In an unprecedented Westminster Hall debate this week, Conservative MPs called on the Government to recognise the plight of over 850,000 Jewish refugees who were forced to flee their historic communities in the Middle East and North Africa.
Among MPs to speak included CFI Vice-Chairman Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP, who led the debate, fellow Vice-Chairmen John Howell OBE MP and Andrew Percy MP, CFI Parliamentary Chairman Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP, CFI Officer Matthew Offord MP, Rt. Hon. Robert Halfon MP, and Zac Goldsmith MP.
Opening the debate, Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP explained in her speech that: “Between 1948 and 1972, pogroms and violent attacks were perpetrated in every Arab country against its Jewish residents”. She said: “Age-old communities, with roots dating back millennia, were gone”.
She said: “There were 38,000 Jews living in western Libya before 1945. Now there are none. Few of the 74 synagogues in Libya are recognisable, and a highway runs through Tripoli’s Jewish cemetery. In Algeria, 50 years ago, there were 140,000 Jewish people. Now there are none. In Iraq, there were 135,000, and in Egypt, 75,000. Almost all are gone from those countries too. Some 259,000 left Morocco, 55,000 left Yemen, 20,000 left Lebanon, 180,000 left Syria and 25,000 left Iran. What happened amounted to the near total extinction of an ancient civilisation”.
CFI Parliamentary Chairman Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP underlined that the “near total absence” of Jews from historic communities in North Africa and the Middle East is “deeply concerning”, and that the stories of these communities should be spread to counter misconceptions.
Condemning the lack of global recognition of the experience of Jewish refugees, Rt. Hon. Robert Halfon pointed out that the United Nations has “passed 172 resolutions specifically on Palestinian refugees over the past 60 years yet not one on Jewish refugees”.
In his speech, Mr Halfon shared the story of his grandfather, Renato Halfon, an Italian Jew who was forced to flee Libya.
In an intervention, Zac Goldsmith MP called on the Government to follow the U.S. and Canada in formally recognising the plight of these refugees.
Hendon MP Matthew Offord underlined: “Some 60,000 square miles of land was taken from Jewish refugees, which would be four times the size of Israel. These people are not seeking any kind of restitution; they are seeking recognition of their plight”.
CFI Parliamentary Chairman John Howell OBE MP shared the story of the Jews of Baghdad, which was once a centre of Jewish life and where Jews at one point constituted as much as a third of the city’s total population.
CFI Vice-Chairman Andrew Percy MP emphasised there is a “false narrative” that Israel is a European creation, when in fact the Jewish presence in the Middle East is a “living history” that goes back thousands of years.
Responding to the debate, Middle East Minister Dr Andrew Murrison said that the Government “deeply sympathise” with the suffering of Jewish refugees.
Mr Murrison said: “For those whose homes and property were seized or who were forcibly expelled, the experience was hugely traumatic and hugely distressing. Some continue to live with all that distress today and rightly seek some sort of recognition of the trauma they have suffered. We deeply sympathise with that suffering, just as we sympathise with the many Palestinians who have been forced from their homes over the same period”.
He spoke about his recent first visit to Israel and Yash Vashem Holocaust memorial in his new role, underlining that he is “very pleased that the Government is four-square behind their right to self-determination and safety in the state of Israel”.
He said: “It had a profound impact on me. Yad Vashem gives us the story; it tells us why it is that a people who have been bashed, bullied and messed around over generations and centuries have said, ‘Enough! This is our home. This is ours, and we are going to defend it'”.
