Earlier this month, the sensationalist claim by Gila Gamliel (pictured), Israel’s minister for Social Equality, that Israel will be seeking $250 billion in compensation for property and assets lost by Jews driven from eight Arab countries, caused a flurry of interest in the Israeli and western media. (Note: It is not known how Gamliel arrived at this figure, nor why she left out Lebanon and Algeria from her list of countries who owe Jews compensation). Point of No Return has been looking at international reaction to the story.
Middle East Monitor quoted Al-Wattan Voice as its source:
“The prospective American peace deal, dubbed as the “deal of the century”, is to include that $250 billion be paid by Arab states in compensation for Jewish property left behind after the creation of Israel, Al-Wattan Voice said yesterday.
The Russian TV channel RT balanced Jewish with Palestinian claims:
“Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has also sought $100 billion in compensation from Israel for assets left by Arabs forced to leave the lands controlled by Israel today. Palestinians have also sought a “right of return” for the surviving refugees and their descendants — a demand that has repeatedly been dismissed by Israel. The Trump administration also seems to have taken Israel’s side on that issue, halting funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) last year.”
The most trenchant reaction came from Ramzy Baroud writing in Arab News. In an article titled The moral travesty of Israel seeking Arab, Iranian compensation, Baroud denied the Jewish exodus altogether:
“Contrary to what Israeli historians want us to believe, there was no mass exodus of Jews from Arab countries and Iran, but rather a massive campaign orchestrated by Zionist leaders of the time to replace the Palestine Arab population with Jewish immigrants from all over the world.
To hold Arabs and Iran responsible for this bizarre and irresponsible behavior is a transgression on the true story, in which neither Gamliel nor her ministry are interested.”
The same article by Baroud turned up on Arab Media Internet Network
as well as at the Palestine Chronicle, The Jordan Times at Five Pillars and at the leftist Counterpunch.
While Africa News and Morocco World News published the news report without editorialising, Yabiladi (‘Israel demands billions from Morocco’) was concerned that Morocco was implicated ‘in violent riots that swept the region following the establishment of the state of Israel’. It was keen to provide an explanation for the rioters’ anger::
The Jewish cemetery at Oujda, Morocco, where dozens of Jews were buried after riots in 1948
LONDON – Israel is reportedly planning to seek an estimated $250 billion from Arab countries and Iran in compensation for assets left by Jews who fled their homes in Middle Eastern countries after the founding of Israel in 1948.
The request, if it’s officially made by Israel, is unlikely to receive approval from Arab countries embroiled in economic troubles or civil strife.
Compensation is to be requested from Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran, said a report by private Israeli television station HaHadashot. The report added that Algeria and Lebanon, would not be asked for funds. It did not say why.
“The time has come to correct the historical injustice of the pogroms in seven Arab countries and Iran and to restore the hundreds of thousands of Jews who have lost their property to what is rightfully theirs,” Israel’s Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel told HaHadashot.
No Arab country has officially responded to the comments of the Israeli Minister for Social Equality.
On the 7th and 8th of June 1948, an outraged group of people in Jerada and Oujda surrounded the Jewish population of the two cities killing 42 individuals and injuring 29 others. 5 Moroccan Jews were savagely murdered in Oujda and 37 others were beaten to death by the population of Jerada.
The riots emerged after the residents of the two northeastern towns, were angrily influenced by the situation in the Middle East and the formation of the State of Israel.
…More : https://en.yabiladi.com/articles/details/73031/israel-demand-billion-from-morocco.html
On the 7th and 8th of June 1948, an outraged group of people in Jerada and Oujda surrounded the Jewish population of the two cities killing 42 individuals and injuring 29 others. 5 Moroccan Jews were savagely murdered in Oujda and 37 others were beaten to death by the population of Jerada.
The riots emerged after the residents of the two northeastern towns, were angrily influenced by the situation in the Middle East and the formation of the State of Israel.
…More : https://en.yabiladi.com/articles/details/73031/israel-demand-billion-from-morocco.html
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