Voices from the Archive

IJA 1888

Interview Transcript, Delegate from the Jewish Directorate

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Description

This is a transcript of a media interview with an Iraqi Jew who recently returned to Iraq after living in Israel for several years. The discussion involves regional politics, economics, and comparisons between life in Iraq and life in Israel.

Metadata

Archive Reference
IJA 1888
Item Number
2670
Date
Approx. January 1, 1971 to December 31, 1980
Languages
Arabic
Keywords
Directorate of Agriculture, Palestine, Passport, Annotation, President of the Jewish Community, Fragments, Middle Eastern Politics, Israel, Agriculture, Ministry of Defense, Travel, Economics, Typed, Iraqi Government, Zionism

AI English Translation, Pages 1-25

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And instead of the humanitarian aid that was his right, he received a severe beating by the employees of
the Zionist Ministry of Defense to the point that he lost consciousness. The Tel Aviv authorities eventually
admitted him to a hospital for neurological diseases to kill him and get rid of him. This is an old Zionist
method to which the religious saying applies: Have you killed the man and inherited his property...
In the end, this Jew returned to his homeland, Iraq, and when I met him and he told me about the troubles
he encountered in the Zionist state, he burst into tears and said to me: How can Jews do
such acts against a Jew? This is what makes me recoil from Judaism and hate it.
Here I explained to him that he and all honorable Jews must resist Zionism as it is a
racist movement that exploits Judaism. And that Zionism is one thing and Judaism is another. And that Judaism
is a humanitarian religion that contradicts Zionism and its criminal principles.
Here I want to address a word to the Jews of Iraq and to the Jews of the Eastern sects in particular, and to the world
in general: If this aforementioned Jew - Yaqub Oved - had participated in a
desecrated war against the Arabs and was seriously injured, this matter did not constitute any obstacle for him in Iraq
and he received all his rights as an Iraqi citizen. This is because the revolutionary authority in Iraq does not know
discrimination or racism, and these matters are as far from it as the sky is from the earth. Therefore, the authority
provided him with everything he wanted and did not hint to him about his past in the Zionist army. Here I want to direct
my question to the Nazi racist rulers of Tel Aviv: would they have provided such benefits
to an Arab person who fought against them? Of course not. And as long as the rulers of Tel Aviv have treated this Jew
who fought in the ranks of their army with such inhumane treatment, how do they treat the Arabs who fight them?
And now I would like to extend my greetings and peace to my dear parents and to all my friends and acquaintances wherever
they may be, especially in Or Yehuda. And I direct my greetings to my friend Shabtai Qawabasi in Salama C and to
his children, Sima, Eli, and Eva, and to his wife, and I direct my greetings to all the people who know me
in the Zionist state, and especially to my brothers and sisters....
⟦line⟧

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Text of the radio interview
conducted by Muhammad Fayyad, representative of the Hebrew Section at the Directorate of Programs
Directed and Local, with the returning Iraqi Jew, Daoud Yamin Mardukh
on 5/5/1978
(First Episode)
⟦line⟧
(Q): Good evening, colleague Daoud.... More than a year and a half has passed since we met
for the first time.. and the same period has passed since your return to your homeland. And now.. would you allow
us to talk to us and the listeners about everything you have encountered since your arrival and since that meeting until now?
(A): Well.... Before I start talking and answering this question, I would like to say something
important, which is: I can say that since I arrived in Iraq returning and until this
day, I feel joy and pleasure, and also depression..
As for the reason for my depression, it stems from my feeling that I returned late to Iraq, as it was
necessary to return many years before this date.. I truly feel sad
because I was not able to return to my homeland Iraq several years ago, and I was not able to participate
and enjoy the achievements made by the Iraqi people.. I also feel sad because I
spent the last ten years before my return to my homeland, inside the Zionist hell
where I feel that every day I spent there crushed me more because of the excruciating pain
that permeated that period for me.
As for the source of my great joy now, it is my feeling that I have returned to my homeland and have been living in it for
a year and a half, especially since I have been able during this relatively short period of my presence
in my homeland to achieve several personal gains that I had hoped for for a long time, and it was not possible
to achieve them even if I had lived another twenty years inside the Zionist state
rather, it might not have been possible at all to achieve them there.
I am also happy and overwhelmed with joy not just for the gains I achieved for myself, but also
for the general gains achieved by the Iraqi people as a whole since the launch of the July 17 revolution
of 1968 AD until this moment.
I also feel overwhelming joy at the Iraqi Revolution Command Council's issuance of its historic decision that allowed
the Jews of Iraq to return to their homeland. It is very difficult to describe the beauty of life
that I spend here in my homeland, for every day, every hour, and every moment that passes me here leaves a beautiful
effect on myself... I witness things happening here in my homeland that remain difficult for
others to believe they occurred.. Let us take, for example, the Iraqi people in general.. and their general feeling

