" Jews were prominent in the Arab countries till the creation of the state of Israel."
You ought to be joking, mislead or manipulating.
Jews were living in a state of fear, only because they were Jews. And when porgrom happened, who bothered to protest : the French ? The English ?
It is often said by brilliant european intellectual, Jews who were raised in North Africa countries that the Arabs and Jews were getting along quite well.These people, now often opinion leaders (ie french newspaper Nouvel Observateur), among them friends of mine, were living in anther world. Often they were holding a "good passport" read French, were belonging to the financial elite, having tea with the new president or king etc.
This is not what I experienced living in North Africa after those countries became independent. Local Jews were scared, constantly. Not about expressing their opinion, no, no one dared do such a thing in Morocco Algeria Tunisia Libya Egypt, not to mention countries more to the east. These Jews were scared for their life only because they were Jews.
It has been documented that the French authorities let pogroms happen both in Algeria and Morocco before independence just because it was going to keep the masses and the activists quite for some time. Of course no one has ever been trialed for these acts.
That was the local reality. That's why they moved to Israel en masse ASAP.
But that was the past. Soon, we'll really know how things have or haven't changed in all those countries. I wouldn't expect too much.
Epstein bd |
