Thank you Malcolm Hoenlein. And thank you for standing on the frontlines ensuring justice for Jews everywhere.

Before I begin, I would like to thank Minister Silvan Shalom. Minister Shalom – this event is beyond politics; it is your passion and your personal story. 

When you were the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I had the pleasure of serving under you as Director General, you worked tirelessly to forge stronger ties with the Arab states, sending me around the world to places that only you and I know about.  It is a professional privilege, as well as, a personal honor to host you and your First Lady, Judy, at the United Nations.

I also want to acknowledge the people who made today possible:

·         Ronald Lauder, who works tirelessly all over the world to bring the story of Jewish refugees to light;

·         Bob Sugarman, the president of presidents and a man who is doing amazing work;

·         And finally, Stanley Urman whose dedication is inspiring.

Finally, I want to thank Lucette Lagnado, Linda Menuchin, Levana Zamir, and Tofic Kassab who have joined us to share their personal stories.

Ladies and gentlemen,

George Orwell famously said, “In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”  We are here today to help bring the truth to light and recognize the Jewish refugees who were expelled or forced to flee from Arab states 65 years ago.  This is a chapter in the chronicles of history that seems to have fallen off the shelf.  They are the UN’s forgotten refugees. 

For thousands of years, one million Jews lived peacefully in Arab states across the Middle East.  The Arab world once showcased our historical landmarks and shared our historic moments. Jewish businesses, synagogues, and homes teemed with life and great Jewish institutions dotted the landscape of the Middle East. Today they are no more.

Generation after generation of these communities enriched the Arab world with art, culture, and commerce.  Little by little, one by one, these ancient communities disappeared.  What happened? 

Ladies and gentlemen,

To understand what happened, we have to turn back the clock 66 years.  In 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181 which provided for the establishment of a “Jewish State” and an “Arab State.”  The Jews welcomed the plan and joyously declared a new state in their ancient homeland. 

But the jubilation of the Jews was matched by the animosity of the Arabs.  The Arab nations rejected this decision and vowed to destroy the new Jewish state and punish their Jewish communities. 

Just two years after the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews in Europe, Arab leaders stood in these very halls of the United Nations and threatened to massacre their own Jewish communities.  In 1947, an Arab delegate to the UN told the General Assembly: “The lives of one million Jews in Muslim countries will be jeopardized by partition.”

In the coming years, Jews living in Arab lands would become targets of their own governments.  

In Iraq, Zionism was made a capital crime.

In Libya, Jewish businesses were burned to the ground.

In Syria, anti-Jewish riots erupted and the government froze all Jewish bank accounts.

In Egypt, bombs were detonated in the Jewish quarter.

Thousands of Jews across the Arab world from Algeria to Yemen were murdered in violent riots instigated by Arab governments.  The Arab League instructed its members to declare Jews enemies of the state. Laws were passed that prohibited Jewish public worship. And Jews were forced to carry Jewish identity cards.

Jewish communities that had existed in the Middle East for more than 2,500 years were expelled or forced to run for their lives.  Communities that enriched cultures were robbed of their riches. Communities that were valued by their hosts were deprived of their valuables. And communities once considered an asset to their society were stripped of their assets. Penniless and destitute, they left with nothing more than the shirts on their backs.

Ladies and gentleman,

The vast majority of these refugees fled to Israel.  In its earliest days, Israel was barely able to provide for its own. It was surrounded by enemies threatening it with annihilation and struggled to stimulate a faltering economy – but did not hesitate for a second to absorb the Jewish refugees.

Our tiny state budget strained to feed the refugees, to house them, and to integrate them into society.  But we did it.  And these immigrants went on to become some of our greatest statesmen; our most brilliant minds in art, science, and commerce; and our leading doctors, lawyers and accountants – especially the Iraqis.  They rose to the highest levels of society, and in the process, lifted the State of Israel to new heights.

Contrast this with the treatment by Arab countries of their own people, where the strategy was NIMBY– Not In My Backyard.  They refused to accept the Arab refugees into their societies and confined them to refugee camps.  The Arab states passed discriminatory laws that marginalized the Palestinian refugees.  In Lebanon for example, they are still barred from working as doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers or accountants.

By making the Palestinians the poster children for international victimhood, the Arab states believe they hold a permanent trump card to defame and pressure Israel.

Ladies and gentleman,

It has been 65 years and the Arab Countries have never been held accountable for the crimes that they committed.  In six and a half decades, they have never taken responsibility for creating the Jewish refugees.

And what about the United Nations? 

Since 1947, there have been 687 resolutions relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 101 of which deal specifically with Palestinian refugees.  And yet, not one resolution says a single word about the Jewish refugees.  

On two separate occasions, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees determined that Jews fleeing from Arab countries met the definition of ‘refugees.’  Yet it is the Palestinian refugees that have their own UN agency, their own information program, and their own department within the UN.  None of this exists for the Jewish refugees. 

Forgetting the victims of an injustice is akin to committing the injustice all over again. We cannot allow the history of the Jewish refugees to be swept under the Persian rug.  This is the reason that I have made it my mission to tell the story of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries on the global stage of the United Nations.  And we will keep telling this story, year after year, until this organization takes responsibility and rights a great historic wrong.

I asked you last year and I am asking you again today - open the doors of this institution to the forgotten Jewish refugees. Open your hearts to their suffering. Open your ears and listen to their firsthand accounts.

Do not allow the Jewish refugees from the Arab countries to be the forgotten refugees.  They deserve the truth. They deserve recognition. They deserve justice.

Thank you.