A Christian British traveller, Mrs. A. Goodrich-Freer, wrote poignantly in 1903 of the plight of Jews in Muslim-ruled Jerusalem, observing the patience "with which Jews ignore the insults shouted after them in the streets." She commented on the injustice of Arabs' extorting money from Jews: "Considering how much [Jews] contribute as citizens to the welfare of Jerusalem, it is sad that large sums of money should be paid for permission to pray beside the western wall of the Temple enclosure, to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves east of the village, and to the Arabs for letting alone the Jewish share of the Tomb of Rachel on the road to Bethlehem."

In 1948 when Jordan captured the Old City, the Arabs killed or expelled every Jew in eastern Jerusalem, destroyed every one of 58 synagogues in the ancient Jewish quarter, and desecrated the 2,500 year old Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, digging a road through it and using Jewish tombstones as a pathway to an army latrine. The Arabs decreed that selling land to a Jew was a crime punishable by death. (Indeed, Palestinian Authority Minister of Justice Freih Abu Medein has now apparently reinstated the edict, having said in a December 23rd interview that Arabs selling land to Israelis are traitors and "we are planning to send them to execution.")

There is not a word of this from Jennings, though he repeatedly points out how "very modern" the Jewish Quarter is today. Why is it "modern"? Because the Arabs destroyed it in 1948 and when the Jews united the city in 1967 they had to rebuild it. That's why it's "modern." Again, the half-truth amounts to a lie, with images of new construction reinforcing the rhetoric of interloper Jews encroaching on the terrain of authentic, native Arabs.

If we are to believe your erudites assertions about Arabs, then I must admit that it's amazing how many similarities there are between Arabs and Americans. The majority of Americans are ignorant war-crazed religious zealots, who would sell out their wonderful constitution for the sake of a good war.

The Palestinians who reject all offers of peace, then respond by deliberately blowing up innocent civilians. Worse still are the naive supporters who egg the Palestinians on in this murderous 'struggle'. Why are those protesting war against Iraq, screaming for war against Israel??? Only when the Palestinians stop obsessing over blowing up Jews will there be a chance of peace.

How come with 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the "reformists" can't even find 50, 500 (let alone 5,000, 50,000 or 100,000+ like the Israeli Peacenow rallies which every few months call for peaceful co-existence) to demonstrate for PEACEFUL co-existence ?? There was not one single peace rally by the Palestinians even when Barak was Prime Minister.

Yet 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza recently found the wherewithal to "organize" and wildly celebrated the killings of American and Israeli students at an Israeli University which educates over 1000 Arabs at little to no cost. This is a very uncomfortable question for Palestinian supporters, with no coherent answer. As a peace activist, I'll admit, it is hard to face reality when it deligitmizes the agenda of Arab apologetics and anti-Israel "humanism." But sometimes, we need to face it. I believe its called integrity.

If there is ever emerges a true will or motivation for true "reformists" amongst the Palestinians, they would have plenty of opportunities to express themselves --- but for Arafat's oppressive dictatorship and for the brutal murder of supposed Palestinian collaborators" whose bloody bodies are dragged through West Bank village squares and strung on Flag poles" Now comes proof that infact, most so called Palestinian collaborators are killed, because they criticize Arafat for his corrupt policy of keeping all the money the Europeans give him.

In early March 2002, BBC reported the execution of two Palestinians who had been accused by the PA of collaboration. When the BBC crew met with the families of the two victims, they discovered that both had a history of opposition to Arafat and that both had openly criticized Arafat, about him keeping the money the Europeans give him. The family said, that dozens of Palestinians are killed because Arafat calls them collaborators with Israel, where infact, they were people who were critical of Arafat's policies, especially Arafat putting the money the Europeans give him in his secret Swiss bank account and Arafat using children as human shields for the media. The BBC correspondent told a human watch group that these were dissidents, not collaborators, but BBC World Service chose not to report the story.

Arafat is now killing any Palestinian who wants peace.

"After two years of bloodshed, Nabil Amr is now calling for what we rejected," .

Not only do Arafat & Company appear deeply entrenched against reforms, but a violent opposition has surfaced as well:

On Tuesday in Ramallah, these threats were carried out. Masked gunmen opened fire at the home of Nabil Amr, a former PA cabinet member who has openly challenged Arafat and called for wide-scale reforms in the PA.
Palestinian sources told The Jerusalem Post they believed the attack was carried out by Fatah gunmen as a warning to PA officials who are trying to undermine Arafat's rule.

Amr, who until recently served as PA minister for parliamentary affairs, recently published an article in London's Arab newspaper blasting Arafat for having missed an historic opportunity by rejecting proposals at Camp David. Amr said, Arafat planned this war in June 2000 and never intended to make peace with Barak. "After two years of bloodshed, we are now calling for what we rejected," he wrote. He also suggested that many senior PA officials are corrupt and responsible for the theft of public funds.

London Times, Sep 23, 02.
Who's hiding behind Arafat? Joel Marr

PA Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, who is hiding at Arafats headquarters, is not only responsible for a multitude of fatal attacks against Israeli civilians but also for the torture of his own people. Israel wants him to stand trial.

