The Forgotten Refugees

I know that I have blogged about this subject before, most recently here and here but until I can get back to proper blogging here's some video to get you thinking. Do please pass it onto any BBC propagandists that you know.

The video is The David Project's 'The Forgotten Refugees'

Part 1 sets out some background and explains what Islam means by a dhimmi in principle and in practice. Also the incidence of anti-Semitic hatred before 1967 and indeed 1948. The tales of Jews in Iraq strike many chords with me. However what I find very interesting is that the linkage between the Mufti and Hitler is repeated. This set me thinking as many of those on the left who even now attack the Daily Mail for having supported Hitler in the 1930s & therefore as being beyond the pale are quite happy to support the Palestinians whose leaders are the followers of people who fought alongside Hitler....

'A film about the mass exodus of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa in the 20th century

Produced by The David Project for Jewish Leadership and Isra TV, The Forgotten Refugees explores the history, culture, and forced exodus of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities in the second half of the 20th century. Using extensive testimony of refugees from Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and Morocco the film recounts the stories - of joy and suffering - that nearly one million individuals have carried with them for so long. The film weaves personal stories with dramatic archival footage of rescue missions, historic images of exodus and resettlement, and analyses by contemporary scholars to tell the story of how and why the Jewish population in the Middle East and North Africa declined from one million in 1945 to several thousand today.

The Forgotten Refugees has helped raise awareness about this important period of Jewish and world history; an issue which has been tragically ignored in the media, world politics, and educational programs. On June 19, 2007, a fifteen minute version of The Forgotten Refugees was shown before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which convened for a special hearing on the mass violations of human rights of Jews under Islamic regimes in Arab Countries throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf Region.

On March 31, 2008, the first-ever Resolution recognizing the rights of The Forgotten Refugees was adopted by the United States House of Representatives. The Resolution asks the President to ensure that when the issue of Middle East refugees is discussed in international forums, U.S. representatives will ensure that any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees is matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees.

The Forgotten Refugees has been screened at over twenty international film festivals, a dozen of television stations and numerous synagogues, churches and campuses. The Forgotten Refugees won the award for Best Documentary at the 2007 Marbella International Film Festival and the Best Feature Documentary Award at the 2006 Warsaw Jewish Film Festival.'

Part 2 explains why 'Jews are the dogs of the Arabs' and tells some horrific tales of anti-Jewish pogroms in Libya. Compare the tented camps that the Jewish refugees to Israel built & moved out of to the the refugee camps that the Palestinians still live in because their Arab brethren would rather they suffered so as to be a stick with which to beat Israel. Look also at the figures for how many Jews lived in Iraq in 1944 compared with 2004 (144,000 to 14), Egypt (80,000 to 40), Algeria (140,000 to 80) and Yemen (55,000 to 100). As well as the so called Jew friendly North African countries which certain British Jews think are trendy to visit: Morocco 285,000 to 5,000, Tunisia 105,000 to 1,500 and on and on and on.



It seems that the Jews who lived in Arab countries, many of whom were expelled from their homes, losing all their property and much of their possessions made a new life in Israel and so are forgotten by the world whilst the Palestinians who left their homes so the Arab armies of 1948 could destroy the newly reborn Israel still live in refugee camps and occupy so much of the attention of the world's media and trans-national organisations.


I have compared the way that Palestinian refugees are treated with those of other conflicts before but here is an extract from a speech that I think covers much of the same ground in an interesting manner:

'At the end of World War II, there were 50 million refugees. Today, all the refugee problems dating from before the 1950s have been solved. All, except one — the problem of the Palestinians.

Why did this problem not get solved? The reason is simple: Because the Arab countries did not allow it to get solved. And because Islam does not allow it to get solved.

In May 1948, the number of Jews in the Arab countries was estimated to be close to 1 million. Today, fewer than 8,000 Jews are left in the entire Arab world. In 1948, the Arab countries forced the Jews out and confiscated their properties. More Jews fled the Arab countries than Arabs fled Israel. Where are the Jewish refugee camps? There are none.

So, why are there refugee camps for Palestinians in areas surrounding Israel? Because the Palestinians were not welcomed in the neighboring Arab countries. There was no Arab solidarity; the refugees were forced into camps and slums, where many of their descendants still linger today.



Instead of blaming the inhospitable Arab regimes, many blame Israel.

Neisse rivers, the Hungarians who fled Transsylvania, the Greeks who were ejected from the Aegean coast of Anatolia, the Hindus who fled the Punjab.

With each generation, the resentment of these refugees and their descendants slowly fades away. Time heals all wounds. Acceptance of the new situation is the norm.

Islam, however, conditions Muslims to hate Jews. It is a religious duty to do so. Israel must be destroyed because it is the homeland of the Jews.

Influential Islamic scholars, such as Muhammad Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the most prestigious center of Muslim learning, call Jews “enemies of Allah.” Tantawi, who died last March (this speech was given in December 2010), was generally considered a moderate by the Western media and policy makers. But how did this “moderate” address a delegation of Palestinian Muslims who visited him in 2002?

He urged them to intensify suicide attacks against Israelis, stating that every so-called “martyrdom operation” against — I quote — “any Israeli, including children, women, and teenagers, is a legitimate act according to [Islamic] religious law, and an Islamic commandment, until the people of Palestine regain their land.” — end of quote.

Nizar Qabbani, one of the most revered poets in the Arab world, praised the madness of those who are blinded by an ideology of hatred. In his poem Ode to the Intifada, he wrote: “O mad people of Gaza, A thousand greetings to the mad. The age of political reason has long departed. So teach us madness.”

That is the nature of the Islamic enemies confronting the Jews — sheer madness.

Israel, on the other hand, is a beacon of light; it is like a Hanukkah menorah whose lights have been kindled in a region that until 1948 was engulfed by darkness.

Friends, Israel is not to blame for the situation in the Middle East. The problem is Islam’s rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Only last month (November 2010), Fatah concluded its convention in Ramallah by declaring its blatant refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.'

The speech was given by Geert Wilders in Tel Aviv in December 2010 - thanks to Gates of Vienna for the spot.


Next week London's School of Oriental and African Studies will be showing the above film, Point of No Return has details of this, I predict problems as SOAS students seem to be almost as anti-Israel as those at the LSE. Oy Va Goy also has some interesting  thoughts on this matter.