To Baghdad and Back
The Miraculous 2000 Year Homecoming of the Iraqi Jews
Mordechai Ben-Porat
Gefen publishing
On one of those hot sultry days in August 1949, returning to camp after intensive training, my Commander, the late Shema’ya Bareket (Beuknstein), took me aside and told me, in a very secretive manner, that I was to be invited to a meeting at the headquarters of the Mossad Aliya Bet, situated in Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv.
His words took me completely by surprise, and I could feel my pulse racing. When he turned away after patting my shoulder, I felt rooted to the spot ...
Contents
Dedication / 5
Acknowledgments / 6
Preface / 7
Chapter 1 Mobilization / 9
Chapter 2 On the Banks of the Tigris / 18
Chapter 3 Journeying to the Land of Israel / 28
Chapter 4 Just in Case / 41
Chapter 5 Exodus from Babylon / 46
Chapter 6 Informers / 61
Chapter 7 Enigma / 67
Chapter 8 A New Policy / 76
Chapter 9 The Gates Are Opened / 82
Chapter 10 Flying to Freedom / 114
Chapter 11 Political Maneuverings / 124
Chapter 12 Bombs in The Streets of Baghdad / 176
Chapter 13 The Prisoners / 189
Chapter 14 The Intelligence Network Collapses / 201
Chapter 15 Maintaining Contact / 225
Chapter 16 Anxiety and Freedom / 236
Chapter 17 The Bitter End / 247
Chapter 18 Property - And Lives / 270
Appendices / 291
DEDICATION
To my dear late wife Rivca, mother and grandmother, who accompanied me with great loyalty in all my public vicissitudes; to her parents, Aliza and Yaacov Gafni; to my late parents, Regina and Nissim, who imbued me with a pride in my Jewishness; to my sisters and brothers, who carried the family’s burden when I was busy with public activities; to my daughters, Idit, Tamar and Michal, who accepted my absences due to my various public activities.
To the activists of the Ezra and Nehemiah Campaign and to the Halutz Movement members, who were the pillars of fire directing the camp; to the late Moshe Carmil, an officer and friend; to the memory of the people executed by the order of the authorities, the late Yousif Basri and Shalom Saleh, who paid with their lives for their activities as emissaries of Israel; to the people imprisoned for their Zionism, who tasted the bitterness of prison life, to those who crossed the Iraqi borders in search of freedom and to all those who fulfilled their dream and immigrated to Israel; to the pilots who took part in the enterprise and to our loyal air stewardess, Hana Marcus (Lilian Nada).
Acknowledgments
This book is the product of prolonged research, assembling and collating material. I owe deep gratitude to all those people, without whose help I would not have been able to complete and publish it.
To the Mossad Aliya Bet members, comrades and partners; Haim Yisraeli, assistant to the Ministers of Defence, the custodians of the Israel Defence Forces’ Archives as well as the Haganah and the Zionist Archives in Jerusalem; the staff of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre; Editor Eitan Ben-Natan and the Ma’ariv Book Guild; writer and researcher Yacov Habakuk.
To Yehezkel Nathaniel in memory of his wife Mary (Ruth) who made possible the translation; to Mrs. Kathy Akeriv who did the basic translation and to Mrs. Marcia Grant for her dedication and expertise in adding the final touches.
Preface
I am neither an historian nor an academic, who has dedicated time and means to study documents for the purpose of researching specific topics, but I am a practical man. All my life, I have been assigned to various missions dealing with public and political affairs. As a teenager I was active in the Underground Movement in Baghdad; as an officer in the army in Battalion 42; an emissary of the Mossad Aliya Bet in Iraq, a mission which is the topic of my book; as the first Head of the local Council of Or Yehuda, and active in the political sphere of the country, a Member of the Knesset for sixteen years on behalf of Mapai, Rafi and Telem, as an emissary for the country for dangerous missions such as the one to Teheran during the rule of Khomeini; as a Minister who accepted delicate and complicated projects of which the general public was not always aware, as an initiator and founder of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre, etc. This is always how it has been and how I like it to be, in the service of the public and my country.
In the course of the last decade, several books were published concerning the Babylonian Jewish community and the Ezra and Nehemia Operation in particular. Although I was pleased that the subject had been handled in detail, I found myself, not once, reading some events described inaccurately or tendentiously. I would make notes in the margins of the books concerning the latter and often felt like commenting or even criticizing the writers. Only lately have I felt the desire to write my own version of the story.
This is not objective writing. No author can be objective when he writes, nor am I. Possibly other readers will find fault with my book; I am telling the story as I saw and experienced it. I tried to be accurate and faithful to memory and made great efforts to go over the manuscripts several times, scrutinizing documents, letters and telegrams that I wrote and received, many of them to be found in various archives in the country. I even studied documents relating to the subject that I found abroad.
I spoke to colleagues, emissaries and activists to refresh my memory and to hear their stories first-hand. I interviewed leaders of the communities who were living abroad and from whom I received information or taped material which I collected for the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre. I feel I have presented what I consider a serious and accurate account of my experiences.
In the Appendices, I chose to reveal the report of the Committee of Inquiry, founded by Isar Harel, the Head of the Mossad, with special instructions from David Ben-Gurion to do so, in order to allay any suspicion that the Halutz Movement itself, its members or agents threw bombs into Jewish centers to frighten the people into leaving Iraq. His report was classified “Top Secret” and acquits the Movement of any involvement and, by publishing it, I sincerely hope that this false information will be put to rest. My original preface in the Hebrew Edition is considerably longer in substance. I have used what I consider relevant to the English reader. Any researcher who wishes to study the original manuscript is more than welcome to visit the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre in Or Yehuda in Israel where the manuscript is now housed.
In writing this book regarding my personal experiences that began fifty years ago, my work has been accomplished. It is a testament to several years of intensive public and political activities. A heavy burden has been lifted from my shoulders - its absence gives me much relief. I hope this book will add yet one more chapter to the story of the Babylonian community, will complete the information published until now on the Ezra and Nehamia Operation, and will allow historic justice for the activists who risked their lives with great courage, to assist in the immigration of the Babylonian Jews to Israel.
Chapter 1
Mobilization
On one of those hot sultry days in August 1949, returning to camp after intensive training, my Commander, the late Shema’ya Bareket (Beuknstein), took me aside and told me, in a very secretive manner, that I was to be invited to a meeting at the headquarters of the Mossad Aliya Bet, situated in Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv.
His words took me completely by surprise, and I could feel my pulse racing. When he turned away after patting my shoulder, I felt rooted to the spot where I stood. I thought of all my unfulfilled dreams. The first was to establish, near the Zrifim military camp, a settlement whose nucleus would contain soldiers who had enlisted in the battalion where I and my brother Uri served. My second dream was to join the “Shahar” unit, which was founded in 1942. The aim of that unit, which was based in the south of Acre, was to help infiltrate agents into other countries. Its commanding officer was Shmaryahu Guttman, his deputy was Shimon (Sam’an) Somekh, and the intelligence officer a man called Yaacov Nimrodi. I thought that having lived in Iraq, being well versed in Arabic and familiar with Arab culture, I would be eligible to join this unit.
I arrived at the headquarters of Mossad Aliya Bet, curious and very nervous.
At the entrance, I recognized some of the people there, and it transpired that they were also invited to the meeting and didn’t seem to know what it was all about.
…..
Mordechai Ben-Porat
To Baghdad and Back
The Miraculous 2000 Year Homecoming of the Iraqi Jews
Gefen publishing
Gefen publishing house ltd
To Baghdad and Back
The Miraculous 2 000 Year
Homecoming of the Iraqi Jews
Mordechai Ben-Porat
Gefen publishing house
Jerusalem & New York
Copyright © Mordechai Ben-Porat
Jerusalem 1998 / 5758
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated,
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without express written permission from the publishers.
Translation from Hebrew: Marcia Grant and Kathy Akeriv
Typesetting: Marzel A.S. - Jerusalem
Cover: Studio Paz, based on the Hebrew cover design of Michele Optovsky
Edition 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Gefen Publishing House Ltd.
POB 36004
Jerusalem 91360, Israel
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ben-Porat, Mordechai, 1923-
[Le-Bagdad va-hazara. English]
To Baghdad and back / Mordechai Ben-Porat
p. cm.
ISBN: 965 2291951
1. Jews—Iraq—History—20th century.
2. Jews—Iraq—Migrations.
3. Israel—Emigration and immigration.
4. Iraq—Emigration and immigration.
5. Israel—Politics and government.
6. Ben-Porat, Mordechai, 1923-.
I Title.
DS135.I7B4513 1998
9563.7'004924—dc21
98-19660
CIP