A Palestinian accused of collaboration who managed to flee from Hebron last week has accused Palestinian Authority General Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi's men of torturing him and many others suspected of working as "informers" for the Shin Bet. The man, 32, is now hiding in an apartment in Jerusalem. He is sharing the apartment together with two others who also managed to escape from Tirawi's prisons.

Tirawi is one of 20 wanted Palestinians who are reportedly hiding in PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Mukata headquarters compound in Ramallah.

The man said Tirawi's men had brutally tortured him since his arrest about 18 months ago. He said he was released only after a relative paid a top General Intelligence official $10,000.

"I was summoned to the General Intelligence offices near Hebron for a routine interview," he said. "I had a big appliance shop in one of the towns in the Hebron area. "One day there was a big explosion that destroyed the shop. I lost all my money.

"I thought they were going to tell me that they had discovered who was behind the gutting of my shop. When I arrived, I was surprised to hear that I was being accused of being a spy for Israel."

He said that for the first month, he was tortured almost daily inside his small cell. "They beat me with telephone cables all over my body. For many days my head was covered with a stinking bag. They would also tie me to the ceiling by my arms. On other occasions, they made me stand for several hours on a small cup."

He said his interrogators threatened several times to shoot him if he did not confess. Last April, he added, his interrogators informed him that a decision had been taken "on the highest levels" to kill him.

He was blindfolded, handcuffed, and asked for his final words. He was then taken into the back yard. There, the cover was removed from his eyes, and he saw a firing squad of five masked, uniformed policemen.

"They tied me to an electricity poll and pretended that I was about to be executed," he said. "I shouted out that I'm innocent and that Islam does not permit killing innocent people, but they only looked at me with smiles. Then the policemen aimed their rifles at me and waited for the order.

Seconds later one of the officers shouted: 'Fire.' I could hear them pulling the triggers, but I didn't feel the pain.

"For a moment, I didn't know if I was alive or dead. I heard shots, but there was no pain or blood. I quickly realized that it was a mock execution. It was the worst experience in my life.
For a while, I thought I was dead. Only when I heard them laughing did I understand that they were just trying to intimidate me.

"They agreed to release me for health reasons; that's what they wrote in the papers they gave me. If it wasn't for the bribe, I would have been dead by now."

He said that while in prison he met many detainees who were also suspected of helping Israel. "Tirawi's people specialize in arresting Palestinians who are accused of being collaborators. The prisons are full of people like me. Many were released when the IDF entered the Palestinian cities. But others are still being held in secret locations. In the prison where I was, there were more than 25 people, all accused of collaboration with Israel."
He said some were very sick and required immediate medical attention. Those whose families could afford to pay the bribes were released after a short while.

"I have no sympathy for Tirawi or any of his men, and I hope Israel will put him in prison. He said he had no connection Israel, before he was got away from Tirawi. "When I see what's happening to Tirawi today, I say to myself, thank God he's finally paying the price for what his men did to me."

Who wanted ethnic cleasing. Lets see what you think, by these statements. On March 1 1944, the Palestinian leader, Hajj Amin Al Husseini who was in Cahoots with Hitler. Husseini said in a broadcast from Berlin: "Arabs Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor." After the 5 Arab Armies attacked Israel in 48, the Arab League Secretary General, Azzam Pasha said, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the massacres of the Crusades". Hajj Amin Al Husseini stated, "I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!" The armies of lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq invaded the tiny new country with the declared intent of destroying it.

Its well known, it was the surrounding Arab countries, that Told the Arab population to leave there Holmes. The Arab Armies requested and ordered, that the Arab population leave there holmes to clear the Area, so that the Arab armies could kill the Jews. According to a research report by the Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, the majority of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled and "68%" left without seeing an Israeli soldier. How about some more Arab statements. Azzam Pasha regarding the 1 million Jews in the Arab countries. Assam in May 1948 said "There are over one million Jews in the Arab Lands. Their lives will be forfeit as well when we conquer the Jews.

The Real ethnic cleasing happened, when the Arabs kicked out 800,000 Jews from the Arab countries in 48. Israel took in every single of those 800,000 Jewish Refugees, while the Arabs with 22 countries, refuse to take in any of the Refugees they created, when they attacked Israel in 48. The reason the Arab countries dont take in these Refugees, is because they want to use them, for some kind of sick western media propangada. Did you know, that Hajj Amin Al Husseini dispatched a terrorist squad led by Hassan Ali Salameh to Israel during the second World War, with the object of poisoning Lake Kinneret and other water sources to kill all Israeli Jews? They were discovered by the British and prevented from carrying out their murderous Deed. his is well documented in the book "The quest for the Red Prince. Right now as we Speak, Israel has 20 percent of the actual British Mandate borders of 1917. The Arabs have 80 percent. Jordan was part of the British Mandate. The British created Jordan and named the country after the Jordan River in 1922

The full story of the ethnic cleasing of Jews in the Arab countries.

JEWS IN IRAQ PRIOR TO 1948

The Iraqi Jews took pride in their distinguished Jewish community, with it's history of scholarship and dignity. Jews had prospered in what was then Babylonia for 1200 years before the Muslim conquest in AD 634; it was not until the 9th century that Dhimmi laws such as the yellow patch, heavy head tax, and residence restriction enforced. Capricious and extreme oppression under some Arab caliphs and Momlukes brought taxation amounting to expropriation in AD 1000, and 1333 the persecution culminated in pillage and destruction of the Bagdad Sanctuary. in 1776, there was a slaughter of Jews at Bosra, and in bitterness of anti Jewish measures taken by Turkish Muslim rulers in the 18th century caused many Jews to flea.

