Iraq – Ministry Demands Israel to Return Rare Torah Thought to Have Been Looted

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    Baghdad, Iraq – Israel should return rare Babylonian Jewish artifacts to Iraq, an official at the Tourism Ministry in Baghdad was quoted as saying Monday.

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    In particular, the Baghdad authorities want back an ancient handwritten scroll, known in Hebrew as a Torah, which contains the core five books of the Jewish Bible on parchment.

    Iraq once had a large Jewish population, which numbered well over 100,000 people, prior to the formation of Israel in 1948. In the following decades, nearly all of Iraq’s Jews migrated abroad under turbulent circumstances, leaving behind less than a dozen members of the community when US-led troops invaded in 2003.

    Abd al-Zahra al-Talqani, a spokesman for the Iraqi Tourism Ministry, charged that the scroll was removed from Iraq illegally.

    ‘A clear admission appeared on Israeli TV that shows there was a copy of the Torah which was smuggled from Iraq to Israel using bribery,’ he told the pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsat daily.

    Similar claims by Iraqi officials regarding allegedly illicit exports to Israel have been made over the last seven years.

    The latest charge followed internal investigations by the ministry into the missing artifacts, al-Talqani said.

    The rare scroll was originally thought to have been looted, along with other precious items across Iraq, in the anarchy that reigned following the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

    The United Nations believes thousands of items are missing from Iraq. Many have yet to be located, including dozens of pieces of high cultural or historical significance.

    Earlier this year, Iraq pressed the United States for the return of key Jewish artifacts found by US soldiers as those artifacts were soaking in sewage water in the basement of Saddam Hussein’s secret police headquarters.

    The Jews of Iraq – whose presence in the Middle Eastern land goes back to the 6th century BC, during the reign of the ancient Babylonian empire – now mostly reside in Israel. This has prompted some to say the Jewish state should house artifacts related to the community.

    Discovered at the bottom of the secret police station were items dating from the 15th century that indicated the presence of a vibrant community which maintained open religious and cultural ties with the Jews of Europe and other Arab lands. Washington says it was holding the items for safekeeping.

    Though Jews were heavily involved in Iraqi politics, including the anti-colonial independence movement, the formation of Israel, which Baghdad declared an enemy, led to a deterioration in the community’s standing and an exodus.


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    6 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    I don’t know if it belongs to israel or not but one thing is definite , that it doesn’t belong for iraq..

    13 years ago

    The materials brought out of Iraq, by the fleeing Jews of Iraq, do not belong to the government of Iraq. This is a shameless attempt to seize valuable antiquities on behalf of a state that can not guarantee the safety of Muslims (Shia or Sunni) much less Jews or Christians. The Iraqi Christian who as Director protected the antiquities in the museums so bravely from Hussein, looters, and souvenir seeking coalition forces was forced to flee with his family for their lives when one of the largest “political” parties sent his son a death threat wrapped around a bullet. This isn’t opinion, this is fact. The Jewish communities, those that are left, would be well advised to flee while they can. Once the US and allies wind down their presence it is very likely that the plight of minority groups will only get much much worse.

    jewishmother
    jewishmother
    13 years ago

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    “An artifact or artefact (see spelling differences) is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest.”

    Simple irrefutable defense – it’s not an artifact. The Torah is not an “object” with a “cultural interest” – it is living.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    This is a chutzpah. Jewish artifacts belong to Jews! No one ever sold them to the muslims or to anyone else!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    To No. 3

    Sorry, but your legal reasoning is really farblunget…there have been many court cases in the U.S., Europe and EY involving sales of sifrei torah at antique auctions and in every cases a sefer torah is treated like a piece of furniture or an old urn or painting. You make think in terms of “etz chayim hi la’machaziim ba” but the courts focus only on the latter part “la’machazikim ba” and have consistently analyzed ownership under the abandoned property rules of the country where it originatedn and seek its return.

    kollelfaker
    kollelfaker
    13 years ago

    oweing to the fact that these items belonged to jews that lived their their providence doesnt belong to the moslem government if their were jews and shuls functioning with memebers i would agree return them butr to what and why