Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries are not refugees, because they left
their homes voluntarily and under pressure from Zionist groups and the Jewish
Agency, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said over the
weekend.
In an article published in a number of Arab media outlets,
Ashrawi, who is also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the
“claim that Jews who migrated to Israel, which is supposed to be their homeland,
are ‘refugees’ who were uprooted from their homelands... is a form of deception
and delusion.”
She explained: “If Israel is their homeland, then they are
not ‘refugees;’ they are emigrants who returned either voluntarily or due to a
political decision.”
Ashrawi’s comments came in response to Israeli
efforts to hold a summit on the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries
next month.
The Foreign Ministry – together with the World Jewish
Congress and the Senior Citizens Ministry (formerly the Pensioners Affairs
Ministry) – is stepping up its campaign to bring the issue of Jewish refugees to
public and diplomatic attention.
The Foreign Ministry says more than
850,000 Jews from Arab countries fled their homes following persecution that
ensued after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Deputy
Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post last week that the
government was finalizing plans to institute a national day of recognition for
the Jewish refugees. It also plans to build a museum to document the historical
events of these communities, as well as their cultural heritage; collate
testimony from thousands of refugees; and bring the issue front and center on
the diplomatic stage.
Ashrawi, however, rejected the assertion that Jews
left their countries of birth because of persecution.
“Arab Jews were
part of the Arab region, but they began migrating to Israel after its
establishment,” she argued. “They did so in accordance with a forethought plan
by the Jewish Agency to bring Jews from all around the world to build the State
of Israel.”
Ashrawi did, nonetheless, acknowledge that “some Arab
countries at that time were ruled by tyrannical regimes.”
But, she noted,
“all citizens, regardless of their religion, were subjected to
suffering.
Jews were not singled out, although there had been some
suspicious incidents of persecution or individual violence [against Jews] to
encourage them to emigrate [to Israel]. The emigration of Jews was a voluntary
act that was influenced by factors of pressure and temptation by Zionist
movements and the Jewish Agency.”
Ashrawi called for drawing a
distinction between Arab and Jewish refugees.
Zionist gangs, she said,
“forced Palestinians out of the land that had belonged to the Palestinian people
for thousands of years, while Jews voluntarily and collectively
left.”
Ashrawi also voiced hope that Jews would be allowed to return to
Arab countries.
She claimed that Iraq and Morocco had welcomed the return
of Jews.
“We expect the Arab countries to welcome the return of their
Jewish citizens in the context of democratic regimes that respect pluralism,”
Ashrawi stressed.
“From a legal perspective, the first right – before
compensation – is the right of return of the refugee to his/her original
homeland.