The Iraqi Jewish community is one of the oldest in the world and has a great history of learning and scholarship. Abraham, the first Jew and the father of the Jewish people, was born in Ur of the Chaldees, in southern Iraq, around 2,000 A.D. The community traces its history back to 6th century A.D, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judea and sent most of the population into exile in Babylonia.

The community also maintained strong ties with the Land of Israel and, with the aid of rabbis from Israel, succeeded in establishing many prominent rabbinical academies. By the 3rd century, Babylonia became the center of Jewish scholarship, as is attested to by the community's most influential creation, the Babylonian Talmud.

Under Muslim rule, beginning in the 7th century, the situation of the community fluctuated. Many Jews held high positions in government or prospered in commerce and trade. At the same time, Jews were subjected to special taxes, restrictions on their professional activity, and anti- Jewish incitement among the masses.

Under British rule, which began in 1917, Jews fared well economically, and many were elected to government posts. This traditionally observant community was also allowed to found Zionist organizations and to pursue Hebrew studies. All of this progress ended when Iraq gained independence in 1932.

In 1941, after Rashid Ali overthrow the Iraqi goverment in 1941 with the help of Hajj Amin Al Husseini. They installed a Nazi puppet goverment. The first thing Rashid Ali and Husseini did, was order a pogram of Jews, where 187 Jews were massacred.
This is exactly what would have happened, if the Arabs would have won the 48 war. This is what Israel's army prevented in 48.
On June 1st and June 2nd of 1941, hundreds of Iraqi Arabs brutally attacked Iraqi Jews in the towns of Al Rusafa and Abu Sifyan. Jews were killed randomly, women and children were raped in front of their relatives, babies crushed, houses set on fire, looting was everywhere.
On June 2,1941: Policemen, soldiers and slum dwellers from Al Karkh entered the scene, and participated in the killing and the looting everywhere. Reports vary official Iraqi reports mention 187 killed,

JEWS IN IRAQ AFTER 1948

In 1950, Iraqi Jews were permitted to leave the country within a year provided they forfeited their citizenship. A year later, however, the property of Jews who emigrated was frozen and economic restrictions were placed on Jews who chose to remain in the country. From 1949 to 1951, 104,000 Jews were evacuated from Iraq in Operations Ezra and Nehemiah; another 20,000 were smuggled out through Iran. In 1952, Iraq's government barred Jews from emigrating and publicly hanged two Jews after falsely charging them with hurling a bomb at the Baghdad office of the U.S. Information Agency.

With the rise of competing Ba'ath factions in 1963, additional restrictions were placed on the remaining Iraqi Jews. The sale of property was forbidden and all Jews were forced to carry yellow identity cards. After the Six-Day War, more repressive measures were imposed: Jewish property was expropriated; Jewish bank accounts were frozen; Jews were dismissed from public posts; businesses were shut; trading permits were cancelled; telephones were disconnected. Jews were placed under house arrest for long periods of time or restricted to the cities.

Persecution was at its worst at the end of 1968. Scores were jailed upon the discovery of a local "spy ring" composed of Jewish businessmen. Fourteen men-eleven of them Jews-were sentenced to death in staged trials and hanged in the public squares of Baghdad; others died of torture. On January 27, 1969, Baghdad Radio called upon Iraqis to "come and enjoy the feast." Some 500,000 men, women and children paraded and danced past the scaffolds where the bodies of the hanged Jews swung; the mob rhythmically chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to all traitors." This display brought a world-wide public outcry that Radio Baghdad dismissed by declaring: "We hanged spies, but the Jews crucified Christ." (Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf, p. 34).

Jews remained under constant surveillance by the Iraqi government. Max Sawadayee, in "All Waiting to be Hanged" writes a testimony of an Iraqi Jew (who later escaped): "The dehumanization of the Jewish personality resulting from continuous humiliation and torment...have dragged us down to the lowest level of our physical and mental faculties, and deprived us of the power to recover.".

In response to international pressure, the Baghdad government quietly allowed most of the remaining Jews to emigrate in the early 1970's, even while leaving other restrictions in force. Most of Iraq's remaining Jews are now too old to leave. They have been pressured by
the government to turn over title, without compensation, to more than $200 million worth of Jewish community property. (New York Times, February 18, 1973).


JEWS IN LIBYA PRIOR TO 1948

The Jewish community of Libya traces its origin back to the 3rd century B.C Under Roman rule, Jews prospered.

In 73 A.D, a zealot from Israel, Jonathan the Weaver, incited the poor of the community in Cyrene to revolt. The Romans reacted with swift vengeance, murdering him and his followers and executing other wealthy Jews in the community. This revolt foreshadowed that of 115 A.D, which broke out not only in Cyrene, but in Egypt and Cyprus as well.

In 1785, where Ali Burzi Pasha murdered hundreds of Jews.

