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Amidst the flurry of international media surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since Operation Protective Edge, one crucial voice continues to be co-opted and silenced: that of indigenous Mizrahi Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. In an August 6, 2014 interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan was questioned regarding his accusations that Jews “slaughter Christians in order to mix their blood in their holy matzoh.” In response, Hamdan denied the Anti-Semitism in Arab countries, by painting a picture of Islamic societies as pluralistic and accepting of Jews: “The Jews lived in the Arab region and among the Muslims as normal citizens. When the Jews were kicked from Europe in the mid-ages, they came to live in peace in our countries, and they were accepted.” JIMENA President and Libyan native, Gina Bublil-Waldman counters by noting that, “Jews have had a continuous presence in the Middle East for over 2,500 years – an entire millennium before the advent of Islam. Under Muslim rule, many Jewish communities in the Arab world were relegated to a subservient, second-class “dhimmi” status.” Hamdan is only the most recent to make this claim. Dr. Mousa Abu Marzook, then Deputy Head of Hamas’ political bureau, stated in an August 25, 2008 interview with IslamOnline: “The Jews who were living under the Islamic rule were the happiest on earth…Jews lived freely and ran prosperous businesses in Egypt and Baghdad, and the markets of Baghdad are evidences of what the Jews owned. Jews did not face any persecution or mistreatment.” Hamas also refuses to recognize Mizrahi refugees, instead blaming them for their own exile and the plight of the Palestinians. In a September 22, 2012 public statement published by Ma’an News Agency, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri condemned the first UN conference on Jewish refugees from Arab countries, held in New York in 2012, claiming that “those Jews are criminals rather than refugees… They were actually responsible for the displacement of the Palestinian people after they secretly migrated from Arab countries to Palestine before they expelled the Palestinians from their lands to build a Jewish state at their expense.” As a leading representative voice of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East & North Africa aims to achieve universal recognition of the Mizrahi refugee experience by collecting and sharing the personal and communal eye-witness testimonies of some of the 850,000 Jews who fled Anti-Semitic persecution in the Arab world. Legal experts assert that the UN Agency for refugees (UNHCR) recognized Jews fleeing Arab countries as bona fide refugees. UN Resolution 242 which was unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council officially recognized Jewish refugees from Arab countries. In a JIMENA testimony, Iraqi-born author Emil Murad describes the long history of Anti-Semitism in Iraq: “From l930 all Iraqi governments systematically suppressed any sign of Jewish or national consciousness on the part of the Iraqi Jews…study of Jewish history was forbidden, restrictions were imposed on relations with Jews abroad and Zionism was considered to be treason.” In 1941, these actions culminated in the massacre known as the Farhud: “They began dragging Jews out of buses and murdering them in the road. Wild crowds and defeated soldiers who had returned with their weapons to the city, saw the pogrom as a celebration and a sort of amusement. The Jewish Quarter in the city centre became a battlefield, with looting, robbery, and rape…The pogrom inflicted mortal wounds on the Jewish community.” JIMENA President Gina Bublil-Waldman recalls the danger to Jews in Arab countries. “We were denied the most basic human and civil rights, such as the right to become citizens, the right to vote, the right to hold public office, or hold government jobs.” Waldman remembers the pogroms in 1945 in her hometown of Tripoli, Libya: “Libyan Arabs looted and burned Jewish homes and killed Jews. They dragged my neighbors and relatives out on the streets and slaughtered them… Nine synagogues – four of them in Tripoli – were burned to the ground, and 35 Torah scrolls were destroyed.” Mrs. Bublil-Waldman relates to ethnic and religious persecution in Muslim countries today: “Mizrahi refugees can empathize and serve as great allies to minorities from Arab countries. Honoring Mizrahi history is key to understanding the suffering of Yezidis, Christians and other oppressed groups in the Middle East.” In her August 17, 2010 article in The Propagandist, “Why Are The Palestinians Still Refugees” Bublil-Waldman asserts that “The Arab leadership sinned doubly by driving the Jews from their homes in nine Arab countries and at the same time refusing hospitality and integration to their own Palestinian brothers who sought refuge in Arab countries.” The accounts of Murad and Bublil-Waldman are not unique. They reflect the collective experience of Jews from the Arab world. In their Global100 survey, the Anti-Defamation League found a 74% Anti-Semitism Index for the Middle East region – far higher than any other region in the world. Amidst growing political turbulence and oppression of ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, it is all the more imperative to uphold and validate the narratives of Mizrahi refugees. Only then can we begin to comprehend the complex scope of Arab-Israeli conflict. Article Here
