Iraqi Jews : From prosperity to oblivion

The following is an important read. Yesterday on C-SPAN, a retired Marine Colonel Anderson spoke about how Christians, and particularly Jews, had been forced to leave Iraq by "radical Muslims." I get so tired of hearing that nonsense which, consistently goes completely unchallenged by unfair and unbalanced media pundits. Hopefully, this article will help change perceptions.

by Ali ALI-ASSADI, Translated by Adib S Kawar, revised by Mary Rizzo & Fausto Giudice

The relation of the Jews with Iraq is not circumstantial or accidental, it has its roots deep in history, that went throughout eras and stages, and which extend back to the time of the first registered history of Iraq. This relationship saw -- if what was told about it is true -- rough and winding paths that intermingle between the inherited and mythical with religious beliefs, the metaphorical or the inspirational, and possibly literally copying of the great achievements that the first Iraqis perfected, starting with the Old Testament books that spread and affected the beliefs of humankind. The Flood, Job and Genesis - to end with the last archeological tablet destroyed or stolen from Iraqi museums, and through the greatest love poem man had ever known -- The Sumerian Psalms -- which was imitated or plagiarized by the Jews with minor modifications which could not hide its Iraqi origin. More than that, there are proofs that the predicament of the "chosen people" on which the Jews established later all the contents of their Bible could have been inspired by the legend of "Era", the Babylonian god of destruction. Researchers shall discover the congruity between the content of this Babylonian legend, and the Jewish covenant with the Jewish god, Jehovah, who is a redacted copy of the Babylonian legendary god.

Most Western anthropologists used to believe that: "The Bible is the great achievement of the Israeli people." These holy books formed the beginning of the spiritual and ideological constituent for humanity, and led to the establishment of milestones of the written history of the civilization of the region, whose radiance inspired all human concepts since its early stages and it is still having affect on it.

These are the common beliefs that ascend to an echelon of holiness, thus putting them out of the scope of discussion and doubt in Western thought, with the exception of some intellectual pugnacity here and there. But these beliefs were exposed to a serious shaking when the tablets and clay plates, which were preserved in the land of Mesopotamia, started gradually to be discovered and translated.

These new discoveries defied what the Jews imputed to themselves. These books were mentioned in the writings of Sumer and Babylon 1500 years before the recording of the Bible. The Israelites were astonished with what they saw in Babylon after their captivity by the Akkadian king, "Nabokhuznassar". They, the captive and frightened people, saw a great civilization, a civilization with incredible achievements and strength.

As the weak dreams of gaining the characteristics and possibilities of the strong, and to imitate them and obtain their achievements even while daydreaming, the Jews started to copy the recorded cultural heritage of Babylon, or that which is passed from mouth to mouth. The book that was most convenient and expressive about the accumulative feelings of revenge in the hearts of the Israelites against Babylon and its people, is that which talks about the Babylonian god of revenge and epidemics, "Era".

The legend tells that "Era" decides to take revenge upon Babylon, because its people slighted his word and threats, and when he starts with work he announces in a long psalm: "The time has come and is due - I shall call out for the sun to abandon its rays - I shall cover the face of the day with gloomy darkness - I shall destroy cities, and turn them into rubble - I shall uproot trees and the thickets of reed, and kill every human being in the land of Babylon - I shall demonstrate more assassinations and revenge - I shall take the life of the son and make the father bury him, then I shall take the life of the father who shall find nobody to burry him…" The same style with a more than obvious similarity, is what "Jehovah" follows in the destruction of cities when and if his orders are disobeyed, he shall not leave of it a trace to tell about its tragedy, as what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah.

When "Era" made the sky rain "asphalt and sulfur" to quench his thirst for revenge upon Babylon, his companion "Eschom" interfered to curb his craving for blood and destruction and told him: "Dignified 'Era' you killed the devious as you have taken the life of the devout - You have taken the life of those who raise the Eucharist to the gods, and you stole from the entourages of the kings, you have taken the life of the patriarchs of the people, and you have taken the life of the virgin, it is time for you to rest." And when "Era" had a sudden gift of repentance he decided to rebuild Babylon with greater grandeur than in the past, but this time by a people of his choice, people who were weak and lowly; so he gave his promise to "Eschom", "Each land after another and a city after the other the Akkadians shall rise and subjugate them all, the Akkadian s shall arrest their great enemies…"

Then the psalm proceeds by listing what remarkable victories and glorious deeds his chosen people, the Akkadian s, shall achieve, and at the end the psalm tells them: "You shall turn their cities to rubble, and get Babylon great spoils, all the inhabitants shall bring to Babylon their tributes, and for many days Babylon shall dominate the world."