With the Italian occupation of Libya in 1911, the situation remained good and the Jews made great strides in education. At that time, there were about 21,000 Jews in the country, the majority in Tripoli. In the late 1930s, Fascist anti-Jewish laws were gradually enforced, and Jews were subject to terrible repression. Still, by 1941, the Jews accounted for a quarter of the population of Tripoli and maintained 44 synagogues. In 1942 the Germans occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi, plundered shops, and deported more than 2,000 Jews across the desert, where more than one-fifth of them perished. Many Jews from Tripoli were also sent to forced labor camps.

Conditions did not greatly improve following the liberation. During the British occupation, there was a series of pogroms, the worst of which, in 1945, resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Jews in Tripoli and other towns and the destruction of five synagogues.

A savage pogrom in Tripoli on November 5, 1945 were more than 140 Jews were massacred and almost every synagogue looted. (Howard Sachar, A History of Israel).

In June 1948, rioters murdered another 12 Jews and destroyed 280 Jewish homes. Thousands of Jews fled the country after Libya was granted independence and membership in the Arab League in 1951. (Norman Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times).

After the Six-Day War, the Jewish population of 7,000 was again subjected to pogroms in which 18 were killed, and many more injured, sparking a near-total exodus that left fewer than 100 Jews in Libya.
When Col. Qaddafi came to power in 1969, all Jewish property was confiscated and all debts to Jews cancelled.

Although emigration was illegal, more than 3,000 Jews succeeded to leave to Israel. When the British legalized emigration in 1949, more than 30,000 Jews fled Libya. At the time of Colonel Qaddafi's coup in 1969, some 500 Jews remained in Libya. Today, no Jews are believed to live in Libya.

JEWS IN EGYPT PRIOR TO 1948

Jews have lived in Egypt since Biblical times, and the conditions of the community have constantly fluctuated with the political situation of the land. Israelite tribes first moved to the Land of Goshen (the northeastern edge of the Nile Delta) during the reign of the Egyptian
pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1375-1358 B.C).

During the reign of Ramses II (1298-1232 B.C), they were enslaved for the Pharaoh's building projects. His successor, Merneptah, continued the same anti-Jewish policies, and around the year 1220 B.C, the Jews revolted and escaped across the Sinai to Canaan. This is the biblical Exodus commemorated in the holiday of Passover. Over the years, many Jews in Eretz Israel who were not deported to Babylon sought shelter in Egypt, among them the prophet Jeremiah. By 1897 there were more than 25,000 Jews in Egypt, concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria. In 1937 the population reached a peak of 63,500.

Friedman wrote in "The Myth of Arab Tolerance", "One Caliph, Al-Hakem of the Fatimids devised particularly insidious humiliations for the Jews in his attempt to perform what he deemed his roll as "Redeemer of mankind", first the Jews were forced to wear miniature golden calf images around their necks, as though they still worshipped the golden calf, but the Jews refused to convert. Next they wore bells, and after that six pound wooden blocks were hung around their necks. In fury at his failure, the Caliph had the Cairo Jewish quarter destroyed, along with it's Jewish residence, in".

In 1945, with the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the cultivation of anti-Western and anti-Jewish sentiment, riots erupted. In the violence, 10 Jews were killed, 350 injured, and a synagogue, a Jewish hospital, and an old-age home were burned down. The establishment of the State of Israel led to still further anti-Jewish feeling: Between June and November 1948, bombs set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200. 2,000 Jews were arrested and many had their property confiscated. Rioting over the next few months resulted in many more Jewish deaths. Between June and November 1948, bombs set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200. Jews. In 1956, the Egyptian government used the Sinai Campaign as a pretext for expelling almost 25,000 Egyptian Jews and confiscating their property. Approximately 1,000 more Jews were sent to prisons and detention camps. On November 23, 1956, a proclamation signed by the Minister of Religious Affairs, and read aloud in mosques throughout
Egypt, declared that "all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state," and promised that they would be soon expelled.

Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave
New York World Telegram).

By 1957 it had fallen to 15,000. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, there was a renewed wave of persecution, and the community dropped to 2,500.
By the 1970s, after the remaining Jews were given permission to leave the country, the community dwindled to a few families.

JEWS IN MOROCCO PRIOR TO 1948

The Jewish community of present-day Morocco dates back more than 2,000 years. There were Jewish colonies in the country before it became a Roman province. in 1032 AD, 6000 Jews were murdered. Indeed the greatest persecution by the Arabs towards the Jews was in Fez, Morocco, nothing was worse than the slaughter of 120,000 Jews in 1146 and before
that In 1160 Maimonides in his Epistle concerning apostasy writes his fellow Jews: "Now we are asked to render the active homage to heathenism but only to recite an empty formula which the Moslems themselves knew we utter insincerely in order to circumvent the bigot
... indeed, any Jew who, after uttering the Muslim formula, wishes to observe the whole 613 precepts in the privacy of his home, may do so without hindrance. Nevertheless, if, even under circumstances, a Jew surrenders his life for the sanctification of the name of God before men, he has done nobly and his reward is great before the Lord. But if
a man asked me, "shall I be slain or utter the formula of Islam?" I answer, "utter the formula and live ... "". In 1391 a wave of Jewish refugees expelled from Spain brought new life to the community, as did new arrivals from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1497. From 1438, the
Jews of Fez were forced to live in special quarters called mellahs, a name derived from the Arabic word for salt because the Jews in Morocco were forced to carry out the job of salting the heads of executed prisoners prior to their public display.

