
STATE
SANCTIONED PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN EGYPT
STATE
SANCTIONED PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ
In
2002, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries convened an
international Committee of Legal Experts, co-chaired by Prof.
Irwin Cotler and David Matas, that produced a report entitled:
Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: The Case for Rights
and Redress [click
here for Executive Summary]. This report, released
in 2004, documents strong political and legal arguments for the
legitimate rights of Jews displaced from Arab countries. The following
are examples:
A)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
On
two occasions, in 1957 and again in 1967, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) determined that Jews fleeing
from Arab countries were refugees who fell within the mandate
of the UNHCR.
Another
emergency problem is now arising: that of refugees from Egypt.
There is no doubt in my mind that those refugees from Egypt
who are not able, or not willing to avail themselves of the
protection of the Government of their nationality fall under
the mandate of my office.
------------------
Mr. Auguste Lindt, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Report of the UNREF Executive Committee, Fourth Session
Geneva 29 January to 4 February, 1957.
I
refer to our recent discussion concerning Jews from Middle Eastern
and North African countries in consequence of recent events.
I am now able to inform you that such persons may be considered
prima facie within the mandate of this Office.
------------------
Dr. E. Jahn, Office of the UN High Commissioner, United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, Document No. 7/2/3/Libya, July
6, 1967:
B)
UN Resolution(s)
On
November 22nd, 1967, the Security Council unanimously adopted,
Resolution 242, laying down the principles for a peaceful settlement
in the Middle East. Still considered the primary vehicle for resolving
the Arab-Israel conflict, Resolution 242 stipulates that a comprehensive
peace settlement should necessarily include a just settlement
of the refugee problem. No distinction is made between Arab
refugees and Jewish refugees.
The
international communitys intention to have Resolution 242
include the rights of Jewish refugees is evidenced by the fact
that during the UN debate, the Soviet Unions delegation
attempted to restrict the just settlement mentioned
in Resolution 242 solely to Palestinian refugees. (S/8236, discussed
by the Security Council at its 1382nd meeting of November 22,
1967, notably at paragraph 117, in the words of Ambassador Kouznetsov
of the Soviet Union). This attempt failed clearly signaling the
intention of the international community not to restrict the just
settlement of the refugee problem merely to Palestinian
refugees.
Moreover,
Justice Arthur Goldberg, the United States Chief Delegate
to the United Nations, who was instrumental in drafting the unanimously
adopted U.N. Resolution 242, has pointed out that:
A
notable omission in 242 is any reference to Palestinians, a
Palestinian state on the West Bank or the PLO. The resolution
addresses the objective of achieving a just settlement
of the refugee problem. This language presumably refers
both to Arab and Jewish refugees, for about an equal number
of each abandoned their homes as a result of the several wars
.
C)
Multilateral Initiatives
The
Madrid Conference, which was first convened in October 1991, launched
historic, direct negotiations between Israel and many of her Arab
neighbors.
In
his opening remarks at a conference convened to launch the multilateral
process held in Moscow in January 1992, then-U.S. secretary of
state James Baker made no distinction between Palestinian refugees
and Jewish refugees in articulating the mandate of the Refugee
Working Group as follows: The refugee group will consider
practical ways of improving the lot of people throughout the region
who have been displaced from their homes.
The
Roadmap to Middle East peace currently being advanced by the Quartet
(the U.N., EU, U.S., and Russia also refers in Phase III to an
agreed, just, fair and realistic solution to the refugee
issue, language applicable both to Palestinian and Jewish
refugees.
D)
Bilateral Arab-Israeli Agreements
Israeli
agreements with her Arab neighbors allow for a case to be made
that Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians have affirmed that a comprehensive
solution to the Middle East conflict will require a just
settlement of the refugee problem that will
include recognition of the rights and claims of all Middle East
refugees:
Israel
Egypt Agreements
The
Camp David Framework for Peace in the Middle East of 1978 (the
Camp David Accords) includes, in paragraph A(1)(f),
a commitment by Egypt and Israel to work with each other
and with other interested parties to establish agreed procedures
for a prompt, just and permanent resolution of the implementation
of the refugee problem.
Article
8 of the Israel Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979 provides that
the Parties agree to establish a claims commission for the
mutual settlement of all financial claims. Those claims
include those of former Jewish refugees displaced from Egypt.
Israel Jordan Peace Treaty, 1994
Israel
Jordan Peace Treaty, 1994
Article
8 of the Israel Jordan Peace Treaty, entitled Refugees
and Displaced Persons recognizes, in paragraph 1, the
massive human problems caused to both Parties by the conflict
in the Middle East. Reference to massive human problems
in a broad manner suggests that the plight of all refugees of
the conflict in the Middle East, includes Jewish refugees
from Arab countries.
Israeli-Palestinian
Agreements, 1993-
Almost
every reference to the refugee issue in Israeli-Palestinian agreements,
talks about refugees, without qualifying which refugee
community is at issue, including the Declaration of Principles
of 13 September 1993 {Article V (3)}, and the Interim Agreement
of September 1995 {Articles XXXI (5)}, both of which refer to
refugees as a subject for permanent status negotiations,
without qualifications.
E)
Recognition by Political Leaders
Former
U.S. President Bill Clinton made the following assertion after
the rights of Jews displaced from Arab countries were discussed
at Camp David II in July, 2000 (From White House Transcript
of Israeli television interview):
There
will have to be some sort of international fund set up for the
refugees. There is, I think, some interest, interestingly enough,
on both sides, in also having a fund which compensates the Israelis
who were made refugees by the war, which occurred after the
birth of the State of Israel. Israel is full of people, Jewish
people, who lived in predominantly Arab countries who came to
Israel because they were made refugees in their own land.
Former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter, after successfully brokering the
Camp David Accords and the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, stated
in a press conference on Oct. 27, 1977:
Palestinians
have rights
obviously there are Jewish refugees
they
have the same rights as others do.
Canadian
Prime Minister Paul Martin stated, in a June 3rd, 2005 interview
with the Canadian Jewish News which he later reaffirmed in a July
14, 2005 letter:
A
refugee is a refugee and that the situation of Jewish refugees
from Arab lands must be recognized. All refugees deserve our
consideration as they have lost both physical property and historical
connections. I did not imply that the claims of Jewish refugees
are less legitimate or merit less attention than those of Palestinian
refugees.
1)
Estimates based on UN document Trends and Characteristics
of International Migration since 1950 Refugee Movements
and Population Transfers (UN Department for Economic and
Social Affairs, Demographic Study No. 64 ST/ESA/Ser. A/64)
2)
Goldberg, Arthur J., Resolution 242: After 20 Years,
published in Security Interests, National Committee on American
Foreign Policy, April 2002.
3)
Remarks by Secretary of State James A. Baker, III before the Organizational
Meeting for Multilateral Negotiations on the Middle East, House
of Unions, Moscow, January 28, 1992.