From The Associated Press - 09/04/1985
June 1st, 2007 at 2:52 pmLebanese Jews Living in Fear
HALA JABER
(AP) _ The few Jews remaining in Beirut say they live in fear and confusion because of the kidnappings of four Jewish men in west Beirut, where the Jewish community had always lived in peace with Moslems.
“”I am a Lebanese Jew and have lived in Lebanon all my life,” said one woman. “”I still cannot understand the reason behind it, but I must admit I am scared.”
“”What relation have we with the Israelis?” asked another woman. “”What is it to do with us? I don’t understand.”
The women, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of being singled out by the kidnappers, were interviewed in Wadi Abu Jamil, once the thriving Jewish quarter of west Beirut, where most residents are Moslems.
During the 1950s Lebanon’s Jewish population was estimated at about 9,000. Many Jews came to Lebanon because of anti-Jewish fervor in other Arab countries over the creation of Israel.
Judaism is one of 17 religions officially recognized by the Lebanese government. During anti-Zionist demonstrations in the late 1940s, Lebanese police were posted in Wadi Abu Jamil to protect its Jewish residents.
When Lebanon became headquarters for the Palestine Liberation Organization in the late 1960s, many Jews fled. More left during or after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in September, 1982.
Now Wadi Abu Jamil’s decaying apartment houses are occupied mostly by Shiite Moslem squatters forced from their own homes by Lebanon’s long civil war. The synagogue is closed.
Mary Jamous, whose kidnapped husband is the secretary to the head of the Jewish community, estimated there are 200 Jews, “”no more,” left in Lebanon.
Her 51-year-old husband, Salim Murad Jamous, was kidnapped eight months ago. A month earlier, another Jewish leader, Raoul Mizrachi, 54, was abducted and later found slain in Beirut’s Shiite-populated southern suburbs.
Neither of those crimes aroused as much fear as the seizure of the four Jews in just three days in late March.
The last victim was Ishaq Sassoun, 65, the leader of the Jewish community, who was taken at gunpoint March 31 on his way from the airport after a trip to Abu Dhabi, one of Arab emirates on the Persian Gulf.
Earlier, kidnappers had seized Elie Hallak, a doctor in his 50s; Haim Cohen, a 39-year-old Iranian Jew, and Elie Srour, 68, a Lebanese.
A previously unheard of group calling itself the National Resistance Arm, National Liberation Faction claimed responsibility for the killing of Mizrachi, but no group has said it carried out the other kidnappings.
Mrs. Jamous said she did not know “”which party or group” kidnapped her husband, “”nor can I think of a reason for his kidnapping.”
“”All my neighbors are Shiites and we are on good terms with them. They like us and have nothing against us,” she said.
“”We stayed when the Palestinians were here, and we had no trouble with them, later with the Syrians and then with the Israelis,” she said. “”We never thought of leaving.”
Mrs. Jamous and several of the other Jewish women linked the kidnappings to the Israel’s invasion and its occupation of south Lebanon, from which it is now withdrawing.
“”Since Israel invaded, this country has been a mess,” Mrs. Jamous said.
An aunt of her husband said, “”We, like any Lebanese, hid in shelters during the Israeli invasion and saw none of them. I do not speak Hebrew. I speak only Arabic.”
Lily, a 70-year-old woman, said she was frightened because armed militiamen had come several times to ask her to leave her house so Shiite refugee families from south Lebanon could live in it.
“”I can’t do that because I have no where to go and no one to turn to,” she said. “”The last time they came, I cried and begged with them so hard I fainted and then they left and said they won’t ask for the house any more.
“”But,” she added, “”these days I live in constant fear that one of these nights they might break into the house and do something to me.”
The women also spoke of their confusion, not only at the kidnappings but at their situation as Jews in the Arab world.
“”It is not our fault that we were born Jews,” Mrs. Jamous said, adding that Jews no longer held religious services in Wadi Abu Jamil.
Another woman, who said she had been a teacher in the Druse village of Aley until 1983 civil war battles there, said she could not understand the kidnappings because the victims were neither rich nor political figures.
“”I have never been threatened or insulted or treated differently because I am a Jew,” she said. “”I wish that whoever is doing all this kidnapping will explain their motives and demands. If there is a regulation or law that says we have to leave the country, then we would. But at least let us know about it.”
(Copyright 1985. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Date: 09/04/1985
Publication: The Associated Press
Doc Said,
June 1, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
I am lebanese and I had nio idea that there still are jews in Lebanon. This is a serious issue and I can’t understand why it did not have a proper media coverage. Nobody is allowed to harm other lebanese no matter what their religion is, and those are Lebanese. When are we going to get rid of this mentality where every group think they have the right to judge and rule and control. GOD’S PARTY!!! this is the problem.
andy Said,
June 1, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
a very sad story. Absolutely un-defencible behaviour.
I wonder if things have calmed down (especially vis-a-vis shia militants and jews) since the israeli invasion?
