Jews from Arab lands had $300 billion & 100 sq km land

[Nannette]

http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2007/06/jews-left-assets-of-up-to-300-billion.html

According to the World Organisation of Jews from Arab Countries, the Jews of Arab lands left behind assets worth up to $300 billion and 100,000 square kilometres of deeded property - five times the size of Israel. Must-read interview in The Jewish Press with Dr Heskel Haddad, the organisation's president.

Eight hundred thousand Jews fled Arab countries shortly after Israel’s founding in 1948, leaving all their wealth behind. The world, however, neither remembers their plight nor demands their compensation.

If president of WOJAC (World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries) Dr. Heskel Haddad has his way, though, that reality will change.

In addition to his activism, Dr. Haddad is professor of Ophthalmology at New York Medical College, a practicing ophthalmologist and author of the autobiographical account, Born in Baghdad.

The Jewish Press recently spoke with Dr. Haddad.

The Jewish Press: What happened to Jews in Arab countries after Israel was declared a state in 1948?

Dr. Haddad: "A dark curtain descended. In Iraq, for example, the government imposed a tax on every Jew to liberate Palestine. Jewish merchants were not allowed to do business without a Muslim partner, Jewish employees in the government were fired, about 10,000 Jews were put in an internment camp and another roughly 10,000 Jews were put in jail, accused of Zionism, communism, and other frivolous accusations.

Then, suddenly the government said, “You can leave Iraq.” Almost all the Iraqi Jews did, but their property was confiscated. They came to Israel penniless.

What is WOJAC’s main purpose?

To ask for compensation for the Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Former President Clinton in the Camp David II negotiations suggested creating an international fund to compensate the refugees, both Jewish and Arab.

But from the political point of view, we also want to counter the demand for the return of the Palestinian Arab refugees. In 1949 the Arab League passed a resolution to prevent Arab governments from giving citizenship to the Palestinian Arab refugees. Because of that resolution, the Arab refugees today in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, etc. don’t have citizenship in those countries. The Palestinian Arab refugees should be settled in their countries just as Israel settled the Jews from Arab countries in Israel.

WOJAC registers property claims of Jews from Arab countries. How many of these claims does WOJAC currently possess?

Ten thousand. We are trying to get about 100,000. There are two purposes: One is to document what happened to the Jews in Arab countries just like they did for the Holocaust – for history’s sake. And the second is to have an idea when we sit down to talk about compensation what magnitude of figures we are talking about.

And what magnitude of figures are we talking about?

Iraq and Egypt had the highest amount of property and money confiscated. You take the Libyans and the others, much less. I would say around $200 to $300 billion – in today’s money – would be an adequate figure.

Two-hundred to three-hundred billion!?

Iraq had the wealthiest Jewish community in the world per capita, including the United States. All the land that produced rice in Iraq was owned by Jews.

In Egypt, for example, $100 billion worth of property was confiscated from the Jews between 1950 and 1956. Look, all of Israel is 20,000 square kilometers. We left 100,000 square kilometers of deeded property in the Arab countries.

Why were you in Iraq in 2004?

I was invited by the Iraqi minister of health to inspect their eye department. But I also wanted to see my father’s house and the synagogues. My heart was broken. The synagogues either were destroyed or made into factories or something like that.

I also went to see the grave of Navi Yechezkel, which became a mosque, and of Ezra HaSofer. Muslim women who cannot become pregnant go to Navi Yechezkel’s grave to pray because they believe in the prophet and his power.
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He who is merciful with the cruel, will end-up being cruel to the merciful
- Kohelet Rabba 7:16

[reality check]

Therefore the Jews of Israel should at least
have exclusive domain from the river to the sea.

[sparky]

Very interesting to say the least. There is a school of prophetic thought that addresses the actual physical size of "ISRAEL" per se. Upon closer examination one finds passages in the Bible that allude to an ISRAEL that has borders BEGINNING at the Euphrates River in present day Iraq (Babylon of yore) and running westward all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The northern boundaries begin the what is presently called Syria and run southward to a parallel that includes northern Arabia, the northeast portion of Egypt and all of Lebanon ...

I wonder what the "u.n." would think of those internationale borderLines .. ?

[Nannette]

They should, and I hope the Jews from Arab lands get what's rightfully theirs... and they had more wealth than could have ever been imagined.

The jews in Iraq had been there before the Arabs and could trace their lineage back to Nebuchadnezzar...
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He who is merciful with the cruel, will end-up being cruel to the merciful
- Kohelet Rabba 7:16