The old history of the Iraqi civilization states that the Akkadian King Sargon founded the Akkadian dynasty, and ruled the country for 56 years, but the gaps that history did not fill was the story of his birth and early life, but the legend filled the gap and told us about this fabulous personality. It is said that his mother was a holy prostitute in the temple of Ishtar, and when she became pregnant and gave birth to him in secrecy, she put him in a tar-painted scuttle made of palm leaves, like those the Iraqis use to cross rivers, and threw him in the Euphrates; so as not to lose her position in the temple, because holy prostitutes were not supposed to become mothers. He was picked from the river by one of the kings of "Oroke". Sargon grew up in the king's palace till he had the opportunity to flee with his followers across the Euphrates to escape the king’s oppression. He returned to "Oroke" after he built a big army to conquer the whole country and established the Akkadian dynasty.

Thus this is where the Israelites got their predicament of "The Chosen People" from. They "improved" the Akkadian legendary idea and altered it with little effort, thus the Akkadian god "Era" become the Hebrew god "Jehovah", who granted "his chosen people" the strength, sovereignty and reign as was done by "Era" to the Akkadians - then they adopted the Akkadian books, altered and copied them to become a complete book that the Israelites went out with to the world as a special inheritance that came down from God to his chosen people.

The books of the Torah lack any proofs supported by archeology, - which was confirmed a few years ago by the Israeli archeologist, Rubenstein, when he said: "I searched for thirty years for one single archeological find to prove what came in the Torah, but did not find anything", which is contrary to the Babylonian books that were recorded thousands of years ago on tablets. Here lies the catastrophe that shall befall on Israel when it loses its legendary moral and fideism justification that form the foundations on which it was established, after discovering the bases of the greatest forgery in the history of human civilization.

It is important to mention that the history of the Jews in Iraq did not take a rising graph in which hatred was mobilized and revenge was forwarded. Following up with history since the first contact of the Jews with Iraq it shows long periods of stability and prosperity when the Jews lived there. This was only possible due to the ease of their assimilation in the Iraqi society, which drew a framework of behavioral conduct that was surprising in a geographical atmosphere that was governed by severity, and saw a chain of all sorts of tyrants - It had its roots deep in a strange structural complex, which feeds on various sources that were drawn by geography and framed with history.

It is claimed that the Jews were the followers of Abraham with whom they emigrated from the land of Ur. It is said that they numbered about 4,000 men and women, but many historians do not accept this claim even though it is logical, because of the lack of historical support on which it could be possible to prove such claims. But what is certain and what historians tend to believe is that the Jews first entered Iraq in the year 626 B.C. in the days of King Galat Balacher III when he launched a great military campaign during which he invaded the Kingdom of Israel, because they tried to cooperate with the Egyptians, the only rivals of Assyria. Relying on the general historical consequences of this time we can conclude that the "kingdom of Israel" was a subordinate of the Akkadian Empire, which used to control most of the oriental boundary which reached up to Rafah,south of Palestine. This "kingdom" often declared disobedience and the breaking of its treaties that it used to conclude with the Akkadian Empire, resulting in three consecutive military campaigns during which more than 400,000 were captured. King Tajelat III took about 200,000, while King Sanharib took 150,000 people, and in the last campaign of King Asarhadon II about 28,000 were captured from the Kingdom of Yahouda alone. (It is noted that there were two Hebrew states at the time - Israel and Yahouda, which were unified at a later stage.)

After the fall of the Assyrian state at the hands of the Akkadians who seized all its land, it seems that the kingdom of Israel was re-founded more than once, and the same events were repeated in a questionable manner. The Akkadian king, Nebuchadnezzar launched a great attack in 597 B.C. to crush the mutiny of the king of Israel, Yahudia Qim who died during the siege to be succeeded by his son Yahua Keen, and after his capture, Sudkia was appointed to succeed him. But as soon as he felt settled, and was installed by the Egyptian king Hofra he too declared mutiny against the Akkadians, and when the Babylonians put camp in Rabla near Homs, Hofra came to his assistance, but was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed Sudkia's kingdom, taking into captivity about five hundred thousands of his subjects.

In fact these historical occurrences, as they were related, raised many queries, which are still without convincing answers by the historians. These queries are related to technical and logistical matters on one side and political and historic ones on the other. Capturing 200,000 people requires varied and major requisites such as: detention camps, around the clock guarding, food, etc. History never mentioned how the Assyrians and after them the Babylonians, handled the matter, and it never mentioned whether there were diseases and hunger that could lead to the death of a great number of people during such an operation. The more important query is by what by means and ways were the Jews were able to rebuild their kingdom after such great number of people were held captive!!!

