Turning Points in the Historiography of Jewish Immigration from Arab Countries to Israel

Abstract

Turning Points in the Historiography of Jewish Immigration from Arab Countries to Israel Esther Meir-Glitzenstein (bio) INTRODUCTION The twentieth century was characterized by mass immigration waves and the establishment of numerous nation-states. Israeli history is considered particularly unique for containing a simultaneous convergence of these phenomena. Israel's population doubled following its establishment, as the State absorbed Jews from European and Arab countries by the hundreds of thousands. These immigrants became the human infrastructure upon which the new nation was built, and marked the "genesis" of Israeli society. Given the complexity and significance of this phenomenon, it is no wonder the subject has become a source of both nostalgia and widespread contention. The article concerns Jewish immigration to Israel from Arab countries through the prism of historical research, with specific focus on major turning points within this historiography. It does not aim for an exhaustive representation of research literature on the subject, nor mention studies on the integration of immigrants into Israeli society and the progression of the ethnic conflict in Israel, as each of these topics merits its own discussion. JEWISH IMMIGRATION FROM ARAB COUNTRIES From the declaration of statehood in May of 1948 until the end of 1951, 700,000 new immigrants, half of whom hailed from Europe and half from Arab countries, joined the 650,000 Jews that had been residing in pre-state [End Page 114] Israel. The first to arrive were Holocaust survivors from displaced persons camps in Germany and Cyprus, and Eastern European Jews from Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. The mass immigration from Arab countries began in mid-1949 and included three communities that relocated to Israel almost in their entirety: 31,000 Jews from Libya, 50,000 from Yemen, and 125,000 from Iraq. Additional immigrants arrived from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, India, and elsewhere. Within three years, the Jewish population of Israel doubled. The ethnic composition of the population shifted as well, as immigrants from Muslim counties and their offspring now comprised one third of the Jewish population—an unprecedented phenomenon in global immigration history. From 1952–60, Israel regulated and restricted immigration from Muslim countries with a selective immigration policy based on economic criteria, and sent these immigrants, most of whom were North African, to peripheral Israeli settlements. The selective immigration policy ended in 1961 when, following an agreement between Israel and Morocco, about 100,000 Jews immigrated to the State. From 1952–68 about 600,000 Jews arrived in Israel, three quarters of whom were from Arab countries and the remaining immigrants were largely from Eastern Europe. Today fewer than 30,000 remain in Muslim countries, mostly concentrated in Iran and Turkey. This immigration process thoroughly altered the map of the Jewish-Mizrahi diaspora: its vast majority is now based in Israel, with a small minority in France, Britain, the US, Canada, and others. THE ZIONIST NARRATIVE REGARDING IMMIGRATION FROM ARAB COUNTRIES Discourse on the immigration from Arab countries developed in real time. The Israeli State explained it in apocalyptic terms as the realization of the "End of Days" prophecy regarding Jewish redemption in Zion, the result of 2,000-year-old religious-messianic longing. This explanation was widely accepted within and beyond Israel, being rooted in an ancient redemption myth familiar not only to Jews but to all monotheistic religions. The association of the immigration with a biblical prophecy, and the fact that these Jewish communities dated back to the First Temple period, corroborated Zionist claims regarding Jewish historical continuity and the right of Jews to return to Eretz Israel and establish a sovereign state. However, parallel to this discourse, and to great degree in contrast to it, immigration from Arab countries was also discussed as a reaction to antisemitism and [End Page 115] political persecution, and a solution to socio-economic crises. Jewish life in Arab countries was described as life atop an active volcano, and the massive immigration to Israel was therefore the spontaneous and predictable reaction of Jews who had simply suffered enough. This discourse became a formative part of the Israeli ethos, one that found its way to the center of public school curricula and to every sphere...