Israel Society and History - Term Paper Example

. . ." With reference to this specific statement, in 1950 the notable Law of Return was made by Israel government (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/Text_of_Law_of_Return.html). The law approved an automated right to every single Jew to immigrate to Israel and turn out to be a citizen of an ideological state. After the vogue of Law of Return, the gateways popped up extensively and Israel observed an influx of refugees from all over the world. Though these particular immigrants of the earliest period substantially distorted the demographic situation of Israeli civil society as well as the harmony amongst the Jewish Diaspora and the Israeli Jews, however, the main focus of this paper is on the immigration of Mizrahi Jews during 1948 to 1967 with reference to their absorption, integration, and divergence in the Israel’s civil society. 1. .

About 50% strength of Israel consists of Mizrahi Jews (Villa, 2009). As soon as the 1948 Arab-Israeli War got over and Israel officially declared its independence and sovereignty, virtually a large number of Mizrahi Jews were exiled by Arab states. Even they were granted the choice to depart their homeland and immigrate to Israel. It is widely considered that somewhere around 50 % of Israeli Jews belong to Mizrahim. During 1950s and 1960s, most of Mizrahi Jews immigrated to Israel either due to their ideological affiliations with Zionism or in response to Anti-Jewish activities of Arab world against the Jews.

About 25,000 Mizrahi Jews came to Israel just because of Suez Canal crisis of 1956. Beside Israel, the Mizrahi Jews especially Moroccan and Algerian Jews also immigrated to France and turned into refugees. Similarly a huge number of Egyptian, Lebanese, and Syrian Jews immigrated to Brazil and United States of America. Without traumatic events, safe heaven in Israel was out of question. Ella Sohat, a great Mizrahi scholar writes, "in a generation or two, millennia of rooted oriental civilization, unified even in its diversity” (Shohat, 1988:32).

After the safe landing of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, the damage of burst, right from their particular locations of origin, was too much complicated from the challenges within the disruption period. These refugees and immigrants were kept in tent cities which were located under developing town. The tent cities were known as Ma'abarot where all tents were in rudimentary. In a critical review, it seems that Moshavism was comparatively a successful absorption plan of Israeli Government as traditionally the Mizrahi Jews were associated with trade and a niche as craftsmen.