It boggles my mind that the quetion of Jewish refugees from Arab countries doesn´t figure more prominently in Israeli negotiations with theArab side. Any explanation to this conundrum out there?

How would you distinguish between those who left at will, and those who asked to move by the Zionist Organisations, etc.... This is not a clear cut like the Palestinian case were they left and forced to move without being allowed back immediately during the 1948 war, and also the 1967... Not the same scenario on the Jewish side...

Ariel Sharon public said that jewish refigees must be compensated as well as palestian.

Those Zionists thieves think they can getaway with it.

Jewish refugees have not been forgotten

unbelievable but true

...I guarantee that our property and business stolen by the Egyptian government is a lot more valuable than property lost or stolen by Arabs that voluntarily left or were expelled from Israel. I'm sure that the total value of Jewish losses is so much greater than what the Arabs lost and there were more Jews that lost property in Arab countries than vice versa. There were quite a few prominent Jewish familes with huge business empires (like Zilka in Iraq that had their banking empire confiscated) and there was no comparative loss of major property and businesses by Arabs in Israel. We still "have the key" to our beautiful house near the port.

read "From Time Immemorial " by joan peters http://www.theforgottenrefugees.com/

#2, despite being factually wrong, brings up a good point. Most of the Jews who made Aliya from Arab countries did it voluntarily. They were happy to fulfill their dream of finally living in the land of Israel. The same goes for the Palestinian Arab "refugees". They were not forced to leave. They did it voluntarily out of their hate for the Jewish state.

No 2. The usual propaganda that Jews from Arab countries left on our own accord because we dreamt of going to Israel. That is a lie. Most left because we were persecuted, robbed or because we were scared to stay.

Egypt turned 80,000 of its Jews into refugees. Our lives after 1948 became intolerable. We do not expect any Justice from Egypt.

I had to flee from iraq penniless. It is time that the 1 million jews from Arab lands be recognised as refugees. There cannot be Justice for Palestinians and not for us.

This is clearly another attempt to stall peace by tying to tie the ending of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine and the removal of parts of its own civilian population that it transferred into settlements built upon land it held under belligerent occupation with events that occurred elsewhere in the world. A better approach would be for Israel to lead by example in how it handles the right of return it currently denies the millions of Palestinians refugees whose homes, businesses and towns were stolen and/or destroyed to create a Jewish majority where one never existed in areas of Palestine it declared unilaterally as the state of Israel.

The compensation would be much higher for the Jews who left Arab/Muslim lands because the numbers total 850,000 verses 650,000. The Jewish organizations assisted and at times, smuggled them out of these countries because not only were Jews persecuted, it was dangerous for them to leave. It may be very time consuming but I imagine documentation can be provided. And remember, many were prosperous professionals and business owners. They have more documentation than the Palestinians who for the most part, left on their own following a war started by the Arabs. The Palestinians should seek compensation from the Arab countries that attacked Israel and told them to leave.