A thorough and methodical reading of these historic statements raises a number of conclusions through which one can explain some parts of the picture, among which are the following:

1* The first source for these events and their details came from the Jews themselves centuries later, which made it possible to be redrafted, subject to modifications, additions and exaggerations that usually go along with such a subject as if the finality had played a crucial role in this scope.

2* These operations were performed for political and not religious reasons, thus it targeted the head of the rule, his entourage, the officers of his army and possibly some of its brigades. Thus captivity, in our opinion, used to target numbers that would not exceed a few thousand Jews. The method used in the beginning is what explains the continuity of the existence of the Jewish states, and what made it possible to revolt again and again. It is possible to talk about mass expulsions and resettlement operations that took place at later times, and thus can not be considered as acts of "captivity", because the captured lived a normal, not to say, a prosperous life in their new homeland, they were not considered as prisoners of war (some of them cultivated the plots of land that were allotted to them. They built webs of irrigation canals for their new property and they developed fields and orchards, which they worked to protect from floods. Others became traders. Some historians say that had it not been for the exile prophets who warned them of the dangers of assimilation, urging them to think about the importance of their return to Judea, the Jews would have been assimilated completely among the Akkadians, because of the prosperity, security and stability that was provided to them).

3* By reading the translations of what was documented on the tablets, and comparing it with Jewish books and their recounted inheritance, it would be possible to conclude that these operations had taken place only twice in history: Once in the days of the Assyrians and the second time by Nebuchadnezzar, that is the second took place after the first. But to relate the operations as recurring incidents as per Jewish sources, it would be as if one is building a disastrous tragedy, the purpose of which is to give the Jews the role of the permanent and persecuted victim throughout history, which is to be exploited later by the Zionist movement that was completed by the Nazi Holocaust.

The Jews in Abassid Iraq

The year 1258 AD was the ill-omened year that was deeply implanted in the memory of the Iraqis, in the middle of Muharram 656 (Hijra year), Baghdad fell under the hoofs of Hulagu’s invading horses. It was the night that put the Arabs in a sleep from which they are still suffering its repercussions today. Baghdad entered the age of degeneration, and it was overwhelmed with tragic chaos and corruption that encountered whatever was left from the traces of civilization, which was once the guiding star of the whole world. Under such circumstances it was inevitable that its detriment would affect everybody including of course the Jews of Baghdad.

In 1917 the British army under General Stanley Maude occupied Baghdad, thus ending the last Ottoman stronghold in Iraq, and putting Iraq under a new regime of colonialism. At this time in the history of Iraq, the Jews had spread all over the country, From An-Nasiryah, Basra, Amara, Kut, Diwanieh and Hilah in the south to all the districts of the north and the west - Anah, Rawah, Hadithah, Samiraa and others. Iraqi towns and cities had their Jewish quarters such as Aked Al-Yahoud (Aked of the Jews), Khan Al-Yahoud, etc. Jews numbered in Baghdad in 1830 about 7,000, and in the beginning of the nineteenth century the number increased to about 25,000 families, and in other districts such as Sulaymanieh there were 300 families and in Mosul 1,000 families.

In 1924, as a result of the Mosul problem, an international census committee was formed to count the number of inhabitants in Iraq, and the percentage of distribution among religious groups. The result was as follows in regard to Jews: there were 3,575 Jews in Mosul, and in the rest of Iraq the number was 87,448 Jews distributed throughout 15 districts, but there were more then 50,000 in Baghdad alone, while the number in certain other districts did not exceed, for example, 170 in Karbala and Najaf. In 1947 the number of Jews rose to 117,877 all over Iraq out of whom 77,424 lived in Baghdad alone, this is in addition to the more than 100,000 Kurdish Jews. But their numbers started to dwindle quickly as a result of emigration to occupied Palestine after the establishment of Israel, which was a result of an extensive operation organized by the Zionist movement during which many tragic incidents occurred.

110,000 Jews out of whom 80,000 Kurdish Jews, emigrated from Iraq to occupied Palestine and other parts of the world. The operation was called the Ezra and Nechemia Operation« . In a census conducted in 1957 there were only few thousand Jews left in Iraq that dwindled to 3,000 in 1967, the majority of whom were in Baghdad. In the eighties the number dropped to 50 mostly old men and women who could not leave due to age. (After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 the few remaining old people were transferred to occupied Palestine by Zionist agents who entered Iraq along with the invading armies, translator’s note.)

