Eloquent refugee piece from our man in Uruguay

Bataween
Point of No Return
18 January '10

Roni Goldberg's eloquent piece in Guysen International News (Spanish) 'La Nakba de los judios de los paises arabes' contrasts the two sets of refugees created by the Arab-Israeli conflict - the Palestinians, 'living propaganda'; the Jews, putting the past behind them. It marks a departure from the hitherto 'pusillanimous' approach of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, to a more assertive, rights-based message. At least, we hope it is a harbinger of change. Roni Goldberg is vice-consul at the Israeli embassy in Uruguay.

"The establishment of Israel in 1948 brought with it two migratory movements : the so-called Nakba ( "tragedy") of the Palestinian people, during which some 650,000 Palestinians, according to UNRWA, abandoned their properties and lands to head into exile, and the - no less tragic - exodus of 850,000 Jews who had lived until then in the Arab world, and had to leave everything in their flight toward the Jewish state.

"As is well known, the Palestinian exile over 62 years does not make it a more tragic historical event than the forced exile suffered by Jews in the Arab world.

"The Palestinians left their land in the heat of battle, in which many of them actively participated, although most were told to stay away for a few days or weeks until the nascent Jewish state was swept away and the Jews driven into the sea, then they would be allowed to return, and "all will be yours. " Unfortunately for them, the end was very different. The Jews, however, had to flee en masse from their country leaving everything to escape the pogroms, the unpunished murders and institutional discrimination to which they were subjected by the Arab rulers since even before the institution of the Jewish state, making a peace settlement and their loyal subjects hostage to what happened in distant Palestine. Ancient Jewish communities were condemned to disappear in a short time almost without trace.

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