Yom Haplitim, the day to remember the exodus of nearly one million Jews forced to leave Arab countries.
The Jews accepted the UN partition plan in 1947 but sadly Arab leaders declared that no Jewish state was ever allowed to exist. They threathened to kill all Jews in the former British Mandate territory. The war that started by 7 Arab countries in 1948 against the reborn state of Israel ended however in a ‘military catastrophe’ or ‘Nakba’ in Arabic. Having failed to destroy the new small state of Israel, Arab rulers took revenge on the Jews who lived in the nations they controlled. Entire centuries-old communities were driven out. Some Jewish communities had contributed greatly to the development of countries in the middle-east for millenia. These Jews faced with official persecution, mob violence, pogroms, and the confiscation of their property, fled these countries, most of them to Israel and many to the US. This expulsion of Jews from Arab countries is one of the biggest humanitarian crises of the 20th century and it is all the more tragic for how little it is recognized today!
In the United States, H.Res. 904 offers a formal recognition of this history. It encourages education about the forced displacement of Jews from Arab lands, affirms solidarity with Jewish communities worldwide, and condemns antisemitism in all its forms.
This human tragedy needs worldwide acknowledgment, not only to honor the victims, but to understand the full history of the Middle East.
