Israeli newspaper: Tel Aviv is engaged in a dispute in Washington to prevent the return of the Jewis

Israeli newspaper: Tel Aviv is engaged in a dispute in Washington to prevent the return of the Jewish archive of Iraq






JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is seeking a law in Congress to keep the archives in Washington, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday.

"There is a conflict Israel is waging in Washington to preserve the Jewish archive seized by US forces during its invasion of Iraq in 2003," Ariel Kahana, a writer for the newspaper, wrote in the newspaper. "She put her hands on expensive copies of expensive Torah scrolls kept by the Jewish community in Iraq before she left , And was transferred to the United States, "noting that" the US administration intends to return to Iraq in the coming period, because of an agreement with Baghdad. "


He added in a lengthy report by Alsumaria News that "long discussions are taking place in Washington these days between American and Israeli crews in a race against time to maintain this historical archive, led by the efforts of the Jewish Congress in North America Batie Arnberg, and runs from its office in the US capital in the weeks A historic initiative to keep the Jewish archives in the United States. "

"It is only a legislative act to keep the archives there because Washington has signed an agreement with Baghdad to re-archive the country from which it was confiscated," said Arnberg. "It is trying to influence members of Congress from both parties, the Democratic and the Republican, and the Jewish community in the United States. I mean Iraq. "

"The issue started at the outbreak of the second Gulf War in 2003 and in the search for nuclear weapons, but the elements of the US commando forces did not find nuclear bombs, but they put their hands on the headquarters of the intelligence of President Saddam Hussein, and in one of the closed rooms submerged Found thousands of ancient books in Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic, some of them Torah books and memoirs of Jewish clerics. "

"One of the American generals estimated the importance of these documents, so the army began a campaign to save them by drying them out of water, and decided to US National Archive experts transferred to the United States, in an aircraft of the US Army, and then take care of them, until "

"Under the agreement signed between Washington and Baghdad in 2013, the Americans are obliged to return this archive to their original owners. As the agreement approaches, Jewish voices are beginning to emerge in the United States, and when a pro-Israel organization controlled large areas of Iraq, The central government has the ability to maintain and protect archives. "

"The administration of former US President Barack Obama responded to Jewish voices in the United States and kept the Iraqi Jewish archives in Washington, to be postponed back to September 2018, but as the deadline approached efforts began from all parties to pass a law in Congress to keep it in Washington "He said.

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