Indigenous Middle Eastern Jewry, from Lebanon, Morocco, and Iran, have issued recent condemnations of the Israeli assaults on Lebanon and Palestine.
The first here is from the Jews of Lebanon website. Lebanese Jewry goes back to 1000 B.C., and did not empty out in 1948, as many Middle Eastern Jewish populations did, most emigrating to Israel. The bulk of Lebanese Jewry left during the Lebanese civil wars from 1975-92. There are some 100 members of the community remaining today.
According to Ed Corrigan in the Journal of the Middle East Policy Council, Winter 1990-91, Number 35, Beirut Jewry had close ties with the Palestinian community:
Two little-known facts are that the PLO helped protect the Beirut Jewish community (and also the American embassy) during the Lebanese Civil War, and it was the Israelis who destroyed their synagogue during the siege of Beirut. [Some 60 Muslims and Jews were sheltering in the synagogue when its roof was blown off by IDF fire – WW4] Nor has it been widely publicized that nine Palestinian Jews were among the victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
From the Jews of Lebanon website:
Condemnation of the War in Lebanon
July 26, 2006We once again renew our appeal for people to differentiate between Zionism and Judaism and ultimately between our mission and the current crisis in our beloved Lebanon. Hundreds have been killed in the latest violence between Israel and Lebanon and we pray that this will open the door to a final and comprehensive peace agreement. Though we believe in the universal principal of the right to self-defense we condemn the indiscriminate and disproportionate response from the State of Israel. Ultimately, we condemn the violence wholeheartedly.
Our heartfelt condolences to the innocent lives that are lost in this conflict- whether Lebanese and Israeli.
At the end of the site’s mission statement, it says:
Long Live the Lebanese (no matter what their religious convictions are!)
“Lebanon…not a nation but a message”
(via JSF)
One of the three prisoners Hezbollah wants freed from Israeli jail is Nasser Nissim, an Israeli citizen of Lebanese origin, with a Jewish mother and Shi’ite father. He was convicted of spying for Hezbollah in 2002. (BBC, July 26)
Moroccan Jewry was once one of the largest Jewish groups in the Middle East. Some of the Berbers in the Atlas mountain range converted to Judaism before Muslim Arab forces invaded, and in fact the Jewish warrior princess Dihya al-Kahina held out against the invaders for 40 years at the end of the seventh century, C.E. The Jewish Virtual Library says Moroccan Jews numbered 250,000-265,000 in 1948, after which Jews left for Israel. Today some 5,230 remain. The current Israeli Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, is Moroccan-born. Abraham Serfaty, perhaps Morocco’s best-known political dissident, was a communist who was tortured and exiled by the current king’s father, Hassan II, only to be invited back by Mohammed VI as a government official. An anti-Zionist, one of Serfaty’s regrets is that he failed to persuade Moroccan Jewry not to leave for Israel.
Moroccan Jews condemn Israeli “crimes” in Lebanon, Palestine
2 August 2006Text of report by Moroccan news agency MAP
Rabat: A group of Moroccan Jewish intellectuals launched, on Wednesday [2 August], an appeal to “all those who have the privilege of calling themselves Moroccan Jews or Jewish Moroccans to clearly express their indignation and their suffering for the crimes committed by Israel” in Lebanon and Palestine.
In this appeal, a copy of which was sent to the Moroccan news agency MAP, the signatories, Messrs Edmond Amran Elmaleh, Abraham Serfaty and Sion Assidon, invite the Moroccan Jews “here in our country and throughout the world” to “clearly express their indignation and their suffering as men and women for the crimes which are being committed in the name of Israel’s security”.
They also invite them to stand up to demand an end to the bloodbath which is resulting from this suicidal policy of terror, stressing that Qana, the Lebanese village bombarded by the Israeli army, “is the symbol of a policy, that of destruction and the killing of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon, which is continuing as we launch this appeal”.
As far as the signatories are concerned, “Israel is once again possessed by a murderous rage, taking its suicidal policy to its height, with the active diplomatic and logistical complicity of the United States”.
They said that “the State of Israel remains fixed on an invariable objective, namely to force the Palestinian people out of a land which is theirs” by trying to hold the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance responsible for this dialectics which means that repression begets resistance” [quotation marks as received].
According to AP, Aug. 3:
Moroccan Jews: Try local born Peretz for war crimes
Three Jewish Moroccans have submitted Rabat’s high court with a petition against Defense Minister Amir Peretz, accusing the Moroccan-born Israeli of war crimes.
Leftist activist Abraham Tsarfati, author Amran al-Malich and human rights group official Zion Asidon claim Peretz may be tried in their country due to his Moroccan citizenship.
“The criminal terrorist, Zionist Amir Peretz, has retained his Moroccan citizenship and is still registered in Morocco’s census,” the three told reporters during a press conference. “Moroccan law allows the trial of any Moroccan national who has committed war crimes in or out of the country.”
