20th Century Iraqi and Greater Middle Eastern History

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British Empire

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  • Their colonialism shaped the politics of modern Iraq and fortunes of many Iraqi Jews

  • Promised to support the establishment of an independent Arab kingdom to be headed by Sharif Hussein of Mecca if he mounted an Arab revolt against his Ottoman overlords

  • However, they did not follow through on their promise and imposed a sphere of influence on the region, and eventually, a Mandate, instead

    • The League of Nations awarded them with mandates over Iraq and Palestine, thus allowing them to forcibly revoke the recently established “Arab Kingdom of Syria”

    • The justification of the mandates was that the Arabs were not capable of ruling themselves and were not readily prepared for democracy

  • Had to suppress a large nationalist revolt in 1920 as a result of the imposition of their Mandate which cost considerable losses to their treasury

  • Installed Faisal as King of Iraq contrary to the wishes of the Iraqi

    • Disqualified the “Naquib” of Baghdad for being too old

    • Deported Sayid Talib Pasha of Basra (the nationalist leader in Iraq that the Iraqis supported), on trumped-up charges of wanting to establish home rule for his country

    • Organized a one-question plebiscite and rigged the result, claiming that 96% of Iraqis voted for Faisal to be their king

      • Set the precedent for European powers rigging elections in the Arab world

  • Designed the new state of Iraq in such a way as to conceal their own dominant role in its establishment and maintenance

    • Steered Iraq in close collaboration with the Hashemite Monarchy and an oligarchy of politicians that aligned with them led by Nuri al-Said

    • In this Anglo-Hashemite political system, there was a parliamentary facade but no democracy and no peaceful means for bringing about political change; and some might argue that this is exactly what they wanted

      • However, despite their influence in Iraqi politics, since the beginning of its installment, there was sentiment against them

      • Their fundamental mistake was giving the Sunni elite a monopoly of power and marginalizing the Shia majority

      • The state of Iraq they created only exacerbated its inherent structural problems

  • Delineated Iraq’s borders in a way that suited their own political, strategic, and commercial interests; taking little account of the preexisting divisions within Iraq along linguistic or religious lines

  • Created by England to “join two widely separated oil wells, Kirkuk and Mosul, by uniting three widely separated peoples: the Kurds, the Sunnis, and the Shia”

    • Thus the forced coercion of these groups ensured that the new state of Iraq was fragmented and fractured from the beginning

    • The army that they trained and equipped would eventually become the very breeding ground of nationalist opposition against them

    • Their practice of divide and rule between the three major segments of the population was a major cause of resentment towards them during the Mandate Era

  • Gave preferential treatment to the Jews and Christians of Iraq during the Mandate Era

    • These minorities were favored because they were less likely to be drawn to nationalist causes compared to the rest of the population

    • Also gave favor to the Assyrians on the border with Syria and the Bedouin tribal Sheiks in the countryside, further frustrating Iraqi nationalists

  • Their mandate of Iraq ended in 1932, but did not bring any major changes in the way the country was run despite formal independence

  • Fearing a pro-Nazi bridgehead in the Middle East and the loss of control over Iraq’s oil fields, Churchill ordered forceful military action

  • Had completed the reoccupation of the country in 1941 in what amounted to a reversal of the independence of Iraq back in 1932

    • The purpose of the military intervention was to effect regime change

      • Rashid Ali, Haj Amin al-Husseini, and 40 of their supporters panicked and fled to Iran and then to German-occupied Europe

      • This left behind a serious power vacuum

  • Following the restoration of the monarchy and the appointment of a compliant government, the British became, once again, the ultimate arbiters of the country

    • They determined the composition of the cabinets

    • Purged the army and the higher echelons of the civil service of anyone suspected of pro-Nazi or anti-British sympathies

  • The new Iraqi government, under Nuri al-Said, appointed a commission of inquiry into the Farhud and

    • Offered compensation to the victims

    • Condemned to death eight of the assailants

  • This commission was part of a series of steps taken by the government to boost the confidence of the Jews, but the Jewish community remained skeptical and did not trust the police and feared a recurrence of violence

  • Although Iraq had gained formal independence in 1932, they continued to exercise indirect but decisive power through the royal family and loyalist political elite headed by Nuri al-Said well into the late 1940’s and 1950’s

  • Became extremely unpopular in Iraq and their local friends were widely seen as collaborators

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Ottoman Empire

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  • Despite administering an inefficient and corrupt government, this Empire afforded its various religious and ethnic minorities autonomy in running their own affairs

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This set is entirely based off of the book "Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew" by Avi Shlaim; includes only facts and details that I do not already know; Organized in terms of perceived importance from most to least important

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1
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British Empire

  • Their colonialism shaped the politics of modern Iraq and fortunes of many Iraqi Jews

  • Promised to support the establishment of an independent Arab kingdom to be headed by Sharif Hussein of Mecca if he mounted an Arab revolt against his Ottoman overlords

  • However, they did not follow through on their promise and imposed a sphere of influence on the region, and eventually, a Mandate, instead

    • The League of Nations awarded them with mandates over Iraq and Palestine, thus allowing them to forcibly revoke the recently established “Arab Kingdom of Syria”

    • The justification of the mandates was that the Arabs were not capable of ruling themselves and were not readily prepared for democracy

  • Had to suppress a large nationalist revolt in 1920 as a result of the imposition of their Mandate which cost considerable losses to their treasury

  • Installed Faisal as King of Iraq contrary to the wishes of the Iraqi

    • Disqualified the “Naquib” of Baghdad for being too old

    • Deported Sayid Talib Pasha of Basra (the nationalist leader in Iraq that the Iraqis supported), on trumped-up charges of wanting to establish home rule for his country

    • Organized a one-question plebiscite and rigged the result, claiming that 96% of Iraqis voted for Faisal to be their king

      • Set the precedent for European powers rigging elections in the Arab world

  • Designed the new state of Iraq in such a way as to conceal their own dominant role in its establishment and maintenance

    • Steered Iraq in close collaboration with the Hashemite Monarchy and an oligarchy of politicians that aligned with them led by Nuri al-Said

