Jewish exodus from Arab lands - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries was a mass departure, flight and expulsion of Jews, primarily of Sephardi

Sephardi Jews

Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...

and Mizrahi

Mizrahi Jews

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...

background, from Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

and Muslim countries, from 1948 until the early 1970s. Though Jewish migration from Middle Eastern and North African communities began in the late 19th century, and Jews began fleeing some Arab countries in the 1930s and early 1940s, it did not become significant until the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

.

From 1948 until the early 1970s, 800,000–1,000,000 Jews left, fled, or were expelled from their homes in Arab countries; 260,000 of them reached Israel between 1948 and 1951; and 600,000 by 1972. Lebanon was the only Arab country to see an increase in its Jewish population after 1948, which was due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries. However, by the 1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon too dwindled due to hostilities of the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...

. By 2002 Jews from Arab countries and their descendants constituted almost half of Israel's population.

The reasons for the exodus included push factors such as persecution, antisemitism, political instability and expulsion, together with pull factors, such as the desire to fulfill Zionist

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

yearnings or find a better economic and secure home in Europe or the Americas. A significant proportion of Jews left due to political insecurity and the rise of Arab nationalism

Arab nationalism

Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...

, and later also due to policies of some Arab governments who sought to present the expulsion of Jews as a crowd-driven retaliatory act for the exodus of Arab refugees from Palestine. Most Libyan Jews fled to Israel by 1951, while the citizenship of the rest was revoked in 1961, and the community remnants were finally evacuated to Italy following the Six Day War. Almost all of Yemeni and Adeni Jews, were evacuated during 1949–1950

Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)

Operation Magic Carpet is a widely-known nickname for Operation On Wings of Eagles , an operation between June 1949 and September 1950 that brought 49,000 Yemenite Jews to the new state of Israel. British and American transport planes made some 380 flights from Aden, in a secret operation that was...

in fear of their security. Iraqi and Kurdish Jews were encouraged to leave in 1950 by the Iraqi Government, which had eventually ordered in 1951 "the expulsion of Jews who refused to sign a statement of anti-Zionism". The Jews of Egypt began fleeing the country in 1948, and most of the remaining, some 21,000, were expelled in 1956. The Jews of Algeria were deprived of their citizenship in 1962 and had mostly immediately left the country for France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Moroccan Jews began leaving for Israel, as a result of the 1948 pogroms, with most of the community leaving in 1960s. Many Jews were required to sell, abandon, or smuggle their property out of the countries they were fleeing.

An additional 200,000 Jews from non-Arab Muslim countries left their homes due to increasing insecurity and growing hostility since 1948. Many Iranian and Kurdish Jews fled Iran and abandoned their property in fear, that they would remain hostages of a hostile regime.When combined all together, as much as 37% of Jews in Islamic countries—the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, left for Israel between May 1948 and the beginning of 1952. They amounted for 56% of the total immigration to the newly founded State of Israel. The exodus of Iranian Jews peaked following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when around 80% of Iranian Jews left the war-torn country for US and Israel. Turkish Jewry had mostly immigrated due to economic reasons and Zionist aspirations, but since the 1990s increasing terrorist attacks against Jews caused security concerns, with the result that many Jews left for Israel.

Historic background

Many Jews had experienced tension within the Arab countries, similar to other minorities. Conversely, the idea of Zionism and of a Jewish state was appealing to the Jews; however, this entailed leaving the land in which they had lived for many generations. Insecurity was exacerbated by the process of the Arab struggle for independence and the conflict in Palestine and in some cases this led to physical expulsion and appropriation of property.

A constant flow of Jews from European, Middle Eastern and North African communities increased during the Ottoman period. However, only by the end of the 19th century a more significant immigration from Middle Eastern communities had begun. The Yemeni Jews, first to arrive, were driven primarily by Messianic and religious Zionist aspirations, even though they faced periodic suppression and violence. Yet, the waves of anti-Jewish pogrom

Pogrom

A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

s in the 19th and the early 20th century across the Middle East and North Africa provided a solid ground for many Jews to consider a new home, whether Israel or elsewhere.

Rise of modern antisemitism in the Middle East

The British mandate over Iraq came to an end in June 1930, and in October 1932 the country became independent. The Iraqi government response to the demand of Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

n autonomy (a Semitic tribe, affiliated to Nestorian church), turned into a bloody massacre

Simele massacre

The Simele Massacre was a massacre committed by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Iraq during the systematic targeting of Assyrians in northern Iraq in August 1933...

by Iraqi army in August 1933. This event was the first sign to the Jewish community that minority rights were meaningless under Iraqi monarchy. King Faisal, known for his liberal policies, died in September 1933, and was succeeded by Ghazi, his nationalistic anti-British son. Ghazi began promoting Arab nationalist organizations, headed by Syrian and Palestinian exiles. With 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, they were joined by rebels, such as the Mufti of Jerusalem. The exiles preached pan-Arab ideology and fostered anti-Zionist propaganda.

Under Iraqi nationalists, the Nazi propaganda began to infiltrate the country as Nazi Germany was anxious to expand its influence in the Arab world. Dr. Fritz Grobba, who resided in Iraq since 1932, began vigorously and systematically to disseminate hateful propaganda against Jews. Among other things, Arabic translation of Mein Kampf was published and Radio Berlin had begun broadcasting in Arabic language. Anti-Jewish policies had been implemented since 1934, and the confidence of Jews was further shaken by the growing crisis in Palestine in 1936. Between 1936 and 1939 ten Jews were murdered and on eight occasions bombs were thrown on Jewish locations.

In June 1941 a pro-Nazi regime was formed in Iraq, headed by Rashid Ali al-Galyani. Following a widespread propaganda campaign, an anti-Jewish pogrom

Farhud

Farhud refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941 during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a...

erupted in the final days of the regime in Baghdad, leading to deaths of 180 Jews. The Farhud

Farhud

pogrom was a shocking event to Iraqi Jewish community, with much of Jewish property seized and as many as 50,000 Iraqi Jews affected. Many displaced Iraqi Jews began fleeing for Israel reaching a rate of 1,000 per year by 1949. Some 10,000 Jews left Iraq in 1941–1949, following the Farhud

Farhud

.

