Major Jewish Organizations Urge U.S. Govt. to Act on Execution of Iraqi Jews

Major African Jewish organizations today protested to the United States Government against the execution of seven Jews in Iraq on charges of aiding Zionism.

(In Tel Aviv, an official spokesman, commenting on the executions of the seven Jews in Bagdad, said that such actions will certainly be taken into account when a settlement with Iraq is reached. He added that Israel is very much concerned about the fate of Jews in Arab countries.)

In a wire addressed to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, acting chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, said: “The executions can only be described as murders of a particularly atrocious Kind and the trials a travesty of justice, international law and the laws of humanity.May I recall to you, their, Secretary, that on several recent occasions various Jewish organizations have called to the attention of your Department other examples of offenses against international law perpetrated by various Arab League states against peaceful citizens, these representations were made because the Government of the United States is founded on the principle of equal justice before law and has repeatedly and openly expressed itself as concerned with adherence to this principle wherever and whenever apparent violations of it occurred.

“This latest violation comes at a time when your government, in collaboration with the United Nations, is bending all efforts to achieve permanent peace in the Middle East. The Inflammatory nature of the news carried by the Baghdad radio must be obvious. For the sake of both humanity and international peace, we urge the United States Government to use its good offices to see that justice prevails in Iraq and that political assassinations are not carried on in the guise of solemn legal judgments,” the telegram said.

ZIONIST EMERGENCY COUNCIL URGES U.S. TO PREVENT SIMILAR ACTS OF BARBARISM

The American Zionist Emergency Council, in a statement released here tonight, asked the United States whether it was “willing to treat a government engaged in such practices as a member of the community of civilized nations. Our appeal goes out to all men of good will to raise their voice in protest against this persecution, and to ask for the intervention of the government of the United States and of the United Nations to prevent similar acts of barbarism in the future.”

Earlier, the Council, in a message to the State Department signed by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman, voiced the hope that “energetic representations by the U.S. Government will succeed in saving human lives and in preventing similar outrages on the part of the Iraqi Government.”

“The reported death sentence of seven more Iraqi Jews appears as a father step in a systematic campaign of destruction of the Jewish population in Iraq,”Dr. Silver’s wire said. The message also cited the execution of Shafiq Ades last year in which “the efforts of the U.S. Government proved unavailing.”

Prompt intervention by the United States and the U.N. to save the lives of the seven Jews sentenced to death in Iraq for supporting Zionism was urged today by the American Jewish Committee. In a telegram to Acheson, Jacob Blaustein, A.J.C. President, called “for immediate intervention with the Iraq Government” to commute the death sentences. A cablegram from Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, honorary president of the Committee, to Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, acting U.N. mediator at Rhodes, declared that “vigorous action through your good offices would save these men.”

In Washington, B’nai B’rith, in a protest to the State Department, singed by Frank Goldman, president, urged the U.S. Government to intercede in behalf of the 14 other Jews who are expected to be tried shortly by Iraq for supporting Zionism.