    • In this Anglo-Hashemite political system, there was a parliamentary facade but no democracy and no peaceful means for bringing about political change; and some might argue that this is exactly what they wanted

      • However, despite their influence in Iraqi politics, since the beginning of its installment, there was sentiment against them

      • Their fundamental mistake was giving the Sunni elite a monopoly of power and marginalizing the Shia majority

      • The state of Iraq they created only exacerbated its inherent structural problems

  • Delineated Iraq’s borders in a way that suited their own political, strategic, and commercial interests; taking little account of the preexisting divisions within Iraq along linguistic or religious lines

  • Created by England to “join two widely separated oil wells, Kirkuk and Mosul, by uniting three widely separated peoples: the Kurds, the Sunnis, and the Shia”

    • Thus the forced coercion of these groups ensured that the new state of Iraq was fragmented and fractured from the beginning

    • The army that they trained and equipped would eventually become the very breeding ground of nationalist opposition against them

    • Their practice of divide and rule between the three major segments of the population was a major cause of resentment towards them during the Mandate Era

  • Gave preferential treatment to the Jews and Christians of Iraq during the Mandate Era

    • These minorities were favored because they were less likely to be drawn to nationalist causes compared to the rest of the population

    • Also gave favor to the Assyrians on the border with Syria and the Bedouin tribal Sheiks in the countryside, further frustrating Iraqi nationalists

  • Their mandate of Iraq ended in 1932, but did not bring any major changes in the way the country was run despite formal independence

  • Fearing a pro-Nazi bridgehead in the Middle East and the loss of control over Iraq’s oil fields, Churchill ordered forceful military action

  • Had completed the reoccupation of the country in 1941 in what amounted to a reversal of the independence of Iraq back in 1932

    • The purpose of the military intervention was to effect regime change

      • Rashid Ali, Haj Amin al-Husseini, and 40 of their supporters panicked and fled to Iran and then to German-occupied Europe

      • This left behind a serious power vacuum

  • Following the restoration of the monarchy and the appointment of a compliant government, the British became, once again, the ultimate arbiters of the country

    • They determined the composition of the cabinets

    • Purged the army and the higher echelons of the civil service of anyone suspected of pro-Nazi or anti-British sympathies

  • The new Iraqi government, under Nuri al-Said, appointed a commission of inquiry into the Farhud and

    • Offered compensation to the victims

    • Condemned to death eight of the assailants

  • This commission was part of a series of steps taken by the government to boost the confidence of the Jews, but the Jewish community remained skeptical and did not trust the police and feared a recurrence of violence

  • Although Iraq had gained formal independence in 1932, they continued to exercise indirect but decisive power through the royal family and loyalist political elite headed by Nuri al-Said well into the late 1940’s and 1950’s

  • Became extremely unpopular in Iraq and their local friends were widely seen as collaborators

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Ottoman Empire

  • Despite administering an inefficient and corrupt government, this Empire afforded its various religious and ethnic minorities autonomy in running their own affairs

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Millet System

  • System devised by the Ottoman Empire in which each religious community within it was allowed to govern itself in accordance with its own laws

    • The Jews could govern themselves according to Halacha

    • The Muslims could govern themselves according to Sharia

    • The Christians could govern themselves according to Canon Law

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French Empire

  • Competed with England for colonial dominance in the Middle East

  • The League of Nations awarded them with Mandates over Syria and Lebanon

  • Viewed the Arab Revolt as “British imperialism in an Arab headdress”

  • Its forces marched on Damascus and banished Faisal into exile, taking over the government of Syria or the “Arab Kingdom of Syria,” and along with Lebanon, essentially colonized it

  • Created the modern state of Syria as a republican regime but under their control

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Sharif Hussein of Mecca

  • England’s main ally in the Middle East prior to the Mandate Period

  • Guardian of the Muslim holy places, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad

  • Allied himself with England in order to successfully revolt against the Ottoman Empire and perceivably liberate his people from them

  • Deputized his son, Prince Faisal, to lead the Arab Revolt; in cooperation with TE Lawrence or “Lawrence of Arabia”

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Faisal I, Prince and King

  • His leadership in the Arab Revolt had won him a substantial nationalist following

  • 1920 - He was elected as king and declared head of the state of the “Arab Kingdom of Syria” and was considered a constitutional monarch in a democratic system of government

  • After his deposition by the French of being the King of Syria; he was transferred over and installed by the British as the (first) King of the new nation created by the British of Iraq

    • His ascent to the Iraqi throne was carefully micro-managed by the British because he was

      • An outsider with no local power base

      • A Sunni in a country with a disenfranchised Shia majority

  • His rule in Syria was celebrated by the Iraqis and Arabs at-large, however his rule in Iraq was rejected by (almost) all the Iraqis

    • Despite this rejection, there was nothing they could do to stop British king-making

  • His and his successors’ rule as a Sunni minority that monopolized power and marginalized the Shia majority would go on to create devastating consequences for Iraq and the Iraqi people

  • In his speeches, he repeatedly stressed that there was no difference between Muslims, Christians, and Jews: they were all Iraqis and they all belonged to the Semitic race

    • Was educated by his father to respect the Jews, given their prominence in the Quran as “the people of the book”

    • Encouraged by Gertrude Bell to publicly praise the part the Jews played in the project of nation-building

  • Deep down, he was disappointed with the British since the 1932 agreement did not bring about genuine self-rule but he had no choice but to secretly and delicately usher in Iraqi independence and proceeded by continuing to maintain the delicate balancing act between the British and the Iraqi nationalists

  • Was killed suddenly due to heart attack, however many Iraqis during that time believed that the British secretly ordered him to be poisoned because he had outlived his usefulness as their puppet ruler

  • His death marked the end of the liberal, religiously pluralist era of Iraqi history and many Iraqis mourned his death

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TE Lawrence or “Lawrence of Arabia”

  • Helped Sheriff Hussein of Mecca in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire

  • Pointed out to the British government that the Arabs rebelled against the Ottomans not because of hatred of the Turks but because they wanted independence and that they weren’t risking their lives just to be subjected by the British Empire but to rule themselves

