Discrimination and persecution of Jews is continuing in the Arab states, especially in Syria, Egypt and Iraq, Israel Ambassador Yosef Tekoah reported in a letter to Secretary General U Thant sent Friday and made public here today. “Recent reports,” declared Mr. Tekoah, “indicate that a particularly serious aggravation has occurred in the situation of the Jewish community of Iraq.” Noting that after Israel attained its independence in 1948, some 120,000 Iraqi Jews had fled to Israel, Mr. Tekoah stated that “the Jews who remained in Iraq have been subjected to ever greater restrictions and deprivations. These have assumed alarmingly grave proportions since the hostilities of June, 1967. The Iraqi Government has passed laws denying Jews their civil liberties, their freedom of movement, and the possibility of employment. The Jews of Iraq are under constant fear for their lives. The Iraqi authorities, and particularly the secret police, threaten them even with murder.”
According to Mr. Tekoah, the Iraqi actions are the first since the Nazi anti-Jewish laws during the Hitler regime in which “the oppression of Jews has been formally promulgated” through legislation. Mr. Tekoah cited specific actions taken against the Iraqi Jews including a legislative provision which orders “all Government and private offices and businesses not to pay out any sums ‘due to the Jews’ but to notify the Minister instead.” The only exception to this confiscatory rule, according to Mr. Tekoah, is one exempting salaries up to 100 dinars ($180) per month which is approximately the salary now paid in Iraq to a beginning clerk “and does not suffice to support a family.” Mr. Tekoah noted in his letter that “the Nazi-like persecution of the Jews of Iraq constitutes a wanton violation by the Iraqi Government of the charter of the United Nations, of fundamental human rights and of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council.” Mr. Tekoah stated that “an end must be put to this revival of Hitlerite practices which requires immediate international attention.” In accordance with Mr. Tekoah’s request, the letter was circulated today as an official document to all members of the United Nations including the 15 that are members of the Security Council.
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