International Summit Held In Israel For Claims of Jewish Refugees

By Herb Brandon
Israel News Agency

October 22......Jerusalem------Senior Jewish leaders from 10 countries in North and South America, Europe and Israel will convene in Jerusalem, Israel on Monday, October 23, at which an “International Rights and Redress Campaign” will be announced and mapped out with the goal of securing the rights of nearly one million Jewish refugees who were forced to flee Arab lands.

Convened by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) and the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC), the Israel summit will open a new, more urgent page in the efforts to identify, register and document vast property claims of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

The humanitarian Jewish refugee campaign has been addressed by the US Congress and has been endorsed by the Israel Government. Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit will announce significant Israel support for the campaign at the meeting.

“This is our last chance. The clock is racing and hundreds of these dispossessed Jewish refugees are dying every month with virtually no public recognition of either their tragic explulsion or their far-ranging individual and communal property claims,” said Stanley A. Urman, Executive Director, JJAC, who has been preparing the ground for this summit for over two years, “Two, not one Jewish refugee problems were caused by the strife in the region, and our campaign will insist that the world community recognize the appalling events that befell Jews from Arab countries.”

Over 20 major Jewish organizations will travel thousands of miles to attend the one day confernece in Israel.

The goals of this International Rights and Redress Campaign are to register family history narratives, and document the mass violations of human rights suffered by Jews under Arab regimes (e.g. murder, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, stripping of citizenship, seizure of property, etc.); and to catalogue the loss of extensive communal and individual assets.

When the issue of ‘refugees’ is raised within the context of the Middle East, people invariably refer to Palestine refugees. Neither the mass violations of human rights, nor the displacement of Jews from Arab countries, have ever been adequately addressed by the international community. That is what motivated Diaspora Jewish communities worldwide to join the International Rights and Redress Campaign that is being coordinated by the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) and Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC).

This upcoming meeting on Jewish refugees in Jerusalem, Israel is the culmination of over three years of research and planning, focusing on the disproportionate and differential response of the international community to the plight of up to 1,000,000 Jews forced to flee from Arab countries.

“History reveals that there were two refugee populations created as a result of the longstanding dispute in the Middle East” said Stanley A. Urman, Executive Director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) “It would constitute an injustice, were the international community to recognize rights for one victim population - Palestine refugees - without recognizing equal rights for other victims of that very same Middle East conflict - former Jewish, Christian and other refugees from Arab countries”.

The International Rights and Redress Campaign will endeavor to register every Israel and Jewish family that fled an Arab country; and to document the historical narrative of their displacement and their claims.

Shelomo Alfassa, US Director of JJAC stated: “With memories fading, and elderly people passing on each day, this will be our last chance to obtain this important record of Jewish history and the evidence for future claims."

WOJAC and JJAC will be assisted in this International Rights and Redress Campaign by a coalition of Jewish organizations in North and South America, Europe, Israel and South East Asia including, among others, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, American Sephardi Federation, Anti-Defamation League, Asociacio'n Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), B’nai Brith Canada, B’nai Brith Hungary, B’nai Brith International, Board of Deputies of British Jews, Canadian Jewish Congress, CCCOJB, Centro Israelita de Bagota, Comite Central de la Comunidad Judia de Mexico, Comunidad de San Pedro Sula, Comunidad Judi'a Guatemalteca, Confederac, Israelita do Brasil, Congregation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela, Congreso Judio Panamano, Conseil representative des institutions juives de France (CRIF), Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, HARIF, Institut Sepharade Europeen, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, JIMENA, Nueva Congregacion Israelite, Svensk-Israel-Information - Swedish Israel Information For Israel and Democracy in the Middle East (FADIM), Unione delle Comunita Ebraiche Italiana and the World Sephardic Congress.

Jewish groups have estimated that since 1948 at least 900,000 Jews have been forced to leave their homes in Arab countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. At least 600,000 went to Israel. The rest sought sanctuary in France, Britain, the United States and other countries.