(From Honest Reporting )
The media went into overdrive
this week with wall-to-wall coverage of the United Nations’ “International Day of Solidarity
with the Palestinian People” that marked the 74th anniversary
of the historic partition proposal that would have – but for its rejection by
the entire Arab world – resulted in a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. In
fact, this series of speeches and ‘cultural events’ only served to legitimize
the Palestinian ‘right of return’ demand that
would – if ever actualized – destroy the Jewish state by weight of
numbers.
In stark contrast, the November
30 commemoration by Israel and the entire Jewish world of the expulsion of Jews from Arab and
Islamic lands that took place following the Palestinian
leadership and neighboring Arab states’ violent rejection of the UN Partition
Plan generated virtually no coverage by prominent news outlets.
#Egypt; #SyriaOff Media’s Radar: Nearly
1,000,000 Jewish Refugees
Following Israel’s establishment,
the state of Jews living in Arab countries became increasingly precarious.
Libya’s Jewish Community Council was dissolved and, in 1961, a law passed that
effectively stripped the Jews of their Libyan citizenship. The country’s Jewish
community essentially came to an end with the evacuation of 6,000 Jews in one
month.
In 1963, Algeria passed a law
stripping non-Muslims of citizenship. In 1964, Syrian Jews were barred from
working in the government or banks, purchasing property, or acquiring drivers’
licenses. Syrian Jews who obtained permission to travel abroad were required to
post a bond, leaving behind family members as hostages.
And after the Six-Day War,
Egyptian Jews were hit with a wave of confiscations.
It’s estimated that approximately
850,000 Jews were living in Arab countries and Iran at the time of Israel’s
independence. Some scholars think that the number is closer to one million. In the North
African region, 259,000 Jews fled from Morocco, 140,000 from Algeria, 100,000
from Tunisia, 75,000 from Egypt, and another 38,000 from Libya. In the Middle
East, 135,000 Jews were exiled from Iraq, 55,000 from Yemen, 34,000 from
Turkey, 20,000 from Lebanon and 18,000 from Syria. Iran forced out 25,000 Jews.
These people were forced to leave
the countries where their families had lived for millennia solely because of their Jewish
identity.
Today, there are fewer than 7,000 Jews living
in the entire Arab world. In many Arab states, once-thriving Jewish communities
have all but disappeared.
In an attempt to correct this
historic injustice the Israeli government took action in 2019, demanding
compensation totaling $250 billion for property and assets left behind by Jews who
fled for their lives.
What Jewish Refugees? Media
Ignore Mass Expulsion
During Israel’s War of Independence,
approximately the same amount of Jewish refugees arrived in the fledgling
Jewish state as Palestinians who fled their homes. Yet one side of these
historic events has been seemingly buried by leading news organizations.
Honest Reporting examined thousands
of articles and news segments to gauge how the media have reported on the
Jewish refugee story compared to the Palestinian refugee issue over the last 12
months. While ‘Palestinian refugees’ was cited nearly six and a half thousand
times, there were only 865 ‘Jewish refugees’ citations during the same period.
No Recognition from United
Nations of Jews Driven from Arab Countries
The media’s unwillingness to
report on the story of Jewish refugees isn’t occurring in a vacuum. The United
Nations is pushing the Palestinian narrative as well.
In 2008, the US House of
Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the recognition of Jewish, Christian,
and other refugees from Arab lands. The resolution states that any
agreement between Israelis and Palestinians must include recognition of Jewish
refugees as well. The resolution makes it clear that the subject should be
brought before the UN General Assembly.
Yet the United Nations refuses to recognize the Jews who
were brutally expelled from Arab states. In response, Israel’s Ambassador to
the United Nations Gilad Erdan informed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
in December 2020 of his intention to submit a draft resolution requiring the
international body to hold an annual commemoration for the hundreds of
thousands of Jews exiled from Arab countries due to the creation of the State
of Israel.
Erdan also asked the UN to launch
a global research project on the deportation of Jews from the Arab world and to
back the study of the subject in various UN forums.
By obfuscating the plight of
Jewish refugees the media are keeping readers and viewers in the dark about the
ethnic and cultural composition of modern-day Israel. As a result, the myth
that the Jewish state is composed of people descendant from European
‘interlopers’ (See here, here, and here) is allowed to be
perpetuated.
Until the media and United
Nations recognize Arab leaders’ rejection of the Jewish state and persecution
of the Jewish people, coexistence is liable to elude Israelis and Palestinians.
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