Coordination By Arab Governments of Expulsion Of Jews?

Coordination By Arab Governments of Expulsion Of Jews?

Q. Was there any coordination between Arab governments in the
expulsions of the Middle Eastern and North African Jews?

A.Yes. The New York Times reported on May 16, 1948 on a series of
measures taken by the Arab League to marginalize and persecute the
Jewish residents of Arab League member states. The Times article
reported on a

"text of a law drafted by the Political Committee of the Arab League
which was intended to govern the legal status of Jewish residents of
Arab League countries. It provides that beginning on an unspecified
date all Jews except citizens of non-Arab states, would be considered
'members of the Jewish minority state of Palestine.' Their bank
accounts would be frozen and used to finance resistance to 'Zionist
ambitions in Palestine.' Jews believed to be active Zionists would be
interned and their assets confiscated."

The Times article further reported the following:

"Already in some Moslem states such as Syria and Lebanon there is a
tendency to regard all Jews as Zionist agents and 'fifth columnists.'
There have been violent incidents with feeling running high. There are
indications that the stage is being set for a tragedy of incalculable
proportions."

"In Syria a policy of economic discrimination is in effect against
Jews. 'Virtually all' Jewish civil servants in the employ of the Syrian
Government have been discharged. Freedom of movement has been
'practically abolished.' Special frontier posts have been established
to control movements of Jews.

"In Iraq no Jew is permitted to leave the country unless he deposits
#5,000 ($20,000) with the Government to guarantee his return. No
foreign Jew is allowed to enter Iraq even in transit.

"In Lebanon Jews have been forced to contribute financially to the
fight against the United Nations partition resolution on Palestine.
Acts of violence agaisnt Jews are openly admitted by the press, which
accuses Jews of 'poisoning wells,' etc.

"Conditions vary in the Moslem countries. They are worst in Yemen and
Afghanistan, whence many Jews have fled in terror to India. Conditions
in most of the countries have deteriorated in recent months, this being
particularly true of Lebanon, Iran and Egypt. In the countries farther
west along the Mediterranean coast conditions are not so bad. It is
feared, however that if a full-scale war breaks out, the repercussions
will be grave for Jews all the way from Casablanca to Karachi."

The Times article also makes references to

"statements made by Arab spokesmen during the General Assembly session
last autumn, to the effect that if the partition resolution was put
into effect, they would not be able to guarantee the safety of the Jews
in any Arab land."

The following exceprt from "Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries," by
Ya'akov Meron, in The Middle East Quarterly, September 1995 (for the
full article, click here) explores the nature of these statements made
by the Egyptian, Palestinian and Iraqi delegates to the U.N. during the
debate on the partition resolution.

In a key address before the Political Committee of the U.N. General
Assembly on November 14, 1947, just five days before that body voted on
the partition plan for Palestine, Heykal Pasha, an Egyptian delegate,
made the following key statement in connection with that plan:

The United Nations . . . should not lose sight of the fact that the
proposed solution might endanger a million Jews living in the Moslem
countries. Partition of Palestine might create in those countries an
anti-Semitism even more difficult to root out than the anti-Semitism
which the Allies were trying to eradicate in Germany. . . If the United
Nations decides to partition Palestine, it might be responsible for the
massacre of a large number of Jews.

Heykal Pasha then elaborated on his threat:

A million Jews live in peace in Egypt [and other Muslim countries] and
enjoy all rights of citizenship. They have no desire to emigrate to
Palestine. However, if a Jewish State were established, nobody could
prevent disorders. Riots would break out in Palestine, would spread
through all the Arab states and might lead to a war between two
races.[5]

Heykal Pasha's thinly veiled threats of "grave disorders," "massacre,"
"riots," and "war between two races" did not at the time go unnoticed
by Jews;[6] for them, it had the same ring as the proposition made six
years earlier by the Palestinian leader Hajj Amin al-Husayni to Hitler
of a "final solution" for the Jews of Arab countries, including
Palestine (see above). But the statement appears to have made no
lasting impression, to the point that a historian of the Jews in Egypt
has described Heykal Pasha as "a well-known liberal."[7]

Particularly noteworthy is that although Heykal Pasha spoke at the
United Nations in his capacity as a representative of Egypt, he
continuously mentioned the Jews "in other Muslim countries" and "all
the Arab states," suggesting a level of coordination among the Arab
governments. Indeed, four days after his statement, Iraq's Foreign
Minister Fadil Jamali declared at the United Nations that
"interreligious prejudice and hatred" would bring about a great
deterioration in the Arab-Jewish relationship in Iraq and in the Arab
world at large,[8] thereby reinforcing the impression that Heykal Pasha
was talking not just on behalf of Egypt but for all the independent
Arab states. Further confirmation came several days later, after the
General Assembly had decided in favor of partitioning Palestine, when,
"following orders issued by the Arab League,"[9] Muslims engaged in
outrages against Jews living in Aden and Aleppo.[10]

Another indication that Arab rulers coordinated the expulsion of Jews
from their territories comes from a Beirut meeting one and a half years
later of senior diplomats from all the Arab States. By this time, March
1949, the Arab states had already lost the first Arab-Israeli war; they
now used this defeat to justify an expulsion that had been officially
proclaimed before the war even began. As reported in a Syrian
newspaper, "If Israel should oppose the return of the Arab refugees to
their homes, the Arab governments will expel the Jews living in their
countries."[11]

According to Walid Khalidi, perhaps the leading Palestinian nationalist
historian and a highly reputable source, "The (Palestinian) Arabs held
their ground throughout the period from November 1947 to March 1948. Up
to March 1, not one single Arab village had been vacated by its
inhabitants, and the number of people leaving the mixed towns was
insignificant."[12] The mass departure from Palestine of 590,000 Arabs
began only in April 1948; yet , Heykal Pasha had publicly and very
formally announced a program to expel Jews from Arab countries fully
five months earlier.

5] U.N. General Assembly, Second Session, Official Records, Ad Hoc Committee
on the Palestinian Question, Summary Records of Meetings, Lake Success,
N.Y., Sept. 25-Nov. 15, 1947, p. 185.

[6] For example, Emile Najjar, the last president of the Egyptian Zionist
Federation and a future Israeli diplomat, pointed out Heykal Pasha's remarks
in a lecture delivered in Paris at the Center d'Etudes de Politique
Etrangire on Dec. 20, 1947.

[7] Gurdron Krdmer, "Aliyatah u-shki'atah shel Kehilat Kahir," Pe'amim,
Spring 1981, pp. 28-30-34.

[8] U.N. General Assembly, Second Session, Official Records, Verbatim Record
of the Plenary Meeting, vol. II, 110th-128th meetings, Lake Success, N.Y.,
Sept. 16-Nov. 29, 1947, p. 1391.

[9] H.J. Cohen, The Jews of the Middle East, 1860-1972 (Jerusalem: Israel
Universities Press, 1973), p. 67.

[10] Daniel Pipes, Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990) p. 57, records 75 victims of the Aleppo
massacre.

[11] Al-Kifah, Mar. 28, 1949, quoted Shlomo Hillel, Ruah Kadim (Jerusalem:
'Idanim, 1985) p. 244. This book is available in English as Operation
Babylon, trans. Ina Friedman (New York: Doubleday, 1987).

[12] Walid Khalidi, "Plan Dalet, Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine,"
Middle East Forum, Nov. 1961, p. 27.