Jewish Palestine Refugees - I Am Corrected

For years I have trying to promote the simple historical fact that Jews were also Palestine refugees.

(For previous posts see here; and here)

As per UNRWA's own definition, that Agency has decided that a refugee is a needy person, who, as a result of the war in Palestine, has lost his home and his means of livelihood. 

Arabs and Jews, both.

How "Palestinian refugee" crept in there I do not fully know.

But how many Jews.

My figure, based on what I read was between 17,000 to 20,000.

I was a minimalist.

Benny Morris’s book "1948 A History of The First Arab Israeli War", puts the number of Jewish refugees at 70,000.

According to a new book mentioned in the JPost, the number is at least 60,000 Jewish refugees.

The book, published in Hebrew, 

is titled "Jewish Refugees in Israel's War of Independence" and is authored by Nurit Cohen-Levinovsky who holds a PhD in history and heads the Educational Department at the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Center in Tel Aviv.

As David Shayne notes,

according to Dr. Levinovsky, some 97 Jewish villages were attacked and damaged: 11 of these were destroyed entirely, 6 were conquered and lost – until after the 1967 Six Day War, when those conquered were re-established...Fully one quarter of Jerusalem’s Jews fled, mostly to the relative safety of the coastal plain.

Jerusalem's Jewish population numbered 100,000 in 1948. 

I stand corrected.

But I correct the record: as a result of the Arab terror ethnic cleansing campaign of 1920-1947, the true number of Jews who became refugees during the Mandate era, even if UNRWA limits the term "refugee" to the 1946-1948 period, is several thousands more, as we need include those who were driven out of Hebron, Gaza, Shchem, Jenin, Jericho, Tul Karem and Jerusalem.

The exodus from the Old City began in 1920, increased after Nov. 1921, after August 1929 and then during 1936-39 all due to Arab rioting and terror.

We know the British forced Jews out too.

At the beginning of the 20th century, 20,000 Jews lived in the Old City. In 1948, 1700 were left.

Thousands of Jaffa's Jews were forced out due to most of the same circumstances (in 1936, 10,000 Jews still lived in Jaffa. In 1920, 8740 Jews lived in Jaffa, by the British count, and that number increased until 1929.

Hundreds of Jews from Hebron.

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UPDATED

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Refugees

Danny Ayalon has a new good video up about the issue of "Palestinian refugees".

As for the use of the term refugees, let's remember, Jews were refugees in Palestine, too, in 1929 from Gaza, Shchem and, of course, Hebron:

and later, as well, from Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, Bet Haarava, Atarot, Kraf Darom, Neveh Yaakov and other locations.

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The 1947 Refugees - Jewish

The issue of refugees, of displaced persons due to military activity, is a constant theme in the Israel-Arab conflict.

Here's a newspaper report and the outlined-in-red section informs us that by December 4th (the issue date is December 5), over 800 Jews, yes, Jews, had been forced to flee the battle zone * of southern Tel Aviv and find alternate housing in synagogues and other temporary locations including an open field:

That was from Davar.

The accompanying photograph:

*

and if someone suggests that 'battle zone' means, well, it's the Jews' fault, let me remind you: the Arabs started an aggressive war against the Jewish community in Mandate Palestine in opposition to the UN recommendation of November 29, 1947.  The fault lies with the Arab side that was violent from the outset.


i.e.:-

On December 15th, 1949 the Michigan Arab newspaper As Sabah (literally the Morning Tribune) published an editorial on the question of the Palestine Arab refugees:


“What is the crime of the refugees in the eyes of the lords of Arabia who stand by and watch the misery of the refugees, and who suck the blood of the poor and needy-without shame before God and the world? Yes the poor refugees committed the crime of listening to those deceivers, they believed the liars, and went to the extreme foolishness of leaving their homes, counting on their deceitful leaders to bring them back! And because of what is happening to the Palestine refugees, Arab public opinion is changing little by little to support the Jews in Israel where not a single Arab dies from starvation and cold! And if there should be another war, it should be against the Arab leaders, the princes and kings who brought this catastrophe upon the poor people of Palestine.”

