There is no moral equivalence between Jews who left Arab countries in the run-up to the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 and afterward and the Arabs who departed at that time from what was to become the Jewish state.
Around 1947–1948, two populations – Jews and Arabs – each experienced mass displacement, with approximately 900,000 people migrating.
The Arabs who were dispossessed from their homes and vineyards maintain rightful ownership over these properties, it is widely contended. They have lived there for decades, if not centuries. They departed from this fledgling country, Israel, and were not allowed to return. Instead, they were consigned to massive refugee camps, where they have lived ever since, unto several generations by the present date. These people experienced a dire plight. Virtually all commentators blame this situation on the supposed cruelty of the Israelis. They, obdurately, will not allow them to implement their so-called “right of return.” In point of fact, they were treated shabbily by other Arabs in order to demonstrate this supposed Israeli cruelty.
In contrast, only experts in the history of this troubled corner of the world realize that there was an emigration of Jews of about the same size. People of this religious background were kicked out of, and ethnically cleansed from, countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
This leaves open the possibility of allowing Arabs excluded from their properties to take over the housing from which Jews were forcibly evicted in Arab countries and permit Jews to take over the Arab properties from which the IDF will not allow the Palestinians to return.
There is a certain evenness to this proposal. Further, it would liberate the Palestinians from those dreadful refugee camps in which they have resided for over seven decades. I am tempted to say this sounds good in theory, but not in practice, but the problem with the foregoing proposal is that it is predicated on the notion of moral equivalence. Here are two peoples, of roughly equal size, each treated poorly by historical events over which they have had little control. Let us now rectify this unjust situation in this egalitarian manner.
But there is no moral equivalence in this case whatsoever. The displaced Jews had lived in their homes for generations without violating any laws or posing a threat. Their forced removal was a violation of their rights. If there ever was any “right to return,” it applies to them. They would be loath to trade in on any such right.
The Arabs were never expelled from Israel
The Arab situation is entirely different. They were not kicked out by the IDF of what became Israel. Jews begged them to remain. To a great degree, their departure was in response to messages sent to them by the numerous invading Arab armies, telling them to leave and that if they remained, it would be more difficult for them to slaughter Jews.
Some, innocently and undoubtedly, ignored these orders and departed to visit their friends and family members abroad. Others, equally innocently, left their homes out of fear of war and hostilities. But there was a significant number who obeyed the instructions of the invading armies. These people were traitors to the newly established Jewish state. If allowed to return, they would serve as a fifth column, intent upon destroying this country from within. But that is merely a pragmatic concern, in addition to the one that if they were allowed to come back, and Israel remained democratic, it might well no longer be a Jewish state. More important is a matter of justice. These traitors do not deserve to be treated in any such manner.
Jews were compelled to leave Arab countries, unlike their immigration counterparts who did so on the basis of their own free will, in many cases to make it easier for the elimination of Jews in the area.
This so-called right of return is no right at all. The Israelis integrated those Jews forced to join them from those Arab counties. If justice is to be done, those Palestinians should be relocated out of their refugee camps and resettled in those same countries.■