Jews in the Arab world have been diminishing in number since 1948 either because of forces of voluntary immigration or political persecution or a combination of both. The conflict with Israel has undoubtedly been a major factor in their immigration to Israel. Most Arab Jews whom estimated number is 8000 live in few countries; Bahrain, Yemen, Morocco and Tunisia. There not have been many report about these minorities in the news but recently there were two articles that I personally found to be very interesting and encouraging.
Today Bahrain's king appointed a Jewish woman as the country's ambassador to the U.S.today. The new ambassador; Houda Nonoo who is 43 years old is a lawmaker in the Shura counsel and had served three years in that capacity before being transfer ed to Washington for her new assignment. It is noteworthy to mention that the small gulf island is ruled by the Sunni minority. Most Bahrainis are Shiite but according to a new report re lased by the BBC, Bahrain has one of the world's oldest and smallest Jewish communities, at about 50 people.
The other news article comes from the Tunisian island of Djerba, home to one of the world's oldest Jewish communities. An American researcher went there to ask the resident of that island whether Jews, Muslims and Christians can live together in peace? A common myth claims they can't. Americans are told, falsely, that Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting each other "since time immemorial," and that their conflict will never end; that they can't agree on anything, so why bother? and that peace is impossible. The article mentioned that Jews and Arabs lived and have been living in that island for centuries and that they get along just fine.
It is my hope that these two examples will have a domino effect on the current situation in Israel and Palestine. May be peace is just around the corner.