The editorial’s analysis regarding Arab public opinion favoring Israel was incorrect, to say the least. But the claim that Palestinians fled their homes in response to Arab leaders has been controversial since the events occurred. The Palestinians of Michigan in 1949 thought this was the case.

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So, How Many Jewish (yes, Jewish) Refugees Are There?

I need your assistance with a mathematical problem.

The official UN accepted number of Arab refugees is actually 4.8 million which takes into account their descendants.

Here:

Under UNRWA's operational definition, Palestine refugees are people whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. [wow, just two years of residency and you are a "Palestinian" refugee. that's shorter than most citizenship requirements and, considering that many of the Arabs who became "refugees" were recent transients from neighboring countries due to the better economic situation in the Palestine Mandate, downright unfair]

UNRWA's services are available to all those living in its area of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. The descendants of the original Palestine refugees are also eligible for registration. When the Agency started working in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, 4.8 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.

By the way, in 1951, Israel informed UNRWA to stop assisting Jewish refugees from the territories of Judea, Samaria and gaza, just over 3,000 (with an additional 15,000 almost of non-Jews) as the stat of Israel could do that by itself.


[CORRECTION (k/t = EOZ):  from the 1950 UNRWA Report - 30. In Israel, the Agency has provided relief to two types of refugees, Jews who fled inside the borders of Israel during the fighting, and Arabs in most instances displaced from one area in Palestine to another. Jewish refugees at first numbered 17,000 but, during the current summer, all but 3,000 of these have been absorbed into the economic life of the new State. Arabs on relief were first numbered at 31,000 but many have been placed in circumstances in which they are self-supporting, so that it was possible to reduce the number to 24,000 at the end of August 1950.
31. Recent discussions with the Israel Government indicate that the idea of relief distribution is repugnant to it, and the Agency was informed that already many of the 24,000 remaining refugees were employed and that all able-bodied refugees desiring employment could be absorbed on works projects if they would register at the government registry offices for that purpose. It was stated that they all have status as citizens of Israel and are entitled to treatment as such. It was claimed that after cessation of relief, aged and infirm refugees would be cared for under the normal social welfare machinery of Israel. The Agency was requested to share financially in a programme of re-establishment of displaced Arabs now within the boundaries of Israel.]
 
Now, the question has come up: if the number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is that "there were more former Jewish refugees uprooted from Arab countries (over 850,000) than there were Palestinians who became refugees in 1948. (UN estimate: 726,000)" ( from JJAC) but there's this, too: "A total of 586,269 Jews from Arab countries arrived in Israel with at least 200,000 emigrating to France, England and the Americas. Including their offspring, the total number of Jews who were displaced from their homes in Arab countries and who live in Israel today is 1,136,436, about 41% of the total population. At least another 500,000 currently reside in France, Canada, the United States, Latin America and Australia" (from this 2002 paper) can anyone accurately calculate a true number of  "Jewish refugees from Arab lands" that need to be included in any discussion of refugee rights?  Or is 1.2 million fair based on the above?
The Arab annual growth rate could be probably 1.0317.

If we start with 800,000 Jews and apply the same growth we get 5.2m in 2008. I'd say you could happily claim anywhere from 3.8 million to 5.2 million descendants of Jewish refugees which doesn't add up to the quoted figures above.

So, who knows math?

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This:

"Silent Exodus"


More than a million Jews were expelled from Arab and Muslim countries between 1948 and 1974, without asking for compensation or the right to return. Pierre Rehov's "Silent Exodus", is a tribute to their tragedy.

Promo reel.

Full Length Movie

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BOL has suggested these numbers -

Just by using the same growth rate as the Pals. we have this data:


Palestine Arabs, Growth Rate: 1.03, if in 1948 711,000, then in 2012 = 5,233,917
Jews, Growth Rate: 171.03, if in 1948 800,000, then in 2012 = 5,889,076

So, if the Arabs can claim 4.8 million (and not 6 million like that Coldplay recommended song asserted), well Jewish refugess from Arab Lands number 5.9 million.


