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Thursday, April 23, 2020

Iraq's Nationality Law excludes Palestinians AND Jews. And no one protests either one!


Iraq's Nationality Law of 2006 has some interesting bigotry baked in.

Its exclusion of Palestinians from becoming citizens is explicit, and in line with Arab League recommendations from the 1950s:

Article 6 II- Iraqi nationality shall not be granted to Palestinians as a guarantee to their right to return to their homeland. 
Any Arab has a path to become a citizen, except Palestinians. The justification, as always, is that this is what is best for Palestinians. Of course, no one is giving Palestinians who want to become citizens a voice in that matter.

Non-Arabs seem to theoretically have a path as well, but the Minister of Interior must approve any requests so he can reject anyone for any reason. Which makes is virtually impossible to even imagine a Jew being allowed to become a citizen.

What about Jews who were expelled from Iraq in the early 1950s? Can they become citizens again? Article 18 gives a glimmer of hope, until you read the second paragraph.

Article 18
I- Any Iraqi, who was denaturalized on political, religious, racist or sectarian grounds, shall have the right to restore his Iraqi nationality, subject to submission of an application to this effect. In the case of his death, his children, who have lost their Iraqi nationality consequent to his father's loss of nationality, shall have the right to submit an application to restore Iraqi nationality.
 II-Excluded from the benefit item I of this Article shall be those Iraqis who had lost their nationality pursuant to Law No. (1) Of 1950 and Law No. (12) Of 1952.
Law No. 1 of 1950, entitled “Supplement to Ordinance Cancelling Iraqi Nationality,”  deprived Jews of their Iraqi nationality. Section 1 says “the Council of Ministers may cancel the Iraqi nationality of the Iraqi Jew who willingly desires to leave Iraq...”

Of course, that law was an excuse to expel the Jews of Iraq giving as an excuse that they are all Zionist.

Meaning that Jews who were expelled from Iraq are excluded from returning. By law.

How many leftists have ever protested either the antisemitism or the explicit anti-Palestinianism of the citizenship law on the books today in Iraq?




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