Shoah, Naqba and ethnic cleansing. posted by Richard Seymour

It is enough that Europe's Jews were almost completely exterminated by the Nazis, (at least 60% of those in gas chambers using carbon monoxide or Zyklon-B). Enough, that is, to say that the memory of it shouldn't be abused or insulted by those who ought to bloody well know better. It is also enough that 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed, driven from their homeland by fanatical conquerors who believed that the answer to anti-Semitism was to build a Jewish State on what was alleged to be Biblical Israel, the land of Solomon and David. That too should not be abused.

So when fatuous idiots write letters like this:

The most dramatic incidence of ethnic cleansing in modern times has been the systematic ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands. It is a pity the mayor appears either to be in ignorance of this or to be indifferent to it.
Prof Geoffrey Alderman
London

A response of some kind is merited. It is a complete fiction that there has been systematic ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands, and the worst thing about Alderman's missive is that it seems to be answering Ken Livingstone's criticism of Israeli ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians - which was systematic, and planned, as revealed in Plan Dalet documents discussed by Israeli 'new historians'. To falsely accuse nations, let alone a whole region, of ethnic cleansing is a vulgar slander, and it also has the unfortunate side effect of trivialising quite real oppression of Jews in some Arab countries. Thankfully, Jews Sans Frontieres has been on the case.

Here he deals with Egypt , and here Morroco . There is also a very strong article by an Iraqi Jew named Naeim Giladi who writes that:

Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave, Jews killed Jews; and that, to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands, Jews on numerous occasions rejected genuine peace initiatives from their Arab neighbors. I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called "cruel Zionism." I write about it because I was part of it.

Another good article about the same is stored here . A nice article exposing the myth of "systematic ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands" is to be found in Ha'aretz .

Unsurprisingly, Professor Alderman's letter drew this tart reply from a "trailing spouse" .