Today, as we celebrate the First Exodus from Egypt 5,000 years ago, let us also remember the Second Exodus of Jews that took place not so long ago but is unknown to many people. In the years between 1945 and 1970, nearly one million Jews, indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, were brutally forced to leave the lands of their birth. Like their ancestors, they too left in a hurry and under similarly harsh conditions. They fled Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Aden, Tunisia and Iran. And “on the wings of Eagles”, Jews from Ethiopia also landed safely in Israel. And so, on this sacred night, we must say a special prayer to these Forgotten Refugees because they are often left out during any mention in Middle East politics. Therefore, with bitter herbs on your plate and a piece of matza in your hand, please recite the following: We thank you G-d for delivering these Forgotten Jewish Refugees from their modern day pharaohs whose hearts were hardened and full of evil. Many of these Forgotten Refugees were harassed, intimidated, insulted simply because they were Jews, until they were forced to flee. They were made to live as strangers in their own countries and denied basic human and civil rights. They left behind their three thousand year old culture and heritage, their beautiful synagogues and sacred Torah’s, Jewish schools and hospitals, their homes and their personal belongings. “But G-d heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said unto the children of Israel: I am the Lord and I will bring you out from the burdens of the Egyptian (and from other tyrants) and redeem you with an outstretched and strong arm. So, as in the First Exodus, we thank the Lord for this Second Exodus that we are a free people and blessed with the presence of the land of Israel”. “On this Passover and on every Passover in the future, when we eat matza and the bitter herbs, we must cherish the memories of our forgotten brothers and sisters. And as Jews, always yearning for the winds of freedom, we say to them: We Will Not Forget You.”
I write to support the work of JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa), which tells the story of Mizrahi Jews, who lived continuously in the Middle East for over 2,500 years until they were brutally uprooted from the Arab countries.
Dear Secretary Blinken: We are writing on behalf of JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, a San Francisco, CA based organization representing the heritage and rights of the one million Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who fled religious persecution or were ethnically cleansed from the region from the 20th century until today. On behalf of our members I would like to extend our congratulations on your confirmation as Secretary of State and look forward to working with you to promote and defend the American values of freedom of religion, expression, and rule of law. Since 2018, a coalition of 18 leading Jewish organizations including: Anti-Defamation League, Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, B’nai Brith International, World Jewish Congress, and Simon Wiesenthal Center have publicly called on the U.S. State Department to encourage the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to explicitly recognize the rights of Jewish and minority heritage when negotiating cultural property agreements with countries in North Africa and the Middle East. On multiple occasions we specifically requested that Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) originating in North Africa and the Middle East include provisions that list and name specific Jewish and Christian items to be excluded from the restricted list of items to be brought in the United States. We also requested that the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Heritage adheres to the limitations set by Congress under the Cultural Property Implementation Act by denying broad, excessive import restrictions to nations that have neither valued nor cherished the ancient heritage of Jewish, Christian, and other minority peoples. It is in this same vein that we request that any regulations to implement the Turkey MOU be frozen or suspended until such time as Turkey recognizes and respects the religious freedom and property of minority populations. As you know, immediately after his inauguration on January 20th President Biden issued a Memorandum to all Executive Departments and Agencies placing a freeze on any pending rule or regulation issued by the Trump Administration. President Biden’s freeze has been necessitated by the Trump Administration’s effort to continue to improperly direct US policy after he has left office. One of these ill-conceived measures, signed on January 19th, Trump’s last day in office, was a cultural property agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Erdogan Regime in Turkey. That MOU provides de-facto recognition to that government’s claims to the personal and communal property of that nation’s religious Jewish and Christian minorities. In fact, the Turkey MOU is consistent with a series of Trump Administration MOUs with authoritarian governments in Libya, Algeria, Jordan, and Yemen that recognize state ownership of all personal and communal property of displaced religious minorities. These MOUs have been contrary to the values of our nation and fail to serve their stated goal of protecting cultural property. We also request that you suspend the Trump Administration’s MOU with Yemen’s Saudi-supported government as part of the Biden Administration’s disengagement with the Saudi led war in Yemen. The current MOU with Yemen turns a blind eye to not only that government’s claims over Jewish religious property, but to its complicity in the shelling and bombing of Yemen’s own cultural heritage into dust. Hopefully, a freeze on any implementing regulations for the MOU with Turkey and a suspension of the MOU with Yemen will be an important first step towards ascertaining whether all Trump Administration MOU’s with authoritarian MENA governments can be reformed to protect the rights of religious and ethnic minorities to their own property. Thank you, Executive Director of JIMENA, Sarah Levin President of JIMENA, Gina Bublil-Waldman C.C. Chair The Cultural Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Stefan Passantino Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs Assistant Secretary, Marie Royce House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Gregory Meeks Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman, Bob Menendez Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad Chairman, Paul Packer **JIMENA Letter on Turkey MOU**