House seeks justice for refugee Jews
, NJJN Staff Writer | 04.03.08

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New Jersey Jewish leaders welcomed a congressional effort this week to seek justice for Jews who were expelled or fled from Arab countries.

  Mike Ferguson
 

Rep. Mike Ferguson says the resolution focuses on the unfair treatment experienced by many Jewish refugees in the Middle East.
   

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a non-binding resolution April 1 that would place the plight of Jewish refugees front and center in any discussion of the Arab-Israel conflict by United States officials.

The measure was introduced by U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and cosponsored by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ Dist. 7).

"We are grateful for the leadership of Rep. Mike Ferguson and a strong bipartisan support in the House for House Resolution 185, which recognizes the rights of Jews as Middle Eastern refugees — along with Christians and other refugees from Arab countries," said Merle H. Kalishman, chair of the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

"This vote represents success toward the first goal of educating our officials of the displacement of nearly 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries since 1948 who were subjected to a widespread pattern of persecution and mass violations of human rights in their countries of origin," Kalishman added.

The resolution, originally introduced in both the House and Senate on May 25, 2006, is part of an ongoing campaign by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, an organization based in New York that is seeking rights for Jews displaced from Arab countries. It focuses on the 850,000 Jews expelled from their homes in 10 Arab countries in the aftermath of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The organization’s executive director, Stanley Urman of West Orange, called the resolution "a historic milestone."

"It may be the first fundamental change in U.S. Middle East policy," said Urman in a separate interview with NJJN. "Previously virtually all U.S. focus on Middle Eastern refugees was exclusively on Palestinians. It may be the first fundamental change in U.S.-Middle East policy. This expresses the sense of Congress that Palestinians were not the only Middle East refugees."

"This is not about compensation," said Urman. Rather, the resolution will help ensure that "2,500 years of Jewish life in what is today the Arab world is not erased from history. The Jews are an indigenous people in the Middle East. In a peace process that seeks to resolve a half-century of conflict, these victims and their rights must also be resolved."

The MetroWest CRC has been behind the efforts of JJAC for at least a year, since it sponsored a program on the issue. At that time, the CRC joined JJAC’s International Rights and Redress Campaign, urging people to register their personal narratives as Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The CRC has also urged people to advocate for the resolution.

"The stories of Jewish refugees in the Middle East have been unspoken and their losses unknown for all these years," Kalishman said this week. "This is a step toward fairness in honoring their legacy and securing them the status which they have never been granted — as refugees."

Ferguson took part in a March 31 conference call with congressional and Jewish leaders and members of the press.

"This resolution highlights the unfair treatment that many Jewish refugees in the Middle East have experienced and really urges our administration, the Bush administration, to address the injustice that these people have felt," said the legislator, adding that it is "one of the key components that needs to be addressed if we are ever to see long-term justice and lasting peace in the region."

The resolution urges parity in discussions over refugees in the Middle East. According to the resolution, whenever the issue of Palestinian refugees arises, U.S. representatives "must also include a similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries."

  Stanley Urman
 

Stanley Urman, executive director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, says the resolution is "a historic milestone."
   

The resolution also declares that "…as an integral part of any comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, the issue of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf must be resolved in a manner that includes recognition of the legitimate rights of and losses incurred by all refugees displaced from Arab countries, including Jews, Christians, and other groups."

Asked whether the timing of the resolution could distract from current Mideast negotiations, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who also participated in the call, said it would not.

"It will make [negotiations] more meaningful if they’re based on realistic assessments and assumptions. It is a distortion to talk only of one refugee population, and that would undermine the ultimate outcome of any negotiations," he said. "This whole thing is not just about setting the record straight but of providing the most moral and balanced approach to dealing with the right of return of Palestinian Arabs to Israel, an issue that has blocked previous negotiations."

Nadler also addressed the timing of the resolution.

"It’s important to deal with this issue now while the refugees are still alive," he said.

Although the resolution is nonbinding, leaders insisted it was not a symbolic gesture.

"The non-symbolic action we hope will be taken," said Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs for B’nai B’rith International, "is that the concerns of these refugee groups will be broached in a serious way during discussions on refugee questions, and when those discussions take place, the focus will be not on one group of refugees but on all refugee groups emerging from the same conflict."

View the Justice for Jews from Arab Countries’ International Rights and Redress Campaign website to register family historical narratives.

Be it resolved that:

  1. For any comprehensive Middle East peace agreement to be credible and enduring, the agreement must address and resolve all outstanding issues relating to the legitimate rights of all refugees, including Jews, Christians, and other populations, displaced from countries in the Middle East, and
  2. The President should instruct the United States Representative to the United Nations and all United States representatives in bilateral and multilateral fora to:
    • influence of the United States to ensure than any resolutions relating to the issue of Middle East refugees, and which include a reference to the required resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue, must also include a similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries; and
    • make clear that the United States Government supports the position that, as an integral part of any comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, the issue of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf must be resolved in a manner that includes recognition of the legitimate rights of and losses incurred by all refugees displaced from Arab countries, including Jews, Christians, and other groups.


Local stories posted courtesy of the New Jersey Jewish News