Yaakov Reuveni reminisces with the BBC about Jewish life in Iraq before Israel’s founding. It’s a touching nostalgia piece, though it misrepresents the circumstances of the Jews fleeing Iraq:
But many who came over to Israel as part of the mass migration that followed the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, look back with nostalgia and fondness for the life that they had left behind.
This isn’t the first time we flagged the MSM Disregarding Iraqi Jewish History. And while the Beeb omits the context from an otherwise nice piece about bygone times, Mitch Bard elaborates on the historical background
Yet this flourisng environment abruptly ended in 1947, with the partition of Palestine and the fight for Israel’s independence. Outbreaks of anti-Jewish rioting regularly occurred between 1947-49. After the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionism became a capital crime.
In 1950, Iraqi Jews were permitted to leave the country within a year provided they forfeited their citizenship. A year later, however, the property of Jews who emigrated was frozen and economic restrictions were placed on Jews who chose to remain in the country. From 1949 to 1951, 104,000 Jews were evacuated from Iraq in Operations Ezra & Nechemia; another 20,000 were smuggled out through Iran.
In 1952, Iraq’s government barred Jews from emigrating and publicly hanged two Jews after falsely charging them with hurling a bomb at the Baghdad office of the U.S. Information Agency.
Read more about Jewish refugees at Justice For Jews From Arab Countries and the Point of No Return blog.
