Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog said Monday that his organization – the largest Jewish nonprofit in the world – plans to convene a special session to discuss the issue of lost Jewish property in Arab countries and Iran.
The statement was made following an exclusive report in Israel Hayom on a special government report that has found that said lost assets could amount to $150 billion.
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For the most part, when addressing the issue of "refugees" in the Middle East, the international community automatically attributes the term to Palestinian refugees, even though the same period of time (1948-1967) saw over 850,000 Jews leave various Arab countries as well as Iran. Some 600,000 arrived in Israel and the rest relocated mainly to the US or Europe.
Read more: Lost Jewish property in Arab countries estimated at $150 billion
The government report, much of which remains classified, was two years in the making. It examined parameters such as rural and urban property, businesses' value, loss of existing and potential income, and loss of communal property. Its authors stressed that it is a conservative assessment that does not account for current inflation rates.
"The Jewish Agency plans to call a conference in the near future to discuss additional ways to raise awareness of the issue. This has to be dealt with on various levels," Herzog said.
"Ignoring the issue of Jewish refugees, who have lived in Arab countries for centuries and forced to leave and flee, serves Palestinian propaganda," Foreign Minister Israel Katz asserted. "History – certainly not issues pertaining to the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict cannot be interpreted without acknowledging the complexity of the story of displaced Jewish communities."
