Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries

Michael Fischbach

Published by Columbia University Press 2008

Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries

Michael Fischbach

https://doi.org/10.7312/fisc13538

Overview
Contents

About this book

In the twenty years that followed the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, 800,000 Jews left their homes in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, and several other Arab countries. Although the causes of this exodus varied, restrictive governmental measures and an outburst of anti-Semitic feeling during and after the war were major factors. Some of these "Mizrahi" Jews, most of whom were not active Zionists, were forced to leave behind property of great financial and ancestral value-property that was sometimes seized by the governments of the countries they fled.

In this book, Michael R. Fischbach, who has dedicated years to studying land and property ownership in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, reconstructs the circumstances in which Jewish communities left the Arab world. Conducting meticulous and exhaustive research in the archives of Washington D.C., Jerusalem, London, New York, and elsewhere, Fischbach offers the most authoritative estimates to date of the value of the property left behind. He also describes the process by which various actors, most importantly the State of Israel, linked the resolution of Jewish property claims to the fate of Palestinian refugee property claims following the 1948 war.

Fischbach considers the implications of contemporary developments, such as America's invasion of Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and Libya's attempt to shed its international pariah status, which have impacted pending claims and will affect claims in the future. Overall, he finds that many international Jewish organizations have supported the link between the claims of Mizrahi Jews and those of Palestinian refugees, hindering serious efforts to obtain restitution or compensation.

Author / Editor information

Michael R. Fischbach is professor of history at Randolph-Macon College. His Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict received Honorable Mention at the first annual Benjamin L. Hooks Outstanding Book Award Contest. He is also the author of State, Society, and Land in Jordan and The Peace Process and Palestinian Refugee Claims: Addressing Claims for Property Compensation and Restitution, and the editor-in-chief of The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa.

Reviews

An important contribution to the study of Middle Eastern and North African Jews as well as to minorities studies, Israeli politics, and Jewish organizations.

Sami Shalom Chetrit:
This book is a must-read for anyone dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is particularly relevant for Jews from the Arab and Muslim world, for whom it will provide useful and up-to-date data and a deep understanding of the issue.

Joel Beinin:
It combines the best qualities of persistence and detachment in the research process and moral committment and empathy in presenting and evaluating the evidence gathered from research.

Moshe Gat:
An excellent in-depth piece of research into the Jewish assets issue.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
LIST OF TABLES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
ABBREVIATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Loss of Jewish Property in the Arab World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. Jewish Claims in the Context of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Peace Process, 1948–2001 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
3. The Status of Jewish Property Claims Today Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 376
Illustrations
- Other: 12 tables

eBook

Published: August 26, 2008
ISBN: 9780231517812