Hanan Ashrawi, the PLO Executive Committee member much sought after by Western media outlets, has just earned a gold medal for historical revisionism.
In a recent article intended for an Arabic-speaking audience, she asserted there were no Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
Instead, according to her, there were only "emigrants," who left their ancestral homes voluntarily. Jews were not singled out for persecution, and if they were, it was, in reality, a plot by "Zionists."
This line of Palestinian argumentation is of a piece with other efforts to delegitimize Jewish history.
In other words, the Palestinian strategy, of which Ashrawi has been an integral part, is essentially to try to eliminate any grounds for Jewish self-determination and nationhood.
Which brings us to her preposterous claim that there were no Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
To get personal, according to Ashrawi, my wife's life must be based on a lie.
Ironically, my wife and her family -- parents and seven siblings -- placed their faith in Arab
"democracy" and "pluralism." How dangerously short-sighted!
In 1951, Libya became an independent country. It adopted a constitution that ensured protection of minorities, including Jews.
My wife's family, unlike the majority of Libyan Jews, chose to believe in these guarantees. They stayed while others, fearing the worst, had not waited, leaving as quickly as they could. Those fleeing recalled the lethal Arab pogroms of 1945 and 1948, when Libya was still under British rule, and foresaw only a downward spiral under Libyan authority.
What happened post-1951?
Jews were never accorded equal rights, equal opportunity, or equal protection under the law, such as the law was.
They were second-class citizens from the get-go, if, that is, they could even acquire Libyan citizenship. That many had lived there for millennia, indeed long before Arab forces conquered and occupied -- yes, conquered and occupied -- the land was deemed irrelevant.
Then came the fateful year of 1967.
My wife and her family were turned into refugees, whose lives had been in immediate jeopardy. But they were luckier than some. Many of their Jewish friends and neighbors -- whose names and circumstances are well-known to this day -- were killed by marauding mobs.
The reason? Only one. They were Jews. The backdrop was the Six-Day War, a thousand miles away. Libyans found the Jews in Tripoli and Benghazi easy prey, without any means of protection, governmental or otherwise.
So, my wife and her family were on the run, seeking safe haven, compelled to start lives anew, and facing the realization they could never return to the land of their birth.
If that doesn't make them refugees, pray tell, what does? Do they not have a right to be heard and to make clear there were two refugee populations of roughly equal size, not one, as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict?
The Libyan regime, especially after Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seized power in 1969, then set about extinguishing any trace of the Jewish presence, as if to write a new history that 40,000 Jews had never lived, studied, worked, created, or otherwise contributed to society.
And what took place in Libya was not unique. It was repeated in country after country, from Iraq to Syria, from Egypt to Yemen.
It's telling -- isn't it -- that Ashrawi doesn't wish to understand, much less confront, the stark truth.
Friends of the Palestinians who wish to advance the prospects of a two-state accord with Israel should open their eyes and see what's staring them in the face.
Quick to condemn any alleged misdeed of the Israelis, they tend to make an art form of coddling the Palestinians, offering excuses or rationalizations for their behavior, or simply looking the other way.
But the denial of Jewish history - be it ancient or modern, in Israel or the Diaspora -- gets to the core of the conflict. It's not a side show; it's the main show.
Think back to Yasser Arafat's assertion to President Bill Clinton that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, seeking to make the insultingly bogus point that no Jewish connection to Jerusalem ever existed.
Or, more recently, to Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, who spoke at the UN General Assembly last September.
He mentioned Christian and Muslim links to the land. Yet he pointedly omitted any reference to the Jewish tie, though it predates the other religions' claims by thousands of years, and is buttressed by a Bible that both Christianity and Islam invoke, not to mention countless archaeological findings.
Or consider the Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish character of the State of Israel -- and the broader efforts to question its very right to exist, despite the Balfour Declaration (1917), Treaty of San Remo (1920), League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (1922), Peel Commission (1936), UN Special Committee on Palestine (August 1947), UN General Assembly (November 1947), and UN membership since 1949.
Apropos, compare the legal and historical case for Israel as a sovereign state with those of several neighboring countries, including Iraq and Jordan. Quite a contrast!
Israel has come a long way from the days of Prime Minister Golda Meir, when Palestinian nationalism, then a relatively recent phenomenon, was rejected. Today, there is a broad consensus among Israelis on the need for a two-state peace accord, however complex its realization may be.
As long as Palestinian leaders, however, seek to rewrite history -- as Ashrawi just did -- then, let's be clear, the chances for building trust and moving toward an agreement grow ever slimmer.
Of the 80,000 Egyptian Jews, maybe 10% left in 1948 because they were committed Zionists who wanted to live in Israel.
The remaining 90% were forced to flee "voluntarily" because:
1. After 1948 Jews were unable to get a job.
2. Jewish businesses were expropriated.
3. Jews were harassed and in some cases murdered. In 1948, 70 Jews perished in a bomb attack in the Jewish quarter and 2,000 were jailed for 1 year.
