Since Hamas’ attack on October 7 and the following fighting in the Gaza Strip, statements accusing Israel of "ethnic cleansing" in the region and making hundreds of thousands of Gazans into refugees have been heard worldwide, especially on social media platforms.
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Facing global criticism, the Israeli government initiated an international campaign to highlight the ethnic cleansing of Jews in the Middle East. This effort commemorates the expulsion and deportation of Jews from Arab countries and Iran, observed on November 30.
As part of this effort, the Social Equality Diaspora Affairs ministries launched a new website that presents the stories of Jewish communities in Iran and other Arab countries, which nearly disappeared due to the waves of antisemitism that peaked during the 20th century.
The site also presents the staggering numbers of Jewish refugees who fled for their lives – over 900,000, the majority of whom found refuge in Israel. Additionally, the site showcases disturbing images of persecution against Jews in Arab countries. Efforts are underway to release an English version of the site, and an Arabic version is expected to arrive at a later date.
Among other things, a chilling photo is displayed on the site showing the hanging of the Shafiq Ades, an Iraqi Jew, in Basra in 1948; another photo shows Yemenite refugees on their way to Israel with Torah scrolls from 1949, refugees from Morocco on a ship on their way to Israel, a mass grave for the victims of anti-Jewish riots in Tripoli in 1945; and the hanging of nine Jews in the Baghdad’s central square in 1969.
Also displayed on the site is a photo of the front-page headline of the New York Times from 1948 that reads: "Jews in Grave Danger in all Muslim Lands." Another photo on the site shows the desecration of the Great Synagogue in Tunis in 1967, and another photo shows the Jewish quarter in Aden after the Arab anti-Jewish riots in 1949.
Brutal deportation from Arab countries
In addition, the ministries have produced informative pages on the matter that will be presented to civil public diplomacy bodies as well as influencers on social media who assist in advocating for Israel online, in parallel to a special discussion in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
The pages clearly show that one can’t speak about the concept of refugees in the Middle East without discussing Jewish refugees who arrived in Israel, presenting a message that words like deportation or ethnic violence can’t be discussed without addressing the tragic history of Jews from Arab countries and Iran.
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Iraqi Jews being transported to Israel, 1949
(Photo: Israel State Archives' Shlomo Hillel collection)
According to the initiative’s leaders, the world must recognize the history of nearly a million Jewish refugees who found safety and a home in Israel. The Palestinian population in Gaza has doubled since Israel’s establishment, while the Jewish population in Arab countries has disappeared entirely.
Throughout the 20th century, Jews from Arab countries and Iran underwent persecutions that included coercion, threats, acts of robbery, property arson, stoning, and massacres that sometimes resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Jews.
Many members of the Jewish communities in these countries were expelled during these persecutions, and others were forced to leave their countries and homes out of genuine fear for their lives. Some of them immigrated to Israel out of Zionist sentiments. Within a few decades, around 900,000 Jews became refugees, solely because of their ethnicity and beliefs.
In June 2014, the Knesset enacted the Day to Commemorate the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from Arab Countries and Iran law, whose purpose is to raise awareness “for the past of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran and their rights to compensation.”