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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/41552/full/41552/bill-gives-refugee-status-to-jews-who-fled-arab-lands/ <br /><br /> <b>Bill gives refugee status to Jews who fled Arab lands</b> <br /> Thursday, March 4, 2010 | by rebecca anna stoil <br /><br /><p>In future peace negotiations, Palestinian refugees will not be the only ones to demand compensation for land they claimed was confiscated from their families.</p> <p>The Knesset passed a law last week mandating that the rights of Jews who fled Arab lands also be taken into consideration.</p> <p>The sponsor of the legislation, Knesset Member Nissim Ze’ev of the Shas Party, said that the law “created historical justice” for the Jewish refugees who arrived in Israel before and after the establishment of the state due to persecution, humiliation, murder and kidnapping of Jews in several Muslim countries.</p> <p>In addition to allowing Jews to press claims against Arab countries for property that they were forced to leave behind, Ze’ev argued that parallel refugee status would enable negotiators to determine retroactively that Palestinian and Jewish refugees were part of a “population exchange,” thus negating the basis for Palestinian claims to a right of return.</p> <p>“When historical justice comes to practical expression through this issue being raised by the Israeli government, the Quartet and the entire world will be able to do justice to both sides by revealing the true narrative of Jewish refugees in the Middle East,” Ze’ev said after the law was passed.</p> <p>Not every Knesset member was happy with the new legislation, despite its passage by 34-1.</p> <p>“The only refugee problem in the Middle East is that of the Palestinian refugees who were expelled by the Jews, who expelled and then demanded compensation,” complained Knesset Member Taleb a-Sana. “The Jews were persecuted by Germany and Spain, and the people who are responsible for the destruction of the Second Temple and the diaspora itself were the Romans, the ancestors of Berlusconi, who was embraced in the Knesset a few weeks ago.”</p> <p>A-Sana added that the Zionist movement is responsible for the tragedy that befell the Jews who left North Africa, and still carries out “character assassination and attacks their culture and identity.</p> <p>“The goal of the law is to create a fictitious issue of Jewish refugees as a counterbalance to the Palestinian refugees,” he said.</p> <p>He noted, however, that he supports the right of return, both of Palestinians to Israel and of Jews to Arab lands.</p>

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