Life in Morocco was good for the Jews under French rule. In 1968, after the Arab takeover, my family had to leave in a hurry as Jewish children were being forced to attend Muslim schools and were being beaten by Arab gangs in the streets. Many Jews left during that time, but there were restrictions on how much money they could take with them. The authorities caught my uncle trying to leave Morocco with his life's savings. The Arabs tortured him and my uncle hung himself in jail. My family, who had been fairly well-off in Morocco, ended up in France with almost nothing.

I studied the history of this situation in college quite extensively and here it is in a nutshell: Similarities between both refugee groups:1)approximately the same amount, if not slightly more Jewish refugees sought refuge in Israel as Palestinians sought refuge outside of Israel. 2) They were both either uprooted forcefully, left at the threat of death, or willfully left to fulfill their personal dreams. 3) As a result they lost their livelihoods, businesses, friends, etc. K. that's where the similarities end. Differences: 1)Israel expected the situation to be similar to the millions of refugees that traded places that same year with the partition of Pakistan and India, or in Eastern Europe, where it was considered a population trade, so Israel settled their Jewish refugees. The Palestinian refugees on the other hand, were never settled (except ironically by countries like the US and UK). 2) The UN took control of the Palestinian refugee situation and provided them with more money than any other refugee group, while completely ignoring the Jewish ones. 3) The Arab states purposely keep the Palestinian refugees in squalid conditions as an open sore to suit their own political aims. 4) Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (accounting for most of them) are like no more than 30 miles from their old home, whereas Jewish refugees are usually hundreds and hundreds of miles away. 5) Palestinian refugees demand a "right of return" for themselves, their spouses, and all of their descendants, which would destroy Israel's Jewish character, while Jewish refugees realize they will never be compensated fairly. 6) Jews can directly trace their inhabitance of Arab lands to pre-Islamic times in most cases, Palestinians definitely can't. 7) And lastly...20% of Israel is still Palestinian, who in many ways are given more rights than they would have in an Arab country, which is why so many would prefer to live in Israel than a Palestinian state, while less than 5% of the original Jewish inhabitants in Arab lands still live there-making up for much less than 1% of the total population, and they are often still treated as second class citizens. Double standards? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!

I'm afraid you are wrong. In mandatory palestine before 1948 and the war if independence there were more jews than arabs in what is today Israel ! this is an historical fact

You're absolutely correct about "the usual propaganda." In the case of my husband's family, they fled Iraq around the time of the first World War. They had lived in that country for as far back as anybody can determine. They owned luxurious homes and successful businesses, yet they left everything behind (or more than likely had it confiscated) and made their way by caravan to Israel where they lived with seven people in one room. Nobody will ever be able to convince me they were lured there by some Zionist agency and, anyway, it's a known fact that Iraqi Jews, at the time, were not Zionists.

I am highly interested in visiting some of the Jewish refugee camps t o at least compare the agonies and deprivation of basic necessaties, like for intance, drinkable water,suage service, you know, simple things of importance to human dignity.I trust you know some locations you can tell about.By the way Arab nations are all agreeing to accept their jewish nationals to returne to their lwafull homes where they can resume their lives in total harmony with the rest of their Arab brotherns. Can Israel do the same with the Palestinians????

Some Yemenis have migrated by sea, some by planes flying from Aden under the supervision of the British colonial forces. All however, migrated freely and most of them keep close ties with their compatriots in Yemen.Now we know that many Yemeni Jews have regretted their decision of leaving their ancestoral land, nevertheless, Yemen like the rest of the Arab world will remain open for all of those willing to come back before Palestinians regain their rightful land.

Yah,You are right, Palestinians were not forced to leave their homes, they just wanted to enjoy the living of the open skies and the make-shifts tents, how romantic!!!!.By the way , how many Jewish Refugee Camps you have in the States????

In diagnosing the Sabrs Character, Atzmon concludes that he/she, mosly he,is recognized by wearing an open sandals and having a close mind.I guess this analysis fits you well.So, better close your shoe and open your head befoe others do it to you...GO READ SOME TRUE HISTORY.

Poor Joseph Wahed or Thani, heck it makes no difference.Are you placed in Rawanda or probably Mogabi desert camps, please specify your exact location so that we can drop some food and water into your camp.Just tell us your address and we you wont be forgotten no more.

I agree that Jewish refugees should get compensation for lost property etc. But I'm worried about the Palestinian refugees far more. TO me, its sad to say, that all too often the Israeli opinion of the Palestinian refugee is basically refusing to give them anything and telling them "Sorry, that's all you're going to get!" The punchline of this article should have been reversed: NO progress on the Jewish refugee isuue, unless the Palestinian one is solved first! Besides, its not the Palestinians who kicked the Jews out of other Arab countries, hence the issues are unrelated!

if Jewish refugees want to come back to my country Algeria they can, i dont have the power for that but they are welcome for me. Dualcitizenship : france/algeria and proud of it.

... as some of the "Arab" Jews have been robbed of their lands, factories, commercial endeavors and other siginificant assets. Let's see how fast the Palestinian Refugees "problem" - which was created by te Arab states i the first place - will be dealt with when the Arabs realize that pursuing the issue, means hundreds of billions to be paid as compensation to the Jews which they have persecuted, raped and robbed. I guess that as usual in the Muslim world, when money talks, any other considerations are cast aside immediately.

The Arab Jews had nothing to do with the actions of the Israelis so why were they made refugees? I don't see the difference. As to your claim that the Zionists were responsible for the exodfs from Arab lands, I know you are basing that on the claims of one disgruntled Iraqi Jew, but his claims have been refuted by other Iraqi Jews including Mordechai Ben-Porat as wells as others who detailed the events of the Farhood (Iraqi Kristalnacht). While you are right in pointing out the discrimination against the Mizrachi Jews in Israel what does that have to do with this article? I can just as easily claim that there might not have been such problems had the Ashkenazi Jews not had an economic uperhand by way reparations paid to them by the Europeans. Perhaps if the Arab Jews had their value of their property given to them or at least an UNWRA to support them, history might have been different.