  • Adored Prince Faisal

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Gertrude Bell

  • Had considerably influence in shaping Iraq’s fortunes, she was sometimes referred to as the “uncrowned queen of Iraq”

  • Had many close friends among the Iraqi political elite

  • Representative of the British Colonial Office in Iraq

  • Proposed that the British exercise influence indirectly through a dependent and loyal Arab political elite or “informal empire”

  • Adored Prince Faisal, to the point where some thought she had a crush on him

  • Orchestrated the coronation of King Faisal

  • Designed the flag of Iraq

  • Found a suitable temporary residence for King Faisal

  • Encouraged Faisal to reach out to his Jewish subjects, visit their schools and synagogues, and to publicly praise the part they played in building the nation of Iraq

    • At the same time, she encouraged Jews to look to Faisal for their own protection and welfare

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Syrian National Congress of 1920

  • Promulgated the Arab Kingdom of Syria

    • Was a self-proclaimed, unrecognized state that began as a fully and absolutely independent Arab constitutional government

    • Included Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and parts of northern Mesopotamia

    • Faisal was elected to be its king and head of state

    • Its constitution defined his role as a constitutional monarch in a democratic system of government

  • This development refuted the self-serving colonial claim that the Arabs were not ready for democracy

    • The Arabs established a democratic regime with a constitutional monarchy and the colonial powers stole it from them

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Nuri al-Said

  • Pro-British Iraqi politician who led an oligarchy of Pro-British Iraqi politicians and as Prime Minister of Iraq during the period of Iraq known as the Kingdom of Iraq

    • His pro-British and authoritarian character and influence increasingly dominated Iraqi politics after the death of Faisal I

    • He exercised considerable influence over the last two kings of Iraq and the country as a whole

    • The next 25 years in Iraqi history were/are often referred to his “era”

  • Initially he served as a powerful ally for the Iraqi Jews, however his attitude would change after WW2 due to

    • Jewish involvement in the Iraqi Communist Party

    • The Zionist offensive in Palestine

  • Initially an officer in the Ottoman army, he had switched sides and fought alongside Prince Faisal in the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans

  • Replaced Tawfiq al-Suwaydi as prime minister in 1951

  • Up to this point, he had not displayed anti-Jewish sentiments in the past: on the contrary, he was associated with Faisal I’s policy of befriending the Jews, a policy that Gertrude Bell had strongly recommended to both of them

  • But the large number of Jews who had participated in the Communist demonstrations against the 1948 Portsmouth Treaty, which was supposed to revise the 1930 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty but effectively kept Iraq as a British protectorate, had angered him to the point of repudiating the new treaty and turning him against the rebellious Jews

    • It was even rumored that he swore to reduce the Jews to pauperism

  • He feared that the Iraqi economy could not survive the transfer of Jewish capital to an enemy Jewish state tat had expelled more than half of Palestine’s Arab population

  • On assuming office in 1951, he abruptly reversed Tawfiq al-Surwaydi’s Denaturalization Law of 1950 and went ahead and issued the Law No. 5: Control and Administration of the Property of Denaturalized Jews

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Kingdom of Iraq or “Hashemite” Monarchy (Dynasty)

  • Lasted from 1921 until 1958

  • Oversaw the British-backed Kings of Faisal I, Ghazi, and Faisal II

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Iraqi Jews (Babylon to WW1)

  • In Iraq, there was an old tradition of religious tolerance and a long history of relative harmony between the different segments of society

  • They were neither newcomers nor aliens nor intruders in Iraq

  • The connection with the city goes back to the time of Abraham the Patriarch who migrated from Ur, south of the city

  • They lived in the city since the destruction of their kingdom in Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem, driving them into exile

  • Centuries later, it became the spiritual center and seat of its most distinguished religious academies: Nehardea, Sura, and Pumbedita (Fallujah)

  • They were thus firmly settled there long before the rise of Islam in the 7th Century CE

  • Even after Iraq became a Muslim-majority state, they remained an integral part of Iraqi society

  • At the time of WW1, they constituted a third of the population of Baghdad and it was often described as a Jewish city

  • After WW1, they continued to play a prominent part in the social, economic, literary, intellectual, and cultural life of the namesake kingdom; and it was precisely that prominence that fed Muslim antagonism towards them in the age of nationalism and growing sectarianism

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Iraqi Jews (Ottoman Empire)

  • Lived a settled and mostly contented life alongside Muslims in the namesake place and displacement from there was painful

  • Had the legal status of “ahl al-dhimma” or “dhimmies” for short, which meant “protected people”

    • Under them, the Jews had the status of a protected minority with the same rights and obligations as the other minorities

    • One of the saving graces of it was its considerable autonomy it extended to its minorities

  • Flourished under the pluralist system and benefited from the Tanzimat Reforms

  • Subjected to a host of discriminatory regulations such as a poll tax in exchange for continuous protection from the central government

  • Of all the communities in the empire, this one in Mesopotamia (or the namesake location) was the most

    • Integrated into local society

    • Arabized in its culture

    • Prosperous

  • In most spheres, interaction between them and Muslims was a normal feature of everyday life

  • Were the largest group in the country with a continuous record of living in Mesopotamia

    • Their lineage stretched as far back as Babylonian times, predating the rise of Islam by a millennium

    • Their influence was evident in every branch of Iraqi culture

      • For example, (almost all) banks and all big markets remained closed on the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays

  • The ratio of illiteracy among Jews was considerably lower than among the Muslims

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Iraqi Jews (British Mandate / Iraqi Kingdom)

  • Discovered by their overlords during this time to be:

    • Led by a Chief Rabbi and committees of notables

    • Comprised of merchants who controlled much of the import and export trade with extensive links to Bombay and Calcutta in India

    • Comprised of bankers and moneylenders who provided much of the finance to keep the wheels of commerce turning

    • In control of 75% of the country’s imports despite constituting only 2% of their country’s population

    • The backbone of the Iraqi economy

  • Welcomed the arrival of the British, believing it would

    • Bring security and stability to the fractious country

    • Expand commercial opportunities

    • Uphold the same rights that were enjoyed throughout the rest of their Empire

  • Given preferential treatment by the British during this time, which greatly upset Iraqi nationalists

