"Exactly 50 years ago this month David Suissa left the sunny skies of Casablanca for the frozen streets of Montreal. A child at the time, Suissa didn't know why he had to leave his home, nor did he know that he would become one of 850,000 Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands between 1948 and 1970...
Suissa shared his family's story Tuesday night in New York as part of a panel discussion at the United Nations dedicated to both setting the historical record straight and to seeking justice from Arab nations...
While most of the world knows the story of Palestinian refugees, few know or recognize that Jews, with strong ties to their homelands, were forced to leave their homes in the Arab Middle East, Turkey, Iran and parts of Africa...
'We are here tonight to ensure that the world finally recognizes the stories of these forgotten refugees. I will continue to work for the proper recognition of the Jewish refugees from the Arab countries here in the UN,' said Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon, whose father came to Israel from Egypt as a refugee.
Gila Gamliel, Israel's Minister of Gender Equality ... called on the UN to acknowledge these forgotten refugees. She also called out the international body on what she said was unfair treatment of Jewish refugees.
'I stand here in the heart of the family of nations to declare that our story be brought to light in this institution so that at long last, justice shall finally be served,' she said. 'Over the last 65 years, the UN and its agencies have spent tens of billions of dollars on Palestinian refugees, but not a cent on the Jewish Refugees. And since 1949 the United Nations has passed more than a hundred resolutions on Palestinian refugees and not a single one on Jewish refugees from Arab countries.'..."