During the Second World War Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya came under Nazi

Afrika Korps

The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...

or Vichy French occupation and these Jews were subject to various persecution. In 1942, German troops fighting the Allies

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

in North Africa occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi

Benghazi

Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...

, plundering shops and deporting more than 2,000 Jews across the desert. Sent to work in labor camp

Labor camp

A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...

s, more than one-fifth of that group of Jews perished. At the time, most of the Jews were living in cities of Tripoli and Benghazi and there were smaller numbers in Bayda and Misrata.

In other areas Nazi propaganda targeted Arab populations in order to incite them against British or French rule. National Socialist propaganda contributed to the transfer of racial antisemitism to the Arab world and is likely to have unsettled Jewish communities.

Following the liberation of North Africa by allied forces, antisemitic incitements were still on the high. The most severe racial violence erupted in Tripoli (Libya)

1945 Tripoli pogrom

The Tripoli pogrom of 1945 was the most violent rioting against Jews in North Africa in modern times. From November 5 to November 7, 1945, more than 140 Jews were killed and many more injured in a pogrom in Tripoli. Together with previous persecutions of Jews by the pro-Italian Libyan government...

in November 1945. Over a period of several days more than 130 Jews (including 36 children) were killed, hundreds were injured, 4,000 were left homeless (displaced) and 2,400 were reduced to poverty. Five synagogues in Tripoli and four in provincial towns were destroyed, and over 1,000 Jewish residences and commercial buildings were plundered in Tripoli alone. The same year, violent anti-Jewish pogroms occurred in other cities across the Arab World

Arab world

The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

, including Cairo (Egypt)

1945 Cairo pogrom

In 1945, with the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the cultivation of anti-Western and anti-Jewish sentiment, riots erupted. In the violence, 10 Jews were killed, 350 injured, and a synagogue, a Jewish hospital, and an old-age home were burned down...

, which resulted in 10 Jewish victims.

Exodus from Arab countries (1947–1972)

With the November 1947 declaration of United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, severe anti-Jewish pogroms with massive casualties erupted across the Arab World

Arab world

. Arab pogroms against Jews in Yemen

1947 Aden pogrom

The 1947 Aden pogrom was one of the most violent attacks on Mizrahi Jewish communities in the Middle East in the modern times, resulting in at least 82 Jews murdered and a widescale devastation of local Jewish community of Aden, bringing an end to its millennia long history.-Background:By mid 20th...

and Syria were particularly violent. The violence prompted a severe increase in Jewish exodus, with the Aleppo Jewish community deteriorating into decline and soon after the pogrom

1947 Aleppo pogrom

The 1947 Aleppo pogrom refers to an attack against Aleppo's Jews in December 1947, following the United Nations vote in favor of partitioning Palestine. The attack, a part of anti-Jewish wave of unrest across Middle East and North Africa, resulted in between 8 to 75 Jews killed and several hundred...

half the city's Jewish population had left. In 1948, the violence had spread to Egypt, Morocco and Iraq as well, practically covering all Arab countries. At the same time, independent Arab countries began to encourage Jewish emigration to Israel.

In Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, Jews were deprived of citizenship, and in Iraq, their property was seized. Those Jews who were forced to emigrate were not allowed to take their property. From 1948 to 1949, the Israeli government secretly airlifted 50,000 Jews from Yemen

Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)

and from 1950 to 1952, 130,000 Jews were airlifted from Iraq. From 1949 to 1951, 30,000 Jews fled Libya to Israel. In these cases over 90% of the Jewish population opted to leave, despite the necessity of leaving their property behind.

In total it is estimated that 800,000 to 1,000,000 Jews were forced out or fled from their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. Some place the emigration peak to a slightly earlier time window of 1944 to 1964, when some 700,000 Jews moved to Israel from Arab countries and were dispossessed of nearly their entire property.

A body representing the Jewish refugees, the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries

World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries

World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries was an international organization, created in 1975, representing Jewish refugees from Arab countries...

(WOJAC) estimated in 2006, that Jewish property abandoned in Arab countries would be valued at more than $100 billion, later revising their estimate in 2007 to $300 billion. They also estimated Jewish-owned real-estate left behind in Arab lands at 100,000 square kilometers (four times the size of the state of Israel). estimated by Sidney Zabludoff to be at minimum $700 million in period prices and $6 billion today. The organization asserts that a major cause of the Jewish exodus was a deliberate policy decision taken by the Arab League

Arab League

The Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organisation of Arab states in North and Northeast Africa, and Southwest Asia . It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Yemen joined as a...

. In 2007, a Jewish advocacy group JJAC (Justice for Jews from Arab Countries) has too alleged that Arab League

Arab League

members formulated a coordinated policy to expel or force the departure of the Jewish population.

Algeria

Almost all Jews of Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

left upon independence in 1962, particularly as "the Algerian Nationality Code of 1963 excluded non-Muslims from acquiring citizenship", allowing citizenship only to those Algerians who had Muslim paternal fathers and grandfathers. Algeria's 140,000 Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, who had French citizenship since 1870 (briefly revoked by Vichy France in 1940) left mostly for France

France

, although some went to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Following the Algerian Civil War

Algerian Civil War

The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...

most of the thousand-odd Jews living mainly in Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

and Blida

Blida

Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...

, Constantine

Constantine, Algeria

Constantine is the capital of Constantine Province in north-eastern Algeria. It was the capital of the same-named French département until 1962. Slightly inland, it is about 80 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast, on the banks of Rhumel river...

, and Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

, left the country. The Algiers synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

was consequently abandoned after 1994.

Jewish migration from North Africa to France led to the rejuvenation of the French Jewish community, which is now the third largest in the world.

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

's tiny Jewish community, mostly the Jewish descendants of immigrants who entered the country in the early 1900s from Iraq, numbered 600 in 1948. In the wake of the November 29, 1947, U.N. Partition vote, demonstrations against the vote in the Arab world were called for December 2–5. The first two days of demonstrations in Bahrain saw rock throwing against Jews, but on December 5, mobs in the capital of Manama

Manama

Manama is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 155,000 people.Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a very diverse population...

looted

1947 Manama pogrom

In the wake of the 1947-1948 Civil War in Palestine, a violent pogrom was led against the Jewish community of Manama on December 5, 1947. An Arab mob looted Jewish homes and shops, destroyed the synagogue, beat any Jews they could find, and murdered one elderly woman.-Background:Bahrain's tiny...