Lawyer Abd al-Rahim Ga’ami, who represents the three, said: “Amir Peretz’s political statements and the orders he has issued to his soldiers have brought about crimes of war and massacres against innocent civilians.”
Persian Jewry goes all the way back to the Babylonian exile in the six century BCE, preceeding the Muslim presence. The community now numbers approximately 15,000-30,000. Iranian Jewry’s position can be precarious — 13 members were arrested for allegedly spying for Israel in 1999, although they’ve since been freed. There is a Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament. The leader of Iran’s Jewish community was outspoken in condemning President Ahmednejad’s Holocaust revisionism. (Washington Post, Nov. 20, 2005)
IRNA
Shiraz, Fars prov, July 24The Association of Jews in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz on Monday condemned Zionists’ crimes in attacking the defenseless Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.
In a statement, a copy of which was made available to IRNA on Monday, the Jews said, “We Iranian Jews, like our compatriots voice hatred and resentment against the crimes committed in the region, southern Lebanon and the Palestinian occupied lands, condemning such actions.”
The Jews hoped for an end to all wars, bloodshed and invasions in the world and for the restoration of peace and calm instead.
See our last post on the Lebanon crisis.
Meanwhile, back in South Africa…
Johannesburg, South Africa
Mail & Guardian 02 August 2006 02:41
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has rejected as “unjust” a government statement condemning Israeli military actions in Lebanon and Gaza.
“The SAJBD regards this statement as unjust, highly partisan and wholly unreflective of the realities of the current conflict in the Middle East,” said national chairperson Michael Bagraim.
He said the South African government’s recent statements on the Middle East had seriously undermined its credentials as a credible international player in the quest to achieve a lasting peace in the region.
Bagraim said Hamas and Hezbollah were the parties guilty of breaking international law and of war crimes. He said they used their own civilians as human shields from which to launch their attacks and that unlike Israel, they deliberately sought to target civilians.
“The fact that both Palestinian and Lebanese civilians have lost their lives is a direct result of Hamas and Hezbollah basing themselves in civilian areas.
“For this reason, the responsibility for every civilian death, whether on the Israeli or Arab side, should be laid squarely at the door of these two rogue terrorist organisations,” Bagraim said.
He said the SAJBD deeply regretted the continued loss of life on both sides in the current conflict and called on South Africa and the international community to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for initiating it.
“The accusations that have been levelled at Israel, including collective punishment, war crimes and breaches of international law are completely at odds with the reality of a sovereign state conducting a legitimate defensive war against overt acts of aggression against its neighbours,” he said. – Sapa
Jews in South Afrika
It is extraordinary fantastic to see the difference of behaviour with the jews in arab land…..How long the jews in S.A. shall enjoy such a freedom when their coloured government is so obviously biased?
The number of moslems in S.A. is increasing dramatically being bought by arab money.The whole of subsahara is being massively converting to fanaticists islamists.
Who commits war crimes in Lebanon, Israel and worldwide
Death comes from the garage
by Clemens Wergin
Der Tagesspiegel, 01.08.2006
The Der Tagesspiegel newspaper published that Hezbollah puts itself in bunkers in inhabited areas, operates in the middle from the population. Hezbullah pays $100/month to a family for hiding a Katjuscha rocket in their house or garage. A Schiit from south Lebanon described in his letter to the editor: When Hezbollah came into the south after Israel departure, it built underground weapon storages and on the top of them schools and houses.
_______________________________________________________________________
The U.N.’s Complicity in Hezbollah Kidnappings
By Julia Weller
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 2, 2006
“For years, UN observers have watched the build-up of Hizbullah’s armory and the construction of its fortified tunnels and its bunkers in the hills overlooking Israel and they have done nothing. The UN has allowed Hizbullah to move rockets into homes, schools and mosques, in the midst of heavily populated towns, and they have done nothing. The UN observers have watched Hizbullah terrorists train and be trained by Iranian Revolutionary Guards on their doorstep and they have done nothing.
As usual…
all the opprobrium about war crimes goes one way. How boringly predictable.
Re:
In this case it is understandable that people are more apalled by atacks against Lebanese civilians compared to atacks against Israelis. While war crimes were perpetrated by both parties, the damage and death toll and terrorism perpetrated by the Israeli government far outweighed that of Hisballah….the death toll alone was in a ratio of thousands in Lebanon vs hundreds in Israel….and the Israeli authorities promised (and delivered) to destroy Lebanon to the point of turning back the clock 20 years. Israeli cities were minimally damaged in comparison.
Further, Israel argues that it is a country that respects human rights and abides by international law. However, in practice it did not behave much different than the terrorist groups that it constantly criticizes. This is not too surprising considering that the Israeli “resistance” that created the state of Israel was also a terrorist group.