The 1941 Farhud (pogrom) and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the modern Iraq.

Mendes, Philip

To date, international concern with Middle East refugees has focused primarily on the approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs who left Israel during the 194748 war. Far less attention has been paid to the nearly one million Jews--known as mizrahim--who left Arab countries in the decade or so following that war. Most moved to the newly created Jewish State of Israel where today they constitute the majority of the Jewish population, and often lean towards the hawkish side of the political spectrum.

As with the Palestinian Arab exodus, explanations of the causes of the Jewish exodus are highly contentious, given their links with contemporary political agendas. Historically, two polarized views have prevailed. The Zionist or Israeli position attributes the Jewish exodus almost solely to Arab violence or threats of violence, and the Arab or anti-Zionist position assigns responsibility to a malicious Zionist conspiracy.

In my opinion, the Jewish exodus is best explained as a complex combination of push and pull factors. The pull factor was the growing influence of Zionism, and the attraction of many Mizrahi Jews after 1948 to the idea of living in Israel. Another factor, which was not specifically about Arab-Jewish relations, was the general Arab post-colonialist resentment of non-Arab minorities which led to their gradual exclusion from social and economic life as the Arab countries attained their independence. For example, many Jews appear to have left Egypt because of economic factors such as loss of jobs and livelihood, rather than specific anti-Jewish persecution.

Nevertheless, a considerable number of Jews--perhaps the majority--seem to have exited as a result of either systematic harassment, or direct expulsion. Some communities felt obliged to leave over time due to ongoing government discrimination and popular hostility. Many experienced outbreaks of serious anti-Jewish violence. It can reasonably be concluded that Jews in the Arab world were driven out as a direct and unapologetic retaliation for Jewish actions in Israel/Palestine.

A 2004 film rifled The Forgotten Refugees by the David Project documented this sad destruction of a vibrant Jewish civilization. Many of these Jews were not newcomers or foreigners, but rather indigenous to the region for hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years. Jews had often experienced considerable tolerance in the Arab world, and some were prominent in the development of modern Arabic law and music. But all were nonetheless classified as dhimmi or second-class citizens, which required them to accept an inferior status. And too often, Jews faced threats and potential violence as a result of popular prejudice and government incitement. From 1945 onwards, there were vicious riots in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and other Arab countries which killed and injured many Jews. The Arabs were culturally unable to accept the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Israel, given that they were used to ruling over the Jews as a subordinate people.

The mass 1951 exodus of the previously large and prosperous Jewish community of Iraq seems to have been a particularly sad example of Arab intolerance. The Iraqi Jews were a well-integrated community who could date their heritage back to the destruction of the first temple in 586 BCE. Following the establishment of the modern Iraqi state in 1920, Jews were prominent in professional and commercial life utilizing both their knowledge of European languages and contacts with expatriate Iraqi Jews in the countries with which they traded. They dominated the professions of banking and money-lending known locally as the sairafah business. For example, a large proportion of members of the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce were Jewish. In addition, Jews contributed prominently to local arts and literature, were represented in the Iraqi parliament, and held significant positions in the bureaucracy. Overall, Iraqi Jews viewed themselves as Arabs of the Jewish faith, rather than as a separate race or nationality.

Nevertheless, during the 1930s, there was increasing evidence of a decline in Iraqi tolerance for minority groups. The massacre of Christian Assyrians seeking autonomy in August 1933 was widely viewed as an ominous signal. In addition, European anti-Jewish propaganda began to impact on Iraq. Numerous Palestinian exiles headed by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, spent time in Iraq. The German ambassador to Iraq, Dr Fritz Grobba, was also a malevolent influence.

Anti-Jewish feeling was soon reflected in both official and popular actions. For example, large numbers of Jewish clerks were dismissed from government positions, and restrictive quotas were placed on Jewish access to higher education. In addition, following the outbreak of the Arab revolt in Palestine (1936-1939), public attacks including bombings took place against Jews and Jewish institutions. Considerable pressure was also placed on Jews to publicly dissociate themselves from Zionist activities. However, there was no official government policy of discrimination, and the authorities took action to protect Jews from extremist attacks.

The security and confidence of Iraqi Jews was shattered by the pro-German military coup of April 1941 headed by Rashid Ali al-Kaylani. The coup leaders were quickly defeated and exiled by a British army occupation, but their departure was followed by a large-scale farhud or pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad. Farhud is an Arabized Kurdish word which means unrestrained massacre, burning, looting, and rape by hooligans. Over 170 Jews were murdered, several hundred injured, and numerous Jewish properties, businesses, and religious institutions damaged and looted. The farhud was perpetrated by Iraqi officers, police, and gangs of young people including women (which was unusual for Arab society) influenced by religious and nationalist fanaticism, and the popular perception of a Jewish alignment with Britain. These groups rejected the presence of national or religious minorities in the Arab world, and regarded the Jews as a fifth column sympathetic to the Western powers.

A newly edited book by the Israeli academics Shmuel Moreh and Zvi Yehuda (Al-Farhud: the 1941 pogrom in Iraq, Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2010) sheds new light on the causes of the farhud. The authors note that the anti-Jewish rioters were influenced by a number of factors. One was ongoing incitement by a group of approximately 400 Palestinian emigres residing in Iraq. These Palestinians were mainly doctors, teachers, and politicians who had fled to Iraq after the failed 1936-39 uprising against the British. They were led by the extremist Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who would later collaborate with Hitler's Final Solution. One of these Palestinians, the poet Burhan al-Din al-Abbushi, wrote incendiary verses accusing the Jews of killing and violating Arab women and children in Palestine. These verses were read publicly in mosques and schools, at demonstrations and on the radio, and appear to have provoked much anti-Jewish hatred.