Chouraqui sums it up when he wrote: "such restriction and humiliation as to exceed anything in Europe". Charles de Foucauld in 1883 who was not generally sympathetic to Jews writes of the Jews: "They are the most unfortunate of men, every Jew belongs body and soul to his
seigneur, the sid[Arab master]".

Similarly, in 1465, Arab mobs in Fez slaughtered thousands of Jews, leaving only 11 alive, after a Jewish deputy vizier treated a Muslim woman in "an offensive manner." The killings touched off a wave of similar massacres throughout Morocco.

JEWS IN MOROCCO AFTER 1948

In June 1948, bloody riots in Oujda and Djerada killed 44 Jews and wounded scores more. That same year, an unofficial economic boycott was instigated against Moroccan Jews.

In 1956, Morocco declared its independence, and Jewish emigration to Israel was suspended. In 1963, emigration resumed, allowing more than 100,000 Moroccan Jews to reach Israel.

In 1965, Moroccan writer Said Ghallab described the attitude of his fellow Muslims toward their Jewish neighbors:
The worst insult that a Moroccan could possibly offer was to treat someone as a Jew....My childhood friends have remained anti-Jewish.
They hide their virulent anti-Semitism. A whole Hitlerite myth is being cultivated among the populace. The massacres of the Jews by Hitler are exalted ecstatically. It is even credited that Hitler is not dead, but alive and well, and his arrival unclean. They lay claims to all his belongings, and if he is unwilling, they employ force...The Jews live in outside the town in dark dwellings like prison cells or caves out of fear...for the least offense, he is sentenced to outrageous fines, which he is quite unable to pay. In case of non-payment, he is put in chains and cruelly beaten every day. Before the punishment is inflicted, the Cadi[judge] addresses him in gentle tones and urges him
to change his faith and obtain a share of all the glory of this world and of the world beyond. His refusal is again regarded as penal obstinacy. On the other hand, it is not open to the Jew to prosecute a Muslim, as the Muslim by right of law can dispose of the life and the
property of the Jew, and it is only to be regarded as an act of magnanimity if the Jews are allowed to live. The Jew is not admissible as a witness, nor has his oath any validity.".

Danish-German explorer Garsten Neibuhr visited Yemen in 1762 described Jewish life in Yemen: "By day they work in their shops in San'a, but by night they must withdraw to their isolated dwellings, shortly before my arrival, 12 of the 14 synagogues of the Jews were torn down, and all their beautiful houses wrecked".

The Jews did not improve until the establishment of the French Protectorate in 1912, when they were given equality and religious autonomy. However, during World War II, when France was ruled by the anti-Semitic Vichy government, King Muhammed V prevented the deportation of Jews from Morocco.

In 1922, the government of Yemen reintroduced an ancient Islamic law that decreed that Jewish orphans under age 12 were to be forcibly converted to Islam.

In 1947, after the partition vote, Muslim rioters, joined by the local police force, engaged in a bloody pogrom in Aden that killed 82 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish homes. Aden's Jewish community was economically paralyzed, as most of the Jewish stores and businesses were destroyed. Early in 1948, looting occurred after six Jews were falsely accused of the ritual murder of two Arab girls. (Howard Sachar, A History of Israel).

By 1948 there were some 270,000 Jews in Morocco. In an atmosphere of uncertainty and grinding poverty, many Jews elected to leave for Israel, France, the United States, and Canada.

Finally, nearly 50,000 traditionally religious Yemeni Jews, who had never seen a plane, were airlifted to Israel in 1949 and in 1950 in Operation "Magic Carpet.". Since the Book of Isaiah promised, "They shall mount up with wings, as eagles". The Jewish community bordered
"The Eagles" contentedly; to the pilots consternation some of them lit a bong fire aboard, to cook there food.

JEWS IN TUNISIA PRIOR TO 1948

The first documented evidence of Jews in this area dates back to 200 A.D and demonstrates the existence of a community in Latin Carthage under Roman rule. Latin Carthage contained a significant Jewish presence, and several sages mentioned in the Talmud lived in this area
from the 2nd to the 4th centuries.

During the Byzantine period, the condition of the community took a turn for the worse. An edict issued by Justinian in 535 excluded Jews from public office, prohibited Jewish practice, and resulted in the transformation of synagogues into churches. Many fled to the Berber
communities in the mountains and in the desert.

After the Arab conquest of Tunisia in the 7th century, Jews lived under satisfactory conditions, despite discriminatory measures such as a poll tax.

From 7th century Arab conquest down through the Almahdiyeen atrocities, Tunisia fared little better than its neighbors. The complete expulsion of Jews from Kairouan near Tunis occurred after years of hardship, in the 13 century when Kairouan was anointed as a holy city of Islam.

In the 16th century, the "hated and despised" Jews of Tunis were periodically attacked by violence and they were subjected to "vehement anti-Jewish policy" during the various political struggles of the period. In 1869 Muslims butchered many Jews in the defenseless ghetto.

