The fact that these refugees were rehabilitated in Israel, and that they are regarded as "Olim" does not in the least detract from their being refugees in the specific meaning that this term is given in the Middle-East. When applied to the Arabs, the status of the refugee is not dependent on his economic situation or on his rehabilitation, for both he and his offspring continue to be refugees and to enjoy UN assistance to the end of all time.

Moreover it would be erroneous to think that ail the Jewish refugees in Israel have been rehabilitated or have succeeded in overcoming the trauma of their escape or expulsion from the Arab countries. Many of them live in stress. True, stress is primarily an internal matter of our own, and so long as it persists, our other achievements are overshadowed. But this stress has also an international aspect. The property and worldly possessions of some of the refugees who today experience stress in Israel, remained behind them, and if they were to be returned to them or if they were compensated for them their situation would improve. Little is known in the international community of the confiscation of Jewish property in the Arab countires - which is nothing short of robbery on a giagantic scale. This fact however, does not in the least diminish its seriousness.

Legal Definition

True, the official definition of the refugees in Eretz Israel in the UN resolution refers solely to the original inhabitants of the country in 1948, and to their offspring. But it must be borne in mind that this definition was made in the wake of the War of Liberation before mass-aliya from the Arab countries commenced, and was dictated by political considerations. The legal definition in the UN resolution does not, however, alter the basic fact that the War of Liberation created hundreds of thousands of refugees, both Jews and Arabs, who were forced to abandon their homes. These refugees settled in their homelands among their bretheren, co-religionists and co-nationalists. The moment one accepts the principle that a refugee even when he lives among his own people, it must apply also to Jewish refugees.

The only difference between the Jewish and Arab refugees is that we have looked after our bretheren, whereas the Arab states for the most part have let them remain for a whole generation, in tent camps and in conditions of stress. In the 1950's the refugees on both sides were housed in tent camps and left to the mercies of the summer heat and the winter cold. We regarded such camps as transit camps (the term "ma'a barot is derived from the Hebrew word for transit) whereas they looked upon their camps as a base from which one could conduct propaganda warfare against Israel

Distorted Picture

Despite these clear facts and despite the expulsion, the pillage and the injustice done to the Jewish refugees in almost every Arabic-speaking country, a distorted picture has presented itself to the world. In this picture, Israel is depicted as a white-European society that has settled in an Arab Mediterranean land and has created an Arab refugee problem-whether intentionally or unintentionally, depending on the hatred or sympathy for us.

Nowhere have we succeeded in setting this distorted picture aright, not even among our friends. Maybe our failure in this respect is due to the fact that we did not want to admit that an "oleh" is also a refugee, and that mass aliya from the Arab lands flowed not out of pure Zionistic motives but also as a result of anti-Jewish excesses. Maybe our failure in this respect stems from the fact that the political leadership in Israel is the prerogative of people of European origin who were not always aware of the full political significance of the news from the Arab states, and the pillage of their property.

Rights of Jewish Refugees

Indeed one can have no simpler and more convincing expression of the rights of the Jewish refugees than that voiced by Israelis, members of the oriental communities, hailing from the Arab lands. How convincing are the following lines written by Eliahu Elyashar to Jean-Paul Sartre in speaking of the Jewish refugees he says:

"They immigrated to Israel from their countries of residence mainly on account of the difficulties and limitations imposed upon them by the new Arab states after receiving their independence, as well as on account of their being Jews.

"Clearly, therefore, these new Israeli citizens lived in the Middle-East for thousands of years without interuption, long before the emergence of Islam. They are the new arrivals from Iraq, Egypt, the Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa, who found refuge in Israel.

"These Israeli citizens belong to this region both from the point of view of language as well as from the geographical, ethnical and geo-political points of view. They were forced to leave their countries of residence on account of the conditions of life imposed upon them by the Arab authorities". ("To live with Palestinians".)

Now that we must prepare for a great show-down over the settlement of the Jewish—Arab dispute, these simple and clear words must be said aloud. It is the voice of those directly concerned — — the Jews of the Arab lands; it is the most convincing voice of all. They must arise in all places where the dispute is conducted——at international conferences, in the UN Assembly, through all communications media, in university campuses–and speak in the name of those whose stress and injustice has not been given a name — — in the name of the Jewish refugees from the Arab lands.