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see History of the Jews under Muslim rule

see Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries

"But there is a difference in the narratives. Jews experienced systematic persecution and discrimination in Arab countries, including physical persecution and even hanging. A comparison was even made to the extermination of the Jews in the"[1] AdelmanBarkan2013p185

de facto expulsion of the Jews from most Arab states

[edit]

"If Arab countries took no responsibility for forcing the Jews to leave, the new Israeli state reciprocated…The de facto expulsion of the Jews from most Arab state …In expelling the Jews and encouraging anti Jewish policies, The Arab states played into Israeli" AdelmanBarkan2011p179 [2]

Iraq- "Ultimately, what had begun as voluntary emigration turned into an expulsion, and the emigrants became persecuted, destitute refugees. Meir-Glitzenstein2004p203 [3]

Jews in Arab states On 1948

[edit]

As the armed conflict in Palestine intensified, the Jews in Arab and Moslem states suffered persecutions.[4][5][6]

Jews in Palestine

[edit]

book: Une si longue présence , Comment le monde arabe a perdu ses Juifs, 1947-1967, by Nathan Weinstock

a Book review (English): " Une si longue présence , Comment le monde arabe a perdu ses Juifs, 1947-1967" 2008, by Nathan Weinstock. (and a Hebrew review) הקונסול הבריטי בארץ ישראל, שכתב ב-1831 כי "הסחטנות ומעשי הדיכוי הפוגעים ביהודים הם רבים כל כך, עד שאומרים כי היהודים צריכים לשלם אפילו בעד האוויר שהם נושמים".

Jews in Morocco

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- "The Jewish quarter of FEZ was almost destroyed in 1912 by a Muslim mob" (Morris,Righteous Victims, 2001, p. 11). "Fig. 9 : Victims of the 1907 street fighting in Casablanca are taken away for burial; especially hard hit was the Mellah, where dozens of people were killed during the bombardment and subsequent looting" Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

"in 1907-1908 anti European feelings extended to include anti Jewish manifestations in Quijda, Casablanca, and Fez". [casa 1] Laskier2012p42

"Casablanca, in 2007 30 Jews were killed and 200 women, girls and boys abducted" [casa 2] Wistrich1994p205

Fenton, Paul) ,2012 [http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9708122 Pogrome de Fès ou le Tritel Jews in Morocco: The Fez Pogrom of 1912 Jews in Morocco: The Fez Pogrom of 1912

  1. ^ Michael M. Laskier (1 February 2012). The Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962. SUNY Press. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-1-4384-1016-6. in 1907-1908 anti European feelings extended to include anti Jewish manifestations in Quijda, Casablanca, and Fez.
  2. ^ Robert S. Wistrich (1994). Antisemitism: the longest hatred. Schocken Books. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-8052-1014-9. Casablanca, in 2007 30 Jews were killed and 200 women,girls and boys abducted
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Miller2013p75" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Jews in Iraq

[edit]

relates to: Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries#Main exodus waves#Iraq

Gat1998p47 "The new Iraqi state, established in 1922, needed intellectuals in order to create the foundation for normative state services. The monarchy encouraged Jews to study abroad and expected them, on their return, to contribute to and enhance the prosperity of the country. The new state granted its minorities the necessary security, including the Jewish minority, safeguarded in its constitution (Hourani, 1947 : 91-93). The Jews were granted membership in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Thus, the Jews of Iraq, among them judges, jurists, writers, poets and politicians, were part of the elite in the Iraqi Arab state, and found themselves at the center of its political and intellectual life. They viewed themselves as helping to shape the character of Iraqi society and state. In the period following the establishment of Iraq as an independent state, the Jews underwent a process of integration into the life of the Iraqi people. Jewish writers and poets began to write in Arabic for all the people of Iraq, Arabs and Jews alike. Jewish activity was omnipresent, demonstrating a sense of identification with the national aspirations of the Iraqi people. They felt that they were Jews by religion and Arabs by nationality; after all, Jews and Arabs are members of the same race (Kezaz, 1985:34-37,47). This cultural and economic integration seemed to augur a glowing future for the Jewish community in Iraq. However, several events which occurred in the 1930s indicated a rather different prospect. At the beginning of the decade, an Arab intelligentsia emerged which sought to ensure its place in public and government life, taking over the public positions held by the Jews. In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany, and their influence began rapidly to spread to Iraq, which only one year earlier had achieved independence. Hitler's, Mein Kampf was translated into Arabic and serialized in the newspaper "Alam il-Arabi" (Kezaz, 1986 : 53-54). Iraqi nationalists viewed Nazism as coinciding with their anti-British and anti-Jewish views. Additionally, we may note the growing influence of the Palestinian exiles, headed by their spiritual leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, who arrived in 1939 (Glitzenstein-Meir, 1981 : 22). The most blatant expression of these influences was the pogrom (Farhud) of 1941 which erupted on the Jewish festival of Shavuot (Pentecost 1-2 June). The Farhud claimed some 180 Jewish lives, with hundreds more wounded and much property destroyed and plundered (Meir, 1973 : 35 ; Hamdi, 1987 : 165). …the Farhud was followed by a period of economic revival and prosperity, reflected in the expansion of the school system and the building of new, well-to-do neighborhoods (Habas, 1943 : 137-147)2. The situation of the Jews grew increasingly grave as the decision on the fate of Palestine approached. Immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel, the Iraqi government adopted a policy of anti-Jewish discrimination, mass dismissals from government service, and arrests. The climax of this policy was the hanging of the Jewish millionaire, Shafiq Ades on September 1948, and the confiscation of his property (Kedourie, 1971 ; Cohen, 1989 : 41-42)3. The Jews felt the ground burning under their feet. At the end of 1949, Jews began to flee to Iran, and thence to Israel, in such large numbers that all efforts by the Iraqi government to halt their flight proved fruitless. This was a major consideration in the decision by the Iraqi government, headed by Tawfiq as-Suwaydi, to pass the Denationalization Law on March 1950, under which every Jew was entitled to leave Iraq freely, forfeiting his Iraqi citizenship for ever (Gat, 1997 : 68-76). The Jews took advantage of the law, and by the end of 1952, most of them had emigrated to Israel, practically bringing to a close the history of the community.Gat1998p47[7]