4. In 1956 Jewish businesses like those of my father were expropriated.
5. In 1967, all Jews were fired from their jobs and all Jewish males between the ages of 16 and 65 spent 3 years in jail.
Mrs Ashrawi is a LIAR and a HISTORICAL REVISIONIST. No different than a Holocaust Denier.
That's sick.
There are people dying (on both sides), and it is an insult to all of them to contend that one radical disbelieving some historical accounts and believing others is "the main show," whiel the deaths of civilians is unimportant in comparison.
"Or consider the Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish character of the State of Israel"
I've considered it. Seems to be a perfectly reasonable position: The Palestinians are willing to recognize the existance of Israel (and did so in 1994), and are even willing to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Given the significant non-Jewish population of Israel, over 20%, it is also perfectly reasonable not to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state," if and until Israel changes its system to a theocracy. Until then, so long as Israel portrays itself as a democracy, Israel should be recognized as just that -- a state of its citizens, not of just some subset thereof.
The British documented it. You can see a copy of the British document here:
http://www.mideastweb.org/haifa1948.htm
What it seems to be a by-product of the creation of the State of Israel originally based purely on politics and not because of religion. I do admit that religion is a very strong influence, and that refugees, and Jewish emigrés, moved en-masse to the newly created Israel. Although there was also a campaign to populate the new state. Everything has a more complicated cause, and everybody tries to simplify the effect for their own purpose. Even Mr Harris, who if there ever was a reason to doubt his unbiased analysis, then doubt no more. He is in the ISraeli camp and should really stop pretending he provides an American perspective.
In the first instance, referring to Jews displaced from Egypt, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Auguste Lindt, in his Report to the UNREF Executive Committee’s Fourth Session (Geneva 29 January to 4 February, 1957) announced that: “Another emergency problem is now arising: that of refugees from Egypt. There is no doubt in my mind that those refugees from Egypt who are not able, or not willing to avail themselves of the protection of the Government of their nationality fall under the mandate of my office.”
The second reference to Jews from Arab countries as refugees was discovered in a July 6, 1967 letter from Dr. E. Jahn, of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees which confirms: “I refer to our recent discussion concerning Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries in consequence of recent events. I am now able to inform you that such persons may be considered prima facie within the mandate of this Office.”
Therefore, under international law, Jews displaced from these Arab countries were indeed bona fide refugees, subject to the full protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Plus, no one has ever cared about displaced Jews.
The truth is Israel and the Zion Jews have used this as an excuse to not adhere to international laws and the Geneva Convention concerning refugees. The Palestinian refugees.
A explosives expert who was alerted to the scene found four pipe bombs in the bag, which were then safely detonated. The security forces have launched a manhunt for the suspect.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4276680,00.html
That is a deeply ironic micro-bio you have chosen.
Prior to the Zionist Project's attempt to forcibly create a Jewish state in Palestine with or without the consent of its indigenous population, Jews, Muslims, and Arabs got along relatively well. The author's family's long term presence in the region (along with that of other Jews) is proof of this.
Prior to the Zionist Project, while there is no denying there were instances of intolerance between Muslims and Jews, these were minor compared to the anti-semitic pogroms in Europe.
One need only read the history of Jewish-Muslim relations in Andulusia and the Ottoman Empire, a period that covered over a 1000 years, to attest to this fact. In fact, following the Reconquista, Jews fled to the Islamic Ottoman Empire.
And while Zionists now like to point to the long-term Jewish presence in Jerusalem, this presence was a result of the actions of the Islamic Saladin, who encouraged the Jewish re-population of Jerusalem after capturing it in 1187.
The mutual expulsions Mr. Harris speaks of were triggered by the Zionist Project.
It is certainly quite disingenuous to mention these tragic expulsions while IGNORING the cause.
But, it is height of ludicrousness to try to use these expulsions to DEFEND the triggering cause itself.
Speak for yourself, buddy boy. Just because Jews didn't rebel against Muslim oppression does not mean we liked it. All that we waited for was the opportunity to shake you offf.
The Jewish refugees received a LOT more support per capita from ISrael.
No one buys it.
The only thing that is going to crash down is the false entity of israel. The Palestinians are returning. The clock is ticking.
Lots of Jews left Morocco, Libya and elsewhere on a precautionary basis (many to Canada, incidentally); but one cannot deny that there are bona-fide refugees. in the mix.
Well, I guess it was their daft fault not to read the fellowship applications carefully.
“The first group of our fifth column consist of those who abandon their homes…At the first sign of trouble they take to their heels to escape sharing the burden of struggle”
-- Ash-Sha’ab, Jaffa, 1.30.48
“(the fleeing villagers)…are bringing down disgrace on us all… by abandoning their villages”
-- As-Sarih, Jaffa, 3.30.48
"Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe."
-- Haifa District HQ of the British Police, April 26, 1948, (quoted in
Battleground by Samuel Katz).
"The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city.... By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa."
-- Time Magazine, May 3, 1948, page 25