According to the UN all Palestinians everywhere forever unto the end of time regardless of where they live or their circumstances are considered refugees. Moreover the criterion for 'being' a Palestinian refugee are little more than self declaration. I see nothing wrong with apply the same criterion to Jews and allowing them to reclaim all property and lands and rights world wide without question. Unto forever.

Has it escaped your notice that the Palestinians have become perpetual refugees? And as far as Jews being welcomed back to their original homes in Arab countries, you must be kidding. Just try to get into some of those Arab countries with an Israeli stamp on your passport and see what happens. And, anyway, why would people who have lived in freedom in a democratic society like Israel want to go back to living in countries where those freedoms are non-existent.? Thanks, but no thanks.

THE SAME AS YOU DEFINE A PAL, EXCEPT THAT JEWS ARE THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS OF ALL THE LAND OF ISRAEL THAT HER G-D GAVE TO THE JEWS. THE PALS CAN GO BACK TO WHERE THEY COME FROM. THERE IS NO LAND OF PALESTINE, THERE IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN AN ISRAEL.

"Israeli Relations with other Arab states must be seperate" Really? Then why is Israeli relations with all other arab states quite consistently and clearly conditioned g state 2. The entire reason for this occupation was an illegal attempt to perform genocide on the Jewish people when they tried to perform there attempts to follow there right for self-determination. "and the removal of parts of its own civilian population that it transferred into settlements built upon land it held under belligerent occupation" 1. We did not force any Israeli to live in Judea or Samaria. Everyone there chose to live there and in many cases there families had lived there for thousands of years, until the arabs rioted and threw out the Jewish populations from those areas, and then in 1948 Jordan expelled the rest in its illegal occupation of Judea and Samaria. "with events that occurred elsewhere in the world." EVENTS THAT OCCURRED ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD? THIS WAS NEXT DOOR! Pretty much all countries that had attacked or sent contigents to attack Israel in the 1948 had expelled its Jewish populations. These two events are interconnected exactly because the arab world refused to accept defeat and thus decided to punish there Jewish populations! Quit it with the obfuscations! "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 " Millions? The only reason why there are millions, is because of the ridiculous UNRWA definition. The fact is that maximum there are 600,000 refugees MAX, the rest are children of those refugees who are illegally considered refugees under the UNRWA definition which if were put into mass effect than pretty much the entire world would be refugee with this definition. So Israel should accept refugees BUT ONLY UNDER THE UNHCR DEFINITION. "refugees whose homes, businesses and towns were stolen" Yes this is why the Jewish refugee problem from the arab world should be solved because the Jewish property is easily valued in the Billions! "and/or destroyed to create a Jewish majority " There was already a Jewish majority in all areas that were declared Israel. The arabs didn't like this so they decided 'depopulation' was the solution, they failed and now pay the price for it. Losers don't get to choose prizes! "where one never existed in areas of Palestine" Where was palestine before the british declared it a mandate? Where was the state and recognized government with a unique culture, currency, national identity? "it declared unilaterally as the state of Israel." Obviously we did unilaterally, because if we had to ask norwegians you all would probably declare new gas chambers 'Israel' and then send the remanants of the Jewish world right into it.

the Palestinians. That you see a difference just shows your own bias.

They've all been converted into regular communities over the years. The Israelis didn't exploit their refugees for sympathy, propghanda and money like the Muslims do. "By the way Arab nations are all agreeing to accept their jewish nationals to returne to their lwafull homes " Where do you get this from? Only Khadafi has made such a gesture. "where they can resume their lives in total harmony with the rest of their Arab brotherns" When has that ever happened? And don't point to a period when that Arab country was under another nation's rule like Britian, France, or Turkey? Sheesh, all you can do is lie.

These people didn't have to leave the Arab lands; their exodus was engineered by the sochnut; ask some of the old time Moroccan and Iraqi olim if they 'had' to leave the contries of their birth and upbringing; most of them bitterly regreted leaving once they found out what sort of a welcome awaited them bythe vouzvouz; listen to some of the early Jo Amar classics.

to clear the path for the invading Arab armies to wipe out the Jews in fledgling Israel more effectively. Also, the Arab League informed the UN before 1948 that if partition is allowed to go ahead, the Arabs will not be able to "vouch for the safety" of the Jews in Arab lands. When these Jews fled or were expelled, their properties were given to Palestinians or simply taken over by the Arab regimes. Any attempt to claim that the issue of looted Jewish property is of no relation to resolving the Palestinian claims is nothing more than a fraud. The Palestinian identity was not created until 1964, and before that the entire policy of the Arab world in the Middle East was Arab unity and Arab nationalism.

"By the way Arab nations are all agreeing to accept their jewish nationals to returne to their lwafull homes where they can resume their lives in total harmony with the rest of their Arab brotherns." Your lies are wearing a little thin, brother. We all know that such claims were never made seriously. Just a few days ago, a delegation of former Egyptian Jews was prevented from visiting Egypt when Egypt suddenly feared these Jews were coming to reclaim their confiscated properties. The guilty conscience of the Arab world now makes them fear what would happen if the Jews, far from desiring to live again under "Arab brotherhood", might one day reclaim the full value of their stolen schools, homes, clubs, properties, etc. And the bill is coming, don't worry about it, brother.

I never said in my own posting that it was the Arab Jews who kicked the Palestinian Arabs out! But the issues of restitution are separate. I think that full compensation should be paid to those who can show proof, on both sides. What about you?