World

Rip ped From Home

Jews ex pelled from Egypt left behind a piece of their hearts.

Brenda Gazzar
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Ramat Gan, Israel

A

t a lavish dinner party
at an Alexandria night-
club on Oct. 29,
1956, Geoffrey Hanson celebrat-
ed his engagement to a beautiful
woman named Jeanette whom he
had courted for six years in a fairy
tale romance.
It happened to be the day that
Israel attacked Egypt in the Suez
War.
On the evening of Oct. 31, after
Britain and France joined the war
according to plan, Hanson — who
like many Egyptian Jews held a
British or other European passport
— was arrested about midnight
at his home and then held in Cairo
for 90 days.
His Jewish fiancee managed to
visit Hanson twice in jail, but when
Hanson, a 25-year-old hotel man-
ager, was released, he was expelled
to England — never to see his first
love again.
"I was miserable for many years':
said Hanson, 75, who today lives
in Ramat Gan, Israel, and is hap-
pily married to another woman. "It
took me years to overcome" it.
Fifty years ago, about 1,000
Jews in Egypt — including many
with Egyptian citizenship — were
detained or imprisoned during the
Suez crisis. Many of the French and
British citizens who were expelled
from Egypt in retaliation for the
tripartite attack, prompted by
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel
Nasser's nationalization of the Suez
Canal, were Jews.
Another 500 Jews also were
expelled and 23,000-25,000 Jews
left Egypt between November 1956
and the end of 1957 due to expul-

Suzannah in
1954, which
came to be
known in Israel
as the Lavon
Affair.
Believing that
Britain's pres-
ence in Egypt
had a moderat-
ing influence on
Nasser's mili-
tary ambitions,
Israeli officials
Geoffrey Hanson shows a photo of himself and
his former fiance at their 1956 engagement party recruited
several young
in Alexandria, Egypt.
Egyptian Jews
sion or significant pressure, includ- to plant bombs in public places.
The goal was to create a perception
ing the sequestering of property
of instability in Egypt and make
and businesses.
the British reconsider their plan
Jews had been attacked and
to withdraw from the Suez Canal
imprisoned even before 1948 on
Zone.
suspicion of being Zionists. Yet
Egyptian officials discovered the
despite their increasing troubles,
scheme,
which hadn't resulted in
many Egyptian Jews did not see
any
casualties.
Two suspects were
Zionism as their primary solution.
hanged, two were acquitted and
"Many of them just wanted to
several others were sentenced to
assimilate" into society, said Rami
lengthy prison terms.
Ginat, a political science lecturer at
It became known as the Lavon
Bar-Ilan University in Israel. "They
Affair for the Israeli defense minis-
wanted to become part of it. They
ter, Pinchas Lavon, who was forced
saw themselves as Egyptians':
to resign because of the incident.
From World War I until the
"The Lavon Affair involved only
mid-1930s, Egypt was a liberal
a small part of [Egyptian] Jewish
place and many Jews fared well
youth, but by involving them it
socially and financially. But in the
endangered the entire Jewish
mid-1930s, with the rise of fas-
cism in Europe and the right-wing community because the govern-
ment suspected that the Jews were
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
not loyal': said Daphne Tsimhoni,
— formed in 1929 in reaction to
Britain's occupation of the country a professor of modern Middle
Eastern history at the Technion-
— the situation began to change,
Israel Institute of Technology in
Ginat said.
Haifa.
Zionism grew in the late 1930s
When Nasser nationalized
and '40s. Many Egyptians thought
the Suez Canal in July 1956, he
Zionism ran counter to Egypt's
also aimed to rid the country of
struggle for liberation from
foreigners, many of whom held
Western domination.
The situation for the community European passports and had
also worsened following Operation enjoyed special privileges and

Sea, Abada says she doesn't believe
her life would have been as com-
fortable had she remained in
Egypt. While the Jewish expulsion
from Egypt was a disaster in many
ways, "I believe 99 percent who
left Egypt have a much better life
than what they could have in Egypt
today, in social position" and mate-
rial wealth, she said.
For his part, Hanson, who
enjoyed a career in Israel's hotel
industry, is much more nostalgic
for the past. He visits his native
Alexandria frequently and brings
visitors from around the world to
see the Jewish synagogue there.
"My home is Israel': Hanson
said, "but my heart is in Egypt."

Second in a three-part series.

Answering
Israel's Critics

The Charge

A Hamas spokesman last
week denounced Israel's
"continued aggression"
against Gaza as IDF defensive
military operations remained
active.

The Answer

Following the serious wound-
ing of two teenage boys in
the town of Sderot by rockets
fired from Gaza, the defense
establishment had been
instructed to take pinpoint
action against the rocket-
launching cells while staying
committed to the cease-fire in
all other regards.

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Council of Metropolitan Detroit

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exemptions under century-old
agreements between Egypt and
some European states.
After Nasser nationalized the
canal, Israel — in part prompted
by Egyptian-supported terrorist
raids from Gaza — joined with
Britain and France to invade. The
Jews of Egypt "were identified,
whether they wanted it or not, with
Tsimhoni said.
Aimee Abada, now 70, who grew
up in Alexandria, Egypt, and now
lives in Haifa, says her father — 63
at the time — and eldest sister
were taken to Cairo and impris-
oned for a few months before the
family was expelled in January
1957.
Abada's family was forced to
leave behind its home and the
highly successful furniture factory
Abada's father had owned for more
than three decades. About 500
Jewish companies in Egypt were
sequestered from November 1956
through March 1957.
"It was the first step for Nasser
to Arabize Egypt," Abada said.
"We're beginning to understand
this now:'
Abada's husband, Ernest, who
lived in the Suez Canal Zone in the
city of Ismailia, remembers when
Egyptian officials came knocking
on their door in early November
1956.
They told his father, one of
many stateless Jews in Egypt, that
they were taking him for a day
to protect him from people who
might want to kill him because he
was Jewish.
The following day, they came
for 19-year-old Ernest, his step-
mother and a sister. They were
imprisoned until January 1957,
then sent to Italy.
At their elegant home in Haifa
overlooking the Mediterranean

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January 4 • 2007

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