The United Nations Conciliation Commission on Palestine will examine Israeli charges of maltreatment by Iraqi authorities of Jews emigrating from Iraq, Ely E. Palmer, current chairman of the commission, announced today.
The American diplomat acknowledged receipt of a complaint from Walter Eytan, Director-General of the Israel Foreign Ministry, and said that the commission would examine this complaint at its next meeting April 23. Dr. Tewfik Rushti Aras, Turkish member of the commission, who recently visited Iraq to discuss with the Iraq Government proposals for resettlement in Iraq of Palestine refugees in exchange for Jews emigrating to Israel, will attend this session.
Some 3,000 Jews are now in Iraqi prisons, awaiting trial on various charges, Prof. Ezra Haddad, noted Hebrew scholar and teacher, reported here today following his arrival from Bagdad. He said that all the Jewish schools in Iraq had been closed. The scholar estimated that Jewish property valued at 100,000,000 pounds ($280,000,000) had been frozen by the Iraqi authorities thus far. The Alien Property Custodian, he said, had notified wealthy Jews now travelling abroad that unless they return to Iraq within two months, their property would be frozen.
Prof. Haddad declared that a total of 108,000 Jews had registered for emigration to Israel. About 30,000 others, he said, had elected to retain their Iraqi citizenship. Most of these, he said, were wealthy persons who elected to remain to protect their interests. The recent widespread hostility displayed by the Iraq authorities, however, he said, and the threat of further anti-Jewish legislation, had convinced many of these people that it would be futile for them to remain in Iraq. They now place all their hopes, he added, on being taken out of Iraq to Israel even at the cost of loss of their wealth.
Iraqi newspapers reaching here predict the imminent proclamation of a new law empowering the Minister of Interior to expel “every undesirable Jew who endangers Iraq’s security,” it was reported here today. The possibility of the Minister of Interior having such vast discretionary powers are viewed in Jewish circles with the utmost concern. It is feared that the Iraqi authorities will discriminate freely against Jews, particularly wealthy land owners whose property will then be confiscated.
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