actuallly it is the similar case. If you would get outside of your ideology and actually study the history, you would learn that on both the Jewish and Arab side, there were those who left voluntarily and those that were forced out, and mist of them were not allowed to return.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE A PALESTINIAN REFUGEE????? THOSE ARABS WHO WORKED THE LAND FOR THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE NEAR JEWISH YESHUVIM...THE SAME ARABS THAT WERE ENCOURAGED TO LEAVE ISRAEL (PALESTINE ) PRIOR TO 1948 WAR BY THE COMING INVADING ARAB ARMIES (7 NATIONS!!!!) or THOSE ARABS LEADERS THAT LEFT THEIR CONSTITUENTS AND VILLAGES AND LEFT ON THEIR OWN TO ARAB COUNTRIES???? or THOSE ARAB MINORITIES THAT JOINED FORCES WITH ALL ARB ARMIES DURING THE INVASION OF THE NEW FOUND ISRAELI STATE? or ALL THOSE THAT WERE BORN TO THESE ARAB FAMILIES GENERATION AFTER GENERATION AND DO NOT QUALIFY TO BE TERMED REFUGEES UNDER ANY INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT??? or THOSE ARAB SETTLERS IN PALESTINE THAT ATTACKED THE JEWISH FARMS AND YESHUV WITHOUT ANY PROVOCATION AND SLAUGHTERED HUNDREDS OF JEWS BETWEEN 1930 AND 1939????? or THOSE ARAB REFUGEES THAT LEFT ON THEIR OWN ACCORD AND RAN TO AVOID THE WAR AND ALSO TO AVOID BEING FORCED BY THE ARAB ARMIES WHO SOMETIMES TIED THEM TO THEIR BEDS SO THEY WON'T LEAVE????? or THOSE ARAB REFUGEES, UNLIKE OUR JEWISH REFUGEES FROM ARAB LANDS THAT WERE NEVER GIVEN ANY CITIZENSHIP OR ANY INTEGRATION INTO ANT OF THE ARAB COUNTRIES THEY LEFT TO WHILE ISRAEL ABSORBED MUCH MORE OF ITS JEWISH REFUGEES FROM ARAB LANDS INTO ITS SOCIAL FABRIC AND MADE THEM SUCCESFUL PART OF OUR COUNTRY????? there were close to one million jews who lived in arab lands under the most horific dihimi conditions. you claim that they didn't want to leave??? please do all of us a favor and PLEASE READ.... 1. THE FORGOTTEN MILLIONS by malka hillel shulewitz 2. THE LEGACY OF ISLAMIC ANTISEMITISM by andrew g. bostom the second book is horrific of the life and expwerience of jews in arab muslim lands, their miserable life, their status, their essence in those god forsaken cruel lands and their fate at the hands of muslims throughout the arab world. the first book also describes in detail exactly how they were thrown out of all arab lands prior and post 1948, how they were tortured, pogromed, etc... BY THE WAY....ONE ADDITIONAL THING YOU MAY HAVE NOT KNOWN... all arab leaders in the 50's put a huge advertisement in the n.y. times and begged all the jews to come back to their countries....this was done when they realized that none that have escaped will ever come back. these poor sould have been robbed blind and all their properties confiscated by the government in each and every arab land. they ran to israel destitute and without a single penny. considering their hardship in israel, not a single one responded to the arab ad in the paper. it was ridiculed as a ploy! if these poor sould had such a wonderful time and were not expelled by the arabs, why won't they all sieze on the opportunities these arab leaders gave them to come back? ha? because they would have rather died proud and not dihimis with life restrictions under the arab muslim rule. IDIOT!

The jewish refugees are the jews of Ben Gurion invited the refugess back after the war to come live in peace as Israeli citizens but most didnt want to come back because they didnt want to live under jewish rule instead they wanted to emigrate to arab states. They wanted to move to the arab states who had just expelled their jewish population. The arab states refused them citizenship because they saw that they could be used as a demographic weapon and the Arab Legue came up with the right of return idea. Its only later that Israels policy is no right of return in the begining the arabs were invited to come back but most the arabs refused the offer. The jewish refugees from arab lands were not permited a right of return and they are still not given that right. Its illigal today for a jew to be given citizenship of an arab state. The arabs are responsible for the fact that there are both jewish and palestian refugees. The arabs attacked Israel Most arabs left Israel on arab advice Arabs expelled their jews and refused citizenship to arab refugees and still do Israel never had any plans to expell any of its arab inhabitants when its charter of indipendence was created.

The issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Palestinian refugees are completely separate issues, tying them together in the way this article suggests is not only not helpful, but also immoral: the Palestinians had nothing to do with the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries. It is fairly well documented, and certainly, given everything else that has come to light since 1948, highly conceivable, that Zionists did. Although I do not say this to let the Arab countries off the hook in any way: their treatment of their Jewish populations was dispicable and reparations are certainly required if justice is to have been done; but so then is Israel required to settle up for the suffering caused to many of those of these Jews who chose to come to Israel by the de-arabisation process they were forced to go through on arrival-- did the case of the Yemeni Jews who's children were taken away ever get dealt with properly?

we respect jews amd the jewish religion.

You are such a liar! Majority of the Palastinians left Israel on their own free will, (in fact alot of Israelis asked them not to leave), unlike the Jews from Arab countries that were forced to flee because of murder, intimidation and persecution. The Arabs in Israel only left thinking it was temporary and would come back after the Arab armies defeated Israel.......they took the gamble and lost! Its well documented and you my friend, are a foolish liar trying to reverse the situation!

