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NEWS
Movement for Quality Gov't: Why Haven't Decisions on Jewish
Refugees from Arab Countries Been Implemented?
By R. Hoffner
The Movement for Quality Government has demanded the State Comptroller
and the Committee for State Control inquire into why government
decisions regarding the documentation of the rights of Jewish refugees
from Arab countries have not been implemented.
The urgency of the issue is clear as the people who lived through this
period are rapidly decreasing. The government's repeated decisions
over the past 40 years to set up various committees and steering
groups to address the issue seem to indicate little importance is
attributed to the matter. This unfortunate conclusion also emerges
from material and testimonies gathered by the Movement for Quality
Government.
Due to the hostility of various Arab governments and violent attacks,
many Jews were forced to leave behind their homes in Arab countries
shortly before the State of Israel was declared. Flourishing
communities that had existed for centuries or even millennia in places
like Iraq, Egypt and Syria totally vanished when thousands of Jews
were forced to uproot their homes and emigrate, leaving their property
behind. As early as 1969 the Government of Israel, which felt it was
partly responsible for who were discriminated against, decided to set
up a database listing those Jews whose rights had been denied or
limits imposed.
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