When Will Jewish Refugees From Arab Nations Get The Justice They Deserve?

On two separate occasions, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ruled that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were indeed bona fide refugees who fell under its mandate. Many of the most pertinent and relevant resolutions on the conflict that reference refugees—including U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194 and U.N. Security Council Resolution 242—do so without defining the type of refugee. This means that such resolutions—whether referencing compensation or assistance—can and should also apply to Jewish refugees.

Meanwhile, there have been 172 resolutions specifically on Palestinian refugees, 13 U.N. agencies and organizations mandated or newly created to provide protection and relief to Palestinian refugees and tens of billions of dollars disbursed by the international community to provide services and assistance to Palestinian refugees.

During that same period, the United Nations offered no specific resolutions, no support by U.N. agencies nor any financial assistance from the international community to reduce the suffering of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Unlike Palestinian refugees, the Jews from Arab countries were not involved as combatants, Jewish leaders had not called for the destruction of the countries they lived in nor the annihilation of their inhabitants, and were not even in a theater of war. They lived as law-abiding citizens, under repressive dhimmi (“second-class”) subjugation—a special discriminatory legal system for Jews, who had to pay special anti-Semitic taxes, and endure pogroms and massacres.

Overnight in 1946—two years prior to Israel’s declaration of independence—thanks to a decision by the Arab League, all Jews in member states were considered enemies. Their citizenships were revoked, their bank accounts were frozen, tens of thousands were thrown out of certain professions and many imprisoned, simply because of their identity.

While the number of 1948 Palestinian refugees is around two-thirds of the number of Jewish refugees, the difference in personal and communal assets was stark. Though the average Palestinian refugee was rural and had few assets, the Jews of places like Baghdad and Cairo were urban, cosmopolitan and wealthy.

According to the research undertaken by an international accountancy firm, the total assets of these dispossessed Jews in today’s currency would be worth around $250 billion. The calculations took into account land, real estate in cities and villages, business value, loss of income and income potential, movable property, and Jewish public and community property.