Dieser Tage jährt sich zum 75. Mal der Farhud, der Angriff auf die jüdische Gemeinde von Bagdad, der den Anfang vom Ende der jüdischen Gemeinde im Irak markierte. 179 Juden wurden ermordet, hunderte weitere verletzt. Zvi Gabay erinnert anlässlich des Jahrestags an den erzwungenen Exodus der Juden aus der arabischen Welt:
„Similar attacks occurred against almost all Jews who lived in Arab countries. The Jews did not declare war on their hosts. They never fought against them, as the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine fought against the Jewish settlements and afterwards against the nascent Jewish State of Israel.
The world has heard a great deal about the injustice that happened to the Palestinian Arabs, under the code name ‚Nakba,‘ or ‚catastrophe,‘ but knows almost nothing about the wrongs committed against Jews in Arab countries. What happened in Iraq and the rest of the Arab countries was in effect an ethnic cleansing of the Jews. Jews were forced to leave behind their personal and communal properties, including schools, hospitals, ancient synagogues, cemeteries and prophets’ graves (some of which are being demolished now by Islamic State). The Arab governments confiscated all Jewish property.
While the Nakba is marked every year with demonstrations and wide media coverage, the Jewish disaster does not merit any public or media notice. This despite the fact that its human and physical dimensions were larger than the Nakba (the number of Jewish refugees forced out of their homes was about 856,000, while the Arabs who left Mandatory Palestine numbered about 650,000 according to UNRWA statistics).“
(Zvi Gabay in der Jerusalem Post: „The ‘farhud‘ – the riots against the Jews of Iraq“)