Jewish and Arab Refugees Must be Compared

from huffingtonpost.com April 8, 2014  by Lyn Julius

A few weeks ago the Al-Jazeera Arabic channel carried a report on starving Palestinian refugees in a Syrian camp. In a sequence that must have slipped the editor's notice, an elderly man moaned in desperation to the camera: "Take us to the Jews. They will feed us!"

In that unguarded moment, two things were revealed: first -- Palestinian refugees are being deprived of a humanitarian solution to their plight. Second -- Arabs know full well that Israelis look after their own -- and not only their own -- but try and help others.

Nowhere is the contrast more stark than in the treatment of the two sets of refugees which arose out of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. A fair proportion of the 711,000 Arab refugees were left to languish -- and now starve -- in refugee camps as a longstanding reproach to Israel. Some 850,000 Jewish refugees were ultimately absorbed and given full citizens' rights in Israel and the West. KEEP READING

Open letter to the Presbyterian Church USA from an Iraqi Jew Read more: Open letter to the Presbyterian Church USA from an Iraqi Jew | Joe Samuels |

MARCH 12, 2014, 9:01 PM by Joe SAMUELS TIMES OF ISRAEL 


note: oF THE 850,000 jews LIVING IN arab LANDS BEFORE 1948 NOT ONE IS LIVING IN A REFUGE CAMP TODAY. rEAD ON: 

Some of your members, under the banner of human rights, have demonized one country. According to them, the one country that destabilizes the Middle East and creates much pain and suffering to the Arab world, is not Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. It is Israel

They believe the root of the problem is Zionism and the return of the Jews to Israel.

Your group has just published a booklet entitled “Zionism Unsettled”. The booklet claims that if it weren’t for the Zionist movement that established Israel, the Jews from Arab lands would still be living in peace and harmony among the Arab nations.

I quote from your from Page 48 of “Zionism Unsettled”:

Middle eastern Jews, also called Mizrahi Jews, share a history of largely harmonious integration and acculturation in their host countries. Sadly, this model of coexistence was destabilized by the regional penetration of Zionism beginning in the late 19th century.

My Arabic name is Yusuf. I was born in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Baghdad known as “Taht El Takia” in December of 1930. I am now 83 years old. My mother tongue is Arabic and I am one those Jews who was integrated in the Arabic Islamic culture of Iraq.

Here are some examples of how us Arab Jews lived in harmony with our hosts: I survived the Farhud of 1941 — a violent “pogrom” when Iraqi Muslims, incited by Nazi Germany, took to the streets, destroyed the Jewish quarter and killed 180 Jewish men, women and children.  I was 11 years old. Google Farhud or read Edwin Black’s book “The Farhud”. The cause of the Farhud, wasn’t  Zionism. The Farhud was purely an anti-Jewish act. At 14, I was chased by two Muslim youths with a knife for stopping them from molesting my neighbor’s teenage daughter in broad daylight. At 18, after graduation from Al A’Adadiah High School, I was refused an exit visa to leave Iraq to study in America because I was Jewish. My story is not unique. I am one of 150,000 Iraqi Jews who was discriminated against, oppressed, and forced to escape religious persecution because of my faith. CLICK THIS TO KEEP READING

Read more: Open letter to the Presbyterian Church USA from an Iraqi Jew | Joe Samuels | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/open-letter-to-the-presbyterian-church-from-an-iraqi-jew/#ixzz2xOX7j1Ys
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook