Would any members of the the 2,000-year-old Jewish community who were kicked out of Iraq after 1948 be permitted to return if they so desired?
General Fadhi Alwan Kazem, the head of the Citizenship Department in Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, admitted during a televized debate about citizenship for persecuted minorities that Jews will never be given the right to return to Iraq or have their Iraqi citizenship restored.
Iraqi MP Hussein Al-Iqabi agreed, claiming that since Israel is an enemy of Iraq, Iraq should never allow Jews with Israeli citizenship to hold Iraqi citizenship, but said that Jews who have no Israeli citizenship or loyalty to Israel might be okay.
While there were 156,000 Jews residing in Iraq in 1947, nearly all of them were violently expelled after the State of Israel was established, with most of their property and belongings stolen.
