1950–1951 Baghdad bombings

Between April 1950 and June 1951, five bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad occurred. Iraqi authorities eventually arrested 3 Zionist activists for the bombings, sentencing 2 - Shalom Salah Shalom and Yosef Ibrahim Basri - to death and a third - Yehuda Tajar - to 10 years in jail . Over the decades, there has been much heated debate over whether the bombs were in fact planted by the Mossad in order to encourage Iraqi Jews toe emigrate to the newly created state of Israel or whether they were the work of genuine anti-Jewish extremists in Iraq. The issue has been the subject of lawsuits and inquiries in Israel.

The bombings

• On March 19, 1950, a bomb exploded in the American Cultural Center and Library that was used by Iraqi Jews.
• On April 8, 1950 a bomb was thrown into El-Dar El-Bida Café, where Jews were observing Passover. Four Jews were injured in the blast. Leaflets appeared demanding that Jews emigrate from Iraq as soon as possible.
• On May 10, 1950, a grenade was thrown at Beit-Lawi Automobile company building, a company with Jewish ownership.
• On June 3, 1950, a grenade exploded in El-Batawin, then a Jewish area of Baghdad, with no casualties.
• On June 5, 1950, there was another attack on El Rasjid Street. Nobody was injured.
• On January 14, 1951, a grenade damaged a high-voltage cable outside Masouda Shem-Tov Synagoge. Three Jews were killed, including a 12 year old boy. 10 were wounded.

Background

By 1949, the Iraqi Zionist underground had become well-established (despite many arrests), and they were smuggling Iraqi Jews out of the country illegally at a rate of 1,000 a month (Simon, Reguer, and Laskier, p 365). Hoping to stem the flow of assets from the country, in March 1950 Iraq passed a law of one year duration allowing Jews to emigrate on condition of relinquishing their Iraqi citizenship. They were motivated, according to Ian Black, by "economic considerations, chief of which was that almost all the property of departing Jews reverted to the state treasury" and also that "Jews were seen as a restive and potentially troublesome minority that the country was best rid of." (p. 91) Israel was initially reluctant to absorb so many immigrants, (Hillel, 1987) but eventually mounted an airlift in March 1951 called "Operation Ezra and Nehemiah" to bring as many of the Iraqi Jews as possible to Israel, and sent agents to Iraq to urge the Jews to register for immigration as soon as possible.

Mossad involvement

On the 27th of April 1950, Mossad agent Shlomo Hillel, using the alias Richard Armstrong, flew from Amsterdam to Baghdad. He was supposedly a representative of American charter company Near East Air Transport 27 April 1950 which was seeking a contract from the Iraq government to transport Iraq Jews to Cyprus. Near East Air Transport was actually owned by the Jewish Agency and the Iraqi Jews were actually to be transported to Israel not Cyprus. Shlomo Hillel had been caught a few years earlier training Zionist militants in Baghdad, using the alias Fuad Salah. Mossad had become increasingly active in Iraq since 1941 with the objective of encouraging and hastening the departure of Jews to Israel.

The Israeli government promoted stories of Jewish mistreatment in Iraq and claimed that seven Zionist Jews were hung in Iraq in 1949, despite the fact that Mossad had investigated the claims and found them to be a myth.

Former Israeli minister Mordechai Ben Porat, founder and chair of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, was working for Mossad in Baghdad coordinating Jewish emigration at the time. He has been accused of orchestrating the bombing campaign in the hope of sparking a larger and faster Jewish exodus from Iraq. Porat launched a libel lawsuit against a journalist who accused him of complicity in the attacks which was settled in an out-of-court compromise with an apology bythe journalist.

Official inquiry

Mossad established it's own inquiry into the affair and "did not find any factual proof that the bombs were hurled by any Jewish organization or individual."

Claims of Yehuda Tajar

According to a recent interview with Yehuda Tajar, the Israeli agent who spent 10 years in Iraqi prison for his involvement in the bombings, the bombing of the Masuda Shemtov was committed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Tajar, one of the Zionist activists, Yosef Beit-Halahmi, did commit several of the bombings but only after his fellow Zionist activists were arrested. The attacks were not ordered by the Mossad but made on Halahmi's own initiative, in an attempt to make it seem as if the activists on trial were not the perpetrators.

Effects on immigration of Iraq Jews to Israel

Before the Arab-Israeli conflict began, there were 140,000 Jews in Iraq where they had lived for 2,500 years. The position of Jews in Iraq had been secure, with cordial relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians.