  • Initially favored direct British rule, but quickly rallied behind King Faisal and joined in his project of building a new state

    • Organized a grand reception in Faisal’s honor

  • Few Jewish families belonged to the old aristocracy of the new kingdom, with the Sassoons being a notable exception

    • Poor Jews lived mostly in the Abu Sifain neighborhood of Iraq

  • Despite the growing antisemitism against them during this period by Iraqi conservatives, they felt they had few political alternatives than to look to the British not just as the all-powerful rulers of Iraq but also as the champions of minorities and the representatives of Western culture

  • During this period, the Jews continued to enjoy the same rights as other minorities

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Iraqi Jews (British 1941 Reoccupation of Iraq / Farhud)

  • They were considered an obvious target because they were perceived as friends of the British

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Iraqi Jews (Iraqi Nazism)

  • Were harassed by the “Futuwwa” or “Youth” that were modeled off of the “Hitler Youth” in Germany

  • Faced many forms of discrimination and restrictions during this period including

    • A tax imposed on them whenever they left the country

      • The purpose of this measure was to sever their link with their brothers and sisters in the rest of the world, especially Palestine

    • Dismissal of hundreds of them from the civil service in the name of reform and budget cuts

    • Informal quotas imposed on them to limit the number of their youth from being admitted to state schools and colleges

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Iraqi Jews (Zionism)

  • To the West, they seemed largely indifferent and even hostile

  • Compared to Palestine, they considered Mesopotamia a “paradise”

  • A small minority of Orthodox Jews were attracted to the idea of going to live in the ancestral Jewish homeland; however the majority saw Iraq as their homeland instead of Israel and Arab culture as their culture even though Judaism was their religion

  • They were committed to Iraq and they viewed the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine as both unrealistic and disturbing

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Iraqi Jews (Israel)

  • Many moved to the namesake place because of a mass exodus of them from their home country to the namesake country in 1950

  • A significant number of these people who moved to this country became Arab-spurning, right-wing nationalists

  • Many unquestioningly accepted the social hierarchy that placed European Jews at the top of the pile and the Jews of the Arab and African lands at the bottom

  • Many had trouble adjusting to a new life in ‘the Promised Land’ especially when trying to learn Hebrew and many of their youth had trouble succeeding academically in school

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Iraqi Orientation

  • Term used to refer to the Iraqi Jews int he 1920s under the British Mandate which were to live as equal citizens and play an active part in developing Iraq for the benefit of all of its inhabitants

  • The appointment of Sir Sassoon Haskell to one of the top government positions as Finance Minister confirmed this view

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Sir Sassoon Haskell or “Sassoon Effendi”

  • Was an Iraqi Jew and was “cosmopolitan” and who knew 9 languages

  • First Iraqi minister of finance

    • Established the Kingdom of Iraq’s financial and budgetary structures and laws

  • Known as the “Father of Parliament” because he became the deputy of the First Iraqi Parliament and was re-elected every time until he died

    • Served as deputy in the Ottoman parliament prior

  • Opposed the Zionist takeover of Palestine and the goal of turning it into a Jewish state, foreseeing that a Jewish state in Palestine would create a Jewish problem in the rest of the lands of the former Ottoman Empire

  • Considered by some to be a prime example of the contribution that the Jewish community had made to the building of the Iraqi state

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Iraqi Christians

  • Given preferential treatment by the British during the Mandate Period, which greatly upset Iraqi nationalists

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Iraqi Kurds

  • Major group of Iraqis

  • Located in NE Iraq

  • Ruled over by Ghazi with an iron first, their revolts were brutally suppressed and Ghazi used the air force to bomb their civilian centers

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Iraqi Sunnis

  • Minor group of Iraqis

  • Located in the central area around Baghdad and in the NW

  • The smallest of the three communities

  • Possessed the most power of the three communities

  • Predominantly ran government departments and state institutions during the Mandate period, aided by their British advisors

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Iraqi Shia

  • Major group of Iraqis

  • Located in South Iraq

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Non-Jewish Iraqi Minorities

  • Included Yazidis, Chaldean Catholics, and Circassians

  • Included Assyrians, Armenians, and Turks

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Iraqi Nationalism / Conservatism

  • Frustrated that England had delineated Iraq’s borders in a way which forcibly coerced Sunni, Shia, and Kurds to live amongst each other - three provinces which were very different and had never been previously governed together

  • Their secular and religious factions, previously sidelined by the British, came to political prominence through their alliance with the Arabic-speaking German-Nazi ambassador to them Dr. Fritz Grobba

    • With help from Grobba, their government’s army voiced strident anti-Jewish and anti-imperialist sentiments

    • Began to intervene in the political arena against civilian governments it considered insufficiently patriotic

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1936 Coup D'état

  • With support from King Ghazi, four army officers nicknamed “The Golden Square” overthrew the civilian government of Iraq

  • This was the first major coup d'état in modern Arab politics

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Baghdad

  • Under the British Mandate, it had regained its status as the capital city of Iraq after five centuries of Ottoman rule

  • Had a mixed population of Sunnis, Shia, Christians, and Jews; all of which spoke Arabic

  • Was known as the “city of peace” and its broader outlying nation was known as a land of pluralism and coexistence

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1924 Constitution of Iraq

  • Enshrined the principle of equality before the law regardless of religion and race and included measures to enable minorities to preserve their religious and cultural autonomy

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Pan-Arabism

  • Ideology which espoused the unification of the Arab states

  • Avoided by prominent Jews for many reasons including that

    • These Jews belonged to a non-Muslim minority

    • They did not fit in easily into radical, anti-British, pan-Arab sentiment

    • Although they were involved in party politics, mainly on the left-wing and liberal side, they preferred to keep their distance from mass movement and region-wide political struggles as a whole

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Iraqi Muslim Anti-British Anti-Semitism

  • The prominence of Jews in the Iraqi economy and bureaucracy cast a shadow over Muslim-Jewish relations

  • Jewish success in financial and other spheres gave rise to jealousy that could translate into active antagonism

  • Some Muslims regarded the Jews as traitors to the national aspirations of the Iraqi people

    • More politically radical Muslims even denounced Jews as the agents of British imperialism