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towards life, and the lifestyle they live.... People here wake up in the morning and go out
to work overwhelmed with happiness and self-confidence.... A visitor to this country must see the overwhelming
joy that covers the faces of the people of this nation with every sunrise as they head to their work.
This applies to everyone of different ages. The young, the old, the woman, and the man head
every morning to their work with overwhelming joy and a sincere desire to double production.. and the most important thing in this
scene is that all these people I mentioned go to their work with vigor, activity, and pleasure
but they do not quicken their pace more than necessary, and I did not see anyone running fast like a lunatic as happens
in Tel Aviv.... And I did not see anyone here hurrying more than required.. and the opposite is
true. People here head to their work overwhelmed with happiness, self-confidence, and calm, and they behave
with superb politeness and possess excellent morals.
Take for example, an ordinary person here boarding a bus: when a citizen boards
the vehicle, the first thing they encounter is the greeting directed to them by the driver and passengers, and this is exactly the opposite of
the behavior and ethics of Zionist bus drivers in the occupied land.... For there, a person is received
either with insults or with shouting by public vehicle drivers..
The other matter is the issue of smoking in public buses. What I notice in this
regard is that one can never see a person smoking in public vehicles. And let
whoever may be here, even a minister does not allow himself to smoke cigarettes inside a public vehicle
and more importantly, one does not see smoking women here.... not in public vehicles
nor in any public place.. This does not mean that I am calling for the prohibition of smoking for women, but the fact that
women do not smoke provides a layer of good morals and psychological stability. It is known that Israeli
women say they use smoking because it treats some of their problems and psychological crises.
and relieves the tension they live in.
However, people here in Iraq do not feel any kind of tension or anxiety, and they are all self-confident and overwhelmed
with happiness.. This does not mean that I am saying that not all people here use tobacco. On the contrary
it is true.. people here smoke but not inside public transportation. Smoking inside
public vehicles here is something that absolutely does not exist.... while when one rides a public vehicle in Tel Aviv -
one soon discovers that it is like a den for hashish use.. everyone there, women and men, practice
the habit of smoking in public vehicles.... and if someone dares to ask their neighbor in the vehicle
to stop smoking, they are subjected to killing looks.
As for the achievements and gains that the revolution in Iraq has achieved for the people, they are countless ⟦line⟧
Wherever a person goes in the cities of Iraq, they see construction and reconstruction operations, and devices, equipment, and factories
covering the land of Iraq, cities and villages..
In the field of education, all citizens in Iraq, without exception, enjoy the right to compulsory academic attainment

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Free, whether at the primary or university level, and even for acquiring knowledge abroad.
The government here is not satisfied with that alone; rather, it provides grants and expenses for all students, including
personal expenses.. I can say with high confidence that the financial grant provided to the student
for personal spending exceeds in its volume the wages received by workers (relief works) in
Israel. This is in addition to the meals provided to the students and in addition to all means
of study such as books, notebooks, pens, and other tools needed by the Iraqi student...
As for Iraqi students who travel to acquire knowledge outside the country, the Iraqi government
provides them with full expenses in addition to personal expenses reaching up to 30 dollars per day.
Among other achievements, I mention, for example, the basic consumer materials for humans here..
Everyone knows that the Tel Aviv government imposes high prices on basic consumer materials from one month to another.
In fact, there is an outrageous and astonishing high cost of living in the Zionist state, while one can see and touch
for oneself here that many of the basic consumer materials for humans have not risen in price at all for
25 years until now. Especially: bread, whose price has not risen in Iraq during the past twenty-five
years. And transportation as well.... where it can be said that transportation prices here in
Iraq are almost free.
As for sugar, tea, rice, oils, fats, dairy products, soap, and other vital materials
for human living, they are extremely cheap in Iraq. This is because the government pays the difference in international
prices to maintain low prices for these materials with the aim of providing them to all sectors of the Iraqi people.
As for the issue of unemployment in Iraq, it does not exist at all.. while in occupied Palestine there is a chronic
disease called unemployment, which Oriental Jews and a large percentage of Iraqi Jews specifically complain about.
As for Iraq, the word unemployment does not exist in either the political dictionary or the general dialect.
The opposite is true; Iraq complains of a shortage in the workforce and imports workers, technicians, and experts
from all parts of the world, whether Arabs or foreigners.... and there is in Iraq a huge percentage of
foreign workers who work in all fields and sectors. It is the right of the citizen and the foreign
newcomer to this country to apply for work in any field provided that they master their work and provide the required
production.
There is another issue, which is agriculture. The agricultural sector here is rich in its resources, and I personally worked
in this sector, in the Directorate of Animal Wealth affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. I have witnessed for myself amazing
things in the field of progress and what the state exerts to revive and develop this sector. Although everyone
knows that the number of livestock and poultry in Iraq in general is very high, the Iraqi government
imports improved breeds of cows and sheep and seeks to improve livestock and its strains. And as a result of this matter
over tens of thousands of livestock. In Iraq, there are hundreds of millions of various poultry that are
cared for and raised by public sectors and sell their production at cheap prices to the people, and these are fixed prices and have not occurred
they know

