16 dec 2019
Israel is preparing to claim a total of $150 billion in compensation for the property of Jews who migrated from Arab countries to occupied Palestine, Israel Today has reported.
The process of estimating the property values started in 2002, the newspaper pointed out. It noted that the law to claim compensation for Arab Jews was passed by the Israeli parliament in 2010 as a condition of a regional peace deal; negotiations began with the Arab countries in 2017.
According to media reports, the compensation claimed will include assets from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. In January, Israel was reportedly planning to seek an estimated $250 billion from Arab countries after the government in Tel Aviv quietly conducted some research on the value of property and assets that the Jews left behind.
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, an international parent group of Jewish organisations, claims that around 856,000 Jews from 10 Arab countries — including Algeria and Lebanon — fled or were expelled during the 1948 Nakba, when 800,000 Palestinians were expelled and 532 villages were destroyed by the creation of the State of Israel.
According to Russian broadcaster RT, former British MP George Galloway denounced the Israeli move for compensation. “Israel bombed and destroyed the nuclear reactors in Iraq some 25-30 years ago. Is Iraq going to be compensated by Israel for that?” the pro-Palestinian Galloway asked.
“Israel occupied and has annexed a part of Syria — the Golan Heights — and it is harvesting oil there as we speak. Is Israel going to compensate Syria for that?”
Citing Libya and Iran as examples, he added that some of these countries have got funds frozen in the United Sates. “Israel could seek to claim these funds by going to US courts. The whole thing would be laughable if it were not for this fact.”
In the coming weeks, said Maan News Agency, it is expected that the compensation project will be presented to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The process of estimating the property values started in 2002, the newspaper pointed out. It noted that the law to claim compensation for Arab Jews was passed by the Israeli parliament in 2010 as a condition of a regional peace deal; negotiations began with the Arab countries in 2017.
According to media reports, the compensation claimed will include assets from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. In January, Israel was reportedly planning to seek an estimated $250 billion from Arab countries after the government in Tel Aviv quietly conducted some research on the value of property and assets that the Jews left behind.
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, an international parent group of Jewish organisations, claims that around 856,000 Jews from 10 Arab countries — including Algeria and Lebanon — fled or were expelled during the 1948 Nakba, when 800,000 Palestinians were expelled and 532 villages were destroyed by the creation of the State of Israel.
According to Russian broadcaster RT, former British MP George Galloway denounced the Israeli move for compensation. “Israel bombed and destroyed the nuclear reactors in Iraq some 25-30 years ago. Is Iraq going to be compensated by Israel for that?” the pro-Palestinian Galloway asked.
“Israel occupied and has annexed a part of Syria — the Golan Heights — and it is harvesting oil there as we speak. Is Israel going to compensate Syria for that?”
Citing Libya and Iran as examples, he added that some of these countries have got funds frozen in the United Sates. “Israel could seek to claim these funds by going to US courts. The whole thing would be laughable if it were not for this fact.”
In the coming weeks, said Maan News Agency, it is expected that the compensation project will be presented to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Almost 200 children were dispatched to Scandinavia from Israel over three decades, which Israeli officials say was due to lack of willing candidates for adoption in the country; Hebrew University law prof.: I tried to get answers 20 years ago but AG stonewalled me
Representatives of the Arab community are demanding an inquiry into how almost 200 babies born to Israeli Arab mothers were flown to Sweden for adoption during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Approximately 192 infants who were either given up by their parent or were born out of wedlock were taken to the Scandinavian country during this period.
The community representatives are now demanding an investigation into why the babies were taken to a foreign country in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and cut off from their roots.
The issue was raised by MK Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List in the Knesset, and was told by Likud Minister Yariv Levin that at the time it was nearly impossible to find Muslim families to adopt the children. Therefore, Levin said, in order to spare a childhood without a family and growing in state-run institutions, they were adopted by families in Sweden.
Prof. Ahmad Natour of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem says he tried to investigate the matter in 1998.
"It's a terrible thing," Natour says. "I don't understand the deliberations that led to this point. I asked the attorney general in 1998, Roni Bar-On, how the state could give away children in violation of international law, and he told me that it was probably all legal. No further investigation was carried out by the state after that."
