Pro-Zoinist group denounce Baghdad's request to reclaim Iraqi-Jewish archive stolen during the 2003 invasion

Shafaq News/ Harold Rhode, former cultural and historical expert at the Pentagon, condemned Baghdad's request to reclaim the Iraqi-Jewish archive which was discovered in Baghdad during the 2003 U.S. occupation.

Speaking at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda to a primarily Iraqi-Jewish audience, “this is your heritage, these are your letters, your marriage certificates, your communal documents, and your holy texts.”

According to Rhode, a series of unforeseen circumstances, coupled with intelligence leaks from former regime members, paved the way for this remarkable find.

“I remember the phone rang and Ahmed Chalabi called me... I had no idea what I was about to stumble upon,” he said.

The site of discovery was a semi-demolished building, gravely damaged by a munition, where the documents were found submerged in water, according to the pro-Zoinist expert.

Rhode claimed that religious sensitivities were at play, as laying sacred Jewish texts on the ground posed significant moral dilemmas.

“I was very concerned about this question but after talking to rabbis in Israel, they explicitly said that there is no religious problem because this work was holy,” he said.

Lily Shor, Director of Events at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, said, “the archive is a vast ocean of information that sheds light onto every aspect of the Iraqi-Jewish community.”

The assemblage provides candid insights into the community's day-to-day experiences, civil rights issues, and the tumultuous period following the establishment of Israel, she added.

Currently housed in the National Archives in Washington, the Iraqi government demanded the US government to hand back those documents, which according to Shor poses challenges to their accessibility.

“The Iraqis claim the records that they stole from the Jews as their own heritage... We will never be able to see those records if they are transferred to Iraq,” she said.

The debate over the rightful custodianship of the archive remains contentious, with Rhode emphasizing, “The children and grandchildren of the original authors are almost all in Israel. This is their inheritance and their history, not Iraq’s.”