A POSTER from yesterday’s event commemorating
the Jewish community in the Kurdistan region of Iraq shows symbols from
various religions there, including a blue Star of David..
(photo credit:SHERZAD OMER MAMSANI)
“Kurdistan has always believed in living
peacefully and with respect for different faiths,” Sherzad Omer Mamsani
wrote in a statement in Hebrew and Kurdish published on Wednesday. It
was based on a speech he gave in Erbil to guests commemorating the
Jewish community in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The event was
held for the second year in a row under the auspices of the Kurdistan
Regional Government’s directorate of Jewish affairs.
Looking back 71 years to the period at the end of the Second
World War, the statement described the difficulties Jews faced in Iraq
in the 1940s, which reached a crescendo with the pogrom in Baghdad of
June 1, 1941, often called the Farhud.
According to Mamsani, up to 200,000 Jews were expelled or fled Iraq.
The
timing of the ceremony in Erbil, which was attended by locals and
politicians, coincides with the Knesset decision two years ago to mark
November 30 as the day of “Exit and Deportation of Jews from Arab Lands
and Iran Day.” It commemorates the uprooting of 856,000 Jews from the
Middle East that was triggered by the UN Security Council passing the
partition plan that led to the creation of Israel in 1948.
For Jews of Iraq, the discrimination that led to the expulsion began more than a decade before.
According
to research by Shmuel Trigano at the Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs, Jewish schools were closed in the 1930s, and Jews were
expelled from public service.
Iraq initially tried to prevent
Jews from emigrating in 1948, only to pass a law in 1950 allowing them
to leave but stripping them of citizenship if they did. Most Jews left
the country, some under Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, an Israel
government airlift.
A community of Kurdish Jews existed in
Jerusalem since 1812, and many came to British Mandate Palestine in the
1930s. The Kurdistan region has often tried to distinguish between the
Jewish experience in Kurdistan, which locals say was one of
coexistence, and the rest of Iraq, where there was persecution.
According
to an article in 1966 in The Sentinel, more than 50,000 Kurdish Jews,
some from Iran, settled in Israel in the 1950s.
Since last year,
the Kurdistan region and Mamsani in particular have worked to raise
the issue of Jewish history in the region, and shed light on
persecutions of Jews in Iraq. There is a Jewish religious site named for
the tomb of the prophet Nahum near Dohuk.
In the speech and
statement yesterday, Mamsani highlighted issues facing the Kurdish
region, including its desire to protect minorities that are threatened
by terrorism and Islamic State. “After the elimination of Daesh [ISIS],
we await the good tidings of the international community,” he said.
Reference
was made to the fact that the KRG is hosting almost two million
refugees, and that international organizations should support the
region. Mamsani noted that Kurdistan seeks to “live in peace and
respect all faiths.”
A poster at the event showed historical black and white photos
with an image from the statue commemorating the Halabja massacre of
1988, when Saddam Hussein’s regime gassed 5,000 Kurds. On the poster
were symbols from various religions in Kurdistan, including a blue Star
of David, a unique testament to one of the few places in the Middle
East today where local governments host events related to Jewish
history.
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