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Ghazi

  • Son and successor of Faisal I

  • Hated the British because of their betrayal

    • Of his grandfather Sharif Hussein of Mecca

    • Of the Arabs via the Balfour Declaration

  • Inexperienced, unbalance, immature, debauched, hedonistic, irresponsible; but most importantly, Nazistic

  • During his short reign

    • The Iraqi nationalists became more outspoken and assertive in Iraqi politics

    • Xenophobia in the country, media, and government resulted in a move to cancel the special status and privileges granted to minorities by his father

    • Minorities were vilified

  • Died in a car accident, although many Iraqis believed he was murdered and that it was instigated by the pro-British Nuri al-Said

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Iraqi Assyrians

  • Given preferential treatment by the British during the Mandate Period, which greatly upset Iraqi nationalists

  • 1933 - Were dealt with harshly by the Iraqi army, culminating in a massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians of this minority group

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Haj Amin al-Husseini

  • Grand Mufti and leader of the Palestinian national movement

  • Along with the group of Arab refugees that followed him from Palestine, he helped circulate anti-Jewish propaganda

  • Fell out with the British because of their sponsorship of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine

  • When he came to Iraq, he denounced the local Jews for their alleged collaboration with both the British and the Zionists

    • He did not distinguish between Zionism and Judaism

  • He spoke of the Jews of Iraq as “the internal enemy”

    • His message was picked up and recycled by right-wing newspapers and rabble-rousing politicians

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Iraqi Nazism / Antisemitism

  • Following the rise to power of the Nazi Party in 1933, German propaganda increasingly influenced Iraqi politics and society

  • In pursuit of Iraq’s oil, Germany, through their propaganda machine, skillfully pandered to anti-British and anti-Zionist sentiment

  • Admiration for Germany spread throughout the country

  • German replaced French as the the second foreign language after English in some schools

  • The Ministry of Education of Iraq at the time encouraged the formation of the “Futuwwa” or “Youth” that was modelled off of the Hitler Youth; and many took to harassing Jews on the streets of Baghdad

  • Its militaristic ideology made a strong impression on members of the younger generation who aspired to set up their own movement of the namesake in their country

  • As Germany intensified its propaganda program in Iraq, anti-British sentiment became intertwined with antisemitism

    • For the Golden Square, the British were foreign colonizers and the Jews were their imperialist agents

    • They argued that Iraq was part of a larger Arab nation to which the Jews did not belong

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Dr. Fritz Grobba

  • Arabic-speaking German ambassador to Iraq in the 1930’s

  • Made many friends among the local Iraqi politicians and journalists

  • Serialized an Arabic version of Mein Kampf in Iraq

  • Befriended Ghazi

  • Encouraged antisemitism among the Iraqi nationalists during the 1930’s

  • He helped the Iraqi government’s army voice strident anti-Jewish and anti-imperialist sentiments

  • Also helped these Iraqi groups intervene in the political arena against civilian governments it considered insufficiently patriotic, culminating in the 1936 Coup D’etat

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Faisal II

  • Son and successor of Ghazi, but he was only 4 years old at the time and was to rule under a Regency Council headed by his uncle

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Abd al-Ilah

  • Uncle and Regent King of Faisal II

  • Unlike his father and grandfather, he was genuinely pro-British like Nuri al-Said

  • Shy, unconfident, inarticulate, indecisive, weak, had limited political skill, lacked charisma, regarded as a British “stooge”

  • Under his reign, Nazi propaganda continued to spread, especially among the Iraqi youth

  • Discovered Rashid Ali’s plot to assassinate and, along with the rest of the royal family, fled to Jordan (which was ruled by another branch of the Hashemite Family)

  • After England reoccupied Iraq, he returned to Baghdad

    • Set about the task of forming a loyalist government

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Zionism / Zionist Movement

  • Allied itself to England during WW1

  • The British had supported national rights for the Jews and only religious and civil rights for the Arab majority

  • When their committee was given permission to function, a delegation of Jewish leaders met with the High Commissioner of the committee to express their opposition; they were ultimately unable to enlist the support of any influential local Jewish leaders

  • Its narrative asserts that Arab antisemitism is an unmovable impediment to a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors

    • In this reading, the migration of the Jews from Arab lands to Israel is attributed primarily to the persecution and prejudice they allegedly encountered in their country of origin

    • Their hardline political positions, once in Israel, are traced to their lived experience among the Arabs

  • Their goal was an independent Jewish state spreading over as large a part of Palestine as possible, with as many Jews and as few Arabs as possible within its borders

  • It was a negation of the Diaspora

  • Until WW2, their activities had focused primarily on the large Jewish population centers of Europe whereas the Jews of the Middle East were regarded as inferior “human material” who could only make a limited contribution in the process of state-building; however, the Holocaust led to a reversal of this attitude and forced the leaders of the movement to turn their attention to the East

    • In other words, as a result of the Holocaust, the Jews of the Middle East became, for the first time, a vital element in the namesake movement’s project of building a sustainable Jewish-majority state in Palestine

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The Balfour Declaration

  • Referred to the Arabs as the “non-Jewish communities in Palestine”

  • Had a profound effect on the life and fortunes of many Iraqi Jews even decades after its being issued

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Arab Jews

  • Nearly extinct branch of the global Jewish community today

  • Not a national identification in the sense of Pan-Arabism, but as a shorthand for describing a shared cultural heritage and language

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Rashid Ali al-Gaylani

  • Vehement Iraqi nationalist

  • Prepared to seize the reins of power in Iraq

  • He was anti-British, pan-Arabist, and pro-Nazi

  • He hoped that an Axis victory would help Iraq achieve full independence

  • When Abd al-Ilah had pressured him to resign as prime minister after he had refused to sever ties with Mussolini’s Italy he grew increasingly distrustful of him, the royal family, and Britain and, along with members of the “Golden Square,” planned to assassinate Abd al-Ilah and seize power

  • Right before he seized power, one of the last acts of the outgoing royalist government was to issue an announcement calling on all foreign nationals to seek protection in the nearest foreign embassy

  • His government announced that all foreigners were going to be moved to prison camps for the “sake of public safety”

