Iraq
Despite a series of domestic challenges, in 1996 political power in the
Republic of Iraq remained concentrated largely in the hands of President
Saddam Hussein and a single party, the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party. Among
Saddam Hussein's foremost supporters are his own tribal federation of albu-Nasir,
which hails from the area of Tikrit, and the Sunni Arab population of Iraq,
residing in a triangle between Baghdad, Mosul and the Syrian border. There
is, however, evidence that tribal support has been diminishing in recent
years. Although internal dissent has prompted a number of unsuccessful plots
to topple Saddam's regime, the Iraqi dictator has used harsh measures to
eliminate potential opposition among civilian, military and tribal leaders
as well as members of his family and clan.
Tensions with Saddam Hussein's ruling élite were exacerbated in 1996
with the return to Iraq of Saddam's two sons-in-law, who had defected to
Jordan in August 1995. In spite of assurances that they would be pardoned,
both men were murdered, apparently by Iraqi security forces. (Officially
the men were killed by their own families, who were subsequently praised
by the president.)
Iraq's eight-year war with Iran (1980-8), its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the
1991 war against a US-led coalition, and the massive Shi'ite and Kurdish
uprisings that followed have ravaged the economy. Much of the country's
industrial and agricultural infrastructure has been destroyed and very many
people now face severe food shortages and rocketing inflation. The imposition
of United Nations sanctions has exacerbated economic hardship.
Saddam Hussein introduced draconian measures to prevent the economic collapse
of Iraq, such as the amputation of hands as a punishment for theft and "economic
crimes". The government crackdown on all opposition has involved mass
arrests, torture and executions, mainly of Shi'ites and Kurds, but also
of dissidents in the Sunni Arab community, including hundreds of army officers.
Under Ottoman rule, which began in the sixteenth century, the Jewish
community in Iraq was fairly prosperous. The advent of British rule in 1917
enabled Jews to become involved in local government, but when Iraq became
independent in 1932, discrimination against Jews became institutionalized.
During the 1930s and up to the anti-British and pro-Nazi Rashid Ali revolt
of May 1941, anti-Jewish sentiments among Iraqi intellectuals, army officers
and politicians were intensified by Nazi influence in Baghdad, as well as
by the Jewish-Arab conflict in mandatory Palestine. In June 1941 a wide-ranging
pogrom was carried out: 129 Jews were murdered, many hundreds were wounded
and much Jewish property was looted and destroyed.
In August 1948 many Jews were imprisoned on charges of "Zionism"
and a few were executed for espionage on trumped-up char-ges. In early 1950
Jews were allowed to leave for Israel, but were required to relinquish their
Iraqi citizenship and forfeit their assets. The virulent anti-Jewish atmosphere
in Baghdad and the introduction of anti-Jewish laws persuaded approximately
120,000 Jews to emigrate to Israel in 1950-1.
Under the republican rule of General 'Abd al-Karim Qasim (1958-63), many
Jews were released from prison and deported. The situation of the Jews deteriorated
during the periods of Ba'ath rule and of the Arif brothers (1963-8).
Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews were subject to severe restrictions
and were forbidden, for example, to leave their home towns. Some 300 Jewish
business-owners and community leaders were arrested and tortured for "espionage"
or for "economic support for Israel", and all Jewish communal
property was seized by the government.
When the Ba'ath Party came to power, it conducted an espionage trial and
the public hanging of thirteen young Jews. By 1971 about forty Jews had
either been executed or had died under torture, and many more were jailed.
In the summers of 1970 and 1971 hundreds of Jews were smuggled out of Baghdad
by Kurds loyal to Mullah Mustafa al-Barazani, through de facto independent
Kurdistan to Iran, and on to Israel. Because of increasing international
pressure, most of Iraq's remaining Jews were eventually allowed to leave
the country in 1972-3.
During the war against Iran and the Kuwait crisis, antisemitic themes were
widespread in the regime's war propaganda. Most conspicuous were claims
that the Persian enemy had an ancient alignment with the Jews, dating back
to the era of the Persian empire of Cyrus and his successors.
Sunni Arabs, who dominate the ruling élite, comprise only some 30 per cent of the total population of Iraq; most of the rest-some 18 per cent Kurds and 55 per cent Shi'ite Arabs-are hostile to the regime, or at least alienated from it. In 1996, Iraq continued to launch military attacks on Shi'ites living in the southern marshes, to divert humanitarian supplies to the security forces and to block the supply of food, medicine and other goods to the Kurdish minority in the north.
Media reports continued to affirm the widely held thesis that Jews wield
extensive influence over US decision-making. As in previous years, antisemitic
statements were traced mostly to the publication entitled Babel ,
which is owned by Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday.
Arabic translations of classical antisemitic texts such as The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion and Hitler's Mein Kampf are widely available
in Iraq.
During the visit in February 1996 of the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
(see United States of America), the Iraqi media provided much sympathetic
coverage of Farrakhan's vitriolic criticism of the USA and of US Jews.
Iraqi leaders generally expressed opposition to the Middle East peace
process by describing the conflict between Muslim Arabs and Jews as a clash
between two civilizations that cannot be reconciled. Some Arabs who negotiated
with Israel, including Yassir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority
(see Palestinian Authority), were called traitors. Occasionally, however,
in their discourse with western diplomats and media, Iraqi politicians suggested
that Arafat was en-titled to make his own decisions concerning peace with
Israel and that Iraq would not obstruct the peace process. In recent years
unsubstantiated reports have surfaced of medium-level contacts between Iraq
and Israel. Jordan's King Hussein reputedly has offered to mediate an Iraqi-Israeli
rapprochement that would engage Iraq in the Arab-Israeli peace process.
Official Israeli sources have steadfastly denied these reports. From the
Iraqi standpoint, one purpose of this ambivalence is presumably to convince
the West that the Ba'ath regime is pragmatic.
The political links between Israel, the Jews and the USA were also emphasized
in speeches and articles. It has been frequently claimed that the USA and
Europe are controlled by "Jewish finance" and that the Allied
attack on Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait was a "Jewish-Zionist
plot".
There were sporadic antisemitic expressions in the press. On 7 November,
the Ba'ath party organ, al-Thawra, launched a series of articles by the
prominent Shi'ite journalist Abd al-Amir Mu'alla, author of a trilogy of
works on Saddam Hussein, entitled "Zionism: A Rationale or Instinctive
Actions?" The first chapters blamed Jews for misinterpreting the Torah.
Antisemitism in the state-controlled Iraqi media in 1996 appeared to
have diminished since the previous year. Derogatory references to "international
Jewry" were less common but condemnation of "international Zionism"
continued to abound. In general, antisemitic statements surfaced primarily
in the context of anti-Zionist or anti-US commentary.
© JPR 1997