American Jewish Committee Asks U.S. Government Action on Iraq’s Treatment of Jews

Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, yesterday met with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs George C. McGhee and asked that the United States Government take “the firmest position it can” with regard to the Iraqi Government’s violation of the rights of the Jews of Iraq. In a memorandum from the Committee, the U.S. Government was urged “not to stand by idly in the face of such a dangerous situation in so important a part of the world today.”

Mr. Blaustein protested Iraq’s “disregard for human rights and simple decency” in its treatment of emigrating Jews and some Jews who were not leaving for Israel. Referring to the recent Iraqi law freezing the property of emigrating Jews, Mr. Blaustein said it was “a racist law conforming to the spirit and letter of the Nazi Nuremberg laws” and charged that by passage of this measure the Iraq Government had violated its “pledges as a member of the United Nations.”

“We do not find fault with the Iraq Government’s decision to freeze the property of those of its citizens who have expressed their intention to leave the country for good,” the A.J.C. memorandum said. “We do feel, however, that: 1. Iraq’s procedure of using the assets to pay the cost of administering them can lead to virtual confiscation; 2. Those assets belonging to Jews who are already in Israel should remain their property, even though frozen in Iraq, and should be at their disposal for domestic transactions within Iraq; 3. Those Jews still in Iraq but awaiting transportation to Israel should be permitted to retain and use their assets while they remain in Iraq, as freely as any other citizen of Iraq. The payment of administration expenses out of frozen assets,” the memorandum added, “opens the door to abuses which can easily transform a law for the freezing of property into one permitting its confiscation.”