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| Iraq | ||
| Kurdish Jews urged to return to Iraq: Report | ||
| 2009-08-13 | ||
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A new magazine in Iraq's Kurdistan region has caused furore among conservative Muslims with a rousing call for Jews to leave Israel -- and come back to Iraq. The magazine, "Israel-Kurd," is the brainchild of Dawood Baghestani, the 62-year-old former chief of the autonomous northern region's human rights commission. The glossy, full-color monthly in Kurdish and English has a lofty mission: to help solve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict by convincing more than 150,000 Kurdish Jews living in Israel to return to Iraqi Kurdistan, Baghestani told AFP.
"If the situation in our new federal and democratic Iraq, and particularly in Kurdistan, becomes stable, then many Jews would want to return and reduce the number of Jewish settlements in Palestine." The latest edition of the 52-page magazine, which has a circulation of around 1,500 copies, features a woman draped in an Israeli flag on the cover. Inside are stories about Kurdish Jewish traditions and photographs from the first half of the twentieth century, as well as arguments on how a return of Jews would help to build a wealthy and strong Kurdistan. Suspicious
Iraq has no relations with Israel, and the country was an implacable foe of the Jewish state under the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. A Sunni member of parliament in Baghdad, Mithal Alusi, was suspended from parliament and threatened with charges last year after visiting Israel for a conference. The decision was later overturned by the constitutional court. Kurdistan does have a warmer history with the Jewish state, however. Many of the current crop of Kurdish leaders have visited Israel in past decades. Jews lived in Kurdistan for centuries, working as traders, farmers and artisans. But the creation of Israel and the rise of Arab nationalism in the mid-twentieth century dramatically altered the situation, spurring most of Kurdistan's Jews to leave. Baghestani -- who has been to Israel four times, including on a clandestine trip in 1967 -- denies that he works for the Israelis. "What I am asking for is enshrined in the constitution: every Iraqi has the right to return to one's homeland. Jews who were Iraqi citizens were subject to injustice," he said. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 The Jews were expelled from Iraq, they didn't just happen to wander away over the horizon. (Information here about the Arab expulsions following the establishment of Israel in 1948. Perhaps some will come back -- after all, one Israeli went to live in Afghanistan. But more likely they'll just go to visit the old homestead and establish business connections. Besides, however well meant, the invitation is insulting. "Come back because staying in Israel is mean to the Palestinians, our brother Muslims." |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-08-13 17:08 |
| #1 Kurdish Jews urged to return to Iraq Idiots if they do. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-08-13 14:52 |