Conditions worsened during the Spanish invasions of 1535-1574, resulting in the flight of Jews from the coastal areas. The situation of the community improved once more under Ottoman rule.

During this period, the community also split due to strong cultural differences between the Touransa (native Tunisians) and the Grana (those adhering to Spanish or Italian customs).

Improvements in the condition of the community occurred during the reign of Ahmed Bey, which began in 1837. He and his successors implemented liberal legislation, and a large number of Jews rose to positions of political power during this reign.

Under French rule, Jews were gradually emancipated. However, beginning in November 1940, when the country was ruled by the Vichy authorities, Jews were subject to anti-Semitic laws. From November 1942 until May 1943, the country was occupied by German forces. During that time, the condition of the Jews deteriorated further, and many were deported to
labor camps and had their property seized.

Jews suffered once more in 1956, when the country achieved independence. The rabbinical tribunal was abolished in 1957, and a year later, Jewish community councils were dissolved. In addition, the Jewish quarter of Tunis was destroyed by the government. Anti-Jewish
rioting followed the outbreak of the Six-Day War; Muslims burned down the Great Synagogue of Tunis. This caused massive immigration of Jews.

JEWS IN ALGERIA PRIOR TO 1948

Jewish settlement in present-day Algeria can be traced back to the first centuries of the Common Era. In the 14th century, with the deterioration of condiesult, almost 130,000 Algerian Jews immigrated to France. Since 1948, 25,681 Algerian Jews have emigrated
to Israel. JEWS IN SYRIA BEFORE 1948

The last Jews who wanted to leave Syria departed with the chief rabbi in October 1994. Prior to 1947, there were some 30,000 Jews made up of three distinct communities, each with its own traditions: the Kurdish- speaking Jews of Kamishli, the Jews of Aleppo with roots in Spain, and the original eastern Jews of Damascus, called Must'arab. Today only a tiny remnant of these communities remains.

The Jewish presence in Syria dates back to biblical times and is intertwined with the history of Jews in neighboring Eretz Israel. With the advent of Christianity, restrictions were imposed on the community.
The Arab conquest in 636 A.D, however, greatly improved the lot of the Jews. Unrest in neighboring Iraq in the 10th century resulted in Jewish migration to Syria and brought about a boom in commerce, banking, and crafts. During the reign of the Fatimids, the Jew Menashe Ibrahim El- Kazzaz ran the Syrian administration, and he granted Jews positions in the government.

Syrian Jewry supported the aspirations of the Arab nationalists and Zionism, and Syrian Jews believed that the two parties could be reconciled and that the conflict in Palestine could be resolved.
However, following Syrian independence from France in 1946, attacks against Jews and their property increased, culminating in the pogroms of 1947, which left all shops and synagogues in Aleppo in ruins.
Thousands of Jews fled the country, and their homes and property were taken over by the local Muslims.

For the next decades, Syrian Jews were, in effect, hostages of a hostile regime. They could leave Syria only on the condition that they leave members of their family behind. Thus the community lived under siege, constantly under fearful surveillance of the secret police.

cut and paste, cut and paste, cut and paste.

URGENT WARNING: ISRAELI GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Jacob Katriel • Friday September 27, 2002 at 10:47 AM
 jkatriel@tx.technion.ac.il

We, members and friends of Israeli academe, are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership's enthusiastic support for it. We are deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing.

URGENT WARNING: THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY


We, members and friends of Israeli academe, are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership's enthusiastic support for it.

We are deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli ruling coalition includes parties that promote "transfer" of the Palestinian population as a solution to what they call "the demographic problem". Politicians are regularly quoted in the media as suggesting forcible expulsion, most recently MKs Michael Kleiner and Benny Elon, as reported on Yediot Ahronot website on September 19, 2002. In a recent interview in Ha'aretz, Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon described the Palestinians as a "cancerous manifestation" and equated the military actions in the Occupied Territories with "chemotherapy", suggesting that more radical "treatment" may be necessary. Prime Minister Sharon has backed this "assessment of reality". Escalating racist demagoguery concerning the Palestinian citizens of Israel may indicate the scope of the crimes that are possibly being contemplated.

We call upon the International Community to pay close attention to events that unfold within Israel and in the Occupied Territories, to make it absolutely clear that crimes against humanity will not be tolerated, and to take concrete measures to prevent such crimes from taking place.


