Rashid Aali al-Gaylani Coup D’état, 1941 Position of Baghdad Jews (Published)
Jews of Baghdad enjoyed a normal life in the Iraqi society throughout different stages of history until the Arab-Zionist conflict in Palestine, which cast shadow on the relationship of Jews with other people in the Iraqi society. This study highlights the position of Jews in Baghdad of Rashid Aali al-Gaylani coup d’état against the British authorities in Iraq, 1941, and the role some of them played against this coup and in favor of British forces. This position raised the ire of Iraqi society, which held the whole Jewish community in Baghdad responsibile for al-Gaylani defeat. This led to what is known as the ‘Farhud’, or the violent dispossession (pogrom) against Jews in Baghdad. This study depended mainly on Zionist resources and references, where it has been noticed that it attempted to hold different groups the responsibility for the Farhud, without acknowledging the responsibility of the Zionist acts in Baghdad for the massacres that aimed at uprooting them from a society they used to live in for thousands of years, and relocate them to Palestine in order to achieve the Zionism objectives, which caused turmoil among the Iraqi Jews decades before the Farhud. In fact, the Zionist movement was the first beneficiary from the Farhud; they forced the Jews to emigrate from Iraq to Palestine. In spite of many viewpoints that dominated the Jewish communities, the Farhud incidents formed a historic twist, at least regarding the Jewish presence in Baghdad.
Keywords: Mu’tasem Naser