The exodus reasons

[edit]

"…fight against Zionism, the state engaged in a process of collective punishments…unjustly designated an entire community as second-rate citizens. These undemocratic measures …pushed the Jews to emigrate from Iraq" Bashkin2012p185 [8]

"Any tension in the Middle east would impinge directly on the situation of the Jews. Their chances of having stability or equality in Iraq appeared slim, and therefore it is understandable that many members of the community… wished to leave Iraq…The timing was determined by the Iraqi government, Israel was the only available option, and the magnitude of the emigration was due to the growing insecurity of the Jewish community in 1950. … In a different, non catastrophic context, as occurred in other Muslim countries such as Iran and Egypt, one might have expected a much slower, drawn out exodus and a range of destinations, with Israel being only one of them, not necessarily the main one" Meir-Glitzenstein2004p216 [9]

Was Zionism the reason for the exodus?

[edit]

Was the Zionist movement indeed responsible for the Aliyah of Iraqi Jewry, as the Zionist and anti-Zionist explanations would have it, or might there be- as I shall demonstrate in this study- a different, more complex explanation? [10]

Opression

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the Iraqi government in 19 Oct 1949 proposed to exchange Iraqi Jews for Palestinian refugees

Nuri al-Said, the Iraqi prime minister, was determined to drive the Jews out of his country as quickly as possible,[11] Gat2013p124 [12] Bashkin2012p277[13] KacowiczLutomski2007

AdelmanBarkan There were anti Jewish laws. [14] AdelmanBarkan2013p237

and on August 21 1950 he threatened to revoke the license of the company transporting the Jewish exodus if it did not fulfill its daily quota of 500 Jews. On September 18, 1950, Nuri al-Said summoned a representative of the Jewish community and claimed Israel was behind the emigration delay, threatening to "take them to the borders" and forcibly expel the Jews[15] AdelmanBarkan2013p365

bashkin p.190 - the anti jew campain improved when Nuri Said resigned at Dec 1949

"Sixty year old man was sentenced to five years in jail for getting a letter from his son in Palestine…Large numbers of Jews employed at government ministries were let go from their position" Bashkin2012p187 [16]

gat


if Israel will not absorb them at a fast rate, "driving the Jews across the Kuwaiti border" Gat2013 p127

(gat, p118) The Iraqi regime crammed Jews from outlying areas into Baghdad and stripped many of their nationality, deprived them of their sources of livelihood" but Israel restricted the immigration from Iraq.

gat p. 113 "the Jews from the provincial towns. Several days after the airlift to Israel began, their Arab neighbours began to threaten their lives, demand their property and insist that they abandon their homes....the police decided...them to move to Baghdad. These Jews arrived penniless

gat,p. 116 a proposal was raised in the government that the Jews be expelled by force from Iraq...transfer of Jews in convoys to Jordan whence they would be taken by force to the Israeli border. (summer 1950)

gat,p. 118 "in mid September 1950".. Nuri Said became a prime minister, and "involving ...Britain and the USA in the Issue"

gat,p. 119 "Nuri Said was determined to do everything possible to dispatch the Jews at the Earliest opportunity"

gat,p. 125 "Israel informed…that unrestricted immigration [from Iraq] was being delayed owing to financial constraints and limited absorptive capacity". Israel increase the quota from 4000 per month to 6000, "but not to 1000 per day, as Nuri As-said demanded" . It angered Nuri. The Iraqis considered "driving the Jews across the Kuweiti borders". Nuri told the U.S that these Jews refugees are undermining the state and in contact with communists agents. The parliament is expected to criticize the government "focusing on its failure to expel the jews…. The press would conduct a bitter campaign against the government and against the jews." Thus he considered transporting those jews to Jordan or Syria or Kuwait.

Glitzenstein Nuri's threats "encouraged Iraqi officials to abuse the departing jews before they boarded the planes and to destroy their baggage". Meir-Glitzenstein2004p206 [17]

Hakohen A quote:"in mid September 1950, Nuri al-Said replaced...as prime minister. "Said had warned the Jewish community of Baghdad to make haste; otherwise, he would take the Jews to the Borders himself" [18] Hakohen2003p124 (also Gat p. 119)

Morris

"In Iraq, following the May 1948 declaration of martial law, hundreds of Jews were arrested (the Iraqi government admitted to “276” Jews detained and “1,188” non-Jews),48 and Jewish property was arbitrarily confiscated. Jewish students were banned from high schools and universities. Some fifteen hundred Jews were dismissed from government positions, the Iraqi Ministry of Health refused to renew the licenses of Jewish physicians or issue new ones, Jewish merchants’ import and export licenses were canceled, and various economic sanctions were imposed on the Jewish community.49 In January 1949, Prime Minister Nuri Sa’id threatened “that all Iraqi Jews would be expelled if the Israelis did not allow the Arab refugees to return to Palestine.”50 A new “wave of persecution” was unleashed against the 125,000-strong community in early October 1949, with about two thousand being packed off to jails and “concentration camps” and vast amounts of money being extorted in fines on various pretexts.51 But the Iraqi government kept a tight leash on the “street.” (Morris 2008, p. 413).[19]

Tripp, p. 122 military reverses of the Arab armies led them to agree to the cease-fires of June and July 1948..

