[The
Great Shakedown, continued] Islam
OnlineSunday, August 17, 2003 Israel Claims
'Lost Property' In Arab Countries GAZA CITY -- In a bid seen as
trying to get a bigger slice of the grand Iraqi
cake, Israel has drawn up a file on Jewish property
and money allegedly left by Jewish immigrants in
Arab countries, particularly Iraq. The Israeli justice ministry spokesman said that
the government would ask Jews in Israel and all
over the world within the few coming days to
present information on their purported belongings
in Iraq, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC)
said Saturday, August 16. Israeli sources put at
$10 billion the value of the so-called Jewish
property in Iraq alone, noting that Israel expects
the would-be Iraqi oil minister return the money
calmly and without any media fuss. One of the Jews
whose family used to live in Iraq has estimated the
value of Jewish property there at a mind-boggling
$20 billion, the PIC said. Quoting former Israeli energy minister Moshe
Shahal, of an Iraqi origin, the center said
that negotiations between Tel Aviv and Washington
over this issue are underway, disclosing that a
secret agreement was currently being drafted over
the alleged Jewish property in Iraq. He said that
former U.S. president Bill Clinton took the
initiative in raising the issue, claiming that
Clinton had touched on the matter with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat. Shahal further purported that Clinton suggested
establishing an international fund under the
supervision of the United States and the European
Union to compensate those Jews. He said that former
Israeli governments abstained from tackling the
issue for fear that it would give the Palestinians
"a pretext" to demand compensations from
Israel. Prof. Ehuda Shinhab, professor of
sociology in Tel Aviv University, has dismissed as
"evil and immoral" the Israeli attempt to compare
between immigration of Arab Jews to the Zionist
state and Palestinian forced evacuation in
1948. He affirmed that the Palestinians' mass exodus
in 1948 was enforced by Zionist forces that later
razed to the ground their villages while Jews
leaving the Arab countries and heading to "Israel"
had done that with their own free will. LawsuitsHe said that thousands of Jews of Iraqi origin,
who live in Northern America and Europe, have
already filled in applications to restore their
alleged property, noting that Jews living in the
U.S. states of Los Angeles and Boston are set to
file lawsuits to demand substantial compensations
from Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. Shahal further expected that Jews would be
compensated shortly after the yet-to-be new Iraqi
regime in Iraq abolish the so-called
nationalization laws drafted by the ousted Iraqi
regime of Saddam Hussein. "Annulling these laws would give legitimacy to
restoring the Jewish property (in Arab countries,"
he said. He said that the current Israeli
government of Ariel Sharon -- the only
Israeli government to agree on demanding
compensations -- held relevant talks recently and
put forward possible alternatives to restore the
alleged property. Shahal, however, said that the Israeli cabinet
has decided to put the "Jewish property" in Iraq on
the back burner due to the "hypersensitive"
situation there, noting that the compensations
campaign would focus now restoring alleged property
of some 900,000 Jews, one-third of them are from
Iraq, Egypt and Yemen. The Israeli finance
minister, for its part, said that the attention is
riveted now on the frozen Iraqi money in the U.S.,
which is estimated at $3 billion.. | ![[]](../../std/dings/list.gif){kind=small}
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Irving