Another factor was the anti-Jewish propaganda distributed by the German Nazi envoy Fritz Grobba in Baghdad, although Zvi Yehuda argues in this volume that the impact of the German propaganda may have been exaggerated. Also important was the anti-Jewish campaign by local Iraqi nationalists including a number of leading officials in the Ministry of Education, and the anti-Jewish speeches by local clerics at specific mosques in Baghdad on the day of the farhud.

In addition, there was the cynical political decision by the British Army to delay the timing of their intervention to restore order lest they be labeled as friends of the Jews. Elie Kedourie quotes a letter by the British ambassador to Iraq, Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, cautioning the Foreign Office from displaying any open sympathy for the Jews. According to the foreword by Robert Wistrich, the British had acted with similar malevolence in failing to act to prevent anti-Jewish riots in Libya in November 1945 and in Aden in December 1947.

A fascinating chapter by Nissim Kazzaz notes that the Communist Party of Iraq, which had a number of Jews in its leadership, surprisingly welcomed the pro-Nazi military regime headed by Rashid Ali on the grounds that it supported liberating Iraq from British imperialism. However, the Party strongly criticized anti-Jewish manifestations associated with the regime, although acknowledging that some Jews were traitors. This criticism intensified following the farhud, and the Party later repudiated its endorsement of Rashid Ali.

Esther Meir-Glitzenstein notes in her chapter that the farhud produced a new interest by the Zionist movement in Iraqi Jewry. Until that time, the European-dominated Zionist establishment had been influenced by Western colonialist ideas which regarded Arab Jews as alien and unproductive, and hence not suitable for immigration to Palestine. However, reports on the farhud by Iraqi Jews who visited Palestine provoked concern and shock among leading Zionist officials including Moshe Shertok (Sharett), head of the Jewish Agency's Political Department. Shertok met with the prominent Iraqi leader Nuri al-Said shortly after the farhud who rejected suggestions of widespread anti-Jewish feeling in Iraq, and argued that the traditionally good relations between Muslims and Jews throughout the Middle East had solely been damaged by Zionist actions in Palestine. In contrast, the Zionist movement viewed the farhud as confirming their belief that Jews could only live securely in Palestine. As a result, the Jewish Agency began to allocate a proportion of immigration certificates to the Jews of Iraq.

The most significant finding from the many Jewish memoirs cited in this text was their terrible sense of betrayal. A number of Jews had served as doctors and officers in the Iraqi army during the battles against the British, and Jewish merchants had donated generously to the armed forces. They expected a more positive outcome from their service than this horrific massacre. Even worse, many of those killed and injured in the farhud were attacked by local Muslims whom they personally knew. Government hospitals often refused to treat the injured Jews, and some were later told by Jewish nurses that the injured were deliberately poisoned by doctors in the hospitals on the orders of the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Others gave jewelry and money to their neighbors in trust who then refused to return the property.

But conversely, many recalled with gratitude the bravery of their Muslim neighbors who respected the tradition of Arab hospitality to save their lives. For example, the book includes a specific letter written by the President of the Jewish community of Basrah thanking Shaikh Ahmad Bashasyan--the former Lord Mayor of Basrah--and his family for protecting Jews during the farhud.

According to Shmuel Moreh, the farhud constituted a "decisive and tragic turning point" for the Jews of Iraq, and destroyed what he calls the "Jewish delusion that they could live in Iraq as citizens of equal fights with the Muslims." The Jews were particularly shocked by the silence of the Iraqi Arab intelligentsia, many of whom defended the Rashid Ali regime, and condemned the execution of some of its key leaders. No literary works by Arab writers even mentioned the farhud. Conversely, a number of popular songs were compiled before and during the farhud expressing hatred for the Jews, and celebrating the theft of valuable property from the supposedly wealthy Jewish merchants. Moreh argues that the farhud convinced most Iraqi Jews that Zionism was the solution, and led directly to the mass immigration of 1950-51 to Israel.

Today, the Jewish refugees from the Arab countries are increasingly demanding recognition of the injustices they suffered. They definitely do not want to return to the Arab countries, but they want some form of compensation or redress for their loss of homes and livelihood. The New York-based World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries has estimated the value of these assets at more than $300 billion including property deeds coveting a total area of 100,000 square kilometers which is five times the size of the State of Israel.

Both the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) and the U.S. House of Representatives have passed motions (in 2010 and 2008 respectively) demanding that the Jewish refugees from Arab countries be granted the same rights and compensation as those of Palestinian refugees.

In my opinion, the Palestinian and Jewish exoduses are not identical in motivation and cause, and should be considered separately. However, I do believe that the Arab League would make a significant contribution to Israeli/Jewish-Arab reconciliation if they formally recognized the positive role that many Jewish communities previously played in Arab life and culture, and apologized for the intolerance that turned them into refugees.

PHILIP MENDES, an Associate Professor, teaches social policy and community development at Monash University in Australia, and is the co-editor of Jews and Australian Politics, Sussex Academic Press 2004.