Prof. Nahla Abdo, Ottawa
Prof. Zach Adam, Rehovot
Prof. Colman Altman, Haifa
Dr. Janina Altman, Haifa
Tammy Amiel-Houser, Tel Aviv
Chaya Amir, Tel Aviv
Dr. Shmuel Amir, Tel Aviv
Prof. Daniel Amit, Jerusalem/Rome
Elinor Amit, Tel Aviv
Prof. Yali Amit, Chicago
Dr. Yossi Amitay, Kibbutz Gvulot
Dr. Meir Amor, Montreal, Canada
Dr. Yonathan (Jon) Anson, Beer Sheva
Dr. Ariella Azoulay, Tel Aviv
Prof. Shalom Baer, Jerusalem
Prof. Ron Barkai, Tel Aviv
Dr. Anat Barnea - Givat Chaim Ichud
Prof. Dan Bar-On, Beer Sheva
Dr. Avner Ben-Amos, Tel Aviv
Tammy Ben-Shaul, Haifa
Prof. Zvi Bentwich, Jerusalem
Prof. Matania Ben-Artzi, Jerusalem
Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi, Tel Aviv
Avi Berg, Tel Aviv
Dr. Louise Bethlehem, Hod Hasharon
Prof. Anat Bilezki, Tel Aviv
Uri Bitan, Beer Sheva
Prof. Elliott Blass, Cambridge, MA
Dr. Yair Boimel, Haifa
Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Berkeley
Prof. Victoria Buch, Jerusalem
Shula Carmi, Jerusalem
Smadar Carmon, Toronto
Dr. Nicole Cohen-Addad, Tel Aviv
Dr. Uri Davis, Sakhnin
Athena Elizabeth DeRasmo, Haifa
Ronit Dovrat, Firenze
Prof. Aharon Eviatar, Tel Aviv
Dr. Zohar Eviatar, Haifa
Dr. Ovadia Ezra. Tel Aviv
Prof. Emmanuel Farjoun, Jerusalem
Pnina Firestone, Jerusalem
Dr. Elizabeth Freund, Jerusalem
Gadi Geiger, Cambridge, MA, USA
Prof. Chaim Gans, Tel Aviv
Dr. Amira Gelblum, Tel Aviv
Prof. Avner Giladi, Haifa
Prof. Rachel Giora, Tel Aviv
Dr. Snait Gissis, Tel Aviv
Dr. Daphna Golan-Agnon, Jerusalem
Dr. Anat Goldrat-First, Netanya
Dr. Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni, Tel Aviv
Dr. Neve Gordon, Beer Sheva
Dr. Yerah Gover, New York
Prof. Charles W. Greenbaum, Jerusalem
Dr. Lev Grinberg, Beer Sheva
Ran HaCohen, Tel Aviv
Prof. Uri Hadar, Tel Aviv
Prof. Galit Hasan-Rokem, Jerusalem
Dr. Sara Helman, Beer Sheva
Prof. Hanna Herzog, Tel Aviv
Prof. Ze'ev Herzog, Tel Aviv
Prof. Hannan Hever, Jerusalem
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jerusalem
Shirly Houser, Tel Aviv
Tal Itzhaki, Haifa
Prof. Eva Jablonka, Tel Aviv
Andrea Jacobs, Austin, Texas
Dr. Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Haifa
Aya Kaniuk, Tel Aviv
Prof. Jacob Katriel, Haifa
Prof. Tamar Katriel, Haifa
Prof. Baruch Kimmerling, Jerusalem
Dr. Gady Kozma, Rehovoth
Dr. Haggai Kupermintz, Boulder, Colorado
Dr. Ron Kuzar, Haifa
Dr. Idan Landau, Beer Sheva
Dr. John Landau, Jerusalem
Dr. Ariela Lazar, Evanston
Dr. Ronit Lentin, Dublin
Prof. Micah Leshem, Haifa
Erez Levkovitz, Jerusalem
Prof. Rene Levy, Lausanne
Prof. Shimon Levy, Tel Aviv
Prof. Joyce Livingstone, Haifa
Dr. Orly Lubin, Tel Aviv
Dr. Ivonne Mansbach, Jerusalem
Prof. Uri Maor, Tel Aviv
Dr. Ruchama Marton, Tel Aviv
Dr. Anat Matar, Tel Aviv
Prof. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jerusalem
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, Jerusalem
Jo Milgrom, Jerusalem
Menucha Moravitz, Ramat-Gan
Susy Mordechay, Giv'ataim
Regev Nathansohn, Tel Aviv
Prof. Adi Ophir, Tel-Aviv
Omer Ori, Jerusalem
Prof. Avraham Oz, Haifa
Dr. Ilan Pappe, Haifa
Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA
Amos Raban, Tel Aviv
Tali Raban, Tel Aviv
Shakhar Rahav, Berkeley
Dr. Haggai Ram, Beer Sheva
Dr. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Beer Sheva
Prof. Zvi Razi, Tel Aviv
Prof. Tanya Reinhart, Tel Aviv
Prof. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Berlin
Prof. Freddie Rokem, Tel Aviv
Prof. Henry Rosenfeld, Haifa
Dr. Maya Rosenfeld, Jerusalem
Ouzi Rotem, Philadelphia
Hava Rubin, Haifa
Amalia Sa'ar, Haifa
Dr. Dalia Sachs, Haifa
Dr. Hannah Safran, Haifa
Tami Sarfatti, UCLA
Dr. Nita Schechet, Jerusalem
Hillel Schocken, Tel Aviv
Ruben Seroussi, Tel Aviv
Dr. Erella Shadmi, Mevasseret Zion
Prof. Nomi Shir, Beer Sheva
Dr. Miriam Shlesinger, Tel Aviv
Aharon Shabtai, Tel Aviv
Dr. Rann Smorodinsky, Haifa
Orly Soker, Sapir-Jerusalem
Dr. Yehiam Soreq, Tel Aviv
Nurit Steinfeld, Jerusalem
Prof. Gideon Toury, Tel Aviv
Dr. Dudy Tzfati, Jerusalem
Roman Vater, Tel Aviv
Dr. Roy Wagner, Tel-Aviv
Prof. Bronislaw Wajnryb, Haifa
Tamar Yaron, Montreal & Kibbutz Hazorea
Dr. Michael Yogev, Haifa
Kim Yuval, Tel Aviv
Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, Jerusalem
Michal Zweig, Herzelia