The minister of defence, Sadiq al-Bassam, denied much say in the conduct of the war, used the opportunity to initiate systematic harassment of the Iraqi Jewish community whose loyalties were now more suspect than ever. Their movements were restricted, Jews were barred from certain government posts, courts martial were used extensively to imprison and intimidate Jews and a prominent member of the Community was executed for allegedly assisting the new state of Israel. The international outcry that ensued gave the prime minister and alBassam’s political rivals the opportunity to oust him from the cabinet. However, this could not diminish the increasing sense of threat within the Jewish community as the Arab armies in Palestine suffered a succession of defeats

[20] Tripp2002p125 p. 125 In early 1949 " Nuri added to the Iraqi Jewish community’s sense of insecurity by threatening to expel the entire community if the Palestinian refugees were not allowed to return to their homes"

Tripp,p. 125 " the Iraqi security services uncovered a Zionist network in Iraq which was helping Iraqi jews emigrate to Israel. This led in turn to extensive arrests in the Jewish community and to increased suspicion, effectively barring young Jewish Iraqis from employment by the state or in the professions. For many in the Iraqi Jewish community it appeared that there was indeed no future in Iraq itself since neither their community leaders nor any international body was willing or able to defend their rights as Iraqi citizens. Encouraged both by successive Iraqi governments and by the Israeli authorities, the vast majority of the community of over 100,00 took advantage of a 1950 law"

Bombing

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As for Salah and Basri, many of the Iraqi Jewish immigrants in Israel, who lived for long periods in shabby tent camps with poor services, expressed either indifference or pleasure at their fate. This is God's revenge on the movement that brought us here,' some said. Many continued to believe that Salah and Basri had thrown the bombs 'in order to encourage the emigration from Iraq.(BlackMorris) [21]



-=-=-=-= As noted above, just over 105,000 Jews had registered by 8 March, of whom almost 40,000 had left the country.87 Some 15,000 more left illegally before and after the law was passed. Since the number of Jews living in Iraq before emigration began has been estimated at 125,000 this means that about 5,000 Jews were left, who had preferred to remain in Iraq.88 Why, then, would anyone in Israel have wanted to throw bombs? Whom would they have wanted to intimidate? (Gat2013p185) [22]

Uri Avnery, without checking the facts, wrote, 'Suddenly something mysterious happened" ...She goes on to distort the dates of the explosions and the number of registrees, in order to prove her contention. Avnery's article and Marion Woolfson's book served as the basis for the arguments of the Palestinian author Abbas Shiblak,the same page? (Gat2013p178

But at their trial, Shalom Salah and Yosef Basri were charged only with throwing the last three bombs (on 19 March at the USIS and at Jewish firms importing American cars). These three incidents occurred after the expiry of the law permitting Jews to leave the country. after denaturalization. Why then were they charged only with three out of the five bombings? This is particularly puzzling since the police noted during the trials that one of the reports seized during the interrogations indicated clearly that a member of the underground had thrown the 8 April bomb.65 Moreover, this charge conflicted..(Gat2013p179


Iraq-Responsibility for the bombings

[edit]

There has been debate over whether the bombs were in fact planted by the Mossad in order to encourage Iraqi Jews to immigrate to the newly created state of Israel or whether they were the work of Arab anti-Jewish extremists in Iraq. The issue has been the subject of lawsuits and inquiries in Israel.[23]

Claims for Israeli involvement

[edit]

Historian Abbas Shiblak, Iraqi Jew Naeim Giladi and CIA agent Wilbur Crane Eveland[24] have argued that Jews were involved in the bombings.

According to Moshe Gat, as well as Meir-Glitzenstein,[25] Samuel Klausner,[26] Rayyan Al-Shawaf[27] and Yehouda Shenhav, there is "wide consensus among Iraqi Jews that the emissaries threw the bombs in order to hasten the Jews' departure from Iraq";[28] Shenhav noted an Israeli Foreign Ministry memo which stated that Iraqi Jews reacted to the hangings of Salah and Basri with the attitude: "That is God's revenge on the movement that brought us to such depths."[29]

The British Embassy in Baghdad assessed that the bombings were carried out by Zionist activists trying to highlight the danger to Iraqi Jews, in order influence the State of Israel to accelerate the pace of Jewish emigration. Another possible explanation offered by the embassy was that bombs were meant to change the minds of well-off Jews who wished to stay in Iraq.[30][31]

The Israeli government has denied any link to Baghdad bombings, and blamed Iraqi nationalists for the attacks on the Iraqi Jews. However, former Israeli acting Prime Minister Yigal Allon, commented that the Mossad false flag bombing tactics of the 1954 Lavon affair were "first tried in Iraq".[32] Allegedly, identical tactics were used later in 1954 by Israeli military intelligence in operation Suzanna,[24] when a group of Zionist Egyptian Jews attempted to plant bombs in an US Information Service library, and in a number of American targets Cairo and Alexandria. According to Teveth, they were hoping that the Muslim Brotherhood, the Communists, 'unspecified malcontents' or 'local nationalists' would be blamed for their actions[33] and this would undermine Western confidence in the existing Egyptian regime by generating public insecurity and actions to bring about arrests, demonstrations, and acts of revenge, while totally concealing the Israeli factor. The operation failed, the perpetrators were arrested by Egyptian police and brought to justice, two were sentenced to death, several to long term imprisonment.