Jewish homes and shops, destroyed the synagogue, beat any Jews they could find, and murdered one elderly woman.

Over the next few decades, most left for other countries, especially England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

; as of 2006 only 36 remained.

Relations between Jews and Muslims are generally considered good, with Bahrain being the only state on the Arabian Peninsula where there is a specific Jewish community and the only Gulf state with a synagogue. One member of the community, Rouben Rouben, who sells electronics and appliances from his downtown showroom, said "95% of my customers are Bahrainis, and the government is our No. 1 corporate customer. I've never felt any kind of discrimination."

Members play a prominent role in civil society: Ebrahim Nono was appointed in 2002 a member of Bahrain's upper house of parliament, the Consultative Council, while a Jewish woman heads a human rights group, the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society

Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society

The Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, is a Bahraini human rights organization established in November 2004 which claims to protect housemaids, and to fight for women’s rights....

. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is an international news agency serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world. The JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau in The Hague with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and...

, the active Jewish community is "a source of pride for Bahraini officials".

In Bahrain's 2006 parliamentary election

Elections in Bahrain

The National Assembly is bicameral with the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, having 40 members elected in single-seat constituencies for a four year term. The upper house, the Shura Council, has 40 members appointed by the King of Bahrain, with the stated aim of giving a voice to minority...

, some candidates have specifically sought out the Jewish vote; writer Munira Fakhro

Munira Fakhro

Munira Fakhro, is a Bahraini academic and was a candidate in Bahrain's 2006 general election for the opposition Waad.Dr Fakhro is Associate Professor at the University of Bahrain, having received her Doctorate in Social Policy, Planning and Administration from Columbia University where she has...

, Vice President of the Leftist National Democratic Action

National Democratic Action

The National Democratic Action Society - Wa'ad is Bahrain's largest leftist political party. It emerged out of the Popular Front, a radical clandestine opposition movement of Maoist, socialist and Arab nationalist orientation...

, standing in Isa Town told the local press: "There are 20–30 Jews in my area and I would be working for their benefit and raise their standard of living."

Egypt

In 1948, approximately 75,000 Jews lived in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. About 100 remain today, mostly in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

. The exodus of Egyptian Jews had begun following the 1945 Cairo pogrom

1945 Cairo pogrom

, though was not significant until 1948. In June 1948, a bomb exploded in Cairo's Karaite quarter, killing 22 Jews. In July 1948, Jewish shops and the Cairo Synagogue were attacked, killing 19 Jews. Hundreds of Jews were arrested and had their property confiscated. Nearly 40% of the Jewish population of Egypt had left the country by 1950.

In 1951, the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent, antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century...

was translated into Arabic and promoted as an authentic historical document, fueling anti-Semitic sentiments in Egypt. In 1954, the Lavon Affair

Lavon Affair

The Lavon Affair refers to a failed Israeli covert operation, code named Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence for plans to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and...

served as a pretext for further persecution of Egyptian Jews.

In October 1956, when the Suez Crisis

Suez Crisis

The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...

erupted, 1,000 Jews were arrested and 500 Jewish businesses were seized by the government. A statement branding the Jews as "Zionists and enemies of the state" was read out in the mosques of Cairo and Alexandria. Jewish bank accounts were confiscated and many Jews lost their jobs. Lawyers, engineers, doctors and teachers were not allowed to work in their professions. Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave the country. They were allowed to take only one suitcase and a small sum of cash, and forced to sign declarations "donating" their property to the Egyptian government. Foreign observers reported that members of Jewish families were taken hostage, apparently to insure that those forced to leave did not speak out against the Egyptian government. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Europe, the United States, South America and Israel, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Similar measures were enacted against British and French nationals in retaliation for the invasion. By 1957 the Jewish population of Egypt had fallen to 15,000.

In 1960, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were the subject of an article by Salah Dasuqi, military governor of Cairo, in al-Majallaaa, the official cultural journal. In 1965, the Egyptian government released an English-language pamphlet titled Israel, the Enemy of Africa and distributed it throughout the English-speaking countries of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The pamphlet used the Protocols and The International Jew
The International Jew
The International Jew is a four volume set of booklets or pamphlets originally published and distributed in the early 1920s by Henry Ford, an American industrialist and automobile manufacturer....

as its sources and concluded that all the Jews were cheats, thieves, and murderers. In 1967, Jews were detained and tortured, and Jewish homes were confiscated.

Iraq

In 1948, there were approximately 150,000 Jews in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. The community was concentrated in Baghdad and Basra. By 2003, there were only approximately 100 left of this previously thriving community. In 1941, following Rashid Ali's pro-Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

coup, riots known as the Farhud
Farhud
Farhud refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941 during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a...

broke out in Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

in which approximately 180 Jews were killed and about 240 were wounded, 586 Jewish-owned businesses were looted and 99 Jewish houses were destroyed.

Like most Arab League

Arab League

states, Iraq initially forbade the emigration of its Jews after the 1948 war on the grounds that allowing them to go to Israel would strengthen that state. However, by 1949 Jews were escaping Iraq at about a rate of 1,000 a month.

Hoping to stem the flow of assets from the country, in March 1950 Iraq passed a law of one year duration allowing Jews to emigrate on condition of relinquishing their Iraqi citizenship. They were motivated, according to Ian Black, by "economic considerations, chief of which was that almost all the property of departing Jews reverted to the state treasury" and also that "Jews were seen as a restive and potentially troublesome minority that the country was best rid of." Israel was at first reluctant to absorb all the Jews, but eventually yielded and mounted an operation called "Ezra and Nehemiah

Operation Ezra and Nehemiah

From 1950 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted between 120,000 to 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. The massive emigration of Iraqi Jews was among the most climactic events of Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. By 1968 only 2,000 Jews remained in Iraq...

" to bring as many of the Iraqi Jews as possible to Israel.

At first, the Zionist movement tried to regulate the amount of registrants, until several issues relating to their legal status were clarified. Later on it gave up on that position and allowed everyone to register. Two weeks after the law went into force, the Iraqi interior minister demanded a CID investigation as to why the Jews were not registering. A mere few hours after the movement allowed registrations, a bomb attack injured four Jews at a café on Abu-Nawas street in Baghdad.

