Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon announced on Tuesday that Israel will submit a resolution to the General Assembly to formally recognize Jewish refugees, or Mizrachi Jews, from Arab countries and Iran.
Danon announced the initiative during a plenary session for the annual meeting that marks 72 years since the historic Nov. 29, 1947 partition plan. The resolution will be brought for a vote in the U.N. General Assembly.
In his speech, he also criticized some member states for their one-sided approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and faulted the international community for not acknowledging Jewish refugees from Middle Eastern countries, in addition to Palestinian refugees.
“There were an estimated 850,000 Jews who were forced out of Arab countries and Iran and became refugees in the 20th century,” said Danon. “These Jews were subject to brutal attacks and harassment, and were forced to flee leaving everything behind: in Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Iran and many other countries. And still, we don’t hear the international community speak of them when they discuss the refugees of the conflict, perhaps because it doesn’t serve the Palestinian narrative.”
“Israel took in these refugees and integrated them into our society. The international community on the other hand ignored them and built corrupt institutions that only serve so-called Palestinian refugees,” he added. “In order to right the historical injustice that was done to the Jewish refugees of this conflict, I will propose a resolution to the assembly that will acknowledge the wrong done to the ‘forgotten’ Jewish refugees and will make right the injustice that they suffered.”