I assume you mean ' those who were asked to leave by the Zionist Organisations, etc.....' Observer, just substitute Palestinian refugee instead of Jewish and 'Arab neighbours' for Zionist Organisations and you'll have your clear cut answer. I'll spell it out for you...In 1948 Arab neighbouring invaders asked Palestinian 'brothers' to leave while they " drove the Jews into the sea". It didn't happen and these neighbours did f_all to to assimilate the Palestinians after they lost. Deir Yassin admittedly encouraged those that might have otherwise remained. This blemish on our track record was blown out of proportion. Their lies served us well. Observer, are you Palestinian?

Actually, as many or more Jews who lived in Arab countries were FORCED to leave - either by the fact that their neighbors were attacking them or because the government officially threw them out. Maybe this can be called "leaving" - but they were unable to take anything with them... Approximately the same number of Jews were forced, in one way or another, to flee from their homes in many Arab countries as Arabs who left their homes, willingly or otherwise (many coerced by the members of the Arab League) in pre-state Israel. The main difference is that Israel (and other countries) absorbed those Jewish refugees while the Arab League and the UN kept the Arab refugees in a state of flux (to this day) in order to use them as political pawns against the State of Israel.

Indeed, tens of thousands among the Palestinian Arab elite fled before the start of hostilities, eager to escape the anticipated fighting. Of those who left during the fighting, most simply sought to avoid the hostilities. In various locations, most notably Haifa, from which about 15% of the refugees originated, they fled despite well-documented appeals by the local Jewish leadership that they stay. Some, perhaps another 15% of the refugee total, were forced to leave, from areas such as the villages that prevented Jewish access to Jerusalem and were part of the blockade and siege of city. About 120,000 Arabs remained in the areas controlled by the Jews, constituting about 16% of the state’s early population. The Israeli Arab community has grown to constitute currently more than 20% of the population. But what of the Jews living in areas that fell under Arab control? Every one of them was either killed or expelled. Not one remained. You ask about a right of return of Jews forced then and in subsequent years to flee the Arab states, in fear for their lives. Few presumably would want to return to those states. But what about a “right of return” of Jews pushed out of those Mandate areas that fell to the Arabs? Not only do the Palestinians not recognize such a right, but they insist that every Jew currently living in the territories taken in the 1967 war must leave, including descendants of those forced out in 1947-48. Nor does it speak well of the broader world community that it so widely endorses the Palestinian leadership’s insistence that what it claims as its territory must be Judenrein. . To learn more about Arab refugee and jewish refugee : http://xrl.us/bj5qy

No, the Palestinian case is not "clear cut". Check out, if you dare, Efraim Karsh's "1948, Israel, and the Palestinians - The True Story" in Commentary's May, 2008 edition. The vast majority of those Jews who left did not do so "at will" or at the urging of the Zionist organizations. They were driven out by the Arab regimes who suffered "humiliations" in response to their attempts to annihilate the Jewish state. You should spend less time on propaganda than serious works of history.

As an Egyptian Jew, ethnically cleansed by Egyptian authorities in November 1952, I fully agree with Mr. Arad's article. I founded an orgnaization called "Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa" and spoke across America to tell our story. When the 850,000 Jews were forced out, the United Nations did not set up a meeting of the Security council, the Human Rights Organizations did not protest this "crime against humanity, nor did anyone criticize the Arab countries for their brutal acts. The Church and labour unions did not ask for divestment from Arab countries. No trial. no jury. no justice. Please purchase our film "The Forgotten Refugees" on Amazon.com We ask for nothing but peace and justice and for Jews everywhere, to hear our voices. Joseph Abdel Wahed

First we "stole" "your land", then we "stole" your Jews.

The numbers of refugees are important. Also whether they decided themselves to flee, like the Arabs, or were killed and threatened, like the Jews. Another point is, that the numbers for Arab refugees are their own figures, and we know that Arabs are congenital liars, and that if they ever tell the truth it's by accident. On the other hand, the Jewish figures are from authentic records, and validated by internationsl organisations./

Didn't Syria keep it's Jewish community hostage, and probably still do?? Those who got away, had to be smuggled out.