Palestinian historian Abbas Shiblak believes that the attacks were committed by Zionist activists and that the attacks were the pre-eminent reason for the subsequent exodus of Iraqi Jews to Israel.[34] Shiblak also argues that the attacks were an attempt to sour Iraq-American relations, saying "The March 1951 attack on the US Information Centre was probably an attempt to portray the Iraqis as anti-American and to gain more support for the Zionist cause in the United States".[35]

The Iraqi Jewish anti-Zionist[36] author Naeim Giladi maintains that the bombings were "perpetrated by Zionist agents in order to cause fear amongst the Jews, and so promote their exodus to Israel."[37] This theory is shared by Uri Avnery,[38] who wrote in My friend, the enemy that "After the disclosure of the Lavon Affair... the Baghdad affair became more plausible".[39] and Marion Wolfsohn.[38] Giladi claims that it is also supported by Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in his book Ropes of Sand.[24] According to Eveland, whose information was presumably based on the Iraqi official investigation, which was shared with the US embassy,[40] "In an attempt to portray the Iraqis as anti-American and to terrorize the Jews, the Zionists planted bombs in the U.S. Information Service library and in the synagogues. Soon leaflets began to appear urging Jews to flee to Israel... most of the world believed reports that Arab terrorism had motivated the flight of the Iraqi Jews whom the Zionists had 'rescued' really just in order to increase Israel’s Jewish population."[24]

Claims of no Israeli involvement

[edit]

Arthur Neslen's 2006 book "Occupied Minds" contains an interview with the convicted bomber Yehuda Tajar, in which he recalls a conversation with the widow of Beit-Halahmi, a fellow Mossad agent. She implied that Beit-Halahmi, on his own initiative, and without orders from Israel, organized attacks after his colleagues were arrested in order to cast doubt on their guilt.[30]

Mordechai Ben Porat, founder and chair of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, who was coordinating Jewish emigration at the time, was accused of orchestrating a bombing campaign to speed up the Jewish exodus from Iraq by Israeli journalist Baruch Nadel in 1977. Porat sued the journalist for libel, ending in an out-of-court compromise and an apology by the journalist.[41][23]

Shimon Mendes wrote in Ha'aretz that: "Someone had to act, and he took the appropriate action at the right time. For only an act like the explosions would have brought them to Israel. Anyone who understood politics and developments in Israel was long aware of that. "[42]

Historian Moshe Gat believes that "Israeli emissaries not place the bombs at the locations cited in the Iraqi statement",[43] and a 1960 commission of inquiry by the Mossad "did not find any factual proof that the bombs were hurled by any Jewish organization or individual."[30]

Israeli historian Moshe Gat believes that the attacks were the work of members of the anti-Jewish Istiqlal Party and sees little connection between the bombings and exodus.[35][44][45]

Gat wrote that frantic Jewish registration for denaturalisation and departure was driven by knowledge that the denaturalisation law was due to expire in March 1951. He also noted the influence of further pressures including the property-freezing law and continued anti-Jewish disturbances, which raised the fear of large-scale pogroms. According to Gat it was highly unlikely[citation needed][failed verification] the Israelis would have taken such measures to accelerate the Jewish evacuation given that they were already struggling to cope with the existing level of Jewish immigration.

Gat also raised serious doubts about the guilt of the alleged Jewish bomb throwers. An Iraqi army officer known for his anti-Jewish views was originally arrested for the offenses, but never charged, after explosive devices similar to those used in the attack on the Jewish synagogue were found in his home. The 1950–1951 bombings followed a long history of anti-Jewish incidents in Iraq and the prosecution was not able to produce a single eyewitness. Shalom Salah told the court that he had confessed after being severely tortured.[46]Gat believes the perpetrators were members of the anti-Jewish Istiqlal Party.[citation needed][failed verification]

In his 1996 book "To Baghdad and Back," Ben-Porat published the full report of a 1960 investigation committee appointed by David Ben-Gurion, which found no proof that Jews were involved in the bombing.[47]

Yehuda Tajar, who spent ten years in Iraqi prison for his alleged involvement in the bombings, said they were carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Tajar, the widow of one of the Jewish activists, Yosef Beit-Halahmi, implied he had organized attacks after his colleagues were arrested for the Masuda Shemtov synagogue bombing, to prove that those on trial were not the perpetrators.[30]

Jewish response

[edit]

bashkin p.190 -the general sentiment was chat if a man as well connected and powerful as (Shafiq)Adas could he eliminated by the state, other Jews would not be protected any longer.

