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72 Years of Injustice and Oppression Must Be Addressed

It’s Finally Time for Restitution and Compensation

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The facts are well-known by now, that to deny them, would be denying history, and whitewashing the suffering of millions of people.

It begins, as it always does, with a repressive government. A brutal regime. In this story, a segment of its population are second – perhaps third – class citizens. We know, because it is well-reported in the media, well-documented. You know who I’m talking about. Seventy-two years of a human rights travesty.

Put yourself in the tattered shoes of one of the persecuted, the oppressed…

No freedom to move; special permission to leave is required– in paperwork that is a bureaucratic enigma overlapping with red-tape roadblocks; and if the system isn’t already crooked and rigged enough, you might still fail because you didn’t know who to butter-up. But never mind, it’s your identity that puts you in last place anyway.

Seventy-two years of this.

The identification papers are, shall we say, “different,” in a Scarlet Letter kind of way. One set of rules for one people; a cruel, capricious set of rules for another people.

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No equal rights under the law. Rights, what rights? Law, what law? The wrong kind of glance, a suspicious movement, a misunderstanding, is all that’s enough for authorities to haul anyone away, to await “trial.” Any excuse is a good excuse to slap on handcuffs. That’s just how things operate. The rest of the world, silent.

Again, well-documented. Seventy-two years of this. What’s worse, the facts bear that these particular people – and you know who I’m talking about – have made this their home for hundreds, perhaps a thousand years.

To the majority, this minority is barely tolerated, looked at as “others,” mistrusted, and their religion makes them a target. And fancy that, the good people who remain complacent shrug, not wanting to be ostracized or lumped with the oppressed.

Seventy-two years of this. Oh, and the government had built a wall as part of their military occupation, for good measure.

Brandishing automatic weapons, the government’s uniformed bullies-for-hire are known to randomly break into homes, on an unsubstantiated “hunch,” looking for any trace of “illegal” activity, real or imagined. Because of “those” people, deemed lesser-than.

Seventy-two years of this brutality; the truth of its wide-ranging effect on millions of people, the sheer hell on Earth that left infinite scars.

If you ask me, so much has been taken away, robbed, that there should be a fundamental right, on a basic human level, that this suffering should be justly compensated.

If you are on the same page as me ideologically, you might have been saying “amen” throughout. Nodding your head? Damn, I hope so.

You empathized, I presumed, because 72 years is admittedly a long time to be living under a boot. Unless you are that indifferent majority, concocting justifications, your compassion was aroused, and I trust that there’s a certain amount of outrage in you, that, with clenched teeth and clenched fist, you’d want to know that justice was finally served.

Thing is,the group I was referring to? It wasn’t Palestinian Arabs.

It wasn’t.

I was talking about Soviet Jews. Millions of whom lived under the iron fist of communism for 72 years, from 1917 to 1989. This is what it took to get your attention, and I’m not ashamed of a little sleight-of-hand.

A little history lesson, lest it slip into our collective amnesia: those who were fortunate and lucky enough flee the grip of Communist Russia, did so with little else but a suitcase, and the clothes on their backs. They were lucky. The remainder? Jews were the “other,” because… Jews. For three generations, in an open-air prison.

Oh, Palestinians cry for what they lost, demanding a price for pain. But where is the compensation for Soviet Jews– for what they left behind, for the struggles they endured?

Where is the justice for seven decades?

What about the tens of thousands of Jews who just… “disappeared”? Those who were sent to the gulag? I speak of this, because I am not aware of anyone who has demanded the Russian government to hold itself to account for the crimes it committed against the Jewish people for seventy-two years.

Yes, many people suffered under communism, but the truth is, the Jews paid the biggest price.

With ever-growing ties between Jerusalem and Moscow, and increasing geo-political cooperation between the two, perhaps it’s time for the Jewish people to let Vladimir Putin know that we’ve been waiting a long time for his country to acknowledge, and own up to, what was done.

Why is no one speaking about this – the wide-scale crimes against the Jewish people, for whose cost we as a nation must bear – but Russia can merely let it slide into the mists of time?

Chani Jos is excited to be a regular contributor to TheJ.ca, and has a lot to say about all things Jewish. She owns an electric scooter, a turtle, and wants everyone to know she just cancelled her Rogers account

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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.

We do news differently!

Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.

We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!

Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.

Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

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