I hope so.
nabih abi habib Said,
June 4, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
Lebanese in general associate being Jews to Israel, mainly because all media around the world report the same way, in France, they associate being an Arab to Islam which is not true for both cases…
To my biggest surprise, i saw signs of change, when a muslin radical group( hezballa) few years ago invited many rabbis to come visit Lebanon. i dont recall the date or the names of the religious men, but i do remember seeing them with hezballah in the south. maybe there is still hope for coexistence!
Hussein Said,
June 5, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
hoooo… :o…
for Nabih Abi Habib & Doc..
can’t compare Hizbu’llah of the 80s and the Hizbu’llah of today!!!
lets remember: Sobhi Al-Tufaili.. no comment :).. I’m an atheist/ a non believer/ with no religion… and i support Hizbu’llah (so i dont think they can be a radical group).. and even I hate Sobhi Al-Tufaili.. and admit that Hizbu’llah’s acts during the Civil War weren’t acceptable.. like all the others’ acts.. Ouwet, Amal, Kata’eb, Eshtirake… (btw the ones who kidnapped the Jews in the 80s were Amal).. I always say this, and I’ll repeat it.. that if Hizbu’llah ever think of making out of Lebanon an Islamic Republic I’ll FIGHT against it.. and till now.. I believe that they won’t do something like that (lets get real :)).. they changed a lot since the end of the civil war and since the end of the occupation.. dont foget that they were founded in the middle of the war.. and they wanted to change the situation and thats wat they came up with..
Diab Beydoun Said,
September 23, 2007 @ 11:16 pm
Happy new year to all Jews , Lebanese or otherwise.
Would like to point out that posting this article out of context is not conducive to the purported intent of this website as it may generate sympathy for Lebanese Jews amongst those who were born yesterday ( to use a Lebanese phrase) at the expense of the shia community of Lebanon.
I wasn’t born yesterday and i had known and lived amongst the Lebanese Jews of wadi abu jmeel .
The Jewish community of wadi abu jmeel aka wadi al yahood left the
area long before the arrival of what the article calls shia squatters
due to the fact that the area was not safe for anyone to live in being part of the battle zone that extended all along the green line that divided Beirut .
The Lebanese Jews who remained in wadi abu jmeel remained in their homes on economic grounds as they were both elderly and destitute, those Lebanese Jews living there who had the means to leave to safer areas had done so long time ago.
The shia squatters ,fleeing for their lives arrived in mass to wadi abu jmeel in 1978 not due to the Lebanese civil war which by that time had subsided but due to the Israeli invasion of south Lebanon of 1978.
The Jews of wadi abu jmeel for many years after 1978 lived amongst the thousands of shia newcomers to their neighborhood as Jews,they observed the Sabbath , prayed in the synagogue and had their Jewish icons publicly and openly displayed without fear and without being molested by anyone.
The fate of the kidnapped and murdered Lebanese Jews is only a drop in the ocean that is the Lebanese civil war and the subsequent Israeli invasion and occupation of 1982 ,the American military intervention in Lebanon in the mid 80’s the time this journalistic piece was written and the literally tens of thousands of Lebanese of all religions who were victimized on no other ground but their confessional identity.
wadi abu jmeel sized to exist and bulldozed , all its inhabitants were removed to make room for “Harriri land” by Solider the very same company that your website is proudly displaying its link.
Administration Said,
September 24, 2007 @ 3:03 am
Dear Diab,
Thank you for joining us brother and for the thoughtful comment. With dealing with such a sensitive and maybe even controversial issue, real life accounts like the hundreds all over this website including yours, really help paint an accurate picture of what the real reality was on the ground, far from any misleading (whether intentionally or not) articles.
Thank you to everyone participating in this discussion, please be sure to register on our mailing list as we progress and evolve.
Admin.
Diab Beydoun Said,
September 25, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
Thank you brother for your eloquent words and a most wonderful project .
My intent in writing was to add context to the article in direct response to the comments that proceeded my post and to point out that posting newspaper clipping as history is fraught with shortcomings as evident in the comments which presume that the shia were killing and kidnapping Jews and continue to do so 22 years after the fact.
I wish to emphasize the static nature of the article which is none the less an accurate narrative of a tragic moment in the life of Mrs Jamous, the other victims and their families but by no means distinct or separate from the prevailing culture of violence and victimization throughout the country at the time nor it is representative of the fate of all Lebanese Jews or what you prefer to call the Jews of Lebanon .
Equally the kidnappings and hostage taking as a modus operandi by some clannish Baalbaki shia in the mid eighties as a way to free their relatives from Kuwaiti prisons, was peculiar to them and that region of Lebanon rather then the shia ways.
These acts were and remain undeniable and indefensible but by no means out of the realm of the cruelties prevailing in the country or representative of the core shia community , its values and its relations that dates back hundreds of years vis a vis the Jews and the Jewish communities of Haifa , Safad , Tabaria and wadi abu jmeel as attested to by Mrs Jamous in the article.
Administration Said,
September 26, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
Lebanese Jew, Jewish Lebanese, Jews of Lebanon, Jews, Yahoud… Shiia, Maronite, Orthodox, Sunni, Druze, etc.ultimately we’re all Lebanese, this project is, foremost, Lebanese. However, the lessons and the message are universal.
Thank you,
Admin.