Some 3,000 people, including ministers, Knesset members and public figures from Israel and abroad attended a state ceremony Wednesday marking the persecutions, expulsions and exodus of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab countries and Iran between the 1920s and the 1950s. Organized by the Social Equality Ministry and held at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the ceremony began with a memorial prayer for the Jews killed in the pogroms that took place in those countries at that time. In a video message, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed those attending the ceremony, and stressed the importance of Mizrahi Jewry's legacy. "The magnificent legacy of Mizrahi Jews is not properly learned. We must learn about the expulsion and exodus, the splendor and the glory. It is high time the public knew this. This is an important, blessed task," Netanyahu said. Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel (Likud), who headed the ceremony, announced that she will soon present the government with a national plan "to record the heritage of Mizrahi Jews by gathering filmed and written testimonies from senior [Mizrahi] citizens. This way we will hear about their lives and their immigration here in their own voices." She said she wouldl allocate an initial budget of 10 million shekels ($2.6 million) for the plan in 2017 and 2018. "Recording Mizrahi heritage is not in the exclusive interest of Mizrahis -- it is in Israel's national interest," she said. "This is the purpose and essence of the day to mark the expulsion and deportation of Jews from the Arab lands and Iran. For 68 years, the chapter of Mizrahi Jews has been omitted from the chronicles of the Jewish people. Generations upon generations were forgotten, silenced and disappeared. The time has come for historical justice, to remember the forgotten and give voice to the silenced." The ceremony ended with a performance by some of the most popular Mizrahi artists in Israel, including singers David D'Or, Miri Mesika, Kobi Oz, Harel Skaat and Ofir Ben Shitrit.
