IRAQ PROPERTY CLAIMS COMMISSION: NO RESTITUTION OF LOOTED JEWISH PROPERTY
by Itamar Levin
Israel Business Arena
May 16, 2005
Iraq Property Claims Commission head Sohail al-Hashmi today denied
reports that his country would restore property looted from Jews who
immigrated to Israel.
In an interview in “Asharq Al-Awsat”, al-Hashmi said that the
reports were unfounded. He said that a reports concerning recent
case involving such a claim were inaccurate, since the claimant was
an Armenian Christian, not a Jew.
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, rumors circulated that
the new regime would compensate Iraqi emigrants for their property in
order to establish closer relations with the West, especially the US.
To date, however, the reports have not been officially confirmed,
and have now been officially denied.
130,000 Jews lived in Iraq before the state of Israel declared its
independence. Most of them worked in commerce, industry, handicrafts,
and services. A “Globes” investigation found that the real value
of Jewish-owned private property was $ 4 billion, and that Jewish
communal property was worth several billions of dollars more.
The property of Iraqi Jews was looted when 120,000 of them immigrated
to Israel in the early 1950s. The Iraqi authorities gave exit permits
only to Jews who abandoned most of their property. Those who sold
their property received only 5-10% of its value. In addition, large
amounts of property were stolen from the immigrants’ baggage during
customs inspections at Baghdad Airport.
Among other things, part of the Saddam Hussein’s palace in Baghdad
was built on land stolen from one of the wealthiest Jewish families
in Iraq. The remaining Jews in Iraq left after the Six-Day War,
mostly illegally, leaving all their property behind.