A Documentary History of Modern Iraq

4. Ending the Old Regime, 1941–1958

4 Ending the Old Regime, 1941–1958 The years between 1941 and 1958 are critical for understanding the coup of 1958 that put an end to the Hashemite monarchy. This period begins with a coup by Rashid Ali al-Kaylani on 10 April 1941, one that temporarily deposed the regent Abdal-Ilah.Thisabruptchangeofapro-Britishgovernment—alongwithRashid Ali’s pro-German leanings—led the British to assert explicitly their neocolonial role. During the Thirty Days War that followed, the British reoccupied Iraq. It was a military occupation regarded as untenable by many anti-British Iraqis. The resulting tensions surrounding it gave rise to the anti-Semitic Farhud on 2 June 1941, an Iraqi Krystalnacht of sorts. Great Britain, however, did not remove its troops, and Iraq remained an occupied country during World War II. The postwar era did not bring a respite for the Iraqi people. British troops ended the direct occupation of Iraq in 1946, but their country remained influential .Themonarchytried—unsuccessfully—togainmorefreedomofactionfrom the British via the 1948 Treaty of Portsmouth. This treaty was highly unpopular, and its signing led to al-Wathba (the leap), a popular uprising in Baghdad. The Iraqi Communist Party headed the demonstrations, and the rising popularity of this party led the Hashemite government to arrest its leaders in 1949. The increase in political violence, however, was not a one-way street in which the state alone victimized Iraqi society. This postwar period also saw the rise of anti-Semitism. To placate the masses, the government adopted legislation that reflected antiminority sentiments by the majority Muslim population. In particular, the government promulgated Law No. 1, which allowed Iraqi Jews to leave the country and renounce their citizenship. Bomb attacks on Jewish targets followed thepassage ofthislaw, leadingscoresofIraqiJews to immigrateto Israel and other countries, such as India or England. In retrospect, several trends become evident to historians analyzing the historyofIraqbetween1941and1958 .First,thisperiodisnotableforariseinsocial divisions between the peoples of this state. Wartime inflation and commercial disruptions had increased the numbers of “have-nots” in the country, thereby 126 / A Documentary History of Modern Iraq accounting,atleastinpart,forthepopularityoftheCommunistParty.Iraq,however , was also divided along sectarian lines. Jews became a target for national ire, while Shi’is often lived separately from Sunnis. Politically, these social conditions had two political counterparts. In this period, the historian gleans the extent to which there was popular opposition to the Hashemite regime. No Hashemite monarch had the charisma of Faysal I, and the kings in this short-lived dynasty came to be seen by Iraqis as the handmaidens of Great Britain. Second, this period is witness to the failure of state institutions . Increasingly, political opposition was expressed not through formal channels , but through informal mechanisms of political activity. Such mechanisms of political opposition might be benign, such as a gathering and concomitant discussion at a coffeehouse, or more systemically malignant, such as the increasing tendency of government opposition to express itself through street riots or bomb attacks. The readings in this chapter are designed to underscore the slow fracturing of Iraqi society. Nissim Rejwan, for example, remembers the Farhud of 1941. Given the occupation of Iraq by Allied forces during World War II, this chapter then excerpts instructions for American soldiers stationed in Iraq, which provides insight into how Westerners viewed a place that they persisted in thinking of as exotic. This chapter then addresses some of the controversial clauses of the problematic Portsmouth Treaty. Government offices, however, cannot explain all Iraqi political activity, for coffeehouses, as described by one Arab professor, were a key informal institution. Although this professor considered Baghdad a paradise, an American colleague argued in a subsequent document that poverty characterized Baghdad. A member of the Communist Party, an Iraqi Jew, would agree that poverty accounts for the increasing politicization of Iraqis. This politicization led some Iraqi officials to placate the Muslim masses by formalizing anti-Semitism, as apparent in Law No. 1 of 1950. This law’s passage led to a mass exodus, and Ariel Sabar recounts his family’s decision to leave Kurdish Zakho. This chapter ends with a description of life in an impoverished Shi’i village of the south in 1957, just before the coup that would end the monarchy. The Farhud The Jewish community has a long history in Iraq that, as its members proudly recount, dates to sixth-century Babylon. At the time of independence there were 120,000JewsinIraq,whichrepresentedabout2.5percentofthecountry’spopulation . In Baghdad, however, Jews were an even more significant minority, for 25 percent of the...