The Knesset is for the first time marking the Farhud, a Holocaust-era pogrom against Iraqi Jews supported by Baghdad’s Nazi-backed government.
At least 180 Jews were killed in two days of mob violence on June 1-2, 1941. The event was seen as a turning point that brought centuries of strong Jewish-Arab ties in Iraq to a shuddering end. Today, only a handful of Jews live in Iraq; the remainder have fled to Israel or the West.
An Iraqi girl peers out from the door of her home on a street in what used to be the Jewish area of central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. (AP/Karim Kadim)
Israel had traditionally shied from taking any special steps to mark the pogrom, but in 2015 declared June 1 as International Farhud Day.
“The Farhud is Nazi crime,” says Joint List MK Ofer Kasif, calling for Farhud victims to be afforded the same rights as Holocaust survivors.
According to the Knesset website, 30 of the country’s 120 MKs are in the Knesset building, leaving the plenum mostly empty as a few lawmakers memorialize the massacre.
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