In an email to the Jewish Week, a spokesman has said the US State Department is committed to returning the Jewish archive to Iraq. The US government response comes as a rebuff to Senator Chuck Schumer, the first politician to take up the cause.
The State Department has rebuffed the request of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) not to return to Iraq the treasure trove of Jewish artifacts found by American troops in Baghdad in 2003. Schumer said the items were “stolen” from the Iraqi Jewish community.
Under an agreement with the Bush administration at the time, the more than 2,700 artifacts – including partial Torah parchments and ancient prayer books –were to be returned to Iraq in 2014 after being restored and preserved by the National Archives in Washington.
In response to Schumer’s letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, a State Department spokesman, Pooja Jhunjhunwala, told The Jewish Week in an e-mail that the Department would abide by its August 2003 agreement with Iraq.
“We are committed to returning the material to Iraq following the completion of the preservation project and the exhibition of the material in the United States,” he wrote. “Much of the project has now been completed by the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), and NARA has announced that the material is being readied for exhibition in Washington at the National Archives.”
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Sen Schumer tries to block archive return
'Save the Iraqi-Jewish archive' website
MC4EST LE POT DE TERRE CONTRE LE POT DE FER
ReplyDeleteWHO IS GOING TO WIN? OF COURSE THE ONE WHO IS BACKED BY THE us;
wHAT GREATER SATISFACTION FOR iRAQ, aND YET THEY REALLY DO NOT HAVE ANY USE FOR THESE ARCHIVES; bUT HEY THEY JUST LOVE ANNOYHING US!
There is no justification, nor logic, in sending these Jewish archives back to Iraq, a place that has virtually no Jews, no interest in Jewish heritage and no accessibility to Jewish scholars or the descendants of those who once possessed them.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, U asking USA to steal things.
ReplyDelete