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While we're on demographics, consider this:

...fresh from the just-released update of the United Nations' population forecasts: At constant fertility, Israel will have more young people by the end of this century than either Turkey or Iran, and more than German, Italy or Spain.  With a total fertility rate of three children per woman, Israel's total population will rise to 24 million by the end of the present century. Iran's fertility is around 1.7 and falling, while the fertility for ethnic Turks is only 1.5 (the Kurdish minority has a fertility rate of around 4.5).

...if present trends continue, Israel will be able to field the largest land army in the Middle East. That startling data point, though, should alert analysts to a more relevant problem: among the military powers in the Middle East, Israel will be the only one with a viable population structure by the middle of this century.

That is why it is in America's interest to keep Israel as an ally. Israel is not only the strongest power in the region; in a generation or two it will be the only power in the region, the last man standing among ruined neighbors. The demographic time bomb in the region is not the Palestinian Arabs on the West Bank, as the Israeli peace party wrongly believed, but rather Israel itself.

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On The Jewish 'Right of Return'

In an odd and even esoteric comment, a White House official seemed to have spoken in favor of assisting Jews to leave Israel and once again, go into exile (k/t = Jim Wald). Did one Ben Rhodes declare that the Israelis and Palestinians should negotiate on the Jewish right of return to Arab and Muslim countries? Here's the source:

White House: Jewish “refugees” right of return should be “on the table”

which informs us that

Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for communications and President Barack Obama's chief speechwriter on foreign policy, talked about what's known as the "Jewish right of return" during an off-the-record conference call with Jewish community leaders on May 20...

In response to a question asking why there is a great deal of focus on the Palestinian refugee issue but almost no focus on the Jews who departed Arab lands, Rhodes declared that the Israelis and Palestinians should negotiate on the Jewish right of return to Arab and Muslim countries and that the United States could play in role in mediating that issue.

Here's the full exchange:

(the questioner was B'nai B'rith International Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Fusfield) "[C]an the U.S., as the peace process move forward, play a role in advancing the rights and concerns of these Jewish refugee groups and help ensure that as refugee issues are dealt with... that the focus will not just be on one refugee group but on all refugee groups emerging from the same conflict?"

Rhodes responded: "Certainly the U.S., in our role, is attuned to all the concerns on both sides to include interests among Israel and others in Jewish refugees, so it is something that would come up in the context of negotiations. And certainly, we believe that ultimately the parties themselves should negotiate this. We can introduce ideas, we can introduce parameters for potential negotiation."

"We believe those types of issues that you alluded to could certainly be a part of that discussion and put on the table and it's something that we would obviously be involved in."

Noah Pollak, executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, responded and said

the Jewish right of return is actually not an issue that's part of the peace negotiations, largely due to the fact that a) there are no Jewish refugees, and b) they don't have any desire to claim lands in Arab states.

I am astounded. For anyone, either a Bnai Brith official or a senior White House advisor, to fail to make clear that the issue of "Jewish refugees" is only a reference to their financial demands for compensation for having been kicked out of many Arab countries and that they are not seeking to "go home" as part of a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Isael conflict is to err to a high degree.

Sending Jews once more into Exile is ridiculous and that is what should be emphasized.

Reviewing the exchange, though, I am more inclined to think that the editor of that post was either sick, tired and just plain anti-Zionist and hyped what wasn't really there but was not strictly not there.

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This Failure Will Not Happen Again

It won't because there will never be another disengagement, withdrawal or convergence. God-willing and a little help from man.

Inquiry panel: State turned Gaza evacuees into refugees in their homeland

A commission of inquiry into the state's handling of Gush Katif and northern Samaria evacuees offered harsh criticism of the bureaucracy, delays and poor planning by the authorities since the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The report concluded that all the issues still facing those the report called "refugees in the homeland" must be resolved by the end of 2011.

...The report, which spans 488 pages, was submitted to the authorities on Tuesday.

...The report's harshest criticism was directed at the failure to build public institutions in the communities to which the evacuees were relocated..."The commission believes that the delay in the construction of the public institutions is unbecoming, and in certain cases a complete failure for which the government is responsible," the report continued.

...The commission further found that the temporary housing in Nitan was built without any legal authority even though they had cost the state millions of Shekels. The report concluded that these temporary structures must be dismantled by the end of 2011.

