mena-jews:June 1, 1941 After World War I, Iraq was under the British Mandate, in accordance with t
mena-jews: June 1, 1941 After World War I, Iraq was under the British Mandate, in accordance with the plan put forth by the League of Nations. In April 1941, a pro-Nazi government seized power and it took the British three months to regain control of the government. During the period of pro-Nazi rule, radio stations routinely broadcast anti‐Semitic propaganda, anti- Jewish slogans were written in the streets, and Muslim-owned shops were visibly identified to protect them from anti‐Jewish violence. There were approximately 130,000 Jews in Iraq at the time. Ten years later, 90% of the Jews had left and most had immigrated to Israel. (See Operation Ezra and Nehemia.) In the power vacuum created between the fall of the pro-Nazi government and the reestablishment of British rule, a pogrom, known as the Farhud, broke out against the Jews of Baghdad. The Farhud took place on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which fell on June 1st and 2nd. It resulted in 180 dead; over 240 wounded; 100 Jewish houses destroyed; and over 500 Jewish businesses looted. Very few of the rioters were arrested, and the British took no responsibility for their failure to intervene and protect Jewish life and property. The Farhud was a painful indicator that times had changed, and Jewish life in Iraq was no longer secure. Many Iraqi Jews turned to Israel. Among Arabs the whole event was repressed and nearly forgotten. Arab writers of the time mentioned the Farhud only vaguely, and explained it as a consequence of Zionist activity in the Middle East. In contrast, Iraq’s Jews now perceived that threats to Jewish lives existed not only in Europe but also in the Middle East. In 1943, because of both the ongoing murder of European Jewry as well as antisemitism in Arab countries, Iraq’s Jewish communities were included in Zionist plans for immigration and establishing the Jewish state. By 1951, ten years after the Farhud, most of the Iraqi Jewish community (about 124,000 Jews out of 135,000) had immigrated to the State of Israel. -- source link
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