Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zamkanei, Shayna
• Labendz, Jacob Ari

Titel

Property Claims of Jews from Arab Countries: political, monetary, or cultural?

Ist Teil von

• Jewish Property After 1945, 2018, Vol.1, p.79-95

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Over the course of several decades in the mid-twentieth century, the vast majority of Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa migrated to Israel, Europe, and the Americas. Many of them left behind properties and assets that were either seized, sold at a fraction of their worth, stolen, or abandoned. Recently, the question of compensation for these properties has garnered signifi cant attention within the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Problematically, the politicized and controversial nature of these claims has obscured the ways in Middle Eastern Jews themselves have understood the issue of their lost assets. This paper focuses on two organizations that offer a lens through which the broader issue of compensation can be understood. In so doing, it argues that the nature of property claims are multidimensional and cannot be reduced to the question of whether they serve Israeli state interests. The issue of Jewish property in Arab countries has garnered significant attention within the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The debates over Jewish compensation have tended to be framed within the context of whether it serves Israeli state interests. While both World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) and Jews from Arab Countries claim to represent Jews from Arab countries, the historical circumstances of departure and property loss of Jews in each country was highly varied. Scholarship on the issue of compensation for Jews from Arab countries has focused on claims made in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. WOJAC represented the first significant attempt by Jews to frame their property and assets in terms of political capital that could serve the interests of the state of Israel. For Jews seeking compensation, the matter of compensation can represent a desire to achieve equality or moral symmetry with Palestinians before an international audience.