Israeli response

[edit]

gat,p. 125 "Israel informed…that unrestricted immigration [from Iraq] was being delayed owing to financial constraints and limited absorptive capacity". Israel increase the quota from 4000 per month to 6000, "but not to 1000 per day, as Nuri As-said demanded"

retrospect

[edit]

"The experience of discrimination and persecution in the Arab world, and the centuries of subjection and humiliation that preceded 1948, had left the emigrant Sephardi communities [in Israel] with a deep dislike, indeed hatred, of that world" . (Morris, 2008, p. 415 )

Notes:

[edit]
  1. ^ Howard Adelman; Elazar Barkan (13 August 2013). No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in Minority Repatriation. Columbia University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-231-52690-6. But there is a difference in the narratives. Jews experienced systematic persecution and discrimination in Arab countries, including physical persecution and even hanging. A comparison was even made to the extermination of the Jews in the 1940's
  2. ^ Howard Adelman; Elazar Barkan (2011). No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in Minority Repatriation. Columbia University Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-231-15336-2. If Arab countries took no responsibility for forcing the Jews to leave, the new Israeli state reciprocated…The de facto expulsion of the Jews from most Arab state …In expelling the Jews and encouraging anti Jewish policies, The Arab states played into Israeli
  3. ^ Esther Meir-Glitzenstein (2 August 2004). Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s. Routledge. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-135-76862-1. Ultimately, what had begun as voluntary emigration turned into an expulsion, and the emigrants became persecuted, destitute refugees.
  4. ^ Howard Adelman; Elazar Barkan (13 August 2013). No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in Minority Repatriation. Columbia University Press. pp. 365–. ISBN 978-0-231-52690-6. Meron;NYtimes (16 May 1948) :"already in some Moslem states such as Syria and Lebanon there is a tendency to regard all Jews as Zionist agents and fifth columnists...indications for...tragedy of incalculable proportions". The draconian measures contemplated and actually applied to Jewish citizens ...in the draft Arab League against Jews
  5. ^ Yosef Mazur (2012). Zionism, Post-Zionism & the Arab Problem: A Compendium of Opinions about the Jewish State. WestBow Press. pp. 188–. ISBN 978-1-4497-3641-5. the NYtimes 16 May 1948...Jews in great danger in all Moslem Lands...900000 Jews in Africa and Asia face wrath of their foes...deteriorating Jewish security including violent incidents...according to a law drafted by the Political comittee of the Arab League, all Jewish citizens of those countries......there was a clear Arab strategy to expell their Jewish citizens"...NYtimes of 17 May 1948: Protection of UN sought for Jews
  6. ^ BROWNE, MALLORY (16 May 1948). "JEWS IN GRAVE DANGER IN ALL MOSLEM LANDS". New York Times. p. E4. it is feared that the repercussions' of this in Moslem countries will put the Jewish populations in many of these states in mortal peril...There are indications that the stage is being set for a tragedy of incalculable proportions....Conditions vary in the Moslem countries. They are worst in Yemen and Afghanistan, whence many Jews have fled in terror to India. Conditions in most of the countries have deteriorated in recent months, this being particularly true of Lebanon, Iran and Egypt. In the countries farther west along the Mediterranean coast, conditions are not so bad. It is feared, however, that if a full-scale war breaks out, the repercussions will be grave for Jews all the way from Casablanca to Karachi.
  7. ^ Gat, Moshe (1998). "The Immigration of Iraqi Jewry to Israel as Reflected in Literature". Revue européenne des migrations internationales ,Year 1998 , Volume 14 , Issue 14-3. pp. 47, 48. The new Iraqi state, established in 1922, needed intellectuals in order to create the foundation for normative state services. The monarchy encouraged Jews to study abroad and expected them, on their return, to contribute to and enhance the prosperity of the country. The new state granted its minorities the necessary security, including the Jewish minority, safeguarded in its constitution (Hourani, 1947 : 91-93). The Jews were granted membership in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Thus, the Jews of Iraq, among them judges, jurists, writers, poets and politicians, were part of the elite in the Iraqi Arab state, and found themselves at the center of its political and intellectual life. They viewed themselves as helping to shape the character of Iraqi society and state. In the period following the establishment of Iraq as an independent state, the Jews underwent a process of integration into the life of the Iraqi people. Jewish writers and poets began to write in Arabic for all the people of Iraq, Arabs and Jews alike. Jewish activity was omnipresent, demonstrating a sense of identification with the national aspirations of the Iraqi people. They felt that they were Jews by religion and Arabs by nationality; after all, Jews and Arabs are members of the same race (Kezaz, 1985:34-37,47). This cultural and economic integration seemed to augur a glowing future for the Jewish community in Iraq. However, several events which occurred in the 1930s indicated a rather different prospect. At the beginning of the decade, an Arab intelligentsia emerged which sought to ensure its place in public and government life, taking over the public positions held by the Jews. In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany, and their influence began rapidly to spread to Iraq, which only one year earlier had achieved independence. Hitler's, Mein Kampf was translated into Arabic and serialized in the newspaper "Alam il-Arabi" (Kezaz, 1986 : 53-54). Iraqi nationalists viewed Nazism as coinciding with their anti-British and anti-Jewish views. Additionally, we may note the growing influence of the Palestinian exiles, headed by their spiritual leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, who arrived in 1939 (Glitzenstein-Meir, 1981 : 22). The most blatant expression of these influences was the pogrom (Farhud) of 1941 which erupted on the Jewish festival of Shavuot (Pentecost 1-2 June). The Farhud claimed some 180 Jewish lives, with hundreds more wounded and much property destroyed and plundered (Meir, 1973 : 35 ; Hamdi, 1987 : 165). …the Farhud was followed by a period of economic revival and prosperity, reflected in the expansion of the school system and the building of new, well-to-do neighborhoods (Habas, 1943 : 137-147)2. The situation of the Jews grew increasingly grave as the decision on the fate of Palestine approached. Immediately after the establishment of the State of Israel, the Iraqi government adopted a policy of anti-Jewish discrimination, mass dismissals from government service, and arrests. The climax of this policy was the hanging of the Jewish millionaire, Shafiq Ades on September 1948, and the confiscation of his property (Kedourie, 1971 ; Cohen, 1989 : 41-42)3. The Jews felt the ground burning under their feet. At the end of 1949, Jews began to flee to Iran, and thence to Israel, in such large numbers that all efforts by the Iraqi government to halt their flight proved fruitless. This was a major consideration in the decision by the Iraqi government, headed by Tawfiq as-Suwaydi, to pass the Denationalization Law on March 1950, under which every Jew was entitled to leave Iraq freely, forfeiting his Iraqi citizenship for ever (Gat, 1997 : 68-76). The Jews took advantage of the law, and by the end of 1952, most of them had emigrated to Israel, practically bringing to a close the history of the community.
  8. ^ Orit Bashkin (12 September 2012). New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq. Stanford University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-8047-8201-2. …fight against Zionism, the state engaged in a process of collective punishments…unjustly designated an entire community as second-rate citizens. These undemocratic measures …pushed the Jews to emigrate from Iraq
  9. ^ Esther Meir-Glitzenstein (2 August 2004). Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s. Routledge. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-135-76862-1. Any tension in the Middle east would impinge directly on the situation of the Jews. Their chances of having stability or equality in Iraq appeared slim., and therefore it is understandable that many members of the community… wished to leave Iraq…The timing was determined by the Iraqi government, Israel was the only available option, and the magnitude of the emigration was due to the growing insecurity of the Jewish community in 1950. … In a different, non catastrophic context, as occurred in other Muslim countries such as Iran and Egypt, one might have expected a much slower, drawn out exodus and a range of destinations, with Israel being only one of them, not necessarily the main one
  10. ^ Esther Meir-Glitzenstein (2 August 2004). Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s. Routledge. p. xvi. ISBN 978-1-135-76862-1. Was the Zionist movement indeed responsible for the Aliyah of Iraqi Jewry, as the Zionist and anti-Zionist explanations would have it, or might there be- as I shall demonstrate in this study- a different, more complex explanation?
  11. ^ Moshe Gat (4 July 2013). The Jewish Exodus from Iraq, 1948-1951. Routledge. pp. 123–125. ISBN 978-1-135-24654-9.
  12. ^ Orit Bashkin (12 September 2012). New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq. Stanford University Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-8047-8201-2.
  13. ^ Arie Marcelo Kacowicz; Pawel Lutomski (1 January 2007). Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study. Lexington Books. pp. 124–. ISBN 978-0-7391-1607-4. Nuri...determined to drive the Jews out of his country as quickly as possible
  14. ^ Howard Adelman; Elazar Barkan (13 August 2013). No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in Minority Repatriation. Columbia University Press. pp. 237–. ISBN 978-0-231-52690-6.
  15. ^ Howard Adelman; Elazar Barkan (13 August 2013). No Return, No Refuge: Rites and Rights in Minority Repatriation. Columbia University Press. pp. 365–. ISBN 978-0-231-52690-6. At times, Iraqi politicians candidly acknowledged that they wanted to expell their Jewish population for reasons of their own, having nothing to do with the palestinian exodus...Nuri Said described a plan to expell jews from Iraq ...head of Jordanian government
  16. ^ Orit Bashkin (12 September 2012). New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq. Stanford University Press. pp. 187–. ISBN 978-0-8047-8201-2. Sixty year old man was sentenced to five years in jail for getting a letter from his son in Palestine…Large numbers of Jews employed at government ministries were let go from their position
  17. ^ Esther Meir-Glitzenstein (2 August 2004). Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s. Routledge. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-135-76862-1. (Nuri's threats) "encouraged Iraqi officials to abuse the departing jews before they boarded the planes and to destroy their baggage"
  18. ^ Devorah Hakohen (2003). Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-8156-2990-0. Said had warned the Jewish community of Baghdad to make haste; otherwise, he would take the Jews to the Borders himself
  19. ^ Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press. p. 413. Retrieved 13 July 2013. "In Iraq, following the May 1948 declaration of martial law, hundreds of Jews were arrested (the Iraqi government admitted to "276" Jews detained and "1,188" non-Jews),48 and Jewish property was arbitrarily confiscated. Jewish students were banned from high schools and universities. Some fifteen hundred Jews were dismissed from government positions, the Iraqi Ministry of Health refused to renew the licenses of Jewish physicians or issue new ones, Jewish merchants' import and export licenses were canceled, and various economic sanctions were imposed on the Jewish community.49 In January 1949, Prime Minister Nuri Sa'id threatened "that all Iraqi Jews would be expelled if the Israelis did not allow the Arab refugees to return to Palestine."50 A new "wave of persecution" was unleashed against the 125,000-strong community in early October 1949, with about two thousand being packed off to jails and "concentration camps" and vast amounts of money being extorted in fines on various pretexts.51 But the Iraqi government kept a tight leash on the "street."