Zionism and Iraqi Jews

Menahem Dania, member of the Iraqi House of Notables, said during a meeting held in July 1948: "It is my duty to review the history of implanting Zionism among Iraqi Jews to enlighten the High House, so as to take it as an example when we direct our policy." This gives us an idea of the Zionist activity in Iraq at the time. It was not possible for the Zionist movement not to care for a country that enjoys such an important geographical location, political role as well as faith and Jewish heritage, in addition to the status and influence Iraqi Jews enjoyed especially with their big numbers. Iraqi Jewish influence had its effect on neighboring countries and elsewhere in the world due to their wealth, and the activeness of some of their better-known families politically and financially, among whom where: Kalia Hosasoun who was the minister of finance in the first Iraqi cabinet, Khadoury, Danielle, Ezekiel, Zolote, Kabai (which produced the most famous medical doctor in Iraq at the time, Daoud Kabai) and other Jewish Iraqi families."

Zionist activities were not limited to this field, they executed violent security operations in which several factors that were done along with them against Jews in various locations in Iraq, and the political decisions taken by the government of the Iraqi Prime Minister Tawfik Al-Sweidi in 1950 to denaturalize those Jews who desired to emigrate, which came as a result of the meeting between Nouri Al-Said and Ben-Gurion in Vienna two years earlier. The result was the fleeing of large numbers of Iraqi Jews to occupied Palestine and other countries of the world, the most important of which was England where quite a number of Jews settled, some of whom refused to go to occupied Palestine so as to retain their Iraqi citizenship, of which they had been deprived. Among them were outstanding Iraqis such as Samir Naqash and Mir Basri. Although this decision was nullified after the turnover of the royal regime in 1958, matters went on as planned by Zionist circles for Iraqi Jews.

Zionist activities in Iraq did not stop at this point, but continued in spying incursions which echoed among the political and military circles. During the mid sixties of the twentieth century, a few months before the 1967 war, the Israeli Mossad arranged to hijack an Iraqi Mig 21 by the Iraqi pilot, Munir Radfa, at the time when this model of fighter plane was among the most advanced in the area. Three years later a big Mossad spy network led by an Iraqi Jew, Ezra Naji Zalkha, which included other Iraqi Jews of all walks of life, was caught spying for Israel. The spies were executed in two lots, and their corpses were hanged in the Tahreer Square in central Baghdad.

The most dangerous Zionist plans against Iraq, and that had its effect on its present and future life was concentrated during the last three decades the country lived under the rule of Saddam Hussein, which Zionists themselves admitted in a report prepared by one of the strategic research centers in Israel: "Because Iraq and the Iraqis were responsible for the destruction of Israel since the time of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and because Iraq is one of the few countries in the world which enjoys the most vital sources of wealth in our days, oil and water, vital for building an important military power and civilization if two matters were available: A serious and rational government and the required time of stability are needed." The report proceeds with describing Saddam Hussein's personality, and when the Zionist circles started to pay attention to him, because they see in his personality characteristics which help in executing their plans as: "He is cunning with a mechanical infernal mind, and he is a naive child who could be easily deceived." This clarifies the nature of Zionist intrigues weaved for Iraq, and the strategies that ensures keeping this country destroyed and torn apart so as not to allow it to rebuild itself.

Some sources say that Jews in Iraq took to farming during their early days there, that is before Christ, but they did not quit only farming but also the countryside and settled in big towns and cities. There they, in general, practiced the services industries, and their presence was felt in such professions as goldsmithery, exchange, brokerage and other similar professions as well as in free professions like medicine, engineering, the legal profession, teaching, etc., which is characteristic of them wherever they settled in the world. But why they distanced themselves from farming and pasturing, their original occupation as Bedouins, is probably due their inability to compete with other tribes that came in bigger numbers before Islam and continued up till recent ages. These tribes struggled for possessing agricultural and pasture land. As a result Iraqi Jews became a part of the urban society, and in this characteristic they participated in political and social activities. They became effective participants in forming many Iraqi political parties especially the Iraqi Communist Party, Rashid A'ali Al-Kilany movement and others. They also participated in workers’ unions, cultural, intellectual and informational clubs, established medical centers such as Mir Elias Hospital, Rima Khadouri Eye Hospital, Dar Eshafaa and others as well as pharmacies.

To sum up, Jews in Mesopotamia lived a long history, and witnessed all occurrences that Iraq passed through, they lived in Baghdad during its golden age of prosperity and glory, they enjoyed its wealth and scooped out from its abundant gifts, and they saw its tragedies, fires and wars and suffered its people's misfortunes, but Zionism succeeded in the oblivion of a group of people that was a part of the fabric of the Iraqi society.