Some weeks ago, Point of no Return flagged an interesting piece by the well-known author and poet Khalid al-Kishtainy in the Saudi-owned Arabic daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat after he had attended the Halahel Iraqi-Jewish festival in London in June. Why weren't the Iraqi Jews, who traditionally held leftwing, liberal views, acting as a bridge between Israel and the Palestinians? he wondered.
The piece produced an equally interesting comments thread (with special thanks to Eileen and Freddy K for kindly translating them). Some admonished the Palestinians, one praised the Jews for being intelligent and hard-working. But this comment, from Amer Ammar of the United States, stood out:
“My dear Sir, how can we confess in Iraq that we have wronged the Jews? Our fathers and us have been fed hatred against the Jews to the extent that their knowledge, their star (of David) and their dress have become our most feared things. Whereas, if we looked at the old pictures of Baghdad and the various cities then we would see that their dress and the star were present everywhere without any ill feeling towards them.
Our ancestors and their Jewish friends lived with each other and were neighbours. So what happened? What is the crime of the thousands of Iraqi Jews who loved their country and contributed towards its advancement and construction, only to be rewarded with expulsion and persecution (Farhoud). It is important that the new generation should take the first step towards rebuilding the trust and no better place to start when with our brothers who are already living in this country as it is certain that they never did commit any crimes, worst than the crimes of the past dictatorial regime or the present democratic regime.”
Amen to that.
To read all the comments scroll down the 17 July post.
No comments:
Post a Comment