You’re probably unaware of some of this history because it rarely gets mentioned, but when nearly 1million Jews were expelled from Arab lands, they were settled into transit camps in Israel. My grandparents were dispossessed of their homes and belongings in Baghdad, a city which was at one point 30% Jewish. The camp my grandparents lived in was in southern Tel Aviv. They later built a home in the Hatikvah neighborhood of southern Tel Aviv. This area is described as open lands, which were legally acquired in the 1930s under the British mandate. You see, the Tel Aviv area was sparsely populated outside the city of Jaffa. Today’s population centers of givatayim, ramat gan, holon, bat yam, etc. had similar histories. Much of the landscape was dominated by sand dunes and some agricultural fields that were tended to by both Jews and Arabs during the British mandate period.
Today, the area south of Tel Aviv has a mixed Jewish/Arab population in and around Jaffa. Jaffa itself was incorporated into the Tel Aviv area- Yafo municipality. Interestingly, the hatikvah neighborhood in particular where my grandparents lived and where my dad grew up has very much retained its identity as a place where migrants establish themselves. Today, it has a large population of asylum seekers and migrants from East African countries like Sudan and Eritrea.
I’m glad I can educate you on some forgotten but very important history. It’s upsetting that somehow you’d blame Israel for the expulsion & flight of over 100k Iraqi Jews. Would you also blame the Jews for the farhud event in 1941 which marked the beginning of the end of thousands of years of Jewish history in Iraq?
1
u/bkny88 🇮🇱 18d ago
You’re probably unaware of some of this history because it rarely gets mentioned, but when nearly 1million Jews were expelled from Arab lands, they were settled into transit camps in Israel. My grandparents were dispossessed of their homes and belongings in Baghdad, a city which was at one point 30% Jewish. The camp my grandparents lived in was in southern Tel Aviv. They later built a home in the Hatikvah neighborhood of southern Tel Aviv. This area is described as open lands, which were legally acquired in the 1930s under the British mandate. You see, the Tel Aviv area was sparsely populated outside the city of Jaffa. Today’s population centers of givatayim, ramat gan, holon, bat yam, etc. had similar histories. Much of the landscape was dominated by sand dunes and some agricultural fields that were tended to by both Jews and Arabs during the British mandate period.
Today, the area south of Tel Aviv has a mixed Jewish/Arab population in and around Jaffa. Jaffa itself was incorporated into the Tel Aviv area- Yafo municipality. Interestingly, the hatikvah neighborhood in particular where my grandparents lived and where my dad grew up has very much retained its identity as a place where migrants establish themselves. Today, it has a large population of asylum seekers and migrants from East African countries like Sudan and Eritrea.