Iraq hanged its richest Jew, Shafiq Ades, outside his own house in Basra in 1948 and took his estate

Shafiq Ades was born in Aleppo in 1900 and built his business in Basra. He imported Ford cars and was described as the wealthiest Jew in Iraq. He was a friend of the regent, Abdul Ilah, had Muslim business partners and had given large sums to the Palestinian cause. In the summer of 1948 Iraq made Zionism a capital offence. Ades was charged with selling surplus military equipment to Israel. A military trial lasted three days. His lawyers resigned when the presiding judge, Abdullah al-Naasni, refused to let them call witnesses. On the third day he was sentenced to death for treason and ordered to pay five million dinars. His wife, Aliza, went to the regent to ask for a commutation. It was refused. On 23 September 1948 he was hanged in the square outside his house in Basra. The Jerusalem Post put the crowd at about 15,000. His body was left hanging for hours. The historian Martin Gilbert wrote that his estate, worth millions, was taken by the Ministry of Defence^†. Ades had six children. Iraq's Jewish community, about 150,000 people, had lived there for 2,500 years. After the hanging, the Jerusalem Post writes, any hope that they could live as equal citizens of Iraq was gone. In October 1948 about 1,500 Jewish civil servants were dismissed, and Jewish banks lost their licences.