  20. ^ Charles Tripp (2002). A History of Iraq. Cambridge University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-521-52900-6.
  21. ^ Ian Black (1991). Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services. Grove Press. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-0-8021-3286-4. As for Salah and Basri, many of the Iraqi Jewish immigrants in Israel, who lived for long periods in shabby tent camps with poor services, expressed either indifference or pleasure at their fate. This is God's revenge on the movement that brought us here,' some said. Many continued to believe that Salah and Basri had thrown the bombs 'in order to encourage the emigration from Iraq
  22. ^ Moshe Gat (4 July 2013). The Jewish Exodus from Iraq, 1948-1951. Routledge. pp. 185–. ISBN 978-1-135-24654-9. Israel was resolved to bring in all Jews whose lives were in danger; 62,000 Jews were still waiting in Iraq and it was not clear how long it would take to rescue them. The Mossad emissaries in Iraq were under heavy pressure from these prospective immigrants, and in the months before the bomb-throwing incident, their reports stressed their frustration at their inability to ease their plight. As Ben-Porat wrote:'Everything we built has been destroyed... The emissaries never imagined that so large a number of Jews would decide to renounce their nationality and leave the country... As noted above, just over 105,000 Jews had registered by 8 March, of whom almost 40,000 had left the country.87 Some 15,000 more left illegally before and after the law was passed. Since the number of Jews living in Iraq before emigration began has been estimated at 125,000 this means that about 5,000 Jews were left, who had preferred to remain in Iraq.88 Why, then, would anyone in Israel have wanted to throw bombs? Whom would they have wanted to intimidate?
  23. ^ a b Fischbach, Michael R. (Fall 2008). "Claiming Jewish Communal Property in Iraq". Middle East Report. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  24. ^ a b c d Eveland, Wilbur Crane (1980). Ropes of Sand, America's Failure in the Middle East. W W Norton & Co Inc. p. 48. In an attempt to portray the Iraqis as anti-American and to terrorize the Jews, the Zionists planted bombs in the U.S. Information Service library and in the synagogues. Soon leaflets began to appear urging Jews to flee to Israel. The Iraqi police later provided our embassy with evidence to show that the synagogue and library bombings, as well as the anti-Jewish and anti-American leaflet campaigns, had been the work of an underground Zionist organization, most of the world believed reports that Arab terrorism had motivated the flight of the Iraqi Jews whom the Zionists had "rescued" really just in order to increase Israel's Jewish population.
  25. ^ Meir-Glitzenstein 2004, p. 257: "Many Iraqi Jews, bitterly disappointed with the conditions that awaited them in Israel, found in the affair of the bombs an explanation for their aliyah and placed the responsibility, and perhaps even the blame, on the Israeli government and the Zionist activists."
  26. ^ Klausner, Samuel (1998), "The Jewish Exodus from Iraq 1948-1951", Contemporary Jewry, 19 (1): 180–185, Most of the 120,000 Iraqi Jews, transported to lsrael through Operation Ezra and Nemehiah in 1950-1, believed they had been stampeded into fleeing by the Israeli Mossad. Many still believe that when registration for emigration slowed, members of the Zionist underground tossed hand grenades into Jewish institutions. This suspicion has contributed to the alienation of Iraqi immigrants from successive Labor governments.
  27. ^ Al-Shawaf, p. 72: "As mentioned, most Iraqi Jews believed that Zionist emissaries were behind the bombs. This belief is well-known and attested to by both Shiblak and Gat."
  28. ^ Gat, p177: "The belief that the bombs had been thrown by Zionist agents was shared by those Iraqi Jews who had just reached Israel. These Jews were convinced that the bombs had been thrown in order to expedite their departure. If the incidents had not occurred they would have been able to remain safe and sound in their comfortable homes in Baghdad. The difficulties they encountered in Israel early in 1952 were the direct consequence of this act. When the immigrants learned of the hanging of the two Jews sentenced for throwing the bombs, many reacted by saying that this was divine retribution against the underground movement which had brought them to Israel... (Footnote) There is wide consensus among Iraqi Jews that the emissaries threw the bombs in order to hasten the Jews' departure from Iraq"
  29. ^ Shenhav 1999, p. 605"It would have been only natural for Iraqi Jews in Israel to have reacted with outrage to news of the hanging. But on the contrary, the mourning assemblies organized by leaders of the community in various Israeli cities failed to arouse widespread solidarity with the two Iraqi Zionists. Just the opposite: a classified document from Moshe Sasson, of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East Division, to Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett maintained that many Iraqi immigrants, residents of the transit camps, greeted the hanging with the attitude: "That is God's revenge on the movement that brought us to such depths." The bitterness of that reaction attests to an acute degree of discontent among the newly arrived Iraqi Jews. It suggests that a good number of them did not view their immigration as the joyous return to Zion depicted by the community's Zionist activists. Rather, in addition to blaming the Iraqi government, they blamed the Zionist movement for bringing them to Israel for reasons that did not include the best interests of the immigrants themselves."
  30. ^ a b c d Segev, Tom (4 June 2006). "Now it can be told". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 4 May 2008. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  31. ^ British Embassy in Baghdad, FO371, EQ1571, Baghdad to FO, 27 June 1951, "one theory which is more plausible than most is that certain Jews have endeavoured, by throwing bombs at certain buildings, to focus the attention of the Israel Government on the plight of the Jews in Iraq so that they would keep the airlift moving quickly, and, possibly as a second object, to induce those well-to-do Jews who had decided to remain in Iraq to change their mind and emigrate to Israel."
