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SALLAI MERIDOR: "JEWISH AGENCY FIGHTING FOR RESTORATION OF JEWISH PROPERTY IN ARAB LANDS" M.K. HIRSHSON: CONFISCATED PROPERTIES VALUED AT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ITAMAR LEVINE, AUTHOR OF BOOK ON SUBJECT: 870 THOUSAND JEWS EXPELLED FROM ARAB LANDS Itamar Levin, author of a new book on the seizure of Jewish properties in Arab countries, says: Document your claims now. Tomorrow will be too late! The Palestinians are busy documenting their claims to property in Israel. The Jewish Agency will fight to enable Jews from Arab countries to obtain compensation for confiscated property, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive Sallai Meridor announced. He called on the Government of Israel to do its share in the battle. "We must wage this fight for the sake of historical justice", Meridor said, speaking to a crowd that filled Tel Aviv's Diaspora Museum auditorium last night (November 19th). The gathering marked the launching of Itamar Levin's new book, Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Lands, published by the Ministry of Defense with Jewish Agency assistance. Meridor lashed out against parallels drawn between Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Palestinian refugees. "The Jews did not rise up in revolt against the Arab countries in which they lived. They were loyal citizens. But Jews were driven out, and their property confiscated. This was Arab anti-Semitism", he said. "We must document property claims of Jews and Jewish communities in Arab lands today! Tomorrow will be too late", said author Itamar Levin, who had dedicated much of his professional career to documenting Nazi theft of Jewish properties, before tackling the issue of Arab expropriation of Jewish properties. "The possession of private property is an undisputed right", Levin said. "It is forbidden to nationalize private property, except in exchange for honest compensation. Over 865,000 Jews were driven out of Arab lands, simply because they were Jews. Some 600,000 came to Israel. This fact must be brought to the consciousness of the world community. If Jewish claims against Nazi Germany and those who assisted Nazi Germany were possible, so much the more are those claims of Jews from Arab lands. A third of the Jews who left Arab countries are still alive today." According to Levin, in the course of future peace negotiations, the subject of confiscated private and communal Jewish properties will come up and we must be ready. According MK Avraham Hirshson, Chairman of the Knesset Committee on Restitution, Jewish claims against Arab countries amount to many billions of dollars. Private property from Egypt, Syria and Iraq alone amounted to over $10 billion. "Communal property amounted to over twice that sum", he said. Hirshson, former Minister and MK Mordechai Ben-Porat and author Itamar Levin called for the establishment of a joint fund, originally proposed by President Clinton, to deal with the problem. This fund, whose members would include the United States, the European Union, Arab countries and Israel, would adjudicate and award compensation for claims by individual Jews and Jewish communities against Arab countries, as well as any claims by Arabs against Israel. Compensation must be on an individual basis, and not on a collective, national basis. Tracing the history of Iraqi Jewry, Porat said that 124,000 Iraqi Jews came to Israel during the period of the British mandate in Iraq (1921-1933). They had held top positions in finance, banking, commerce, judicial system and agriculture. Their position deteriorated when the British left, and in 1941, 1945 and 1949 they suffered pogroms and persecutions. "By miracle" in 1951, the Iraqi Government passed a law permitting Jews to leave Iraq, but they were only allowed to take up to 50 pounds sterling with them. Ben-Porat, who came to Israel in 1943, heads the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries. Victor Nahmias, who immigrated to Israel in 1957 from Egypt, spoke of the hostility suffered by Egyptian Jews from 1948 until 1956, when Jews were forced out. The debacle occurred in 1967 when all Jews between the ages of 17 and late 70 were arrested and expelled. He recalled that in 1956 he obtained a ticket for Israel free of charge from a travel agency. Later he found out that it was the Jewish Agency who had paid for his transportation (and that of other Jews) to Israel. A well-known journalist and diplomat, Nahmias said that he devoted six years to serving as the Keren Hayesod's Director of Communications. He considers this the repayment of a moral debt to Israel. Moshe Cohen, Director-General of a Bank Leumi department, recounted that the Jews of Syria and Lebanon flourished under the French Mandate. However, when the UN voted to establish the State of Israel, Jews were attacked in Syria. Jews began to leave in 1948, and some of the richer Jews succeeded in taking out property. In 1964, the Syrian Government began to nationalize Jewish property. Cohen cited a document captured by IDF troops in 1967, in which a Syrian general recorded that 85% of the Syrian Intelligence Corps budget was paid for by confiscated Jewish property. As of 1967, Syrian Jews were not permitted to travel four kilometers beyond their cities of residence, and communal property was confiscated. In 1973, Syrian Jews were denied admission to universities, and were required to carry ID cards with "Jew" stamped in red. Though many boys succeeded in escaping, girls remained behind and were unable to marry. Only international pressure enabled those girls who were already engaged to marry to emigrate. According to Cohen, only 1,050 Jews currently remain in Syria. The authorities treat them reasonably well, but their property has been placed in custodianship. The Government has threatened to confiscate the grounds of the Ezra the Scribe Synagogue in Tadef, on the claim that Ezra the Scribe, who lived over a thousand years before Mohmmad, was a Moslem.
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