1969 Baghdad hangings

Public hangings of 14 alleged Israeli spies in Iraq Baghdad, Iraq 27 January 1969 Frontpage news of Jews hanged in Baghdad, Iraq, 1969.jpg Front-page photos of the hangings published in Al-Jumhuriya 14 dead Mass hanging Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party On 27 January 1969, Iraqi authorities hanged 14 Iraqis for allegedly spying for Israel during a public execution in Baghdad; nine were Jewish, three were Muslim and two were Christian.27 January 2014 This Day in Jewish History / Nine Jewish 'spies' are hanged in Baghdad https://www.haaretz.com/2014-01-27/ty-article/.premium/1969-nine-jewish-spies-are-hanged-in-baghdad/0000017f-ea1d-dc91-a17f-fe9d01ec0000 live https://archive.today/20150706183332/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.570665 6 July 2015 Haaretzhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/magazine/07MAKIYA-t.htm?pagewanted=3 In January 1969, in one of the Baath Party’s first displays of public brutality, 13 Iraqi Jews and 4 other men were hanged in a public ceremony in Baghdad before a crowd of about a half million people. Iraqis were bussed in from around the country to witness the event. 7 October 2007 The New York Times Magazine Dexter Filkins The New York Times Company New York Regrets Only? https://web.archive.org/web/20120415001406/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/magazine/07MAKIYA-t.htm?pagewanted=3 15 April 2012 2012-04-15 Background The lopsided defeat suffered by the Arab states, including Iraq, against Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War further increased discrimination against Iraq's remaining Jews: "They were dismissed from government jobs, their bank accounts were frozen and they were confined to house arrest, among other restrictions." In July 1968, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party took control of Iraq in a bloodless coup. The new government was weak and was in constant fear that it would itself be the target of a coup. After the Israeli Air Force struck an Iraqi military position in northern Jordan on 4 December 1968 in retaliation for the shelling of Israeli communities in the Galilee, the Ba'athist regime began "hunting down an American-Israeli spy ring it said was trying to destabilize Iraq." The authorities began arresting alleged conspirators shortly thereafter, including twelve Jewish men from Baghdad and Basra. By 1969, Iraq's Jewish community had shrunk from more than 130,000 in 1948 to less than 3,000 due to mass emigration caused by the establishment of the State of Israel, the subsequent Arab-Israeli wars, and anti-Jewish persecution. Hangings Baghdad Radio invited citizens to Liberation Square on January 27 to "come and enjoy the feast", being brought in on buses. 500,000 people reportedly attended the hangings, and danced and celebrated before the corpses of the convicted spies. Nine of the fourteen hanged were from the Iraqi Jewish community, three from the Muslim community and two from Christian communities. Three other members of the Iraqi Jewish community that were arrested at the same time were executed seven months later, on 26 August 1969. Victims Hakham Salman Debi, cantor of the Meir Taweig Synagogue, recorded the name of the victims of the hangings in a handwritten list, which was appended to a Jewish prayer book. This prayer book, along with the attached pages, is currently kept by the library of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center.https://www.facebook.com/babylonjewry/posts/%D7%97-%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%98-%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%9B%D7%98-2711969-%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%A4%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%A9-%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%97%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%98/2048832625284113/ Babylonian Jewry Heritage Museum מוזאון מורשת יהדות בבל's Post 10 January 2022 Babylonian Jewry Heritage Museum מוזאון מורשת יהדות בבל Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center he 1 May 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250501073210/https://www.facebook.com/babylonjewry/posts/%D7%97-%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%98-%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%9B%D7%98-2711969-%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%A4%D7%A0%D7%99-%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%A9-%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%99%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%97%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%98/2048832625284113/ 1 May 2025 live Facebook The names of the victims were:Basson David Kheder 27 January 2019 ar:الذكرى الخمسون للإعدامات في ساحتي التحرير في بغداد وام البروم في البصرة The 50th anniversary of the executions in Tahrir Square in Baghdad and Umm al-Broom Square in Basra https://elaph.com/Web/Opinion/2019/01/1236085.html live https://web.archive.org/web/20221006193845/https://elaph.com/Web/Opinion/2019/01/1236085.html 