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From: jho@ihu1m.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: Islam (long but not propaganda)
Message-ID: <607@ihu1m.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Aug-85 15:34:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihu1m.607
Posted: Sun Aug  4 15:34:38 1985
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In a recent article Yakim Martillo  described the persecution of 
minorities under Arab/Islamic rule.  The forgotten Jewish refugees,
who fled from Arab persecution to Israel, provide a clear example
of what could happen to minorities under Arab rule in the 20th century.
To illustrate  my point, I am posting a letter sent to the Ann Arbor News
on 4/13/75 (with the permission of the author) by Aviva Mutchnick.
Aviva came to Israel as an infant refugee from Iraq.
This is her story:
                     ----------------

		REFUGEES FROM ARAB STATES

    My family can claim continuing residence in Bagdad, Iraq for nearly
2,500 years.  In all that time we were considered strangers, people in 
exile.  We were the Jews of Israel taken into captivity by the Babylonians
some 600 years before the birth of Christ.

    The people of Bagdad have referred to their city as the "Tray of 
Gold," but a popular Jewish lyric depicts Bagdad as a "Tray of Gold...
with a scorpion in it."  The Oriental Jews withstood many persecutions 
and endured the periodic decimations of pogroms. 

    My family recalls the pogrom of 1941 when a massacre of Iraqi Jews
followed the failure of the Arabs to oust out the British from an alliance
with Nazi Germany.  The rebels vented their rage on the Jewish Quarter.
Many dozens of Jewish lives were terminated.

    The situation of Iraqi Jews deteriorated when Israel was proclaimed
a sovereign state in 1948.  Even though Jews were considered second class
non citizens, they were not allowed to emigrate.  Those who attempted to
flee were caught and hanged in the public square.

    Iraqi Jews were finally allowed to depart in 1951, but were not 
premitted to take any possessions except the clothing on their backs.
These hapless 125,000 victims were accepted by Israel with the full
realization the economic hardships would effect the fledgling nation.
Refugees were sheltered in tents and shacks.  Food stamps were employed
to distribute the limited quantities of food.  As a consequence, rationing
was instituted for the entire country in order to provide the Jewish 
refugees from Arab states.

    My family, like many others with a large number of children, was 
given a tent with canvas sleeping cots.  This was to be our home for
eight years.

    Pneumonia was common amongst the children as their meager clothing
provided unsuitable for the wet winter weather.  Makeshift barracks,
unheated, served as schools.  The low protein and high starch diet
lowered resistance to infection....

    Within two decades, the situation changed.  All refugee camps 
disappeared as the former Oriental Jews were assimilated into the fabric
of the new Israeli society.  Problems remain, inequities occur, but all
Israelis are geared to sacrifice for the common good.

    Not all Jews were fortunate to leave Iraq of for that matter, Syria.
A small number maintained their protestations of loyalty to the Iraqi
governments.  Their fate has subsequently proved horrendous as they are
now captives of repressive governments.  Loyal, though they might claim 
to be, saboteurs and the fifth columnists they have been declared.

    Many Jews were under house arrest for years, were condemned in 
kangaroo courts for treason and sentenced to death.  How ludicrous the
charges, how awful the spectacle of their motionless bodies in the
hangmam's noose in the square of Bagdad....in the presence of jubilant
and cheering Iraqi Arabs.

    In Israel the refugees from Arab States now control their own fate.
They are no longer a repressed minority subject to the excesses of
tyrannical Arab governments.

    How ironic that Arab refugees from Israel were placed in detention
camps by there brethren.  How regrettable that they were denied the basic
human rights of other Arab citizens in the host countries.

    Israel has succeeded to well with her refugees as she responded out
of need and deep love.  The ingathering of repressed Jews continues.

					Aviva Mutchnick
			----------------
-- 
Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories
Naperville, Illinois,  Mail: ihnp4!ihu1m!jho