Forgotten Refuges the Conflict Between

Forgotten Refuges

The conflict between Arabs and Jews is a long and intractable issue. The central features of the conflict have revolved around the rights of Arabs in Palestine to a homeland. There is however another face of the issue that has received very little attention from the media and is not factored into the assessment of the problem. That factor is the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Jews who were dispossessed by Arabs. The forgotten refuges throw light on a missing conversation in the dialogue between Jews and the international community. The Jews who lived in North Africa and in other Middle Eastern countries were unfairly expelled during the 1940s.

The Jewish history in North Africa and the Middle East begins with the action of the Nebuchadnezzar the king of ancient Babylon (Iraq). Nebuchadnezzar captured thousands of Jews from Israel and carried them to Babylon in chains. In Babylon the Jews maintained their cultural forms and resisted much of the attempts by the Babylonians to integrate them into the culture. This captivity predates the action of Islamic peoples in North Africa and the Middle East. Consequently, the Jewish people were in these countries well before the Muslim conquerors came.

The major Jewish challenges began with the conquest of the Middle East and North Africa by the Muslims. The Muslim conquerors were an overwhelming force across the Middle East and North Africa; they took control of all the major cities. They were merciless as they sought to eradicate all forms of opposition. The Jews and Christian who were in those countries at the time were considered as "Dhimmi" or minority peoples. They were thought of a people of the book and should not be killed. This position was an inferior position compared to the Muslims.

The inferiority of the Jews blossomed into full grown persecution overtime. The Jews were initially could not build houses higher than a Muslim. They could not build new houses of worship and required permission to refurbish old houses. Even when they received the permission the synagogue could not be higher than the nearest mosque. This category of inferiority had political and economic consequences. The result of these actions was the reduction of the opportunities of Jews to attain wealth and power within those communities.

The 1945 riots in Lebanon were merely a window into the types of persecution Jews experienced across the Middle East and North Africa. While the focus was on the Holocaust (1933-1945) which involved European Jews the plight of Middle Eastern and African Jews was largely ignored. The state sponsored violence and destruction of Jews took place across much of the Middle East. Middle Eastern and North African countries were systematically depopulated of Jews. In Egypt in 1944 there were 80,000 Jews by 2004 there were 40. In Algeria there were 140,000 by 2004 only 80. In Yemen 55,000 by 2004 there were 100. In Morocco where the largest populations were in 1945 there were 265,000 Jews by 2004 only 5000.