The Iraqi authorities are taking new and cruel measures against Jews emigrating to Israel, arrivals on the Baghdad-Lydda airlift charged today.
They declared that Jews assembled at the airport awaiting transportation are being clubbed and beaten up by the police. Several of them showed injuries in confirmation of their statement. They charged that emigrating Jews, including women and children, were kept at the airport yesterday for seven hours without water. When the authorities finally heeded the children’s pleas for water, they provided buckets of dirty water previously used for washing.
One Jew who arrived in his pajamas, said he had been clubbed and forced to take off a new suit he had been wearing. Confiscation of personal effects of the emigrants is now a routine matter, the new arrivals declared. The newcomers here said that the Jews in Bagdad are panic-stricken and face starvation. All Jewish shops have been closed and it is most difficult for the Jews to but foodstuffs. From midnight Friday to dawn Sunday, the airlift brought in a total of 2,078 Iraqi Jews.
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