    • Although focused on “containing” the foreigners, these camps did not display the cruelty we associate with camps like the concentration camps

    • RAF pilots were hardly likely to bomb any civilians, let alone British subjects

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The Golden Square

  • Four Iraqi nationalist army officers who rejected the monarchy and the politicians imposed by Britain from 1921 onwards

  • They viewed the British as foreign colonizers and the Jews as their imperialist agents

  • They argued that Iraq was part of a larger Arab nation to which the Jews did not belong

  • They helped Rashid Ali make plans to assassinate Abd al-Ilah and seize power

  • They executed the 1936 Coup D'état in which they established the “National Defense Government,” which replaced the government of the Regent Abd al-Ilah and made Rashid Ali prime minister

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National Defense Government of Iraq

  • Government created by the “Golden Square” and led by Rashid Ali

  • One of the first acts of this government was to send an Iraqi artillery force to confront the RAF base in Habbaniya and begin a siege

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Sir Kinahan Cornwallis

  • British Ambassador to Iraq

  • Favored negotiations with the rebels but Churchill overruled him in this regard

  • Negotiated an armistice with the Iraqi forces once Britain reoccupied Iraq in 1941

  • Iraqis and others consider him to have bore the largest share of the responsibility for the catastrophe in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in 1941 or Farhud

  • Once the British forces reached Baghdad, they were placed under his command rather than their military superiors and he was let go of Churchill’s role and began to negotiate with and appease the rebels

  • Strangely ordered his armies not to enter Baghdad in order to avoid the impression that the Regent had returned to power due to British military intervention (remember the British Empire tried at all costs to conceal the dominant role they played in propping up the Iraqi government)

    • He argued that the presence of British bayonets in Baghdad would lower the dignity of their ally

    • Yet this thinking way was off: there was no way the unpopular pro-British Regent Abd al-Ilah, widely regarded as a British puppet, could have returned to power in Iraq without British help

    • Thus, keeping the armies the arm’s length was a fatal miscalculation on his part and one of the many things attributed to his causing the Farhud

    • This is because it resulted in chaos because there were no policemen on the streets of Baghdad to keep the peace

    • Moreover, the armistice he had signed allowed the Iraqi army to enter Baghdad so long as it remained on the east side of the Tigris River - which included vital areas including downtown Baghdad and the quarters in which most of the Baghdadi Jews lived

  • Many Iraqi Jews considered him to display callous indifference on his part to their fate

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Sir Winston Churchill

  • He ordered forceful military action in Iraq fearing a pro-Nazi bridgehead in the Middle East and the loss of control over Iraq’s oil fields

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The Farhud

  • Violent anti-Jewish pogrom that occurred in Baghdad, Iraq; during the brief rule of Abd al-Ilah under Cornwallis in Iraq in June 1941

  • Although some scholars argue against this reference, it was like the Iraqi version of the Kristallnacht in Germany

  • The namesake Arabic word means “the breakdown of law and order”

  • Began when a group of Israeli soldiers crossing the Khirr Bridge to the west side of Baghdad saw a small group of Jews in festive clothes, walking in the opposite direction; since it was Sunday, not the Jewish Sabbath, the soldiers assumed that the Jews had dressed up in order to welcome the Regent whereas the Jews just happened to be celebrating Shavuot which occurred that year not on a Saturday and they were led to suspicion that these Jews and all Jews were disloyal to their country; but from this description it is clear it was based on an assumption and/or misunderstanding

  • Thus, the soldiers attached the Jews, killing one and wounding 16 others, and sparking a wave of riots

  • An innocent celebration of Jewish festival became the spark for a barbaric pogrom

  • An angry mob armed with knives, sticks, and axes set upon the Jews on buses, in the streets, and in their houses in Jewish as well as mixed neighborhoods

  • In the evening, a bus full of Jews was stopped by a frenzied mob and its passengers were dragged out, slaughtered and mutilated

  • At night, soldiers, civilians, and armed young men attacked more Jewish homes; murdering, raping, looting, and setting houses on fire

  • In 2 days of anarchy (June 1 and 2 of 1941), 179 Jews were killed, several hundred were injured, close to 600 shops and 900 houses were looted; the damage estimated at several million pounds at the time

  • The riot was not quelled until the evening of the second day - suppressed very quickly once the Regent Abd al-Ilah gave the army the order to shoot

  • The delay in issuing the order was apparently caused by his fear of antagonizing the fiercely anti-British Iraqi armed forces until they had enough reinforcements from Assyrian troops from Kirkuk who were uncontaminated by Nazi propaganda and loyal to him

  • This pogrom shook the entire Iraqi-Jewish community to its core

  • For some, it marked the destruction of the Iraqi-Jewish paradise

  • Such a vicious assault on the Jews in Iraq was completely unexpected and unprecedented

  • There had been no other attack on the Jewish community in recent centuries

  • The attack was contrary to the teachings of the Quran and violated Sharia laws about the treatment of the Dhimmi or “protected minorities”

  • The “Iraqi Orientation” that had taken root since the 1920s was now called into question

  • Serious doubts were raised about the possibility of Muslim-Jewish coexistence in their common homeland

  • However, not long after the event, Jewish leaders came to see it as an aberration, as the product of peculiar circumstances in the interregnum between the demise of a fascist regime and its replacement by a more benign one and the coming prosperity, boosted by the war economy, reinforcing the belief in the possibility of a better future

  • Even after its violence, Britain did little to convince the Jews that they were safe

    • Iraqi army officers and soldiers continued to lurk in Jewish neighborhoods to extract money and to threaten retribution against anyone who gave information to the authorities about members of the armed forces who had taken part in the atrocities

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Iraqi-Jewish Youth Supporters of Zionism

  • While the older generation of Jews tended to follow their leaders, the younger generation was much more skeptical; for them, the Farhud was not just a passing episode but proof of unalterable Muslim hostility

  • Were profoundly disillusioned with England because the British army had stood at the gates of Baghdad while innocent Jewish civilians were being looted and killed

  • Believed that life for the Jews was unbearable in Iraq as it was then constituted

