Iraqi Council Weighs Return of Jews, Rejecting It So Far

For several weeks, members of the Iraqi Governing Council have been trying to decide whether they should allow tens of thousands of Iraqi Jews who fled the country in the 1950’s and in later years to return. So far, the answer appears to be no. Late last year, the council approved proposed legislation that would have allowed thousands of Iraqis who fled or were expelled from the country to reclaim their Iraqi citizenship — unless they were Jewish, council members said. The proposal did not specifically mention Jews, they said, but it contained language that would have kept in place the revocation of citizenship of tens of thousands of Jews by the Iraqi government in 1950. “My feeling is, as long as the Palestinian problem exists, as long as there is a state of war, then we should not allow the Jews to return,” said Muhammad Bahaddin Saladin, a member of the Governing Council. “The minister of defense in Israel is an Iraqi Jew. Should we let him return?” Full Story