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any high prices in this field since my feet touched the land of Iraq.
And here it is worth noting a very important fact, which is: the issue of prices. Wherever I go in
Iraq, I feel joy and pleasure for a very excellent phenomenon, which is that prices here are limited, and
one sees the prices written on the materials they buy, and no merchant or seller, whether governmental
or private merchant, can demand a higher price, even by a single fils, than the specified price. And anyone who dares to
embezzle one fils from the citizen is severely punished. This reminds me that shopkeepers and business owners
in the Zionist state raise prices arbitrarily without anyone confronting them. And
some goods are sold at different prices, increasing or decreasing from one store to another. The Tel Aviv government claims that
it is difficult to supervise prices. Here I wonder, if it is difficult for the Zionists to supervise
prices, how can they supervise the spread and distribution of drugs and supervise robberies
and contribute to their success through the collusion of the police with thieves and their gangs?
And if the Iraqi government supervises prices with complete integrity, this is due to its desire to
eliminate the manipulation of brokers and ensure the needs of the people. If this indicates anything, it indicates
that the Iraqi government was created to serve its people, of whom it is a part and for whom it exists, while the policy of the Tel Aviv
government seeks to enrich the rich and impoverish the poor.
Well ⟦line⟧ thank you ⟦line⟧ and now we move to a new question.

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( Second Episode )
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Q: What are your private impressions regarding everything related to the living conditions of Jews here in Iraq,
especially those Jews who returned to their homeland Iraq in response to the decision of the Iraqi
Revolutionary Command Council?
(A): I am very pleased that you asked this question, especially since this matter is of extreme importance
to me and to all Jews, particularly the Jews of the Eastern communities and the Iraqis among them
in particular, and those Jews who returned to the homeland Iraq, and those who are still
among them in the Zionist state.
It is important to point out here the following issue: which is that during that long period
of my presence in Iraq, i.e., since my return to Iraq 18 months ago until this
moment, I have not heard nor seen any person in this state, whether Iraqi or another
Arab, directing any questions to another person about his religion or religious affiliation. And this
matter does not exist at all in Iraq. No one asks another who are you or what is your religion
as this matter has been overtaken by time and no longer has any existence.... and the value
here in Iraq lies in the human being himself and not in his religious affiliation.... and here they look
at the human being as an Iraqi citizen regardless of whether he is a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian
or otherwise.... and this does not change the value of the human being in any way.. for the human being here is the citizen
regardless of his religious affiliation.
As this state has taken special and distinct measures that do not exist in other places
especially in the Zionist state. Among them: I felt great astonishment when
I received my Iraqi passport, and the source of my astonishment was that there is no mention of religious
affiliation in the passports, at a time when the passport departments in the
racist Zionist state, which is hostile to Jews and ruled by international criminals,
record on the passports the name of the original country from which the Jew emigrated to the
Zionist state ((and here it should be noted that this matter causes harm to the Jews of the Eastern
communities. Especially since the Western Jews from the Ashkenazi communities enjoy
dual nationalities and some of them triple nationalities, and they do not need
Israeli passports. And they use their dual foreign passports which they received from the
Western countries from which they emigrated to the occupied land))..
And as I said, in contrast to that, I noticed that the Iraqi government does not record in the citizen's passports ⟦a matter⟧
nor in their personal identities his religious affiliation. For this matter does not exist.
This is at a time when the Zionist government records in the passports and in the identities the affiliation
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religious and the name of the country the Jew came from, meaning it is written on the passport, for example: Arab Muslim
or Arab Christian, or Druze. As for the Jews, their religion and the country from which they
emigrated are recorded in their passports, for example: Iraqi Jew, or Egyptian Jew, this is despite the fact that this person
is a Jew, and if this Jew had emigrated to Israel, the Zionist state,
and if the Zionist state is, as they claim, the state of the Jews, then why does the authority there
see fit to write the religious affiliation and the original country on the Jew's passport.... and if the
Zionists claim that all Jews who emigrated to Israel are Israelis, then why
and how is it logically possible for this Jew to be called an Iraqi Jew.. at a time when
the rulers say that this Jew is an Israeli Jew. Thus, recording the name of the country
from which the Jew emigrated will naturally make him never forget the country from which he came to the Zionist
state, meaning that he will remain a stranger in that state.
from it
As for the Jews in Iraq, whether the old ones or those who returned recently in response to the decision of the
Revolutionary Command Council, I want to point out here two important facts, which are:-
1 - The old Jews who did not leave Iraq: These Jews are still living
under their religious and worldly traditions and living a stable life, living in all fields,
and no one here interferes in their religious affairs, and they live in prosperity, happiness, and safety. Also,
they have the right to leave Iraq to any country for tourism or residence, and no one prevents them
from that if they want to, as almost all of them carry Iraqi passports, and most of them
travel from time to time abroad for the purpose of tourism and visiting relatives, and return to their homeland
without any obstacles whatsoever. Here it is worth noting an important fact, which is a fact that any visitor
to Iraq can touch for himself, which is that if he enters the headquarters of the presidency of the Jewish community
in Iraq, he will find the head of the community, his deputy, and the rest of the workers there working with complete freedom
and managing the affairs of the Jewish community without the slightest interference from the authority, to a degree that we can
say that the Jewish community here is like a state within a state. And the head of the community
and his deputy live the life of princes exactly as mentioned in the Thousand and One Nights. They work inside
the headquarters I mentioned, which is a two-story building and well-furnished. And it may be truly surprising
to say that I noticed that those who serve the community headquarters during official working hours
are specifically Arab and Muslim servants.
to the outside
So is this the discrimination claimed by the rulers of Tel Aviv, and does this mean that the Arabs are hostile
to Judaism.. and does this mean that there is room to believe the Zionist propaganda that depicts
the Arabs as bloodthirsty and hostile to Jews.
This is for the old Jews who did not leave Iraq, and as for the new Jews
who returned to Iraq and are now living in it, they enjoy complete freedom and live like everyone

