Israel is planning to officially demand compensation for assets left behind by Jews who fled eight Arab countries in 1948, including Morocco.
The decision was made public the weekend through a report broadcasted by Israeli TV channel Hadashot TV News. After 18 months of secret research, conducted by the Israeli government and the international accounting firm, Israel decided to seek $250 billion from Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Iran.
According to Israeli newspapers, Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel said that «time has come to correct the historic injustice» against Jews who lived in those eight countries before the establishment of Israel.
Speaking to Hadashot TV News, the minister stated that this decision will be implemented «to restore to hundreds of thousands of Jews who lost their property what is rightfully theirs».
According to JNS, Israel is «preparing to sue Tunisia for $35 billion in lost assets and Libya for $15 billion».
Jews in Morocco and riots
The same source added that Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), a political advocacy organization founded in New York in 2002, believes that almost 856,000 Jews left 10 Arab countries, including Morocco, as «violent riots swept the region following the establishment of the State of Israel».
Moreover, this project was released, according to Jerusalem Post, «in anticipation» of the Trump administration’s peace plan, expected to be released in the upcoming months.
The plan is also based on a regional peace deal that states that «any peace deal with Arab countries or Iran is contingent on individual Jews and/or Jewish communities receiving compensation for what they lost in 1948», the same source added.
For the record, 2,000 Moroccan Jews fled the Kingdom in 1948, crossing into Algeria after a series of riots took place in the cities of Jerada and Oujda.
On the 7th and 8th of June 1948, an outraged group of people in Jerada and Oujda surrounded the Jewish population of the two cities killing 42 individuals and injuring 29 others. 5 Moroccan Jews were savagely murdered in Oujda and 37 others were beaten to death by the population of Jerada.
The riots emerged after the residents of the two northeastern towns, were angrily influenced by the situation in the Middle East and the formation of the State of Israel.