by Dr. Edy Cohen
The looted property of these refugees has become part and parcel of the ongoing saga of the 1948 Arab plunder of Jewish property, which is now estimated at about $400 billion.
Jewish refugees from Libya, photo via World Jewish Congress
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 660, November 28, 2017
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Much
has been written about the historical marginalization of the 900,000
Jews expelled from Arab states in the wake of the 1948 War. Few know
that the June 1967 War played a similar role in accelerating the final
demise of these historic communities. It is high time the international
community rectified this longstanding injustice by ensuring that these
refugees are fully compensated for their suffering and stolen property.
Fifty years after the June 1967 War, the Israel
State Archives in Jerusalem released scores of classified files related
to this historic event. While most deal with the war and the events that
led to its outbreak, some address the predicament of the Jewish
communities in the Arab states during and after the war. The picture
that emerges is one of pogroms and persecution, at times orchestrated by
the government, at times through spontaneous eruptions that occurred
with the tacit support of the authorities.
This maltreatment occurred in almost all Arab
states, though the level of violence differed. In Tunisia, Morocco, and
Lebanon, for example, the authorities protected the Jews from the
rampaging mobs, while in Syria and Yemen, there were isolated attacks on
Jews. The most severe persecutions occurred in Libya, Egypt, and Iraq.
Israel refrained from any direct public action so as not to give
credence to the depiction of these Jewish communities as fifth columns
serving the Jewish state’s interests. Covertly, however, through its
Washington, London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Brussels, Ankara, and Lisbon
embassies, the Israeli Foreign Ministry acted on behalf of these
communities.
The American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish
Committee, the UN, and Jewish communities in the West were also enlisted
to help out with protest gatherings and media publicity about the
Jewish predicament in the Arab states. According to the documents, the
Arab regimes tried to conceal the Jews’ persecution from foreign eyes,
to deny any governmental involvement in the violent acts that were
exposed, and to impose strict censorship so as to ensure that such acts
were not publicized.
Egypt
Before the June 1967 War, some 6,000 Jews still
lived in Egypt. On the first day of the war, when it transpired that the
Egyptian air force and most of the airfields had been destroyed,
President Nasser ordered the arrest of 600 Jewish men aged 16 to 70 in
Cairo and Alexandria, among them the Alexandria chief rabbi, Haim Douek.
The detainees were severely abused. They were beaten regularly and
denied food and drink, especially in the initial days of their
detention.
All detainees, it should be noted, were
law-abiding citizens who were not involved in any illegal activity. They
were sent to a number of prisons, including the notorious Abu Zabel,
where they suffered three years of ongoing abuse that left
post-traumatic impact on some of them to this day. They were released
through the intervention of a number of countries, notably Spain, Italy,
and France, on condition that they leave Egypt directly from prison,
having been warned that harm would be visited upon their Egyptian family
members were they to speak about their sufferings in prison. Ovadia
Yerushalmi, a native of Cairo who was among the Jewish detainees and is
now a pensioner living in Israel, recently published a book (in Hebrew)
entitled The Long Five Minutes. In it he revealed for the first
time, after 50 years of silence, the story of the Jews of Egypt from
1967 to 1970 within the prison walls and amid arrests and persecution.
Iraq
In June 1967, Iraq’s Jewish community numbered
some 3,000, most of them in Baghdad and Basra. Immediately upon the
outbreak of hostilities, about 70 Jews were arrested. They were released
many months later after their families paid hefty bribes to the
authorities and senior officials.
Along with the arrests, the authorities instilled
fear and anxiety in the Jewish community. Jews were forbidden to sell
their property or engage in commerce. Their residential telephones were
disconnected, and their freedom of movement in Baghdad was curtailed.
Many Jews locked themselves in their homes for fear of violent attacks à
la the June 1941 Farhoud, in which hundreds of Jews were massacred by
their rampaging Arab neighbors who also looted and destroyed their
properties. As a result of the 1967 persecution, many of the remaining
Iraqi Jews emigrated to Israel.
Libya
There were about 4,000 Jews in Libya at the time
of the war. In June 1967, violent anti-Jewish demonstrations were held
in Tripoli and Benghazi, leaving 18 dead and dozens wounded. Jewish
stores were looted and burned, as were synagogues and residences.
Numerous families locked themselves in their homes until their food
began to run out.
The newly released files show that the pogroms
were carried out on orders from the government, which wanted to put an
end to the Jewish presence in Libya. The government accused the
community of treason and supporting the “Zionist entity.” Many Jews were
threatened by telephone and about 100 Jews were put in detention camps,
supposedly to ensure their safety.
Fortunately for the community, the Italian
government was enlisted to help with its rescue. Most of its members
fled to Italy by air with only a suitcase and a small amount of cash.
Despite its covert promise to the Libyan authorities, the Italian
government asked Jerusalem to help with the absorption of these
refugees, and indeed many of them came to live in Israel. Their arrival
was hushed up by the censors so as not to jeopardize the remaining Jews’
departure from Libya. Ultimately only 100 Jews were left in the
country, and they emigrated in the subsequent years. All Jewish
properties in Libya were confiscated and are yet to be returned to their
rightful owners.
Epilogue
The 1967 War led to the emigration of thousands of
Jews from Arab states as a result of persecution, imprisonment,
murderous attacks, cancellation of citizenship, expulsion, and
expropriation of property. A small number left out of admiration for
Israel’s astounding victory.
Sadly, as in 1948, the suffering and distress of
the Jewish refugees of 1967 has not received its due attention, either
in Israel or in the world at large. Moreover, the looted property of
these refugees has become part and parcel of the ongoing saga of the
1948 Arab plunder of Jewish property, which is now estimated at about
$400 billion. The Israeli government and the international community at
large must therefore ensure an adequate compensation for this property,
whether as an integral part of a future Israeli-Palestinian peace
agreement or as an agreement in its own right to redress a grave
historical injustice.
BESA Center Perspectives Papers are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/jews-arab-states/
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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