On August 21, 1950, the Iraqi minister of interior threatened the company flying the Jews to have its license revoked if it does not fulfill the quota of 500 Jews per day. Later on, on September 18, 1950, Nuri As-said summoned a representative of the Jewish community and told him that he knows that Israel is behind the delay in the departure of the Jews, and threatened to "take them to the borders". On October 12, 1950, Nuri as-said summoned a senior official of the company and made similar threats again, equating the expulsion of Jews with the expulsion of Palestinians.

Two months before the expiry of the law, by which time about 85,000 Jews had registered, a bombing campaign

1950–1951 Baghdad bombings

1950–1951 Baghdad bombings refers to the bombing of Jewish targets in Baghdad, Iraq, between April 1950 and June 1951. In the wake of these incidents, Iraqi authorities arrested 28 Jews and 9 Arabs on charges of espionage and illegal arms possession....

against Jews in Baghdad began. The law expired in March 1951, but was later extended after the Iraqi government froze and later appropriated the assets of departing Jews (including those who had already left). In 1951 the Iraqi Government passed legislation that made affiliation with Zionism a felony and ordered, "the expulsion of Jews who refused to sign a statement of anti-Zionism".

Between April 1950 and June 1951, five bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

occurred. Iraqi authorities eventually arrested 3 Zionist activists for the bombings, sentencing two—Shalom Salah Shalom and Yosef Ibrahim Basri—to death and a third—Yehuda Tajar—to 10 years in jail. Over the decades, there has been much heated debate over whether the bombs were in fact planted by the Mossad

Mossad

The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

in order to encourage Iraqi Jews to emigrate to the newly created state of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

or whether they were the work of genuine anti-Jewish extremists in Iraq. The issue has been the subject of lawsuits and inquiries in Israel. In May and June 1951, the arms caches of the Zionist underground in Iraq, which had been supplied from Palestine/Israel since the Farhud

Farhud

of 1941, were discovered.

Historian Moshe Gat contends that the claim that the bombings were carried out by Zionists is contrary to the evidence, and in any event the impetus for the Jewish-Iraqi exodus was the imminent expiration of the denaturalisation law (allowing Jews to leave), not the bombing.

However, anti-Zionist Naeim Giladi

Naeim Giladi

Naeim Giladi was an anti-Zionist Iraqi jew, president of the World Organization of Jews From Islamic Countries and author of an autobiographical article and historical analysis entitled The Jews of Iraq...

's position that the bombings were "perpetrated by Zionist agents in order to cause fear amongst the Jews, and so promote their exodus to Israel" is shared by other anti-Zionist authors and journalists such as Israeli Black Panthers

Israeli Black Panthers

The Black Panthers were an Israeli protest movement of second-generation Jewish immigrants from Middle Eastern countries. They were one of the first organizations in Israel with the mission of working for social justice for the Mizrahi Jews...

(1975), David Hirst

David Hirst (journalist)

David Hirst is a veteran Middle East correspondent based in Beirut. He attended Rugby School from 1949 to 1954 and performed his national service in Egypt and Cyprus from 1954 to 1956. From 1956 to 1963 he studied at Oxford University and the American University of Beirut...

(1977), Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement.A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965–74 and 1979–81...

(1988), Abbas Shiblak

Abbas Shiblak

Abbas Shiblak is a Middle-Eastern academic, historian, Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre , University of Oxford , free-lance writer, former diplomat and an advocate of human rights....

(1986), and Marion Wolfsohn (1980). Wilbur Crane Eveland

Wilbur Crane Eveland

Wilbur Crane "Bill" Eveland was a World War II veteran, a CIA station chief, and critic of US foreign policy in the Middle East...

held a similar view, outlining the allegation in his 1980 book Ropes of Sand.

During the months after the first bomb, all but a few thousand of the remaining Jews registered for emigration. In total, about 120,000 Jews left Iraq.

In 1969 some 50 of the remaining Iraqi Jews were executed, 11 were publicly executed after show trials and several hundred thousand Iraqis marched past the bodies amid a carnival-like atmosphere.

Lebanon

The area now known as Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

was the home of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, dating back to at least 300 BCE. In 1948, there were approximately 24,000 The largest communities of Jews in Lebanon were in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, and the villages near Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

, Deir al Qamar, Barouk

Barouk

Barouk is a village in the Chouf District of Lebanon . Historically, the village is known for being the "land of good", because of its fountain . The poet Rachid Nakhleh, the writer of the national hymn , was born in Barouk...

, Bechamoun

Bechamoun

Bchamoun is a village in Aley District in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It has an elevation between 40m and 580m above sea level, 12km from airport and Beirut . Bchamoun main population was 5000, but now it exceeds 15000...

, and Hasbaya

Hasbaya

Hasbeya or Hasbeiya is a town in Lebanon, situated about 36 miles to the west of Damascus, at the foot of Mount Hermon, overlooking a deep amphitheatre from which a brook flows to the Hasbani. In 1911, the population was about 5000....

. While the French mandate saw a general improvement in conditions for Jews, the Vichy regime placed restrictions on them. The Jewish community actively supported Lebanese independence after World War II and had mixed attitudes toward Zionism.

Unlike in other Arab countries, the Lebanese Jewish community did not face grave peril during the 1948 Arab-Israel War and was reasonably protected by governmental authorities. Lebanon was also the only Arab country that saw a post-1948 increase in its Jewish population, principally due to the influx of Jewish refugees coming from Syria and Iraq.

However, negative attitudes toward Jews increased after 1948, and, by 1967, most Lebanese Jews had emigrated—to the United States, Canada, France, and Israel. The remaining Jewish community was particularly hard hit by the civil wars in Lebanon, and, by 1967, most Jews had emigrated. In 1971, Albert Elia, the 69-year-old Secretary-General of the Lebanese Jewish community was kidnapped in Beirut by Syrian agents and imprisoned under torture in Damascus along with Syrian Jews who had attempted to flee the country. A personal appeal by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan to the late President Hafez al-Assad failed to secure Elia's release. In the 1980s, Hezbollah kidnapped several Lebanese Jewish businessmen, and in the 2004 elections, only one Jew voted in the municipal elections. There are now only between 20 and 40 Jews living in Lebanon.

