DID YOU KNOW? I DIDNT! After Saddams regime was ousted with the American invasion of 2003, Iraqi Jews in exile, along with their descendants, were invited to participate in the elections that took place in Iraq at the beginning of 2005. chicagomaroon/2005/01/18/iraqi-elections-what-about-the-jewish-vote/ BAGHDAD, YESTERDAY, JERUSALEM, TOMORROW by Corey Robin (Jan 4, 2015) Ive just begun reading Baghdad, Yesterday, an engrossing memoir by Sasson Somekh, an Iraqi-born Jew who, like many Iraqi Jews, left* Baghdad for Israel in 1951. Somekh is now a professor emeritus of Arabic literature at Tel Aviv University. It reads likes a series of dispatches from life in Baghdad in the 30s and 40s. But one thing that surprised me—Somekh only mentions it in passing—is that after Saddams regime was ousted with the American invasion of 2003, Iraqi Jews in exile, along with their descendants, were invited to participate in the elections that took place in Iraq at the beginning of 2005. I didnt know anything about this, but its apparently true. The tragedy and injustice of Jews who were expelled from Arab countries after 1948 is often thrown up as a conversation-stopper whenever the question of the Nakba or Palestine arises. I couldnt help think that next time someone does raise that point, we should point to this invitation to Iraqi Jews (can we imagine Israel doing anything comparable for Palestinians in exile?) as a way of continuing that conversation. *Somekh uses the language of left rather than fled or was exiled or expelled or driven out. Im not far enough into the memoir yet to know what the circumstances of his leaving were, so Im going to rely on his usage for now.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 07:20:49 +0000
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