UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

all transactions related to Jewish property in Iraq. An estimated US $200 million in
property was taken over by the Iraqi State. 421
The 10,000 Jews remaining after Operation “Ezra and Nehemiah” 422 stayed through the era
of President Abdul Karim Qassim when conditions improved. But under the ruling of the
Ba’ath Party as of 1968, anti-Jewish sentiments ran high and culminated in the 1969
hanging of 14 Iraqis, most of them Jews, who were falsely accused of spying for Israel.
This event led to the flight of most of the remaining Jews from Iraq. 423
With the fall of the former regime, the living conditions of the few Jews left in Iraq
worsened drastically and most have left the country, leaving but a few members. 424 Even
more than other religious minorities, they are suspected of cooperating or at least
sympathizing with the MNF 425 and fear deliberate assaults by both Islamic extremists and
supporters of the former regime. Furthermore, Jews might be suspected of links to Israel,
with which Iraq continues to be in a state of war. Anti-Zionist feelings are prevalent,
a notion demonstrated after a highly unpopular visit undertaken by Mithal Alousi, a Sunni
secular politician, to Israel in September 2004. As a consequence, he lost his senior position
in the Iraqi National Congress. 426
Baghdad’s only remaining synagogue, which bears no identifying marks, has been boarded
up since it was reportedly denounced by unknown quarters as “the place of the Zionists” in
2003. In October 2006, Rabbi Emad Levy, Baghdad’s last remaining rabbi, announced that
he, too, was leaving Iraq. He compared his life to “living in a prison”, as most Jews do not
dare to leave the house for fear of kidnapping or execution. 427
The new Iraqi Nationality Law (Law No. 26 of 2006) provides in its Article 18 (I) for the
restoration of nationality for those who had been denationalized “on political, religious,
racist or sectarian grounds”. However, for political reasons, Article 18 (II) excludes Jews
from this right, stating that
421 On the history of Iraq’s Jews, see, for example, Mitchell Bard, The Jews of Iraq, 2006,
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/iraqijews.html; Philip Mendes, The Forgotten
Refugees: The Causes of the Post-1948 Jewish Exodus from Arab Countries, 14 Jewish Studies Conference
Melbourne, March 2002, http://www.ajds.org.au/mendes_refugees.htm.
422 Others already left on their own between 1950-1951 before Operation “Ezra and Nehemiah”.
423 Sarah Sennott, “It Is Now or Never”, Newsweek, 9 April 2004, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
4703546/site/newsweek/.
424 The International Religious Freedom Report 2006 noted that according to the head of the Christian and
Other Religions Endowment, the Jewish population had “dwindled to less than fifteen persons in the Baghdad
area”; see: USDOS, International Religious Freedom Report 2006 – Iraq, see above footnote 28. In an
informal meeting between UNAMI HRO and a representative of the Jewish community in Iraq, it was
confirmed that only a few members remain in the country; see UNAMI HRO, April 2006 Human Rights
Report, p. 9, see above footnote 74.
425 See also “Actual or Perceived Sympathizers of the US-Led Invasion and/or the Multi-National Force in
Iraq”.
426 Haaretz, Iraqi National Congress fires Chalabi aide for visiting Israel, 14 September 2006,
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=477229&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSub
ContrassID=0&listSrc=Y.
427 Amit R. Paley, Next Year, Anywhere But in Grim Baghdad, The Washington Post, 3 October 2006,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/02/AR2006100201317.html.
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