Libya

In 1948, about 38,000 Jews lived in Libya. A series of pogroms started in Tripoli

1945 Tripoli pogrom

in November 1945; over a period of several days more than 130 Jews (including 36 children) were killed, hundreds were injured, 4,000 were left homeless, and 2,400 were reduced to poverty. Five synagogues in Tripoli and four in provincial towns were destroyed, and over 1,000 Jewish residences and commercial buildings were plundered in Tripoli alone. The pogroms continued in June 1948, when 15 Jews were killed and 280 Jewish homes destroyed.

Between the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and Libyan independence in December 1951 over 30,000 Libyan Jews emigrated to Israel. In 1967, during the Six-Day War

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...

, the Jewish population of 4,000 was again subjected to pogroms in which 18 were killed, and many more injured. The Libyan government "urged the Jews to leave the country temporarily", permitting them each to take one suitcase and the equivalent of $50. In June and July over 4,000 traveled to Italy, where they were assisted by the Jewish Agency. 1,300 went on to Israel, 2,200 remained in Italy, and most of the rest went to the United States. A few scores remained in Libya.

In 1970 the Libyan government issued new laws which confiscated all the assets of Libya's Jews, issuing in their stead 15 year bonds. However, when the bonds matured no compensation was paid. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...

justified this on the grounds that "the alignment of the Jews with Israel, the Arab nations' enemy, has forfeited their right to compensation."

Although the main synagogue in Tripoli was renovated in 1999, it has not reopened for services. The last Jew in Libya, Esmeralda Meghnagi, died in February 2002. Israel is home to about 40,000 Jews of Libyan descent, who maintain unique traditions.

Morocco

In Morocco the Vichy

Vichy France

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

regime during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

passed discriminatory laws against Jews; for example, Jews were no longer able to get any form of credit, Jews who had homes or businesses in European neighborhoods were expelled, and quotas were imposed limiting the percentage of Jews allowed to practice professions such as law and medicine to two percent. King Muhammad V

Mohammed V of Morocco

Mohammed V was Sultan of Morocco from 1927–53, exiled from 1953–55, where he was again recognized as Sultan upon his return, and King from 1957 to 1961. His full name was Sidi Mohammed ben Yusef, or Son of Yusef, upon whose death he succeeded to the throne...

expressed his personal distaste for these laws, and assured Moroccan Jewish leaders that he would never lay a hand "upon either their persons or property". While there is no concrete evidence of him actually taking any actions to defend Morocco's Jews, it has been argued that he may have worked behind the scenes on their behalf, though this has been refuted by local research.

In June 1948, soon after Israel was established and in the midst of the first Arab-Israeli war, violent anti-Jewish riots

1948 Oujda and Jerada pogrom

The Oujda and Jerada pogrom was a pogrom that occurred on June 7-8, 1948, in the towns of Oujda and Jerada, northeastern Morocco. In those events 42 Jews were killed and approximately l50 injured at the hands of local Muslims in reaction to the civil war in Palestine.-See also:*Farhud*1945 Tripoli...

broke out in Oujda

Oujda

Oujda is a city in eastern Morocco with an estimated population of 1 million. The city is located about 15 kilometers west of Algeria and about 60 kilometers south of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the Oriental Region of Morocco and the birthplace of the current Algerian president,...

and Djerada, leading to deaths of 44 Jews. In 1948–9, after the massacres, 18,000 Moroccan Jews left the country for Israel. Later, however, the Jewish exodus from Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

slowed down to a few thousand a year. Through the early fifties, Zionist

Zionism

organizations encouraged emigration, particularly in the poorer south of the country, seeing Moroccan Jews as valuable contributors to the Jewish State:

In 1956, Morocco attained independence. Jews occupied several political positions, including three parliamentary seats and the cabinet position of Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. However, that minister, Leon Benzaquen, did not survive the first cabinet reshuffling, and no Jew was appointed again to a cabinet position. Although the relations with the Jewish community at the highest levels of government were cordial, these attitudes were not shared by the lower ranks of officialdom, which exhibited attitudes that ranged from traditional contempt to outright hostility". Morocco's increasing identification with the Arab world

Arab world

, and pressure on Jewish educational institutions to arabize and conform culturally added to the fears of Moroccan Jews. As a result, emigration to Israel jumped from 8,171 persons in 1954 to 24,994 in 1955, increasing further in 1956.

Between 1956 and 1961, emigration to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

was prohibited by law; clandestine emigration continued, and a further 18,000 Jews left Morocco. On January 10, 1961, a boat carrying Jews, attempting to flee the country sank off the northern coast of Morocco; the negative publicity associated with this prompted King Muhammad V

Mohammed V of Morocco

to allow Jewish emigration, and over the three following years, more than 70,000 Moroccan Jews left the country. By 1967, only 50,000 Jews remained.

The 1967 Six-Day War led to increased Arab-Jewish tensions worldwide, including Morocco, and significant Jewish emigration out of the country continued. By the early 1970s, the Jewish population of Morocco was reduced to 25,000; however, most of this wave of emigration went to France

France

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, rather than Israel.

Despite their dwindling numbers, Jews continue to play a notable role in Morocco; the King retains a Jewish senior adviser, André Azoulay

André Azoulay

André Azoulay is a senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco. He previously advised Mohammed's father, King Hassan II. He currently presides over the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures, based in Alexandria, Egypt...

, and Jewish schools and synagogues receive government subsidies. Despite this, Jewish targets have sometimes been attacked (notably the 2003 bombing attacks

2003 Casablanca bombings

The 2003 Casablanca bombings were a series of suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country's history. 45 people were killed as a result of these attacks...

on a Jewish community center in Casablanca

Casablanca

Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

), and there is sporadic anti-Semitic rhetoric from radical Islamist groups. The late King Hassan II's invitations for Jews to return to Morocco have not been taken up by the people who had emigrated.

According to Esther Benbassa, the migration of Jews from the Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...

countries was prompted by uncertainty about the future. In 1948, over 250,000-265,000 Jews lived in Morocco. By 2001 an estimated 5,230 remained.

Sudan

The Jewish community in Sudan was concentrated in the capital Khartoum, and had been established in the late 19th century. By the middle of the 20th century the community included some 350 Jews, mainly of Sephardic background, who had constructed a synagogue and a Jewish school. Between 1948 and 1956, some members of the community left the country, and it finally ceased to exist by the early 1960s.

