Baghdad Jews must run for their lives
Eight Baghdad Jews who represent the remnants of that city’s Jewish community are facing security threats so grave that they need to flee the country, the community’s caretaker, Canon Andrew White, told The Jerusalem Post from London on Tuesday.
According to White, who himself has fled from Baghdad due to terrorist threats, the situation has become dire for the 2,600-year-old community, which only 100 years ago made up a third of Baghdad’s population.
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…an unspecified few have expressed their desire to leave. But despite efforts by Jewish organizations abroad and some Knesset members to bring them to Israel, the eight rejected the idea of the Jewish state as a possible point of refuge. The problem, White said, was that due to the umbrella of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiments they have lived under in Iraq, they are fearful of Israel and what it represents.
“They have been fed anti-Israel propaganda all their lives,” he said. “They do not trust Israel to be a good place. If some of them do want to go to Israel, they are scared of what the repercussions might be for the ones that stay.”
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