  32. ^ Cohen, Ben (1998), "Gat: The Jewish Exodus from Iraq, 1948-51, reviewed by Ben Cohen", Journal of Palestine Studies, 27 (4): 111, Gat lists a number of writers who have concluded that Israel was behind these attacks to terrorize the Jews into leaving. For Gat, however, it is 'unlikely that there will ever be' a definitive answer to the question of responsibility (p.187). But then he exonerates Israel in an example of the periodic inconsistencies that mar the text; he argues that the Zionist underground would not have adopted such a risky strategy at a time when the Iraqi police was closing in on them (p.186). Yet, he does not consider the possibility that leading Iraqis, whose pockets were being lined, turned a blind eye; nor does he take into account Yigal Allon's admission, in comments on the 'Lavon affair' of 1954, that such a method of operation – a bombing campaign – 'was first tried in Iraq'
  33. ^ S. Teveth, Ben-Gurion's spy: the story of the political scandal that shaped modern Israel. Columbia University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-231-10464-2, p. 81.
  34. ^ Shiblak, Abbas (July 1986). The Lure of Zion: The Case of the Iraqi Jews. Al Saqi. pp. 123–4 and 196. ISBN 978-0-86356-033-0. Retrieved 5 April 2010. It is clear that the explosions came at a critical time, when other factors seem insufficient to ensure mass emigration . . . Whenever the fears abated, a new explosion shattered the sense of security, and the chances of remaining in Iraq appeared bleaker.
  35. ^ a b Al-Shawaf.
  36. ^ "Anti-Zionist writer Naeim Giladi dies" Queens Chronicle. March 11, 2010.Zwire.com, Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  37. ^ Giladi, Naeim (April–May 1998), The Jews of Iraq (PDF), Americans for Middle East Understanding, retrieved 5 April 2010
  38. ^ a b Gat 1997, p. 178
  39. ^ Avnery, Uri (1986), My Friend the Enemy, L. Hill, p. 135–6, ISBN 9780882082127, 'Then something mysterious happened. Bombs started exploding in synagogues and elsewhere at places frequented by Jews, Panic occurred, and the number of those seeking to leave grew overnight... After the disclosure of the Lavon Affair... the Baghdad affair became more plausible.
  40. ^ Cite error: The named reference BlackMorris92 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  41. ^ Gat 1991, p. 187: "In April 1977 an interview with Baruch Nadel was published in the periodical Bama’arakha (a journal of the Sephardic community). In the interview, Nadel accused the Israeli emissaries of placing the bombs in order to hasten the departure of the Jews from Iraq. He was sued for libel by Ben-Porat. In the settlement between the parties, Nadel retracted all his accusations against the Israeli emissaries, and apologized for the injustice of the publication. Civilian file 8/63, 3.11.81, Magistrates' court, Herzlia."
  42. ^ The Immigration from Iraq and the Government of Israel", Ha'aretz , 22 May 1966, "Whether they did not know what to do or whether they did not wish to risk any initiative, the community leaders remained silent. Someone had to act, and he took the appropriate action at the right time. For only an act like the explosions would have brought them to Israel. Anyone who understood politics and developments in Israel was long aware of that. But not everyone sees it as a mishap, and those who called it this do injustice to David Ben-Gurion and to the memory of Shalom Salah and Yosef Basri, whose names should be remembered alongside those who gave their lives for the country."
  43. ^ [1]: "However in light of documents which have been made available by the National Archives in Washington, the British Public Record Office, the Haganah Archive, the Israel State Archive, and documents from the private records of Mordechai Ben-Porat, who was in charge of Jewish emigration in Iraq, we shall see that not only did Israeli emissaries not place the bombs at the locations cited in the Iraqi statement, but also that there was in fact no need to take such drastic action in order to urge the Jews to leave Iraq for Israel."
  44. ^ Gat 1997, p. 224
  45. ^ Mendes, Philip. The Forgotten Refugees: the causes of the post-1948 Jewish Exodus from Arab Countries, Presented at the 14th Jewish Studies Conference Melbourne March 2002. Retrieved June 12, 2007. "Historian Moshe Gat argues that there was little direct connection between the bombings and exodus. He demonstrates that the frantic and massive Jewish registration for denaturalisation and departure was driven by knowledge that the denaturalisation law was due to expire in March 1951. He also notes the influence of further pressures including the property-freezing law, and continued anti-Jewish disturbances which raised the fear of large-scale pogroms. In addition, it is highly unlikely the Israelis would have taken such measures to accelerate the Jewish evacuation given that they were already struggling to cope with the existing level of Jewish immigration. Gat also raises serious doubts about the guilt of the alleged Jewish bomb throwers. Firstly, a Christian officer in the Iraqi army known for his anti-Jewish views was arrested, but apparently not charged, with the offenses. A number of explosive devices similar to those used in the attack on the Jewish synagogue were found in his home. In addition, there was a long history of anti-Jewish bomb-throwing incidents in Iraq. Secondly, the prosecution was not able to produce even one eyewitness who had seen the bombs thrown. Thirdly, the Jewish defendant Shalom Salah indicated in court that he had been severely tortured in order to procure a confession. It therefore remains an open question as to who was responsible for the bombings, although Gat suggests that the most likely perpetrators were members of the anti-Jewish Istiqlal Party. Certainly memories and interpretations of the events have further been influenced and distorted by the unfortunate discrimination which many Iraqi Jews experienced on their arrival in Israel."
  46. ^ The Quagmire, Emil Murad, p. 182-183
  47. ^ To Baghdad and Back

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