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citizens in the Iraqi state. I must point out that these Jews who returned recently
to Iraq, and indeed each one of them, live amidst overwhelming joy. They do not only enjoy all the rights
that an Iraqi citizen enjoys, but much more than that, because the Iraqi
government understands very well that any person returning to Iraq from somewhere after living there
for several years, will face difficulties upon their return to Iraq in adapting, not only in
society, and therefore the government extends a helping hand to this returnee in all fields. And the Iraqi
government provides this aid not for the purpose of propaganda for these returnees, or to turn them into propaganda voices,
but for humanitarian motives and nothing else. The humanitarian factor is what drives this assistance.
I must point out here that the Jews who returned to Iraq are not exploited as propaganda trumpets
for the Iraqi government, as the Zionists use the Jews who flee or emigrate to the Zionist
state. We can sense the subject from the fact that I have lived since I returned to Iraq for only
a year and a half, and only now have I returned to give another talk ⟦illegible⟧ that I ⟦illegible⟧
to me any pressure ⟦illegible⟧ talk now ⟦illegible⟧
which I requested ⟦illegible⟧
again

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⟦illegible⟧ about, and he has no right at all
with it ⟦illegible⟧ and that is because the citizen who may feel
against the government and the revolution. Therefore, the duty
and not to make him feel any injustice whatsoever.
on us c-
In fact, these directives emphasized by Comrade Saddam Hussein find a listening ear
from everyone and are implemented accurately. The first to be committed to this is the Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Comrade
Saddam Hussein himself, who, as I said previously, is ready to respond to any request or call
whatsoever, and His Excellency is ready to hear any complaint and provide assistance as much as possible, and he does
that and reassures the requests of any citizen in this state ⟦line⟧

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To him
Soviet Union
That I and all the Jews who returned to Iraq live here not only as citizens with equal
rights with others, but we enjoy rights that far exceed others.
I want to point out here an important fact, which is that when I visit one of the institutions or ministries
and especially when I meet in these ministries with officials with high authorities in the government sector, I
feel their brotherly and friendly feelings towards me.
And no one here talks about Jews or Judaism from a racial point of view, and if some of them talk
about the issue of the Jews of Iraq, they quickly express their regret that the Jews of Iraq left their homeland, Iraq,
as a result of the criminal racist Zionist conspiracy, global imperialism, and rotten Arab reactionism
to which Zionism is still linked to this day.
Finally, I say that the decision of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council to allow Jews to return to their homeland, Iraq,
is a measure with prominent dimensions and meanings that deserves appreciation and respect from all normal
and objective people, especially those who have not fallen victim to Zionism and the brainwashing operations it carries out.
I return to say again that the religious issue does not constitute any obstacles for the Jew in Iraq, and there cannot
be any discrimination between Jews and others here, neither in the popular nor official fields, and there is no one here who says
that my religion is such and such ⟦line⟧ for the respected citizen who receives the appreciation of the people and the authority is
that person who can contribute to a greater extent in the development of the state and its projects and who provides his contribution
in strengthening the foundations of the revolution, and every citizen who exerts his full effort is the good citizen regardless of
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