The Arabic press here continues to incite the population against the Jews. At Shahraban, where the press carried reports about Zionist activities in Palestine, the only six Jewish children in a local school were called before the class and told by the teacher to sing Hatikvah, the Zionist anthem. The children denied knowledge of the song.
The Arab teacher then told the children he knew their parents had ordered them not to sing the anthem before a Moslem. When the Jewish pupils denied this, they were beaten by the teacher.
Protests to the principal of the school and the Iraq department of Education proved unavailing, and authorities refused to take action.
Baghdad authorities arrested E. Levy, proprietor of the Al Rashid book store and author of a letter to the Manchester Guardian telling of confiscation of foreign Jewish newspapers sent to Iraq, and of the opening of letters addressed to Jews by postal officials.
Levy is charged with “intended libel and defamatory remarks damaging to Iraq’s integrity.” The Arabic press refused to publish a letter on the subject sent by Levy, but urged the government to punish the Jewish book dealer severely. Levy, however, has sworn affidavits from a number of Jews on the banning of Jewish newspapers addressed to them and on the opening of registered mail sent them from other countries.
The president and council of the Baghdad Jewish community protested vigorously to the government against the anti-Jewish tone of the Arabic press, but the government took no steps to halt the anti-Semitic agitation.
Arabic newspapers defended the government for confiscating Jewish newspaper from abroad on the ground that Zionism is “an arbitrary plot calculated to hurt the Arabs and prevent them from claiming their rights. “
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
