An Egyptian-born Jewish activist has called for greater recognition of Jews from Arab countries, saying that compensation for those forced to flee their homes could help bring peace to the region.
Levana Zamir, who fled her home in Cairo in 1948 aged 10, is now working with Israeli authorities to increase international awareness of the issue.
“I have been working on this for 20 years, going to the Knesset and asking for recognition,” she said.
“And it’s not only me; we are all working together — the Iraqi Jews, the Syrian Jews, the Libyan and Yemenite. Now that we have recognition of [our story] in Israel and all over the world, now we want an international fund to be established for Arab and Jewish refugees.”
She added at first, the government of Israel did not want them to feel like refugees: “They did not want us to ask them for compensation. Even when Egypt and Israel had a peace agreement, Israel did not ask Egypt for our money. It says a lot.”
But now, the author and mother of two is determined to increase awareness of the issue.
As the president of both the Coalition of Association of Jews from Arab Countries and the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association, Mrs Zamir has been telling her story at a series of events across the UK over the last week.
Many people at the events, from synagogues to universities across the UK, did not know the story of Arab Jews who were forced to flee the lands they had lived in for thousands of years, after increased antisemitism following the establishment of Israel in 1948.
“People have only started to speak about it over the last decade,” she said from her hotel room in London after what she called “a marathon of presentations and lectures” taking her from Glasgow University to UCL.
And her story is one worth telling. Born in 1938 to a family that ran a successful printing house, Mrs Zamir grew up playing the piano and attending a Christian school where she was a part of a “trio” of friends: a Muslim girl, a Christian girl and herself, the Jewish girl.
“But after Ben Gurion declared the state of Israel, everything changed.”
Mrs Zamir clearly remembers Egyptian officers raiding her home — emptying drawers and tearing apart mattresses: “I didn’t cry because my mother and father were in the house and they stayed very calm.
“It was the next day, at school, that everything changed for me. I heard that the police had arrested my uncle Habib and put him in prison. I ran home to my mother crying and asked her, ‘is he a criminal?’.
“My mother told me they had arrested him for being a Jew; which made me more upset because I’m a Jew. I thought that I would be a criminal.”
Soon after, the family business was confiscated and auctioned off by authorities. Then, her piano was sold and the two housekeepers no longer worked in the family home.
Within a year-and-a-half, Mrs Levana, her siblings and parents found themselves in a French refugee camp in Marseilles.
Her father Victor found work, but her mother Esther insisted on moving to Israel — where they found themselves in another open-air refugee camp in Tiberius.
“My mother did not want us to experience antisemitism. And she was right. Look at all these young French Jews now leaving and coming to Israel everyday.”
Her family went onto set up their home in Tel Aviv, where Mrs Zamir was married. She worked in a series of positions that later led her to campaign for awareness of how she, like so many others, had to rebuild their lives.
In her latest role, she has revisited Egypt, including synagogues in Cairo and Alexandria now being rebuilt with government funds. She was surprised to see the emotional impact it had on her grandson, who helped document her visit. A video of the visit shows them blowing the shofar and singing before the pyramids of Egypt.
“You can take the Jew out of Egypt, but you can’t take Egypt out of the Jew. And that is true for many generations. My grandson said to me: I feel like I have come back home.”
A lot of her work is with Israel’s Ministry for Social Equality. Earlier this year, the Likud minister Gila Gamiel spoke about the ongoing valuation of property Jewish communities left behind in Arab countries, valued at more than £190 billion.
Mrs Levana says compensation is not a clear-cut matter – but could settle issues, like demands for the right of return.
“Of course we deserve compensation. Almost one million Arab Jews forced to leave their homes deserve compensation. But we know these Arab countries, they could not give a cent — they are poor.” She adds:
Asked whether compensation is a priority, she said: “I am seeking recognition. If compensation will come one day from an international fund, it would be good because it will bring peace. If it brings peace, yes.”
