Jewish "refugees"

Letters

Editor: In the letter "A just peace for whom?" (Bulletin, Dec 21), the author complains that Jews for a Just Peace doesn't campaign for the compensation and return rights of Jews to Arab countries in which they lived in prior to their immigration to Israel.

I am not a member of Jews for a Just Peace but, as an Israeli, I would like to point out that I have never heard these Jews express a demand, wish or even willingness to return to the countries they came from. Indeed, the issue of "Jewish refugees" only came up in recent years, in the context of the discussions about Palestinian refugees. Before that, the myth of "a land without a people" was the common view and the story of the 1948 war and its tragic consequences for the Palestinians did not exist in the Israeli psyche. These "Jewish refugees" were always called <I>Olim</I> - repatriated Jews. Perhaps to see them as refugees is a step towards a more realistic view of the immigration to Israel: not out of ideology and a bond to the land, but rather in an attempt to improve their personal condition, the Jews came to Israel. I welcome this development, as I always welcome rational over mythic discourse.

But it seems to me that the wrong conclusions are drawn from this post-Zionist realization. Today, Jews who came from Arab countries are living as second-class citizens of Israel, suffering from high levels of unemloyment and poverty - much higher than among Jews of European descent. This is indeed a very shameful aspect of Israeli reality and the struggle of those Jews for equality in Israel will, it seems, be a long and difficult one. We should join them in their struggle for their rights, as they express them: jobs, education and infrastructure. They are not asking and, therefore, we should not demand in their names, to return them to Iraq or Syria.

As for compensation claims for property they have left behind, indeed this is an important issue that must be brought up if and when Israel will decide to seriously negotiate peace with Iraq and Syria. But the Palestinians have nothing to do with this and are the wrong address for such claims.

In conclusion, I hope that the author of the letter, as well as the readers, will abandon symbolisms and realize that what is at stake is the real lives of real people who need jobs, education and clean running water more than they need myths and wars.

Irit Katriel
Haifa, Israel

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