Maybe comparing Mizrahi Jews to Trump voters isn’t exactly the best idea. Especially not if you’re trying to convince us we’re wrong in our perspective. This article also misses a lot of points regarding why Mizrahi Jews have zero trust in the left.
The socialist elite class were those who looked down at us and our traditions as “backwards.” They also have a habit of talking to us like they know what’s best for us, instead of actually listening to us and having constructive dialogue.
Also yes there is some racism too, I just last week dealt with a racist Israeli on the left who not only called all Mizrahi Jews liars, compared our grievances to fake news circulated by Qanon groups in the US, while referring to us as Arabs.
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Also worth noting that my views are probably much more left than many in our community and yet I still get this kind of “white saviour mentality” thrown at me, not just from Israelis but even the left in general abroad.
I’ll finish this thread off with the video below as these two provide a better and more accurate understanding towards voting patterns and why they exist than the attempted summary and comparison in NYT
Today is #JewishRefugeeDay where we remember the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the MENA region forced to flee after Israel won the war for its independence. In Yemen 16,000 Yemeni Jews were already in the camp set up near Aden by the time approval was given for their evacuation.
Once word got out that they were allowed to leave many Yemeni Jews dropped everything, took what they could and made the dangerous trek (largely by foot) towards Aden where evacuation was approved. Between June 1949-September 1950 over 350 flights helped rescue nearly 50k Jews.
Many died due to disease, starvation, and even attacks by robbers along the way to Aden. Even though they still experienced hardship in the early years inside Israel, with a few families even leaving back to Yemen (before civil war broke out), most deeply appreciated the help.
Since this is gaining traction it’s worthwhile to point out another document worth reading through thoroughly. Ben Gurion’s testimony to the UN in 1947.
“I understand the Arab case and I fully realize it. It is very simple. They state they do not care what happened, and nobody ought to care what happened fifteen hundred or two thousand years ago. We are here...”
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“Not one but many nations in the world did not accept that claim because they were faced with a unique case which is not as simple as that...the entire civilized world said that while the Arabs were liberated in various territories there was room for the Jews in Palestine.”
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Jews are always told how they should identify and what part of the identity they need to remove in order to be viewed as equal while as a diaspora. First it was change/drop your “religion”, then it was keep your “religion” but drop your national identity (peoplehood). 1/
It never worked and all it does is create a “picking and choosing” of our identity to define us when it really should be viewed as a full package. A package that involves shared history, language, traditions etc. with minor variations in each due to being a diaspora. 2/
Our people is much easier understood when viewed through the lens of a tribe where “conversions” are essentially a right of passage into the tribe; a path to “citizenship” in the modern perspective. 3/
The issue with the way the nakba is commemorated is that it pushes a narrative that Israel is the aggressor. It’s not so much about remembering those who were unfortunately caught in the middle of a war but tries to portray it as though Israel caused the war.
It displays one side as completely innocent and the other side as completely guilty. It distorts cause and effect and places the consequences of the war on the side which had tried to avoid it through diplomacy via partition.
It puts the unreasonable expectation that the Jews shouldn’t have tried to fight back. Acknowledging that war causes travesties is more than understandable, it’s expected. Distorting it to make it seem like an intended massacre of annihilation against Palestinians is disingenuous
This is going to contain videos of the personal story of Miryam. A Yemeni Jew who came to Israel without her parents as a child in the late 1920s and through all the hardships still managed to raise a family. The interview was conducted by her daughter Avigail.
The early part of the story involves arranged marriage which in Yemen occurred at a very young age. To understand the mentality I recommend reading this link, or at the very least the screenshot attached
The interview is rather long but the story really is remarkable and should be heard. I’ll update the thread daily will parts of the interview until it’s complete.
In the first 3 parts we hear details about her childhood up until her parents decided to marry her off.
1) This was 80-100 years ago, coincided with WW1, and a rather drastic change in rule over the region (Ottoman to British). As well similar rifts like this existed among other people during that time.
We’ve become much better (Israeli society as a whole), progressed and improved since then.
2) Pointing out historical injustices does not mean I’m suddenly an antizionist or think we shouldn’t have self determination over our historical homeland.
Highlighting these grievances is meant to provide more understanding and insight into underlying emotions that may still exist today. It is not for antisemites and antizionists to hijack for their narrative.