Reports of persecutions of Iraqi Jews were disseminated by Israel to “help maintain the theme of persecuted Jews for political and fund-raising purposes,” Nathir Umari, attache of the Iraqi Embassy here, charged today. He denied that Jews in Iraq were being subjected to persecution.
He declared, however, that “these stories are very unfortunate and will only make it more difficult for Iraqi Jews.” The Iraqi declined to explain what he meant by this. He also charged that Jews want to divert public opinion from the “plight of the Arab refugees and to cover up Israel’s economic crisis with sensational news.”
(Dr. Fadhil Jamali, Iraq’s delegate to the United Nations, categorically denied at Lake Success late last night that the Iraq Government was carrying on a program of persecution against its Jewish population. He added that the Israel Government was seeking to divert world attention from “Jewish invasion, aggression and disregard for United Nations decisions” that have led to “the miseries of a million Arabs in Palestine.”)
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