A plane filled with Iraqi Jewish refugees photographed on arrival at Lod Airport outside Tel Aviv in early 1951 (Teddy Brauner, GPO).
Today, November 30th, is Jewish Refugee day or Yom HaPlitim (יום הפליטים), and we remember their stories.
Their arrival came amid a mass exodus triggered by escalating persecution in Iraq, including violent pogroms such as the 1941 Farhud, during which Jewish homes and businesses were looted and many civilians including children were murdered and wounded. Jewish girls were publicly raped. The community also faced targeted assassinations, public executions such as the infamous Baghdad hangings, and a series of bombings in 1950–1951 aimed at Iraq's Jewish community. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Jews in Iraq were frequently arrested on fabricated charges, tortured in prison, and subjected to the banning of communal, religious and political activity. These pressures finally peaked in state-sanctioned expropriation, revocation of citizenship, and forced expatriation.
In 1951, 120,000 Iraqi Jews were issued passports for the sole purpose of emigration known as passports of No Return. A prerequisite was the waiving of all property and monetary belongings.
By the 1930s, Jews made up roughly a quarter of Baghdad’s total population, and by 1945 around 135,000 Jews lived across Iraq. Today only a handful remain.
This end of the millenia old Babylonian Jewish exile is referred to as Sant al-Tasqit.
This pattern was varied and repeated in every country across SWANA.
