Abraham el-Saigh, a prominent Iraqi Jew, has been killed in what the head of the American Committee for the Rescue and Resettlement of Iraqi Jews (AMCOR) calls “a political murder.” Dr. Heskel Haddad, who reported the incident today, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Saigh was found dead in his home in Baghdad with no signs of burglary or forced entry. He said Saigh was one of 100 Iraqi Jews who would be barred from leaving the country even if general emigration permission were accorded Iraqi Jews.
Dr. Haddad also reported that eight Jews at the top of the list of 100 have “disappeared” in Baghdad, and AMCOR has “assumed they were arrested.” They are Dr. Ezra Khazzan, a physician; Jacob Abd el-Aziz, a lawyer; Jacob and Shaul Rijuan, brothers; Shaul Shamash and Azoori Shamash, unrelated; Victor Ezra Daoud, and an unidentified man from Basra.
AMCOR said that the Jewish population of Iraq has decreased from 3500 in 1967 to 600-700 today, with around 300 of them old and around 400 waiting to leave on passports. Since 1967, more than 2500 Jews have left Iraq on passports or illegally. AMCOR described Iraqi Jewry’s situation today as “worsened,” Seventy demonstrators rallied yesterday outside the Iraqi Mission, protesting the treatment of Iraqi Jews.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
