Israel ambassador calls on UN to recognize Jewish refugees

WASHINGTON – The Israeli Mission to the UN continues to push for recognition of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran. Together with the organization Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA), the mission hosted an event at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday to promote Ambassador Danny Danon’s initiative.Danon introduced the resolution on Tuesday during a General Assembly discussion marking 72 years since the UN’s historic November 29, 1947, partition plan vote. He called on the General Assembly to adopt a resolution recognizing the Jewish refugees.“There were an estimated 850,000 Jews who were forced out of Arab countries and Iran and became refugees in the 20th century,” Danon said. “These Jews were subject to brutal attacks and harassment and were forced to flee, leaving everything behind: in Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Iran, and many other countries. And still, we don’t hear the international community speak of them when they discuss the refugees of the conflict, perhaps because it doesn’t serve the Palestinian narrative.”Diplomats and ambassadors from more than a dozen nations, as well as members of the Jewish community, attended the reception on Wednesday.“In order to fight antisemitism whether it be in Europe or anywhere else, it has to be acknowledged that anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” Elan Carr, US State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism, said at the event. “Jew-hatred is Jew-hatred, whether it is focused on the Jew down the street, or the Jew in the Diaspora, or the Jewish state.”In his remarks, Danon said that “this custom of denying the rights of Jewish refugees is an attempt to erase them from the narrative and an antisemitic historical injustice. I can see no legitimate reason for any member state to oppose the resolution. The choice to commemorate the national day of remembering Jewish refugees forced out of Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century on November 30 is no coincidence. It is the day after the important resolution of November 29, when this institution recognized the importance of forming a Jewish state in Israel,” he added.Former Miss Iraq Sarah Idan shared her experience following revocation of her Iraqi citizenship after she posted a photo taken with Miss Israel.“I was born in Baghdad,” she said, “and felt very connected to the Iraqi Jews I met in Jerusalem who welcomed me with open arms and with so much love, even though my country treated them unfairly. I was overwhelmed when I saw pictures of Iraqi government stamps on their passport saying, ‘one-way exit – not allowed to return.’ I told them I was utterly ashamed.”