Syria

In 1947, rioters in Aleppo burned the city's Jewish quarter

1947 Aleppo pogrom

and killed 75 people. As a result, nearly half of the Jewish population of Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

opted to leave the city. In 1948, there were approximately 30,000 Jews in Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. The Syrian government placed severe restrictions on the Jewish community, including on emigration. Over the next decades, many Jews managed to escape, and the work of supporters, particularly Judy Feld Carr

Judy Feld Carr

Judith Feld Carr, CM is a Canadian Jewish musician and human rights activist known for secretly smuggling thousands of Jews out of Syria over a period of 28 years.-Biography:...

, in smuggling Jews out of Syria, and bringing their plight to the attention of the world, raised awareness of their situation.

Following the Madrid Conference of 1991

Madrid Conference of 1991

The Madrid Conference was hosted by the government of Spain and co-sponsored by the USA and the USSR. It convened on October 30, 1991 and lasted for three days. It was an early attempt by the international community to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians...

the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

put pressure on the Syrian government to ease its restrictions on Jews, and on Passover in 1992, the government of Syria began granting exit visas to Jews on condition that they do not emigrate to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. At that time, the country had several thousand Jews; today, under a hundred remain. The rest of the Jewish community have emigrated, mostly to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. There is a large and vibrant Syrian Jewish community in South Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In 2004, the Syrian government attempted to establish better relations with the emigrants, and a delegation of a dozen Jews of Syrian origin visited Syria in the spring of that year.

Tunisia

In 1948, approximately 105,000 Jews lived in Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

. About 1,500 remain today, mostly in Djerba

Djerba

Djerba , also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is, at 514 km², the largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia.-Description:...

, Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

, and Zarzis

Zarzis

Zarzis is a commune and coastal town in southeastern Tunisia, on the coast of Mediterranean Sea. The climate is mainly dry and sunny, making it a popular tourist destination mixing the old and the traditional...

. Following Tunisia's independence from France in 1956, a number of anti-Jewish policies led to emigration, of which half went to Israel and the other half to France. After attacks in 1967, Jewish emigration both to Israel and France

France

accelerated. There were also attacks in 1982, 1985, and most recently in 2002 when a bomb in Djerba took 21 lives (most of them German tourists) near the local synagogue, in a terrorist attack claimed by Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. (See Ghriba synagogue bombing

Ghriba synagogue bombing

The Ghriba synagogue bombing was a deadly bombing carried out by Niser bin Muhammad Nasar Nawar in Tunisia on the El Ghriba synagogue.On April 11, 2002, a natural gas truck fitted with explosives drove past security barriers at the ancient Ghriba Synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba...

Yemen, Aden and Djibouti

If one includes Aden

Aden

Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...

, there were about 63,000 Jews in Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

in 1948. Today, there are about 200 left. In 1947, rioters killed at least 80 Jews in Aden

1947 Aden pogrom

, a British colony in southern Yemen. In 1948 the new Zaydi

Zaidiyyah

Zaidiyya, or Zaidism is a Shi'a Muslim school of thought named after Zayd ibn ʻAlī, the grandson of Husayn ibn ʻAlī. Followers of the Zaydi Islamic jurisprudence are called Zaydi Shi'a...

Imam Ahmad bin Yahya

Ahmad bin Yahya

Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddin was the penultimate king of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen from 1948 to 1962. His full name and title was H.M. al-Nasir-li-din Allah Ahmad bin al-Mutawakkil 'Ala Allah Yahya, Imam and Commander of the Faithful, and King of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of the Yemen...

unexpectedly allowed his Jewish subjects to leave Yemen, and tens of thousands poured into Aden. The Israeli government's Operation Magic Carpet

Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)

evacuated around 44,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel in 1949 and 1950. Emigration continued until 1962, when the civil war in Yemen

North Yemen Civil War

The North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam...

broke out. A small community remained unknown until 1976, but it appears that all infrastructure is lost now.

Jewish population in Arab countries, 1948–2008

In 1948, there were between 758,000 and 881,000 Jews (see table below) living in communities throughout the Arab world. Today, there are fewer than 8,600. In some Arab states, such as Libya

Libya

, which was about 3% Jewish, the Jewish community no longer exists; in other Arab countries, only a few hundred Jews remain.

**Jewish Populations of Arab Countries: 1948, 1972, 2000 and 2008**
Country or territory	1948 Jewish population	1972 Jewish population	2001 Jewish population	2008 Jewish population
Aden	8,000		~0	~0
Algeria	140,000	1,000	~0	~0
Bahrain	550–600		36	around 50
Egypt	75,000–80,000	500	~100	100 in 2006
Iraq	135,000–140,000	500	~200	fewer than 100 7-12 in Baghdad
Lebanon	5,000–20,000	2,000	< 150	20–40 exclusively in Beirut
Libya	35,000–38,000	50	0	0
Morocco	250,000–265,000	31,000	5,230	3,000 in 2006
Palestine Mandate (Jordanian part)	10,000 (dwindled to zero after 1948 Palestine War)	0 (West Bank repopulated)	0 (West Bank repopulated)	0 (West Bank repopulated)
Sudan	350		~0	~0
Syria	15,000–30,000	4,000	~100	100 in 2006
Tunisia	50,000–105,000	8,000	~1,000	Estimated 1,100 in 2006.
Yemen	45,000–55,000	500	400–600	330–350.
Total	758,350–881,350		<7,300	<6,400

Jewish population in non-Arab Muslim countries, 1948–2008

**Jewish populations of non-Arab Muslim countries and territories: 1948, 1972, 2000 and 2008**
Country or territory	1948 Jewish population	1972 Jewish population	2008 Jewish population
Afghanistan	5,000	500	1
Bangladesh	Unknown		175, up to 3,500
Iran	70,000–120,000, 100,000, 140,000–150,000	80,000	10,800 in 2006
Pakistan	2,000, 2,500	250	A tiny community in Karachi, about 200.
Turkey	80,000	30,000	17,800 in 2006
Total	202,000–282,500	110,750	32,100

Jewish refugee absorption

Within a few years by the Six Day War (1967) there were only remnants of Jewish communities left in most Arab countries. Jews in Arab countries were reduced from more than 800,000 in 1948 to perhaps 16,000 in 1991. Most Jews in Arab countries eventually immigrated to the modern State of Israel, and by 2003 they and their offspring, (including those of mixed lineage) comprised 3,136,436 people, or about 61% of Israel's Jewish population. As of 2011 the Jewish refugees from Arab countries and their descendants (including those of mixed lineage) number between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000. France was also a major destination and about 50% (300,000 people) of French Jews now originate from North Africa.
Of the nearly 900,000 Jewish refugees, approximately 680,000 were absorbed by Israel; the remainder went to Europe (mainly to France) and the Americas. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees to Israel were temporarily settled in the numerous tent camps

Immigrant camps (Israel)

The Immigrant camps in Israel were temporary refugee absorption camps, meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of Jewish refugees and new Olim arriving to Mandatory Palestine and later the independent State of Israel, since early 1947...

