An Open Letter to University Presidents
5 min read
By the end of the 1970’s, 900,000 Jews were expelled from Islamic states and Muslim nations around the world.
In 1947, the United Nations (UN) adopted UN Resolution 181 and, thereby, resolved to subsequently divide Great Britain’s former Mandate into Palestinian and Jewish states.1
Although the international community and the Jewish People eagerly embraced UN Resolution 181, all of the Arab nations that surrounded the nascent state of Israel immediately vowed to exterminate the newborn Jewish state.2
Numerous Arab and Muslim leaders also explicitly declared that they would severely punish and expel any Jews who elected to remained within their territories.
For example, in 1947, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Faris el-Khouri, stated that “Unless the Palestine problem is settled, we shall have difficulty in protecting and safeguarding the Jews in the Arab world.”3 In addition, the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Said, proudly declared that "…if a satisfactory resolution to the Palestine case was not reached, severe measures should be taken against all Jews in Arab countries."4
Yemeni Jews aboard a plane during the Operation Flying Carpet, 1949 (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Consequently, when the state of Israel was ultimately founded in 1948, swathes of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries were slaughtered and violently expelled from their ancestral homes and communities. In fact, over 90% of the Jewish population in Iraq and Yemen was forced to escape with only their lives in tow.5
Yemen boasted a Jewish population of 55,000 in 1948. By 2016, only 50 Jews remained.
Yemen, for instance, boasted a Jewish population of 55,000 in 1948.6 Due to the rampant antisemitism that plagued Yemeni Jews after the advent of the state of Israel, 50,000 Jewish people were quickly forced to evacuate from Yemen between 1949 and 1950.7 By 2016, only 50 Jews remained in all of Yemen.8
Moreover, approximately 160,000 Jewish people inhabited Iraq in 1948.9 However, after the state of Israel was founded, Iraq was placed under martial law and the state of Iraq actually amended its own respective Criminal Code, in order to render Zionism a criminal activity and punishable by death.10 In fact, Shafiq Adas, a famous Jewish magnate and “the richest Jew in Iraq”, was arrested and publicly hanged, due to the fact that he allegedly sold goods to the state of Israel.11
Furthermore, Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Said, personally campaigned to violently excise and eliminate Iraq’s Jewish population. According to Britain’s Ambassador, Sir Alec Kirkbride, “Nuri Said…came out with the astounding proposition that a convoy of Iraqi Jews should be brought over [to Israel] in army lorries escorted by armored cars… Either the Iraqi Jews would have been massacred or their Iraqi guards would have had to shoot other Arabs to protect the lives of their charges.”12
By the end of 1952, nearly 130,000 Jews had fled Iraq, and, by 2004, Iraq’s vibrant Jewish community was reduced to a paltry 35 Jews in Baghdad.13
Immigrants from Iraq soon after landing at Lod Airport, summer 1951 (Teddy Brauner, GPO)
Ultimately, 900,000 Jews were violently expelled from Islamic states and Muslim nations around the world by the end of the 1970’s.14 However, throughout the modern era, the international community and human rights activists have focused their efforts overwhelmingly on the 360,000 Palestinians that were displaced as a result of the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.15
The reality that countless Jews were murdered and savagely displaced from their ancestral homes and communities that they lovingly inhabited for well over 2500 years has become forgotten, and is, in fact, often unabashedly ignored by modern political actors because the international community is unwilling to confront the intergenerational antisemitism that has permeated throughout the Middle East for millennia.
Works Consulted
Basri, Carole. “The Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: An Examination of Legal Rights-A Case Study of the Human Rights Violations of Iraqi Jews”. in Fordham International Law Journal. 2002.
“Jews in Islamic Countries: Iraq”. Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
“Jews in Islamic Countries: Yemen”. Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. “On Eagles’ Wings”–Aliyah from Yemen (1949). 2022. [8 November 2023].
Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press, 2008.
“Quotes from Arab and Islamic Leaders Regarding Jews and Israel”. Jewish Virtual Library. [8 November 2023].
United Nations. Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine: In pursuance of paragraph 2, part II, of resolution 186 (S-2) of the General Assembly of 14 May 1948. 1948.
United States Department of State: Office of the Historian. Milestones: Creation of Israel, 1948. [8 November 2023].
United States Department of State: Office of the Historian. Milestones: The Arab-Israeli War of 1948. [9 March 2023].
That 2 million of Israel's population are Arabs and who enjoy full democratic freedom must tell us something, as does the expulsion of almost 1 million Jews from Arab countries, and without any form of possessions. And that upon the rebirth of the State of Israel 5 surrounding Arab countries invaded to kill the new country at it's birth. That they failed is a miracle. And several attempts have been made since, evil stalks the Middle East
Truth be told!
excellent article and very important history for us all to remember in these times of growing antiSemitism.
This is the 'other side of the coin' that most people who sympathize with the Palestinians possibly do not know about or do not want to talk about. You never hear about this in the news reports, no wonder the Palestinian side of the coin receives so much support.
I am sorry to advise that with reference to paragraph 1, the Palestinian people were not known as such in 1947/8; they were still only known as Arabs!
They were known as Palestinians, to my knowledge, in 1967.
Thanks for this timely reminder!