Jewish refugees

Published on 13/09/2012 00:00

The report by Ben Lynfield ­(“Israel raises question of Jewish ‘refugees’ from Arab countries”, 11 September) prompts me to ask, why the inverted commas around the phrase, “Jewish ­refugees”?

There is the suggestion through the use of the punctuation that the more than 850,000 Jews displaced from Arab countries, and from within what is now known as the West Bank, were not refugees at all.

In spite of the distorted logic of Abdallah Abdallah, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who is quoted by Mr Lynfield as saying that Jews cannot be refugees since by going to Israel they were simply returning to the land of their forefathers, the fact remains that mass expulsion of Jews from Arab and other Muslim countries did occur and that in large part their belongings were confiscated prior to expulsion. They received no aid from the United Nations, and the states that had expelled them have consistently refused to pay them compensation for their abandoned property. His logic is especially distorted since many of Palestinians deny the historical Jewish presence in the region.

It seems to me to be quite correct that Israel reminds the world of these events and to maintain that any agreement to compensate Palestinian refugees must also include compensation for Jewish refugees. Additionally, and I know that it won’t sit too well, Palestinians should be encouraged to recognise historical facts and throw out the distorted narrative they have held onto for so long. The perpetuation of their refugee problem has been the work of extremist, uncompromising and incompetent leadership over the decades and especially in the first years after the failed attempt to strangle the state of Israel at its birth. These leaderships have to acknowledge their own complicity in the displacement of the Palestinian people as well as the displacement of Jewish refugees.

Dr Graeme D Eddie

Bothwell Gardens

Dunbar, East Lothian