Not long ago we, (administrators of “Time to Stand up For Israel”) attended the lecture of Linda Menuhin Abdel Aziz, an Iraqi-Jewish women that told the sad story of the Jews from Arab countries in general and the Iraqi Jewish community especially. She showed her autobiographic movie “ Shadow in Baghdad” and answered questions.

Sitting there and looking to the brave women it hits me. How horrible the situation of the Jews in Arab countries have been and how they almost had no other choice then to leave and become refugee. Some of the Jews in Arabic countries left voluntarily but most were expelled.. it was leaving or get killed. More then 900.000 Jews flee the prosecution, the discrimination and the threats. They were forced to leave all were they worked for, their life as they knew it.

Many of those expelled Jews found a home in Israel, the Jewish state welcomed them and within a few years, this refugees, settled down and started their lives. And the world? The world remained silent, did not showed or ever spoke one word about this human disaster that hit the Jewish communities again so bad and soon it became a forgotten episode in history and in our collective memory.

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May 1948

The state of Israel was born, but instead of living in peace and harmony, the Arab countries did not accepted this state and called on to the Arabic citizens to leave temporarily Israel, so they could terminate all Jews. It was meant to be that, after all Jews were killed, the Arabic people could come back to their houses. Although Israel tried to convince the Arabic population to stay, still 750.000 Arabs left Israel in the hope to return glorifying in victory. Hashem however had different plans…. Against all odds, the newborn Jewish state won this independence war. Leaving 750.000 people, that are called several years later “Palestinians” in refugee camps in the Arabic neighboring countries.

Striking is that so many years after this event what the “Palestinians” called “The Nakba-day” (meaning “Day of the Catastrophe). The Palestinians consider themselves still as “Refugees”, not only the ones that left voluntarily in 1948 but also the children and grandchildren. Realize yourself what a disgrace commemoration of the day of Catastrophe actually is… knowing they are mourning the day that they failed to kill all the Jews….

Not only one can not compare the situation of the Arabs that flee voluntarily, hoping their Arab brothers would exterminate all the Jews, to the devastating situation of the expelled Jews, that were prosecuted, discriminated, imprisoned and killed years and years before they were FORCED to leave.

The manipulation of the International media by the Palestinian Propaganda machine is a disgrace. Instead of building their lives in the Arabic homelands and abandon their refugee status after decades of self-pity because they did not succeed in their plans to commit a new Holocaust under the Jews, they exploit their refugee status to get billions of huminairitary aid from the western countries, earn their sympathy and frame the devastating suffering from the expelled Jews from Arabic countries.

30 November is the day that Israel pays extra attention to the Jews that were once expelled from their Arabic Homelands. It is a day the world should commemorate the disasters that happened to the Jewish communities. The real victims, the one that had no other choice then to leave or get killed…

Instead the world commemorate the Nakba, they condemn Israel and will do anything to destroy Israel.

I think the movie “shadow in Baghdad” should be shown in schools all over the world, this forgotten part of Israel’s history is to important and to significant to be forgotten.

Am Yisrael Chai