Iraq Eradicates Evidence of Its Jewish Past

In 2001 the Taliban dynamited the two 6th century Buddhas of Bamyan in central Afghanistan, after Mullah Mohammed Omar deemed the statues "idols" forbidden under Sharia law. The destruction was accompanied by an international outroar.

Today, in 2010, Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Authority is supervising the removal of Hebrew inscriptions and the Torah Ark from the tomb of the Jewish Prophet Ezekiel in the town of Al-Kifl, south of Baghdad, and is planning to build a mosque over the grave. Has there been any international outrage over this planned "renovation"? None whatsoever.

Why the absence of international protests? The answer is simple: The world prefers to forget that some 60% of Israel's Jews are from families evicted from their homes in neighboring Arab countries and deprived of their livelihoods and belongings. Moreover, this eradication of a Jewish past in Iraq suits the interests of both the far Right and the far Left in Europe and the U.S., in keeping with their desire to propagate the myth that Israelis are European intruders, having no connection with the Middle East.

In 1948 there was a vibrant Jewish community of some 150,000 persons living in Iraq. Today that number is less than ten.

Don't expect international condemnation of the Al-Kifl desecration. It is exceedingly comfortable for the world to forget that Israel's origins extend beyond the ovens of Auschwitz to the savage anti-Semitism perpetrated in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia and elsewhere throughout the Middle East. Some 600,000 Jews from these Arab nations made their way to Israel, leaving behind $30 billion in property and assets; however, as far as the U.N. is concerned, there are only Palestinian refugees, and the sooner Jewish ties to their past homes is erased, the better.