. Those were later transformed into ma'abarot

Ma'abarot

The Ma'abarot were refugee absorption camps in Israel in the 1950s. The Ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of Jewish refugees and new Olim arriving to the newly independent State of Israel, replacing the less habitable immigrant camps or tent cities...

(transit camps), where tin dwellings were provided to house up to 220,000 residents. The ma'abarot existed until 1963.

The population of transition camps was gradually absorbed and integrated into Israeli society, a substantial logistical achievement, without help from the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

' various refugee organizations. Many of the refugees had a hard time adjusting to the new dominant culture, change of lifestyle and there were claims of discrimination.

Jewish "Nakba"

In response to the Palestinian Nakba narrative, the term "Jewish Nakba" is sometimes used to refer to the persecution and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries in the years and decades following the creation of the State of Israel. Israeli columnist Ben Dror Yemini

Ben Dror Yemini

Ben-Dror Yemini is an Israeli journalist. He currently works for the daily newspaper Maariv.-Biography:Ben-Dror Yemini was born in Tel-Aviv to a Yemenite Jewish family. He studied Humanities and History at Tel Aviv University and then pursued a degree in law...

, himself a Mizrahi Jew, wrote:

However, there is another Nakba: the Jewish Nakba. During those same years [the 1940s], there was a long line of slaughters, of pogroms, of property confiscation and of deportations against Jews in Islamic countries. This chapter of history has been left in the shadows. The Jewish Nakba was worse than the Palestinian Nakba. The only difference is that the Jews did not turn that Nakba into their founding ethos. To the contrary.

Professor Ada Aharoni, chairman of The World Congress of the Jews from Egypt, argues in an article entitled "What about the Jewish Nakba?" that exposing the truth about the expulsion of the Jews from Arab states could facilitate a genuine peace process, since it would enable Palestinians to realize they were not the only ones who suffered, and thus their sense of "victimization and rejectionism" will decline.

Additionally, Canadian MP and international human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler has referred to the "double Nakba". He criticizes the Arab states' rejectionism of the Jewish state, their subsequent invasion to destroy the newly formed nation, and the punishment meted out against their local Jewish populations:

The result was, therefore, a double Nakba: not only of Palestinian-Arab suffering and the creation of a Palestinian refugee problem, but also, with the assault on Israel and on Jews in Arab countries, the creation of a second, much less known, group of refugees—Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Yehuda Shenhav has criticized the analogy between Jewish emigration from Arab countries and the Palestinian exodus. He also says "The unfounded, immoral analogy between Palestinian refugees and Mizrahi immigrants needlessly embroils members of these two groups in a dispute, degrades the dignity of many Mizrahi Jews, and harms prospects for genuine Jewish-Arab reconciliation."

Jewish refugee advocacy

Advocacy groups acting on behalf of Jewish refugees from Arab countries include:

Justice for Jews from Arab Countries seeks to secure rights and redress for Jews from Arab countries who suffered as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.
JIMENA
Jimena
JIMENA seeks to educate and advocate for Jewish refugees from the Middle East.Prior to 1948, approximately 950,000 Jews lived in Muslim countries of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf.-Historical background:The Jewish exodus from Arab lands in the 20th century was a result of the...

(Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) publicizes the history and plight of the 900,000 Jews indigenous to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

who were forced to leave their homes and abandon their property, who were stripped of their citizenship.
Historical Society of the Jews from Egypt and International Association of Jews from Egypt
Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center
World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries
World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries
World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries was an international organization, created in 1975, representing Jewish refugees from Arab countries...

(WOJAC).

In March 2008, "[f]or the first time ever, ... a Jewish refugee from an Arab country" appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council

United Nations Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations System. The UNHRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights , and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly...

. Regina Bublil-Waldman, a Jewish Libyan refugee and founder of JIMENA, "appeared before the UN Human Rights Council wearing her grandmother's Libyan wedding dress". Justice for Jews from Arab Countries presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council about oppression Jews faced in Arab countries that forced them to find amnesty elsewhere.

At a July 2008 joint session of the United Kingdom's House of Commons and House of Lords convened by Labour MP John Mann and Lord Anderson of Swansea, in co-operation with Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Canadian MP Irwin Cotler

Irwin Cotler

Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, MP was Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the constituency of Mount Royal in a by-election...

said Arab countries and the League of Arab States must acknowledge their role in launching an aggressive war against Israel in 1948 and the perpetration of human rights violations against their respective Jewish nationals. Cotler cited evidence from a report titled Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: The Case for Rights And Redress which documented for the first time a pattern of state-sanctioned repression and persecution in Arab countries—including Nuremberg-like laws—that targeted Jewish populations.

Among other notable advocates are the Egyptian born writer Bat Ye'or

Bat Ye'or

Bat Ye'or is a pseudonym of Gisèle Littman, née Orebi, an Egyptian-born British writer and political commentator who writes about the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic governments.She is the author of eight...

, who considers herself an Egyptian refugee and considers that experience as one that shaped her perspective.

Objecting views

The assertion that Jewish emigrants from Arab countries should be considered refugees has received mixed reactions from various quarters.

Iraqi-born Ran Cohen

Ran Cohen

Ran Cohen is an Israeli politician and former Knesset member for Meretz-Yachad. He is a resident of Mevaseret Zion and married with four children....