  • For this group, the only answer to these problems was for their Jews to join the namesake movement by emigrating to Palestine

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Iraqi-Jewish Youth Supporters of Communism

  • While the older generation of Jews tended to follow their leaders, the younger generation was much more skeptical; for them, the Farhud was not just a passing episode but proof of unalterable Muslim hostility

  • Were profoundly disillusioned with England because the British army had stood at the gates of Baghdad while innocent Jewish civilians were being looted and killed

  • Believed that life for the Jews was unbearable in Iraq as it was then constituted

  • For this group, the only answer to these problems was that in order to be able to live in Iraq as equal citizens, a radical reform of the regime was required; believing that the triumph of the namesake ideology would put an end to discrimination against all minorities in Iraq, including the Jews

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Muslims during the Farhud

  • Many Muslims in the mixed neighborhoods went to great lengths to help their Jewish neighbors and friends in their hour of need

  • Protection was given either by taking the Jews into Muslim homes or by standing outside the homes of the Jewish neighbors and preventing the rioters from attacking

  • Tributes to the courage shown by Muslims during the Farhud are found in numerous first-hand testimonies of Jewish survivors

  • Famously, the Muslim wife of an Iraqi colonel stood in front of her Jewish neighbor’s gate with her husband’s loaded gun and threatened to shoot anyone who came near them

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Iraqi Jews (Post-Farhud)

  • The women began to wear “abayas,” the loose black overgarment worn by Muslim women, in order to conceal their Jewish identity

  • The women also imitated the dialect of Iraqi Muslims fearing their very voices would give them away

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Iraqi-Jewish Customs on Women and Marriage

  • This community did not want to report the experience of women, especially those who were raped, and their stories about the Farhud were rarely told

  • In the 19th Century and early 20th Century, marriages in the Jewish community in Baghdad were arranged and the woman was often forced by her family to marry a man she never met or knew

  • It was not unusual to marry off young women to much older men, especially if they were wealthy

  • Sometimes marriages were not just arranged, but imposed by the family onto a reluctant teenager

  • Business partnerships and playing cards with Muslims were one thing, intermarriage was another: it was an absolute taboo

  • The women were not allowed any say in the matter; they were simply informed that they were going to marry a man she had never met; all their protests would be in vain

  • According to Jewish law, women could not marry again once their husband had either died or went missing (even in war)

  • A girl who was not pretty was expected to come with a higher-than-normal dowry in order to attract a husband

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Muslim Customs on Women and Marriage

  • Allows men to intermarry women of the other Abrahamic religions

  • Forbids women to marry a non-Muslim man regardless of his religion

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Iraqi Musical Forms

Includes:

  • Maqam

  • Daqqaqat

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Anglo-Iraqi War

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Ottoman Military Recruitment

  • The Turks did not have an orderly, bureaucratic process of recruitment, at least not in the Iraqi part of their empire

  • An empire at war needed cannon-fodder, so its recruiting sergeants would turn up unexpectedly and literally pick young men off the streets wherever they could find them

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Alliance Israelite Universelle (or “Alliance”, for short)

  • Paris-based Jewish organization founded in 1860 by wealthy French Jews to bring light of the West to their co-religionists in the East

  • Sought to combine heritage with modernity and to excel in both general and Jewish studies

  • The motto of the organization was the rabbinic injunction “All Jews bear responsibility for one another”

  • Its schools emphasized European languages, especially French, and modern science

    • The main language of instruction was French, the language in which History, Geography, Math, and Science was taught

  • Used secular education as a vehicle for social mobility

  • Had an explicit “Mission Civilisatrice:” to lift the Jews from what some regarded as the “backwardness” of the Arab lands

  • 1864 - Opened its first school for boys

  • 1893 - Opened its first school for girls

  • Its values were openness, tolerance, and equality of opportunity; and as such it did not exclude non-Jews

  • As its reputation increased, Muslims and Christians began to send their children to its schools

  • Faisal I made a point of visiting these schools in Baghdad in his quest to embrace minorities and to force a unified Iraqi nation

  • They were a network of happy and progressive schools with particularly high stands in languages

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The “Big Aliyah”

  • Occurred during 1950-1951

  • Nearly the entire community of Iraqi-Jews left behind their ancient homeland and made their way to the young and impoverished state of Israel

  • Around 110K Jews emigrated from Iraq to Israel

  • By 1953, 125K out of the total 13K Iraqi-Jews had moved to Israel, and several thousand left for other countries

  • Only 6,000 Jews stayed in Iraq

  • A Jewish presence that went back 2.5 Millenia came to a sudden and painful end

  • Jewish property left behind in Iraq was valued at 200M pounds and the Jewish community collectively owned tons of infrastructure that was now not theirs

  • Much more serious and more lasting were the emotional and psychological scars caused by being violently uprooted from their natural environment and catapulted to a new country with a different culture, a different ethos and a foreign language

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Iraq (1950’s)

  • Its government had no intention of expelling the Jews, but it did need to regain control of the situation by acting to stem the illegal flight of the Jewish people and Jewish money out of the country and to curb the subversive activities of the Zionist underground, which included the payment of bribes to politicians, civil servants, the police, and the border police

  • Once it realized that the illegal flight of people could not be stopped, it decided to regain control by passing a Denaturalization Law, effectively legalizing it

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Iran

  • Offered a convenient, though risky and hazardous, route of escape for those Jews who wanted to leave under Iraq, whether under the auspices of the Underground Zionist Movement or under their own accord

  • Second Muslim-majority state to recognize Israel as a sovereign state after Turkey

  • Its Shah (political leader) was on bad terms with Iraq, while maintaining close covert ties with Israel

  • Consequently, the Jewish Agency was allowed to have an office in its capital of Tehran and to open a transit camp from which Jews could be airlifted to Israel

  • Its government had agreed to treat any Iraqi Jew who came into its territory as a refugee and to facilitate their onward journey to Israel

  • Bribes on a large scale to senior Iranian officials were rumored to have paved the way to this agreement

  • Its Shah and government played a pivotal part in facilitating the illegal immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel

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The Zionist Underground Movement “Hatenua” (or “The Movement” for short)

