Iraqi Jews enjoying themselves before their mass exodus
The Iraqi publisher and writer, Mazen Latif, is active in documenting the lives of the oppressed, oppressed and oppressed Iraqi minorities and sects. While Iraq was in the early 20th century a country full of diversity, it is at the dawn of the new century free of the diversity on which its civilization, culture and history were based. Therefore, there is a pleasant attempt to restore the good spirit that has inhabited Iraq for centuries and since its first civilizations, and continued its citizenship until it was brutally uprooted from its motherland and abandoned for political reasons related to racial understanding and chauvinism against good Iraqi citizens like Jews. A gentle effort is focused on documenting the tremendous services provided by Iraqi Jews to their countries, documenting the lives of their media and intellectuals, as well as the tragedies they have experienced. In addition, he is active in introducing the other authentic Iraqi sects, which also faced no less horrendous persecution.
He published and wrote more than 14 books about Jewish citizens and their national role, as well as the rest of the other groups facing deportation and expulsion from Iraq.
Why is your interest in the subject of the Jews of Iraq so prominent?
I always ask this question. What raised my interest in the subject of the Jews of Iraq is that my grandmother (my mother’s mother) told me stories, and I was a child aged seven. She talked about their importance and role and how they were peaceful and honest. I kept these tales in my memory. When I reached an early stage of consciousness, I began looking for books and sources on the history of the Jews of Iraq. I look for any information even oral history, as I search and write. I promised to write and publish about the Jews of Iraq after the subject was banned for more than half a century.
How do you explain the growing interest in Jews? What is its relation to the current situation in Iraq? Who is interested?
Iraqis still have many memories of Iraq’s Jews, whose existence has ebbed, and they studied many of their physical features, posing a historic responsibility for the need to record their oral heritage. If the oral histories defined by historians include a set of traditions of legends, facts, knowledge, doctrines, opinions, customs and practices, when we write the history of an ethnic or religious group, we mean the history of all Iraq because the communities of Iraq and its people are bound by history, geography and a common life.
What is the position of the Iraqi street on this issue? Have you changed? Is there a nostalgia for the Jews?
The position of the Iraqi street fluctuates, in a sense it is sympathetic to the Jews of Iraq and knows their achievements and their role in building Iraq in that period, but at the same time it accuses as Zionists those who defend them and write about them. It is a paradox that reflects the dual personality of the Iraqi man.
Are there difficulties in writing about Jews?
There are those who accuse anyone who cares about writing about the Jews of Iraq to be a Zionist and other typical charges. I was initially subjected to a lot of harassment, when I wrote about the Jews of Iraq. The reason is we were raised the culture of the Baath party: Anyone who deals with a subject about the Jews is considered a Zionist or an Israeli, but the situation now in Iraq is that there is a lot of freedom and democracy that allow one to address this issue. When I write about the Jews of Iraq, I write about an Iraqi community that has an important role in the history of modern Iraq.
Frankly, the issue of the Jews of Iraq has some difficulties, because the Iraqi consciousness is still suffering from some backwardness, because the majority view the subject of the Jews of Iraq from a racist point of view, express any issue as Israeli or Zionist, and tie it to the subject of Palestine. Frankly I encountered and still find many difficulties, because of my obsession with the subject. Many try to distort my reputation, and accuse me of being a Zionist, working for Mossad, Israeli and other typical charges.
How do you see the status of Jews in Iraq before deportation?
The Jews of Iraq produced culture, journalism, art and economy, which is the highest in the history of Iraq centuries ago. The status of the Jews of Iraq was very important in building the Iraqi state, many excelled economically, in newspapers, in the media and in other fields. And how we regret the rising generations of ignorance of their contributions and integration within the Iraqi state. The public discourse on Iraqi culture continues to be rife with them: Iraqis have been enraged by a nationalistic past, sectarian and arrogant sectarianism, preoccupied with the erosion of Iraq’s cultural and self-identity, and the marginalization of the other ancient minorities that once formed Iraq’s genius.
How do you explain the exodus?
The displacement of the Jews of Iraq left the curse and sorrow in the hearts of those close to them and who loved them sincerely. Iraq has been an oppressor to Iraqi elements and minorities. The Jews of Iraq have been forcibly displaced, the Kurds have been abandoned, the Christians have been abandoned, the Sunnis have been abandoned, the Shiites have been abandoned, and so have I: the displacement of the Jews of Iraq was a crime against Iraqi citizens who served Iraq with all their possessions. At the same time, the Iraqi government provided for the displacement of the Jews of Iraq and did the best favour to Israel, after they expelled people with high-level skills that were running the country. The displacement of the Jews of Iraq at the time created a gap in the economics of the country, as they were in control of the economy of Iraq, and many Iraqis so far are waiting for the Jews of Iraq, and considerthem real Iraqis, Iraq list a lot. The truth is that these people were planted in the Iraqi land more than 2,600 years ago. They were not occupiers, but they were exiled Sephardim. They loved Babylon and the two rivers and saved them, and they witnessed the crucifixion of Iraq while occupiers or oppressors had free rein.
The decision to strip Iraqi nationality from the Jews of Iraq during the period of the Tawfiq al-Suwaidi government in 1950 and the freezing of their funds and arbitrary arrest on numerous trumped-up charges, including Zionism and communism, and then expelling them from their ancient Mesopotamia, came in the context of a well-known global conspiracy. From then on, Iraq began to bleed.
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