In a relatively old interview, an Iraqi-Israeli Haim Sofer said, “The Jews of Iraq never wanted to leave, even after the establishment of Israel in 1948. They were well-off and fully integrated into Iraqi society, alongside Muslims and Christians. However, waves of attacks, murders, and the burning of their homes and property eventually forced them to emigrate. The majority emigrated to Israel, while the wealthy and educated emigrated to Britain and the United States.
Later, everyone discovered that Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, was behind the murders and arson attacks they had suffered, intending to terrorize them and force them to emigrate to Israel.” Yakov Rabkin, an Israeli assistant professor of history, says describing Jews as “aliens” is a common characterization, especially in Europe, even today. This did not apply to the Jews of Iran, who had lived there for more than 2,500 years and never considered themselves strangers.
The Jews of Arab and Islamic countries had no role, however minor, in the emergence of the idea of a national homeland or Zionist ideology. It was a purely European concept. A large segment of Iraqi Jews refused to immigrate to Israel, even after the signing of an agreement between the Israeli government and the Iraqi monarchy in 1948. Israeli leaders then resorted to murder and terror to force them to emigrate. Jews in Egypt and Morocco suffered from this terror, as Israel killed many Arab Jews to encourage others to emigrate.
The following documents reveal these claims. Herzl, the father of Zionism, wrote in his diaries that antisemitism, or hatred of Jews, was one of the most sincere ideas serving Israel. He said the more Jews felt vulnerable to hostility in their homelands, the more likely they were to emigrate to Israel. He also wrote that the enemies of the Jews were Israel’s most loyal friends without realizing it. Jewish minorities have lived in India since ancient times, particularly in Kochi and Mumbai. Some Iraqi Jews also migrated to India and settled there. In China, there is a small but long-established Jewish community in Kaifeng that has existed for centuries and gradually integrated into Chinese society.
There are also Jewish communities in Bukhara, Tajikistan, the Caucasus, Georgia, and among the Mountain Jews of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Ethiopia is home to another ancient and historically isolated Jewish community, although most of its members have emigrated to Israel. Jewish communities also emerged in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean.
In North America, the first Jewish community arrived in New York in 1654 from the Netherlands. Small Jewish communities of mostly Baghdadi origin also settled in Singapore and Burma. For thousands of years, Jews have lived as minorities in dozens of different societies and have never constituted a single, homogeneous, or unified community. This is one of the most important social issues affecting the Jewish community in Israel.
By Ahmad alsarraf
email: [email protected]
email: [email protected]
