Set up by Israel’s Ministry of Pensioners Affairs, the new department will help identify, locate and seek compensation for the assets of the more than one million Jews who came to Israel from Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria.
The initiative follows a bill passed earlier this year by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, requiring the compensation of Jews from Arab countries and Iran to be included in any future peace negotiations. The move is seen as an attempt to offset claims resulting from the 1948 expulsion and flight of some 800,000 Palestinians from what became the modern state of Israel in 1948."