, a former member of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

, said: "I have this to say: I am not a refugee. I came at the behest of Zionism

Zionism

, due to the pull that this land exerts, and due to the idea of redemption. Nobody is going to define me as a refugee". Yemeni-born Yisrael Yeshayahu

Yisrael Yeshayahu

Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi was a Yemen-born Israeli politician, minister and the fifth Speaker of the Knesset.-Biography:Born in Sa'dah, Yemen, Yeshayahu was a member of the Dor Daim movement, before making aliyah in 1929...

, former Knesset speaker, Labor Party, stated: "We are not refugees. [Some of us] came to this country before the state was born. We had messianic aspirations". And Iraqi-born Shlomo Hillel

Shlomo Hillel

Shlomo Hillel is an Iraqi-born Israeli diplomat and politician who served as Speaker of the Knesset, Minister of Police and Minister of Internal Affairs. He was also an ambassador to several countries in Africa.-Biography:...

, also a former speaker of the Knesset, Labor Party, claimed: "I do not regard the departure of Jews from Arab lands as that of refugees. They came here because they wanted to, as Zionists."

Historian Tom Segev

Tom Segev

Tom Segev is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's so-called New Historians, a group challenging many of the country's traditional narratives.-Early life:Segev was born in Jerusalem in 1945...

stated: "Deciding to emigrate to Israel was often a very personal decision. It was based on the particular circumstances of the individual's life. They were not all poor, or 'dwellers in dark caves and smoking pits'. Nor were they always subject to persecution, repression or discrimination in their native lands. They emigrated for a variety of reasons, depending on the country, the time, the community, and the person."

Compensation

The official position of the Israeli government is that Jews from Arab countries are considered refugees, and it considers their rights to property left in countries of origin as valid and existent.

In 2008, the Orthodox Sephardi party, Shas

Shas

Shas is an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel, primarily representing Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Judaism.Shas was founded in 1984 by dissident members of the Ashkenazi dominated Agudat Israel, to represent the interests of religiously observant Sephardic and Mizrahi ...

, announced its intention to seek compensation for Jewish refugees from Arab states.
In 2009, Israeli lawmakers introduced a bill into the Knesset

Knesset

to make compensation for Jewish refugees an integral part of any future peace negotiations by requiring compensation on behalf of current Jewish Israeli citizens, who were expelled from Arab countries after Israel was established in 1948 and leaving behind a significant amount of valuable property. In February 2010, the bill passed its first reading. The bill was sponsored by MK Nissim Ze'ev (Shas) and follows a resolution passed in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

in 2008, calling for refugee recognition to be extended to Jews and Christians similar to that extended to Palestinians in the course of Middle East peace talks.

The type and extent of linkage between the Jewish exodus from Arab countries and the Palestinian Exodus has also been the source of controversy. Advocacy groups have suggested that there are strong ties between the two processes and some of them even claim that decoupling the two issues is unjust.

Holocaust restitution expert Sidney Zabludoff has published a calculation that the losses sustained by the Jews who fled Arab countries since 1947 amounts to $6 billion, in contrast to the losses of the Palestinian Arab refugees which he estimates at $3.9 billion (both sums in 2007 dollars).

Films about the exodus

I Miss The Sun (1984), USA, produced and directed by Mary Hilawani. Filmmaker Mary Halawani profiles her grandmother, Rosette Hakim, in this illuminating documentary short. A prominent Egyptian-Jewish family, the Halawanis fled their homeland in 1959 when anti-Zionist sentiments were on the rise and hundreds of Jews were interned in detention camps for alleged pro-Communist activities. Rosette, the family matriarch, chose to remain in Egypt until every member of the large family was free to leave.

The Dhimmis: To Be a Jew in Arab Lands (1987), director Baruch Gitlis and David Goldstein a producer. This comprehensive documentary details the centuries of persecution endured by Jews living in Arab lands. Using rare film footage, photographs, maps and interviews, we are presented with a country by country recounting of Jewish life that flourished in the midst of ongoing conflict.

The Forgotten Refugees
The Forgotten Refugees
The Forgotten Refugees is a 2005 documentary film produced by The David Project and IsraTV that recounts the rich history of the ancient Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa and their rapid demise in the face of persecution in the decades following the creation of the modern State...

(2004) is a documentary film by The David Project
The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
The David Project, is a non-profit educational organization located in Boston, Massachusetts, with satellite offices in New York and Israel. The David Project's stated aim is "to educate and inspire strong voices for Israel through dynamic educational seminars, workshops, and curricula." It was...

, describing the events of collapse of Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa, following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The Silent Exodus (2004) by Pierre Rehov
Pierre Rehov
Pierre Rehov is the pseudonym of a French film maker and novelist, most known for his movies which are almost exclusively based on the Arab-Israeli conflict....

. In 1948 nearly one million Jews lived in Arab countries. But In barely twenty years, they have become forgotten fugitives, expelled from their native lands, forgotten by history and where the victims themselves have hidden their fate under a cloak of silence. Silent Exodus was selected at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris (2004) and presented at the UN Geneva Human Rights Annual Convention (2004).

The Last Jews of Libya (2007). At the end of World War
World war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....

II, 36,000 Jews lived in Libya. Today, there are none. Filmmaker Vivienne Roumani-Denn tells how European colonialism, Italian fascism and the rise of Arab nationalism contributed to the disappearance of Libya's once vibrant Sephardic Jewish community.

The Farhud (2008) is a documentary by Itzhak Halutzi, describing the bloody events of the Farhud
Farhud
Farhud refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941 during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a...

in Iraq of 1941. The Farhud has become one of the major acts of Anti-Jewish violent explosions in the Middle East, which led to massive departure of Jews from Iraq in the following years.

External links

The impact of the Six Day War on Jews in Arab lands
JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa
The Middle East's Forgotten Refugees by Semha Alwaya
Why Jews fled Arab countries by Ya'akov Meron
In the Islamic Mideast, Scant Place for Jews
Israel's advent altered outlook for Middle East Jews Reuters
How Arabs stole Jewish property by Tani Goldstein
Adi Schwartz, 'A Tragedy Shrouded in Silence: The Destruction of the Arab World's Jewry' in Azure
Azure (journal)
Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation is a quarterly journal published by the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Israel. Azure publishes new writing on issues relating to Jewish thought and identity, Zionism, and the State of Israel. It is published in both Hebrew and English, allowing for the exchange of...

45 (Summer 2011)

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