Links: http://www.forgottenrefugees.org/ http://www.jimena.org/ http://www.theforgottenrefugees.com/ http://www.pierrerehov.com/exodus.htm We must be counted.

i find the idea of jews claiming reparation for being arbitrarily expelled or dispossessed quite fair. but suggesting that torts caused to jews by say, egypt, syria or iraq be used as a wash against palestinian refugies claims from israel, is rather stupid.

More jews where expelled from arab countries than arab from israel. This is a very important historical fact. But it is often ignored when it comes to discussing the middle east conflict. One main piont is that israel absorbed the jews fleeing other hostile countries while the arabs placed their refugees in camps to use them as a weapon against israel. And they have been doing just that for the past 50 years. Its really disgusting.....

Palestinian leader Haj AMin el Husseini, the father of the Palestinian national movement, collaborated with Nazi Germany. He supported the Holocaust, met and collaborate with the highest ranking Nazis: Hitler, Himmler, Von Ribbentrop, Eichmann and he knew about the Nazi genocide. In November 1943, Hajj Amin el Husayni delivered a speech in Arabic over Radio Berlin where he both acknowledged Nazi Germany's "final solution" (e.g. the Holocaust) and his support for it, as well has his calling for the complete etnic cleansing of all Jews in Arab and Muslim lands (fully 5 years before there was a single Palestinian Arab refugee!): "National Socialist Germany knows the Jews well and has decided to find a final solution for the Jewish danger which will end the evil in the world. The Arabs especially and Muslims in general are obliged to make this their goal, from which they will not stray and which they must reach with all their powers: it is the expulsion of all Jews from Arab and Muslim lands." Indeed, the Arab governments eventually carried out el Hussayni's call when nearly one million Jews from the Arab world were compelled to leave their homes, were dispossed of their properties, and made into stateless refugees. Most went to Israel. They are the "Forgotten Refugees." (See Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa at www.JIMENA.org)

I'd like to see your reasoning why it is stupid for Jews from Arab countries claims be used as a moral and material counter-weight to Palestinian claims. Thanks!

There were a total of 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries. 600,00 of them came to Israel and the other 200,00 are scattered around the world. There is also a large North African Jewish community in France, for example. They deserve reparations too.

the palestinians were displaced by us, i was one displaced by the syrians. suppose i claim syria, and suppose i get paid (very unlikely), of what comfort is it for the refugee in jabaliah or balata refugee camp? and vice versa, if Israel compensates Mr Balata refugee, what good does it do to me? can american indians trade their land claims against the USA with claims of armenians against the ottoman empire? i am afraid we are fooling ourselves. what moral leverage we have there? our problems with the sovereign states of say lybia, syria and iraq have really nothing to do with with the palestinian refugees problem. this sort of claims, can never even be formulated to satisfy any court of law.

Unlike the Palestinian refugees, who do have legitimate claims for their losses, the Jewish refugees from Arab countries were resettled, rehabilitated and integrated into the their new homelands, whether Israel, the US, Europe or S. America. Palestinian refugees, and their descendants, have been deliberately forced to remain as refugees in poverty-stricken conditions by the Arab states, and their own leadership. In fact, only Palestinian refugees have the "right" to claim that their descendants are also "refugees." No other rfugee population in the world, and there are some 20 million of them, can make that claim. Only those people who left their homelands as refugees can legally claim refugee status, their children cannot. With one exception: the Palestinians. Who, for a number of politcal reasons, have been ble to maintain the fiction that they are "refugees" regardless of how many generations pass. This is perpetuating a human tragedy for political purposes, to gain the sympathy of good hearted and well-meaning people. Jewish refugees from Arab countries fall into the former category. Once a refugee is resettled or repatriated, hisor her refugee status is removed. Not so for Palestinians. Even those who have been resettled in other countries and have gained citizenship, still claim they are "refugees." The international legal definition of what constitutes refugee status has got to be equalized. That is the way to solve the Palestinian "refugee" issue. Thus the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, who are refugees of the Arab-Israeli conflict, can serve as an example of how to solve the issue of Palestinian "refugees." Resettlement, rehabilitation, integration into other societies, and compensation.

history and pretend that jews never lived in the regions...

The Jews of Iraq left great properties, jewish communities left schools and synagogues. Many left businesses. My parents left with only the jewels they could carry on their bodies. Justice and fairness should apply to all. With this, the arabs can pay the Palestinians. Given that they only encourage them to cause havoc its only right.

Many family members are from Alexandria, Egypt and lived in a very nice neighborhood near the port. All of their businesses, homes and frozen bank accounts were stolen by the Egyptian government and everyone was allowed ten Egyptian pounds when they were kicked out in 1949. The women were searched in the most humiliating manner. We even still have the proverbial "key" to each stolen property. When one relative asked the Egyptian government about redress, he was told, "you moved into Arab houses so we don't owe you anything."

check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlE5sa2dv4w&mode=related&search=

... The JNF purchased a lot of land in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, in areas that were once sovereign Jewish territory , at a time when it was uncertain what the boundaries of the future Jewish state would be. The value of these lands should be refunded since these states obviously will not permit Jews to live on that land.

whom Israel brough to Palestine in recent years. They are also refugees who deserve compensation from those countries.

So is this how one should compare the palestinian issue to the jewish? Because the palestinian want their land back now this should be tied to the jews getting back their property from arabs? I don't think jews have any rights to claim from palestinians! So this is really silly to claim. Could someone please fire this minister? He is even more stupid then his predecessor.

Arabs are the ones who stole Jewish land and they shoudl give it back.

They are of course related. Its about accountability, a topic the arab world has never fully understood. When the arab world chose war instead of peace in 1948, they should have accepted the results of their decision. the arab world should have been held to account. We should not have put the arabs that fled the war zone for the saftety of the surrounding arab countries into refugee camps and kept them there. Instead we should have absorbed them as the israelis did absorb the hundreds of thousands of jews that we expelled from our arab countries. You do realize that if the arabs are given the right to return to live inside israel....then the arabs must return 40% of bagdad to the jews, large parts of cairo and alexandria to the jews, entire cities to the jews that fled yemen, iran, syria, lebanon, morocco, tunis, algeria, lybia, ......fair is fair. Or have you always held the jews to a higher level of accountability than the arabs? Is it because you believe that we arabs are incapable of being accountable?