6 October 2022 1 May 2025 Elaph arTimes Dana Adams Schmidtspecial To the New York 1969-01-27 Court in Iraq Dooms 16, 10 of Them Jews, as Spies; Iraq Hangs 16, Including 10 Jews, as Israeli Spies https://www.nytimes.com/1969/01/27/archives/court-in-iraq-dooms-16-10-of-them-jews-as-spies-iraq-hangs-16.html 2026-08-03 The New York Times en-US 0362-4331 Jewish Ezra Naji Zilkha (51 years old) Na’im Khedhouri Hilali (19) Daoud Heskel Dalal (16) Hesqal Saleh Hesqel (17) Sabah Haim Dayan (30) Daoud Ghali Yadgar (23) Yaqoub Gourji Namerdi (38) Fouad Gabbay (30) Charles Rafael Horesh (44) Muslim Jamal Sabih al-Hakim (17, and with a Jewish father and Muslim mother) Abdul Mohsin Jarallah Muhammad Abdul Hussain Nur Gita Christian Zaki Andraus Zitou Albert Habib Thomas Aftermath Memorial to Iraqis in Or Yehuda.jpg Memorial in Or Yehuda, Israel dedicated to the 9 Jews executed in the 1969 Baghdad hangings Prayer sculpture Ramat Gan.jpg Memorial in Ramat Gan, Israel dedicated to the Iraqi Jews killed in the 1941 Farhud and in the 1969 hangings The executions led to significant international criticism,29 January 1969 Iraq Ignores World Outrage over Executions, Announces Other 'spies' Will Be Tried https://www.jta.org/1969/01/29/archive/iraq-ignores-world-outrage-over-executions-announces-other-spies-will-be-tried Jewish Telegraphic Agency 28 January 1969 Eshkol Outraged, Denounces Hangings, and Denies Iraqi Jews Were Israeli Spies https://www.jta.org/1969/01/28/archive/eshkol-outraged-denounces-hangings-and-denies-iraqi-jews-were-israeli-spies Jewish Telegraphic Agency Spiegel Irving 1969-01-28 A Victim's Brother, Here, Laments for Iraqi Jews https://www.nytimes.com/1969/01/28/archives/a-victims-brother-here-laments-for-iraqi-jews.html 2026-08-03 The New York Times en-US 0362-4331with United States Secretary of State William P. Rogers condemning Iraq's actions as "repugnant to the conscience of the world"Gibson Bryan R. Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War Palgrave Macmillan 2015 978-1-137-48711-7 119 and Egypt's Al-Ahram cautioning: "The hanging of fourteen people in the public square is certainly not a heart-warming sight, nor is it the occasion for organizing a spectacle." By contrast, the Soviet Union's official radio called the executions "fully justified," while Charles de Gaulle of France said they could not be divorced from the broader Arab–Israeli conflict. Baghdad Radio rebutted Iraq's critics: "We hanged spies, but the Jews crucified Christ."Kanan Makiya Makiya Kanan Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition University of California Press California 1998 9780520921245 52 According to author Kanan Makiya, the negative publicity "has less to do with the activities of a Zionist lobby as the Ba'ath claimed, as much as it was the outcome of the deliberately public nature of the proceedings. Later the Ba'ath learnt the art of sealing out the outside world." The persecution of Iraq's Jews continued after the spy trials: "By the time of the August executions, 51 Jews had been killed by the regime in 1969 alone; 100 more were imprisoned or tortured." In the early 1970s, nearly all of Iraq's Jewish population left after being permitted to leave. Only a small number stayed behind, largely those who were too old to travel. Makiya credits the hangings with helping the Ba'athist government consolidate control of Iraq, stating: "The terror that, from a Ba'athist viewpoint, was premature and badly handled in 1963, worked and was skillfully deployed the second time around."Kanan Makiya Makiya Kanan Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition University of California Press California 1998 9780520921245 57–59 The story of the hangings has been told in fiction in Mona Yahia's novel When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad,Al-Shawaf Rayyan 2007-05-11 Readings https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/readings-11729416/ 2026-08-03 The Austin Chronicle en-US2026-01-05 Preserving Our Stories: Nine Books About Iraqi Jews Jewish Book Council https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/preserving-our-stories-nine-books-about-iraqi-jews 2026-08-03 www.jewishbookcouncil.org en in Max Sawdayee's account All Waiting to be Hanged2012-01-26 This tragic day The Jerusalem Post https://www.jpost.com/magazine/features/article-255205 2026-08-03 The Jerusalem Post JPost.com en and in the memoir Chopping Onions on my Heart or Always Carry Salt by Samantha Ellis whose mother's cousin was one of the victims. See also List of massacres in Iraq References Category:Anti-Israeli sentiment in Iraq Category:Jewish Iraqi history Category:1969 in Iraq Category:Public executions Category:Antisemitism in Iraq Category:Jews and Judaism in Baghdad Category:Iraq–Israel relations Category:Saddam Hussein Category:People executed by Iraq by hanging Category:20th-century executions by Iraq Category:People convicted of spying for Israel Category:1960s in Baghdad Category:January 1969 in Asia Category:Ba'athist Iraq Category:Socialist antisemitism