraq and every other Arab country expelled their Jewish populations and confiscated their property and belongings. So sass, thanks for reminding of all that history.
Posted by: Laura at June 11, 2009 12:27 PMlaura , aren't there enough bigots like you out there.
israels 'new historians' have revealed the truth behind israels 'miraculous birth' and yet you still believe the standard zionist propoganda lie. not only do you approve of the ethnic cleansing of palestine in 1948 you cherish it as a answer for isreals demographic time bomb.
sass, aren't there enough bigots out there like you? It is you sass and your vile leftist ilk who approve of ethnic cleansing, the ethnic cleansing of Jews. They are the only ones being ethnically cleansed, from Gaza and now the attempt to ethnically cleanse them from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.
The question is, why are you in favor of ethnic cleansing against the Jews and for
the creation of an apartheid state of Palestine?
And to remind you once again, FIVE arab armies invaded Israel after having rejected the UN partition plan to divide the remainder of Palestine in 1947 into Jewish and Arab states and ordered their Arab brethren to leave. It is arabs who have revealed this truth:
PMW has documented yet another corroboration in the official Palestinian Authority (PA) paper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that it was Arab leaders who were responsible for the flight of Arabs from the new State of Israel in 1948. A backbone of PA ideology, and indeed of anti-Israel propagandists worldwide, is the myth that Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Israel and created the Palestinian "refugee" situation.
However, a regular writer for the official PA paper, Mahmud Al-Habbash, writes in a recent column that in 1948 the Arabs left their homes willingly under the instruction of their own Arab leaders and their false promises of a prompt return. He refers to these promises as "Arkuvian," after Arkuv - a figure from Arab tradition - who was known for breaking his promises and for his lies - and states that the Arabs who left their homes, and became refugees did so believing their leaders' deceptive promises. He places the blame and the responsibility on the shoulders of the Arab leaders and does not mention any so-called "Israeli expulsion."
Following is this most recent article, as well as earlier statements by Arab "refugees" that have appeared in the PA press, all of which corroborate Israel's historical narrative. The latter two testimonials are significant because they were corroborated by still other more public Palestinians, indicating that the responsibility of the Arab leaders is known in the Palestinian world. One was confirmed by Arab Member of Knesset, Ibraham Sarsur, who was then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and the other by a Palestinian journalist, Fuad Abu Higla, in the official PA daily.
The following are four statements corroborating that Arabs fled Israel under the instruction and the encouragement of Arab leaders:
1. Journalist writing about the events of 1948 Mahmud Al-Habbash, a regular writer in the official PA paper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, indicates in his column "The Pulse of Life" that the Arabs left Israel in 1948 only after political Arab leaders persuaded them to do so by promising the Arabs a speedy return to their homes in Palestine:
".The leaders and the elites promised us at the beginning of the "Catastrophe" [[the establishment of Israel and the creation of refugee problem] in 1948, that the duration of the exile will not be long, and that it will not last more than a few days or months, and afterwards the refugees will return to their homes, which most of them did not leave only until they put their trust in those "Arkuvian" promises made by the leaders and the political elites. Afterwards, days passed, months, years and decades, and the promises were lost with the strain of the succession of events."
[Term "Arkuvian," is after Arkuv - a figure from Arab tradition - who was known
for breaking his promises and for his lies."] "
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 13, 2006]
2. Woman who fled Israel in 1948
"We heard sounds of explosions and of gunfire at the beginning of the summer in the year of the "Catastrophe" [The establishment of Israel and the expulsion from the land in 1948]. They told us: The Jews attacked our region and it is better to evacuate the village and return, after the battle is over. And indeed there were among us [who fled Israel] those who left a fire burning under the pot, those who left their flock [of sheep] and those who left their money and gold behind, based on the assumption that we would return after a few hours."
[Asmaa Jabir Balasimah Um Hasan, Woman who fled Israel, Al-Ayyam, May 16,
2006]
3. Son and grandson of those who fled in 1948 An Arab viewer called Palestinian Authority TV and quoted his father and grandfather, complaining that in 1948 the Arab District Officer ordered all Arabs to leave Palestine or be labeled traitors. In response, Arab MK Ibrahim Sarsur, then Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, cursed the leaders who ordered Arabs to leave, thus, acknowledging Israel's assertion. Statement of son and grandson of man who fled:
"Mr. Ibrahim [Sarsur]. I address you as a Muslim. My father and grandfather told me that during the "Catastrophe" [establishment of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion from the land], our district officer issued an order that whoever stays in Palestine and in Majdel [near Ashkelon - Southern Israel] is a traitor, he is a traitor."
Response from Ibrahim Sarsur, Head of the Islamic Movement in Israel:
"The one who gave the order forbidding them to stay there bears guilt for this, in this life and the Afterlife throughout history until Resurrection Day." [PA TV April 30, 1999]
4. Article by senior PA journalist Fuad Abu Higla, then a regular columnist in the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, wrote an article before an Arab Summit, which criticized the Arab leaders for a series of failures. One of the failures he cited, in the name of a prisoner, was that an earlier generation of Arab leaders "forced" them to leave Israel in 1948, again placing the blame for the flight on the Arab leaders.
"I have received a letter from a prisoner in Acre prison, to the Arab summit: To the [Arab and Muslim] Kings and Presidents, Poverty is killing us, the symptoms are exhausting us and the souls are leaving our body, yet you are still searching for the way to provide aid, like one who is looking for a needle in a haystack or like the armies of your predecessors in the year of 1948, who forced us to leave [Israel], on the pretext of clearing the battlefields of civilians... So what will your summit do now?" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2001]
Posted by: Laura at June 11, 2009 7:38 PMthe combination of jewish terror and the disarming of the palestinians by the arab armies was the principal reason for the panic and the exodus of the palestinian people and thus the cause of the so called palestinian refugee problem.
the corrupt arab regimes were never serious about confronting the new state of israel despite the rhetoric. the combine force of the arab armies were approx 20000 poorly equipped men against a well eqipped jewish force of over 65000 . the cleansing operation by the jews started at least 5 months before the start of the 1948 war.
in the eyes of the vast majority of americans, incluing the well informed ones, the palestinians had never had a history;'they were never there', until, 'apparently out of the blue they began to prey on israel''. their dispossession and dispersal in 1948 had become 'an unrecognizable episode', not only in the sense that it had been forgotten, but that it had been arased from any moral accountancy of the conflict. it followed that the palestinians claim had been 'artificially and mischeivously inspired' and palestinian 'resistance' was the fruit of unreasoning hatred and the unreasonable arab refusal to accept israel existance. americans barely paid any attention to the strictly palestinian demension of the conflict; all they chose to see was a arab/israeli, inter state conflict in which the refugees were simply a nuisance or pawns of larger players.