Jewish Leaders Seeking Rights and Redress for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries

Jewish leaders from over 10 countries gathering in Jerusalem to spearhead a world-wide effort to secure rights and redress for Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

New York, NY (PRWEB) September 28, 2006 -- Jewish leaders from over 10 countries will be meeting in Jerusalem to spearhead a world-wide effort to secure rights and redress for Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Delegates from Europe, North and South America and Asia will gather on October 22-23, 2006 to launch the International Rights and Redress Campaign, whose goals are to:

To register family history narratives, and document the mass violations of human rights suffered by Jews under Arab regimes (e.g. murder, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, stripping of citizenship, seizure of property, etc.); and to catalogue the loss of extensive communal and individual assets.

The International Rights and Redress Campaign is being conducted on an urgent basis by the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) and Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC).

Stanley Urman, Executive Director of JJAC stated, "With memories fading, and elderly people passing on each day, this will be the last chance to obtain this important record of Jewish history and the evidence for future claims."

Efforts are also being made to place this issue on the international political agenda:

--Bi-partisan resolutions on the rights of Jewish refugees were introduced in both the US Senate and House of Representatives;

--Formal representations on the rights of Jewish refugees have been made to government officials in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, the European Parliament and the European Commission; and

--It is anticipated that this issue will be raised shortly at the United Nations.

The urgent and timely priority remains to register every Jewish family which fled an Arab country, and conduct the necessary research, to document the historical narrative of displacement and their claims, without which no credible representation on their behalf can ever be made.

JJAC and WOJAC will be assisted in the International Rights and Redress Campaign by a coalition of 20 Diaspora Jewish communities and over 50 major Jewish organizations on five continents, including, among others, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, American Sephardi Federation, Anti-Defamation League, Bnai Brith International, Board of Deputies of British Jews, Canadian Jewish Congress, Comite Central de la Comunidad Judia de Mexico, Conseil representative des institutions juives de France (CRIF), Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Executive Council of Australian Jewry, HARIF, International Sephardic Leadership Council, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, JIMENA, Unione delle Comunita Ebraiche Italiana and the World Sephardic Congress.

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