Natour added: "According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child has the right to have contact with his family, religion and ethnicity. I wonder if these children know they're entitled to an Israeli citizenship and that they could return here if they so desire."
According to the professor, the children were given away without consulting with the welfare services in the Arab community.
"No one talked to us about finding an alternative," he says. "We don't know whether they were abandoned or born out of wedlock; there are things we could have done to help them."
Natour said he wrote to Bar-On in 1998, asking for information on the children in order to track them down.
"Unfortunately the attorney general's office didn't respond to our request," he says.
Representatives of the Arab community are demanding an inquiry into how almost 200 babies born to Israeli Arab mothers were flown to Sweden for adoption during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Approximately 192 infants who were either given up by their parent or were born out of wedlock were taken to the Scandinavian country during this period.
The community representatives are now demanding an investigation into why the babies were taken to a foreign country in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and cut off from their roots.
The issue was raised by MK Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List in the Knesset, and was told by Likud Minister Yariv Levin that at the time it was nearly impossible to find Muslim families to adopt the children. Therefore, Levin said, in order to spare a childhood without a family and growing in state-run institutions, they were adopted by families in Sweden.
Prof. Ahmad Natour of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem says he tried to investigate the matter in 1998.
"It's a terrible thing," Natour says. "I don't understand the deliberations that led to this point. I asked the attorney general in 1998, Roni Bar-On, how the state could give away children in violation of international law, and he told me that it was probably all legal. No further investigation was carried out by the state after that."
Natour added: "According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child has the right to have contact with his family, religion and ethnicity. I wonder if these children know they're entitled to an Israeli citizenship and that they could return here if they so desire."
According to the professor, the children were given away without consulting with the welfare services in the Arab community.
"No one talked to us about finding an alternative," he says. "We don't know whether they were abandoned or born out of wedlock; there are things we could have done to help them."
Natour said he wrote to Bar-On in 1998, asking for information on the children in order to track them down.
"Unfortunately the attorney general's office didn't respond to our request," he says.
13 dec 2019
Israel is taking the first steps towards establishing refugee displacement camps to house tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel whom it plans to “urgently” evict from their homes in unrecognized villages across the Naqab (Negev) region without even offering them any permanent or just housing solutions, according to a new in-depth report [pdf] published by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Adalah’s new position paper, released, on Tuesday, takes a detailed look at the ramifications of the plans, and the ways in which they violate the human rights of the Bedouin community.
Israel’s basic aim is to transfer the residents of ‘unrecognized’ Palestinian Bedouin villages – villages in which they have lived for decades, and some of which have existed since before the state’s establishment in 1948 – to temporary structures for a period of up to six years.
The plans constitute another step by Israel to forcibly remove the Palestinian Bedouin population of the unrecognized villages from their homes and lands in the quickest possible fashion.
Israel’s plan to establish refugee displacement camps for Palestinian Bedouin citizens must be understood in the context of a January 2019 announcement by Israel’s Bedouin Authority that it intends to evict 36,000 Bedouin citizens for the needs of “economic development projects” and the expansion of military training areas, the report said.
These plans – expected to affect thousands of families, will have devastating consequences for the entire Palestinian Bedouin population of the Naqab, both in the unrecognized villages and in the recognized townships where the refugee displacement camps are to be constructed, the report said.
Adalah’s new position paper, released, on Tuesday, takes a detailed look at the ramifications of the plans, and the ways in which they violate the human rights of the Bedouin community.
Israel’s basic aim is to transfer the residents of ‘unrecognized’ Palestinian Bedouin villages – villages in which they have lived for decades, and some of which have existed since before the state’s establishment in 1948 – to temporary structures for a period of up to six years.
The plans constitute another step by Israel to forcibly remove the Palestinian Bedouin population of the unrecognized villages from their homes and lands in the quickest possible fashion.
Israel’s plan to establish refugee displacement camps for Palestinian Bedouin citizens must be understood in the context of a January 2019 announcement by Israel’s Bedouin Authority that it intends to evict 36,000 Bedouin citizens for the needs of “economic development projects” and the expansion of military training areas, the report said.
These plans – expected to affect thousands of families, will have devastating consequences for the entire Palestinian Bedouin population of the Naqab, both in the unrecognized villages and in the recognized townships where the refugee displacement camps are to be constructed, the report said.
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