Egyptian Jews fight to reclaim seized property

An organization representing Egyptian Jews is seeking to increase awareness of their culture and history, and to mark Egyptian Jewry's own nakba, or catastrophe, their exile resulting from the Arab-Israeli wars.

In a conference in Haifa on Wednesday, the World Congress of the Jews from Egypt will also focus on recent initiatives to reclaim property taken from Egyptian Jews since 1948.

An estimated 100,000 Jews lived in Egypt in 1948. Today, estimates of the country's Jewish population run the short distance from 20 to 100. Hundreds were killed and tens of thousands expelled in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948-49, 1956 and 1967.

Often the expulsions were performed "politely. They just took your work permit away. my father, an export-import merchant, just decided we would leave," said Prof. Ada Aharoni, head of the World Congress of the Jews from Egypt.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1182409649764&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

1) return Jewish property, including land, confiscated in Egypt, and allow Jews to return there.
2) return Palestinian property, including land, confiscated in Israel and the West Bank, and allow Palestinians full rights to return.

That suggestion comes up in this recent Guardian article:

Palestinians have not been the Middle East's only victims. We Arabs should recall the many Jews who paid the price for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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While it is impossible to turn back the clock and undo a crime, we Arabs should recall the hundreds of thousands of Jews who paid the price for the Arab-Israeli conflict. We should continue to demand that Israel apologise for the expulsion and exodus of the Palestinians, but we should offer a similar apology to our one-time Jewish populations.

The Arab League should continue to press for a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem, but Arab states which once had Jewish communities should also offer an equivalent "right of return". Perhaps many Jews, particularly those living in Israel, would not accept this offer, but it is the virtue of the thought that counts.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/khaled_diab/2007/06/the_other_right_of_return.html

I think it would be great for the Arab League to offer Jews a right of return to the places they were expelled from across the Arab world. Further, I think many of those countries could do a lot more to protect the tiny Jewish populations that do remain from discrimination and harrassment.