Shimon Ohayon says Arabs must own up to role in ethnic cleansing of Jewish population from Middle East, North Africa.
By GABRIELLA TZVIA WEINIGERJewish refugees from Yemen cross desert 370(photo credit: Courtesy Israeli National Photo Archive)
On the United Nations World Refugee Day, MK Shimon Ohayon (Likud Beytenu) called on the Arab League to "own up to its role in the ethnic cleansing of the Jewish population from most of the Middle East and North Africa.""The Jews of Arab countries, starting in 1947, were used as weapons by the Arab League against the establishment of the Jewish State,” MK Ohayon said in a statement, adding a targeted accusation at the Arab League who "drafted laws for its member states to withdraw civil and human rights from its Jewish inhabitants."Ohayon said it is time for the Arab League to make diktats for a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and form them to accept their "great responsibility" in the Jewish refugee crisis.The League must accept "great responsibility for driving out almost a million Jews from lands which they had lived in for millennia," Ohayon stated."I call on the Arab League not just to take responsibility but also to provide redress to the Jewish refugees."Directing his statement to the international community, Ohayon said the matter has been ignored for too long."It is time to place the rights of the Jewish refugees from Arab lands at the forefront of the push for peace and reconciliation in our region," he stated.Ohayon, who along with his family fled Morocco in 1956, is the Chairman of the Knesset Caucus for the Rights of Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands and has drafted a law to hold an annual day to commemorate the Jewish refugees in the Israeli calendar.
