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The Jewish Nakba Was Even Bigger than the Palestinian One
(The Tower) Dr. Edy Cohen - No one can deny the Palestinian refugee problem, but it is equally blind to deny the plight of the Jewish refugees. With the creation of the State of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Jews who had lived peacefully in the Arab nations for centuries were expelled from their home countries. These Jews, faced with official persecution, mob violence, pogroms, and the confiscation of their property, fled mostly to Israel. To this day, they remain mostly unrecognized and have never been compensated for their suffering or their stolen property. The Jews of the Arab nations were small, peaceful communities, loyal to the ruling governments, and concerned with their own well-being and prosperity, much like the Jews of America today. They were not expelled because of anything they had done. They were expelled because they were Jews. Approximately 900,000 Jews fled Arab countries, their property confiscated or stolen. In 2008, the U.S. Congress unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and saying that, if aid is given to Palestinian refugees, there should be similar aid and compensation for the Jewish refugees. The Canadian parliament had done the same in 2004. The writer is a senior researcher at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University.