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In This Issue...
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Postmarked
Palestinians Not the Only Refugees
When the subject of Middle East refugees is mentioned, most people think of Palestinians and their descendants who once lived in the area which is now Israel. There are other refugees from this region who have been neglected by the international community and media. In 1948 when Israel was established, there were approximately one million Jews living in North Africa and the Middle East. Of these million people, only about 25,000 remain (20,000 in Iran, 5,000 in Morocco, and a few hundred scattered throughout the Middle East).
The Jewish communities of Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt now have less than 20 Jews each, while the Jewish community of Libya which once numbered 30,000 has none. Morocco where I was born once was home to over 260,000 Jews. Now only 5,000 remain.
These Jewish communities existed for centuries, some as far back as 2,500 years. In some cases their presence predates Islam by a thousand years. What happened to us, the indigenous Jews of the Arab world? Why is the Arab world and Iran nearly free of Jews?
Although our experience was different from the European Holocaust, our lives were not secure amongst the Arab majority. Most Moroccan Jews lived in a ghetto-like area called the Mellah. We were fortunate to have kings who made an effort to protect us: Mohammed V and King Hassan.
Nevertheless, our lives were always in danger. I still remember the time my father’s small store was fire-bombed by Arab youths while we were in the store, and I still bear the scars from another attack while I was walking to school. Jews of Iraq were less fortunate.
During World War II, in June of 1941, Arab mobs spurred on by the Nazi government in Baghdad, Iraq went on a two-day rampage killing nearly 200 Jews
and wounding 2,000. They destroyed close to 1,000 homes. We know that had the Nazis not been stopped, our families too would have perished.
Following the war and with the establishment of Israel, life became unbearable in these lands. Jews were subject to violent attacks, lost civil liberties and were stripped of citizenship. Many of us lost all our property and the right to earn a living. We were either forced to leave our homes or strongly “encouraged” to do so, many leaving with only the clothes on their back.
What happened to us? Most of us came to Israel where we were provided housing, food, and an education. Some from North African moved to France and some to Montreal. Some of us immigrated to the United States. We did not receive one dollar in reparations from our former countries nor did we ever receive any assistance from the United Nations or the international community. There have been over 100 U.N. resolutions regarding Palestinian refugees since 1948, not one even mentioning the one million Jewish refugees from the Middle East.
Now the United States Congress may change this. Senate Resolution 494 and House Resolution 848 have been introduced in a bipartisan effort to call recognition to this injustice. These resolutions instruct the president to insure that in all international forums, when the issue of Middle East refugees is discussed, representatives of the United States must ensure: “That any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees is matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees, as a matter of law and equity.”
This resolution in no way diminishes the plight of Arab refugees who have suffered in camps for over fifty years. It does point out that they are not the only ones who lost their homes and communities. This resolution has been spearheaded by JIMENA, Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. You can learn more about this group and about Jews from Arab lands by going to www.jimena.org. Ask your member of Congress and our U.S. senators to support these resolutions.
Mimi Stein
Aptos
Chutzpah and Castro
What chutzpah! The Bush Administration is giddy from its military forays into Afghanistan and Iraq: from spying on its own citizens, hoping to catch one or two on line with Osama bin Laden; from renditions for hapless souls thrown into the dungeons of despair; and now, preparing for regime change in Cuba. The headline in the Cox New Service in July, 2006, is succinct and troubling â€"“U.S. Stepping Up Preparations for Castro’s Death.”
The headline diminishes the U.S. image here and abroad. It also harbors a warning that the Bush Administration is casting its web ever wider hoping to capture Cuba in its net. The State Department’s plan for Cuba, headed by Commissioner McQuarry, financed with an $80 million budget, is to enumerate a concise group of initiatives.
These initiatives include supporting anti-Castro dissidents, diminishing the relationship with Chavez of Venezuela, producing Spanish-language television, radio and internet programs, exchanging Cuban students and funding the “transition to democracy.” In the same news article, it has been reported that the State Department officials refused to discuss any plans for “deploying troops to the island in the event of chaos in the post-Castro Cuba.”
One could question why this small island of 11 million could pose such a danger to its Goliath nemesis some ninety miles away. Could it be that its social programs and literate society pose a threat to the U.S. capitalist system. One way to find out is to visit this small island, speak to the Cubans and draw one’s own conclusions.
One evening the group I was with visited a small village in Pinar del Rio. They had heard that we were coming and prepared a community fiesta. I spoke with one of the women, asking what she thought of Fidel Castro. She clasped her hands to her chest and said, “Mi padre, mi padre.”
Then she invited me up to her apartment to see what it means to live under socialism. She went on to describe the advantages her children had, being able to have higher education and become professionals. “Before Castro,” she said, “this would never had happened.”
On another occasion, we made a visit to La Guinera, a small community on the outskirts of Havana. When we met in their social room, we heard an unusual tale. The women, tired of living in hovels, had built the two surrounding apartments. Their husbands had refused to help with their projects. The women devised a crude brick-making machine and a small crew went to work.
In time, they built these two apartment buildings and the social hall. One night, to their surprise, when work was in progress, President Castro dropped in. The next day, he sent a truck and building materials.
There are many more anecdotes I could write that would attest to the positive aspects of life in Cuba, like inviting 12,000 children from Chernobyl's nuclear blast to recover from radiation; or establishing free schools on the Isla de Juventud for poor children from Africa. There probably are many negative aspects also. However, the same is true of any country, especially in the Western Hemisphere, including the United States. The State Department should first acknowledge the repression by the U.S. used in Guantánamo before verbally attacking a sovereign country for the way their prisoners or dissidents are treated. Chutzpah should be saved to correct our own way of life.
Ruth Hunter
Santa Cruz
In Other Words…
Thank you for your Aug. 8, 2006 article about the Superior Court’s decision in Saldana v. County of Santa Cruz and your interest in the issue of affordable housing.
I write to make a small correction. The court’s ruling does not eliminate all review of affordable housing developments. Instead, because the County admits it lacks sufficient sites for affordable housing development, it must designate suitable sites (with adequate zoning and infrastructure in place) for low and very low income housing development. That process will involve environmental and other review. Once the County designates these sites, however, specific projects proposed for development would no longer be subject to additional review, except design review.
I hope this clarifies the issue.
Gretchen Regenhardt
California Rural
Legal Assistance, Inc.
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