In March 1950 the government of Iraq passed the Denaturalisation Act, an act that allowed Jews to emigrate from Iraq so long as they renounced their Iraq citizenship within the next year. Iraqi prime minster Tawfiq al-Suwaidi had expected that only 7-10,000 Jews out of the Iraqi Jewish population of 125,000 would leave. Indeed only a few thousand Jews had registered for the offer before the first bombing occurred. .

The first bombing occurred on the last day of Passover, 8 April 1950. Panic in the Jewish community ensued and many more Jews than were predicted starting registering to leave Iraq. The law expired in March 1951 but was later extended after the Iraqi government froze the assets of departing Jews, including those who had already left. Between the first and last bombing almost the entire Jewish community bar a few thousand had registered to leave the country.

The emigration of Jews was also due to the deteriorating status of Jews in Iraq since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as they were suspected of being disloyal to Iraq. They were treated with threats, suspicion and physical assaults and were portrayed as a fifth column in the media.

By 1953, nearly all Iraqi Jews had left the country as a result of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.

Opinions in favour of Mossad involvement

Journalist Naeim Giladi's position that the bombings were "perpetrated by Zionist agents in order to cause fear amongst the Jews, and so promote their exodus to Israel" is shared by a number of authors, including the Israeli Black Panthers (1975), David Hirst (1977), Wilbur Crane Eveland (1980), Uri Avnery (1988), Ella Shohat (1986), Abbas Shiblak (1986) , Marion Wolfsohn (1980), and Rafael Shapiro (1984). In his article, Giladi notes that this was also the conclusion of Wilbur Crane Eveland, a former senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who outlined that allegation in his book "Ropes of Sand".

According to Everland, "In an attempt to portray the Iraqis as anti-American and to terrorize the Jews, the Zionists planted bombs in the U.S. Information Service library and in the synagogues. Soon Leaflets began to appear urging Jews to flee tro Israel.. The Iraqi police later provided our embassy with evidence to show that the synagogue and library bombings, as well as the anti-Jewish and anti-American leaflet campaigns, had been the work of an underground Zionist organization, most of the world believed reports that Arab terrorism had motivated the flight of the Iraqi Jews whom the Zionists had 'rescued' really just in order to increase Israel’s Jewish population."

The British Embassy in Baghdad blamed the bombings on Zionist activists trying to highlight the danger to Iraqi Jews if they stay in order to hasten the pace of Jewish emigration.

Opinions against Mossad involvement

Moshe Gat has argued that the attacks were the work of Iraqis of extreme Arab nationalist persuasion and did not spur the Jewish exodus from Iraq.

Gat reports that much of the previous literature "reflects the universal conviction that the bombings had a tremendous impact on the large-scale exodus of the Jews... To be more precise it is suggested that the Zionist emissaries committed these brutal acts in order to uproot the properous Iraqi Jewish community and bring it to Israel". However, Gat argues that both claims are contrary to the evidence. As summarized by Mendes:

Historian Moshe Gat argues that there was little direct connection between the bombings and exodus. He demonstrates that the frantic and massive Jewish registration for denaturalisation and departure was driven by knowledge that the denaturalisation law was due to expire in March 1951. He also notes the influence of further pressures including the property-freezing law, and continued anti-Jewish disturbances which raised the fear of large-scale pogroms. In addition, it is highly unlikely the Israelis would have taken such measures to accelerate the Jewish evacuation given that they were already struggling to cope with the existing level of Jewish immigration. Gat also raises serious doubts about the guilt of the alleged Jewish bombthrowers. Firstly, a Christian officer in the Iraqi army known for his anti-Jewish views, was arrested, but apparently not charged, with the offences. A number of explosive devices similar to those used in the attack on the Jewish synagogue were found in his home. In addition, there was a long history of anti-Jewish bomb-throwing incidents in Iraq. Secondly, the prosecution was not able to produce even one eyewitness who had seen the bombs thrown. Thirdly, the Jewish defendant Shalom Salah indicated in court that he had been severely tortured in order to procure a confession. It therefore remains an open question as to who was responsible for the bombings, although Gat suggests that the most likely perpetrators were members of the anti-Jewish Istiqlal Party. Certainly memories and interpretations of the events have further been influenced and distorted by the unfortunate discrimination which many Iraqi Jews experienced on their arrival in Israel.

See also

• The Lavon Affair
• Iraqi Jews
• Farhud
• Exodus of Jews from Arab lands