On September 23, 1948, Shafiq Adas, one of Iraq’s wealthiest Jewish businessmen, was hanged for the crimes of aiding Israel and supporting the Communist party, after a hasty trial of dubious legality involving even more dubious evidence. Adi Schwartz tells Adas’s story, and examines its significance for Iraqi Jewry:
Shafiq Adas’s arrest was not a one-off incident, of the sort that might somehow be excused, but part of a widescale anti-Jewish campaign waged by the Iraqi government and public. Since the start of 1948, and even before Iraq had declared war on Israel, the Jewish community had become a target of attacks and harassment. Cries of “Death to the Jews!” blared through protests in the streets. The Iraqi secret police had started persecuting Jews, and merchants were arrested for the purpose of extortion. Undercover officers prowled through streets where Jews lived, waiting for people to snitch on them. Jewish officials, both junior and senior, were fired from government ministries. Every night, increasing numbers of Jews were arrested, and community leaders appealed to anyone they could to intercede on their behalf and save them from their impending fate.
In July 1948, Zionism was officially declared a capital offense. Legally, two witnesses were sufficient to convict a Jew of Zionism. Any two Iraqis who wanted to blackmail a Jew but failed could simply go to a police station, as they did, and accuse him of being a Zionist or a Communist, and the Jew in question would be sent to prison immediately. In the summer of 1948, hundreds of Jews were put on trial; most were fined, while others were sentenced to lengthy terms behind bars.
Adas’s hanging left a tremendous impression on the Jews of [his hometown of] Basra. . . . Muslim children taunted their Jewish peers at school and called them “Adas’s orphans.”
Read more on Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/adas-affair-jews-iraq