The Board of Deputies of British Jews called today’s executions in Baghdad a “wilful act of savagery” and called on “all those to whom humanity and justice are not dead to prevent these barbaric acts.” It appealed for the safety of Jews remaining in Iraq “who are held as hostages.”
The Zionist Federation of Great Britain observed that if the United Nations had agreed to Israel’s demand that it investigate the condition of Jews in Arab countries the Iraqi regime might have “second thoughts about continuing its reign of terror.” The British Poale Zion addressed a statement to Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the general secretary of the British Labor Party expressing shock over the Iraqi executions. The organization urged the British Government to “use its good offices to free the Jews of Iraq, Egypt and Syria.” The Anglo-Jewish Association “strongly condemned the senseless execution of 15 innocent and helpless men” and called on public opinion to make itself heard against “the latest act of inhumanity.”
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