  • Jews who took the risk of leaving Iraq illegally were encouraged and assisted to do so by them

  • Their emissaries began arriving in Iraq from Palestine shortly after the Farhud to make contact with local Jews, teach them Hebrew, and spread their message

  • They were tasked with

    • Organizing the illegal escape of Jews from Iraq to Palestine through Iran

    • Helping them plan for local self-defense in the event of another potential pogrom

  • They

    • Smuggled small arms into the country and the local recruits trained to use them

  • Its military wing was known as the “Hashura” or “The Column”

  • Recruited mostly young Jews from poor families

  • One of their tenets was complete equality between men and women

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Istiqlal Party

  • Right-wing nationalist party of Iraq at the time

  • Called for the assertion of complete Iraqi independence from British colonialism

  • Formed in 1945, many of its members had shared Rashid Ali al-Gaylani’s pro-Nazi sympathies and supported his anti-British coup of 1941

  • Had a strong base of popular supported and offered vigorous opposition to the conservative ruling party

  • Was hostile to Jews because of its right-wind ideology and because the Jews were perceived as the allies of the British

  • Its newspaper, “The Flag of Iraq,” repeatedly described the Jewish minority as the lackeys of British colonialism and as a fifth column, called for the expulsion of all Jews from the country and the confiscation of their property

  • It argued that Iraq should treat the Jews as Israel treated the Palestinians

  • Main opposition in Iraqi government and politics to the presence of both the British and the Jews in Iraq

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Denaturalization Law of 1950

  • Law passed by the Iraqi Parliament, the driving force of which was passed by its prime minister at the time, Tawfiq al-Suwaydi

  • Empowered the government to issue an exit visa to any Jew who wished “of his own free will and choice” to leave the country for good

  • In addition to giving up their Iraqi nationality, those who left under the law had to waive their right to return to Iraq ever again

  • Law remained in force for one year

  • Nothing was articulated about the property rights of those who chose to leave

  • The official justification given for the law was the rising state of illegal Jewish emigration, which was causing the country considerable economic damage

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Tawfiq al-Suyadi

  • Progressive Iraqi politician

  • Sunni Muslim whose family claimed the status of being descendants of the Prophet Muhammad

  • Had a reputation for being extremely well-disposed towards the Jews

  • He had many Jewish friends from his days at the Alliance school including Haskell Shemtob

  • Agreed with Haskell Shemtob that emigration was a matter for the local Jewish community and its leaders, not for the agents of an enemy country; an agreement which

    • Paved the way for the Denaturalization Law

    • Led the Iraqi government to delegate to the Jewish community the tasks of registering and arranging transport for those of its members who opted to leave

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Haskell Shemtob

  • Head of the Jewish community in Baghdad in the early 1950;s

  • He sympathized with the general aims of the Zionist movement, but he deplored the illegal activities of its agents in Iraq and feared they would backfire against his community

  • His son was taken by Zionist emissaries without his permission, which made him critical of the Zionist Underground

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Mordechai Ben-Porat

  • Senior Mossad emissary to Iraq

  • In charge of all the other emissaries

  • Controlled the budget

  • Had the secret transmitter for communicating with his superiors back home and acted in the interest of the state of Israel, not in the interest of the local Jewish community

  • Was in overall charge of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah and thus a key figure in the story

  • Disaffected Iraqi-Jews in Israel called him Murad Abu al-Knabel or “Murad of the Bombs”

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Law No. 5: Control and Administration of the Property of Denaturalized Jews of 1951

  • This law froze all the assets of the Jews who had renounced their citizenship: houses, businesses, shops, merchandise, securities, and bank accounts

    • The law took immediate effect and it was implemented in a merciless manner

  • Essentially reversed the Denaturalization Law of 1950

  • Passed by Nuri al-Said after being incensed with the Jews leaving Iraq and fearing the damage to the Iraqi economy by their taking their wealth with them to Israel

  • Passed with the thought that the Iraqi economy could not survive the transfer of Jewish capital to an enemy Jewish state that had expelled more than half of Palestine’s Arab population

  • By passing this law, Nuri al-Said sought to punish both Iraq’s Jews and the state of Israel

  • By passing this law, Jewish-Iraqi wealth, a potential asset to build the fledgling Jewish state, was diverted into the coffers of the Iraqi treasury

    • It caught [the Iraqi-Jews] stateless, jobless, and homeless

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1958 Coup D'état

  • Overthrew the monarchy in Iraq for good

  • Its leader was Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim

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Abd al-Karim Qasim

  • Iraqi nationalist

  • Genuine social reformer

  • Anti-imperialist

  • His experience as a young officer in the 1948 war for Palestine turned him against Britain and its Zionist protegees but not against Iraq’s Jewish minority

    • He displayed a remarkably liberal and generous attitude towards the Iraq’s Jews until he was overthrown by another coup in 1963

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1963 Coup D'état

  • Overthrew the pro-Jewish Abd al-Karim Qasim

  • Led by the Ba’ath (Arab Socialist Party)

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1968 Coup D’Etat

  • Led by the Ba’ath (Arab Socialist Party)

  • Elevated Saddam Hussein to the position of vice-president of Iraq

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Saddam Hussein

  • Put in place harsh measures against all of Iraq’s minorities and especially against the Jews

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Yaacov Karkoukli

  • Iraqi Jew who was born in Baghdad in 1928

  • Served several prison sentences for Zionist activities

  • Eventually escaped from Iraq to Israel in 1973

  • Right-wing, Arab-spurning, Likud voter

  • From a very young age, he had been attracted to the Zionist movement

  • His whole family had been traumatized by the Farhud and pinned their hopes for a better future on the Zionist ideal of an independent Jewish state in Palestine

  • He became a Zionist activist purely out of ideological conviction

  • His first task was to help an expert replicate the various stamps and permits on the Iraqi passport

    • These forged documents had been used by the movement repeatedly to get its members out of Iraq through Iran and into Palestine

    • In Baghdad, he continued to serve the Zionist cause by collecting information and by helping its secret envoys in countless practical ways

  • His commitment to the state of Israel was unconditional and he even justified the violent methods it had used to liquidate the Jewish Diaspora in Iraq

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