...The commission wrote furthermore that the "handling of the evacuees is a test case for the Israeli government system...People lost not only their homes, jobs and communities, but they also lost a part of their identity."

"The state has a responsibility toward them in the basic contract that ensures the human rights of every citizen of the state, not to mention citizens who have been turned into refugees in their homeland by the state."

Maen Rashid Areikat is a Liar

I found this letter in today's, where else?, New York Times:

Re “Group Spotlights Jews Who Left Arab Lands” (news article, Nov. 5):

The Palestinian people, being the victims of mass expulsion and exile, understand fully what it means to be a refugee; however, there is no reason to link the Palestinian refugee problem that was caused by the creation of the state of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948 (which led to the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians) and any claims by Jews in other countries.

Any solution to the Palestinian refugee question should be based on the internationally recognized United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, with all its components.

The Annapolis conference is expected to deal with this thorny issue, without which there will be no solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to the Arab-Israeli conflict at large.

Maen Rashid Areikat
Director General
P.L.O. Negotiations Affairs Dept.
Ramallah, West Bank

Is there is really "no reason to link the Palestinian refugee problem that was caused by the creation of the state of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948 (which led to the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians) and any claims by Jews in other countries"?

But of course there is.

Why were there pogroms and riots and official discriminatory government policy in various Arab countries if not as a reaction to the failure of Pals. to eliminate the state of Israel?

Here's the plain truth:

Discrimination against Jews in Arab countries took a dramatic turn for the worse in 1948 after the birth of the State of Israel. Between the 1940s and 1980s, the Jews of Arab countries endured humiliation, discrimination, human rights abuses, organized persecution and expulsion by the governments of the countries of their origin.

During this time, Jewish property was seized without compensation, Jewish quarters were sacked and looted, and cemeteries were desecrated. Synagogues, Jewish shops, schools and houses were ransacked, burned and destroyed, and hundreds of Jews were murdered in anti-Semitic riots and pogroms. Of the over 850,000 Jewish refugees who left Arab countries, approximately 600,000 sought refuge in the State of Israel and were resettled there at great expense. Arab states have refused to acknowledge these human rights violations and provide relief to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to abandon their homes, businesses and possessions as they fled those countries.

Here is another source.

Good Move

From the NYTimes:-

With assertions of the rights of Palestinians to reclaim land in Israel expected to arise at an planned Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Md., a Jewish advocacy group has scheduled a meeting in New York on Monday to call attention to people it terms “forgotten refugees.”

The organizing group, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, says it is referring to the more than 850,000 Jews who left their homes in Arab lands after the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948.

“This did not occur by happenstance, as is sometimes said,” said Stanley A. Urman, executive director of the group, a five-year-old New-York-based organization. “In fact, we have found evidence that there was collusion among the Arab nations to persecute and exploit their Jewish populations.”

To back the claim, the group has reproduced copies of a draft law composed by the Arab League in 1947 that called for measures to be taken against Jews living in Arab countries. The proposals range from imprisonment, confiscation of assets and forced induction into Arab armies to beatings, officially incited acts of violence and pogroms.

Subsequent legislation and discriminatory decrees enacted by Arab governments against Jews were “strikingly similar” to the actions laid out in the draft law, Mr. Urman said.

In January 1948, the World Jewish Congress submitted a memo with the text of the draft to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It accompanied the submission with a warning that “all Jews residing in the Near and Middle East face extreme and imminent danger.”

At a meeting two months later, however, Charles Malik, the Lebanese ambassador and president of the council, succeeded in a parliamentary maneuver that ended consideration of the memo. Though the event drew news coverage at the time, it has apparently gone unnoticed since.

The Arab League draft law had been drawn up in response to the Nov. 29, 1947, vote in the General Assembly to partition Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.

With the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the status of Jews in Arab countries changed dramatically, because most of those countries either declared war on Israel or supported the war to destroy the new state.

The group cites United Nations figures showing that 856,000 Jewish residents left Arab countries in 1948.

“This was not just a forced exodus, it was a forgotten exodus,” said Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian minister of justice who is scheduled to be the main speaker at Monday’s program to open the campaign on behalf of the Jewish refugees.