Prior to the UN Partition Plan, which called for the creation of a Jewish state alongside an Arab state in Mandate Palestine, the Political Committee of the Arab League drafted a law governing the legal status of Jewish residents. It provided that the bank accounts of Jews from Arab League countries were to be frozen and used to finance resistance to 'Zionist ambitions in Palestine'; Jews believed to be active Zionists would be interned as political prisoners and their assets confiscated.

These and other state-sanctioned acts of repression and violence precipitated a mass departure of the ancient Jewish communities, often in desperate economic circumstances. In total, over 850,000 Jews were forced to leave the Arab countries, in a process of expulsion and exodus which continued through the 1970's.



Drawings of the Abu Qir detention camp, near Alexandria, where hundreds of Jews were arrested for about 18 months, until their expulsion.
From the collection of Levana Zamir



Confiscation decree of Hizkiahu Ibrahim Basrawi's assets by the Egyptian authorities



"Leaving without coming back" - Title from an Egyptian news magazine Ahir Sa'ah, November 28, 1956, reporting the exclusion of Jews from Egypt their passports stamped "Leaving without coming back" which meant losing their citizenship.
From the collection of Levana Zamir