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W.j.c. Asks Immediate U.N. Action to Protect Terrorized Jewish Community in Iraq

October 24, 1949
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Immediate action is needed to protect the Jewish population of Iraq “lest an ancient and honorable community of 130,000 people be totally destroyed” the World Jewish Congress asserted yesterday in an urgent plea by Dr. Robert S. Marcus, W.J.C. political director, in identical letters to U.N. Secretary-General Trygve Lie, Security Council president Warren Austin and General Assembly president Carlos P. Romulo.

Accompanying the letter was an 11-page statement documenting charges of a reign of terror being conducted against the entire Iraqi-Jewish community by the Baghdad Government. The statement charged that Jews were not only prohibited from leaving the country–except in rare cases and only after deposit of a bond of approximately $9,000–but their movements within the country are also restricted. Hundreds of others, the statement charged, have been thrown in jail and their property confiscated on flimsy charges of “Zionism” and “Communism.”

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