The Palestinians are not refugees. THEY are now living with their OWN people, exactly as the 800,000 Jews who were kicked out of the surrounding Arab countries, are living now with their OWN people in Israel. The only difference is, that the Arab brothers refuse to intergrate the Palestinians in there countries, by not allowing them equal rights, where as the Jews expelled from all the Arab countries, were fully absorbed by their brothers in Israel. Instead, The Arabs use the Palestinians for Western Media Propaganda. Exactly what Jordan admitted in 1949. JORDAN DAILY NEWSPAPER "FALASTIN". 19th February 1949. The Arab states which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes, in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees.

"The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab states attacking Israel. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem they created." Emile Ghouri, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, Daily Telegraph 6 Sept 1948.

Khaled al-`Azm, who served as Prime Minister of Syria in 1948 and 1949, wrote in his memoirs (published in Beirut, 1973), that among the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948 was"the call by the Arab Governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it and to leave for the bordering Arab countries. Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave...We were the ones who pleaded with them to leave (Part 1, pp. 386-387

"The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that it would be a simple matter, to throw the Jews into the Mediterranean.

Brotherly advice was given to the Palestinians to leave their land, homes and property and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow the Jews down." Habib Issa, in the New York daily Al Hada, 8 June 1951.

"This wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boasting of an un-realistic Arab press and the irresponsible utterances of some Arab leaders that it could only be a matter of weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab states. Edward Atiyah, then secretary of the Arab League in London, The Arabs (1955) p 183

"The Arab exodus was incouraged by many Arab leaders, such as Haj Amin El-husseini, the exiled pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, and by the Arab Higher commitee for Palestine. They viewed the first waves of Arab setbacks as merely transitory. Let the Palestine Arabs flee into neigboring countries. It would serve to arouse the Arab world to greater effort, and when the arab invasion struck, the Palestinians could return to their homes and be compensated with the property of Jews driven into the sea." Kenneth Bilby,'New star in the Near East' pp 30-31

According to a research report by the Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, the majority of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled and "68%" left without seeing an Israeli soldier.

"The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians. But instead they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and leave their homeland." Abu Mazen, PLO Executive Committee, Falastin-al-Thawra, Mar 1976.

A PBS documentary from 1998 has confirmed that Arab eyewitnesses The Arabs deliberately fabricated allegations that atrocities were committed in the battle of Deir
Yassin, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The documentary Israel and the Arabs: the 50-Year Conflict aired May 1998. Deir Yassin resident Abu Mahmoud adds: "We said, There was no rape He [Khalidi] said, We have to say this so the Arab armies will destroy the Jews.

The Arab leaders had promised the Palestinians, that the Arab armies would
crush the Zionist very quickly and that there was no need for panic or fear of a long exile." George Hakim, Greek catholic bishop of the Galilee, in the Beirut newspaper "Sada al Janub" 16 Aug 1948.

Harry C. Stebbens, who was in an official position in the British Mandatory Government in Palestine in 1947-48, wrote in the London Evening Standard (Friday, 10 January, 1969): "Long before the end of the British mandate, between January and April, 48, practically all my Arab Palestinian staff of some 200 men and women and all of the 1800 labor force had left Haifa, in spite of every possible effort to assure them of their safety if they stayed. "They all left for one or more of the following reasons:

Arab Leaders promised a blood bath as soon as the British mandate ended, in which the street of all the cities would run with blood. The promised invasion by the foreign Arab armies (which started on May 14, 1948, with the Arab Legion massacre of some 200 Jewish civilian at Kfar Etzion) was preceded by extensive broadcasts from Cairo, Damascus, Amman, and Beirut to the effect that any Arabs who stayed would be hanged as collaborators with the Jews. The massacre of Kfar Etzion, the massacre of the hospital convoy killed 48 Jewish doctors and nurses, the continued shelling and blasting of Jewish settlement for more than 20 years, has not caused one single Israeli to move away. They sit tight and if necessary in their shelters while across the river, where the shooting comes from, the towns and villages are deserted, last year's crops still rot on the trees and the refugees move still further away from any trouble."

Over the past two years, we've seen what the Palestinians have done with the semi-autonomy generously granted to them by Israel.

They've slaughtered grandmothers and toddlers, pregnant women and elderly rabbis. They've set off their nail-studded, rat poison-laced bombs in shopping malls, disco's, pizzeria's, cafe's and university cafeterias.
They've turned school buses into blazing infernos, invaded home and shot mothers and children in their beds. They've dragged 13-year-old boys to caves and stoned them to death.

Those who don't actually pull the triggers, detonate the bombs or do the stoning, celebrate the atrocities in the streets of Ramallah and Jenin, as they danced in those same streets when other Arabs crashed two planes into the World Trade Center. These sadists even built an exhibition celebrating the Sbarros massacre last August.

As Golda Meir said thirty years ago, "There will be peace in the Middle East when Arab mothers love their children more than they hate the Jews."