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The location and condition of over 350 Jewish heritage sites in Iraq and Syria have been identified by a major new research project. But most of them are said to be ruined or nearly so, often because of neglect or redevelopment work.

The 18-month study conducted by the Jewish Cultural Heritage Initiative (JCHI) catalogues and assesses sites from antiquity to the present day in once-vibrant centers of Jewish life in the Middle East.

But an accompanying report published this month warns that nearly 90 percent of the sites in Iraq and more than half of those in Syria are beyond repair or in a very bad condition.

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It also identifies four Iraqi sites where it believes emergency relief could be critical to preserving them. They include the last functioning synagogue in the country and a Baghdad cemetery where the remains of Jews who were publicly hanged in the 1960s on charges of spying for Israel are buried.

The JCHI is a collaboration between the London-based Foundation for Jewish Heritage and the American Schools of Oriental Research. The study was led by Dr. Darren Ashby and Dr. Susan Penacho of the US institutions Cultural Heritage Initiatives. The research teamused desk-based, satellite and on-the-ground assessments.

Jewish community life in Iraq and Syria which stretched back 2,600 years to the time of Babylon was decimated by harsh repression and emigration in the second half of the 20th century, following the establishment of the State of Israel.

However, the JCHI study argues that a significant physical heritage remains.

Mosul, Iraq, synagogue as seen in a France 24 report from April 2019. (Youtube still)

The condition of the sites varies sharply between Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, researchers gave 89% of sites its lowest preservation rating of no return or determined that nothing definite could be found on its present state. The researchers believe the overwhelming majority of heritage sites classified as no information are likely to be in a very bad condition or beyond repair.

In Syria, 53% of sites are tagged as no return or no information.

Of the 11% confirmed as still standing in Iraq, nine sites are categorized as poor and 12% as very bad, the researchers say. Ten sites are listed as in a fair or good condition.

In Syria, 27 sites are tagged as being in a fair of good condition, while six are categorized as poor or very bad.

In all, 68 Iraqi sites are deemed as no return and no information was available for 198 sites. In Syria, the respective figures were 32 sites and six sites.

An undated image of Al-Bandara Synagogue or Central Synagogue of Aleppo, Syria. (public domain via Wikipedia)

A distinct difference in preservation exists between Iraq and Syria, argues the report. It notes that the 10 Iraq sites rated as good or fair represent roughly a third the number of Syrian sites, despite the overall size of the Iraqi corpus being over three times the size of the Syrian one.

But, across both countries, says the report, most of the heritage from the 19th and 20th centuries is in very bad condition or beyond repair, primarily due to neglect and urban redevelopment.

Researchers say that the project was undertaken in a challenging environment and admit that it does not represent a fully comprehensive picture. However, the 368 sites in the JCHI database, suggests the report, represent a cross-section of Jewish built heritage in Iraq and Syria from the diaspora until the present day.

The database includes the major buildings and settlements in both countries alongside a number of additional sites of regional and local significance, it says.

At a time when there is so much attention on saving heritage in danger across the Middle East, this unique research has shone a light on a forgotten aspect the remarkable ancient Jewish heritage of the region, Michael Mail, chief executive of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, suggested in a press statement.

The Jewish community made a profound contribution and we need to ensure its heritage, and this story, is not erased

The Jewish community made a profound contribution and we need to ensure its heritage, and this story, is not erased, Mail added.

The research lists 27 sites in both Iraq and Syria which are endangered because they are in a poor or very bad condition.

Among the sites are two in Syria the Bandara Synagogue in Aleppo and the Synagogue of the Prophet Elijah in Damascus and one in Iraq The Shrine of the Prophet Ezekiel in Al-Kifl which researchers assess to be internationally significant. A further seven are listed as nationally significant and four regionally significant.

The project identifies four sites as priority candidates for emergency relief. All are in Iraq due to the continuing Syrian civil war. In the case of each, the JCHI says, urgent intervention could substantially improve their condition.

In this 1998 file photo, Tawfiq Safeer prepares for prayer in the synagogue of Baghdad, Saturday, March 21, 1998. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)

The four sites are led by the last surviving functioning synagogue in Iraq, the Meir Tweig Synagogue in Baghdad. The synagogue, says the report, is also home to material from other synagogues and communal buildings that are now closed.

The Jewish community in Iraq is now believed to number as few as 10, mostly elderly, people. Through intermediaries in Iraq, the JCHI was able to make contact with members of the Jewish community in Baghdad.

The Meir Tweig Synagogue in Baghdad, seen behind a wall in Baghdad, Iraq on August 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Work on the synagogue, which is deemed to be in a fair condition, is highly viable, researchers believe.

The site is under the control of the Jewish community, which already has a list of preferred contractors that it has worked with on other projects, the report says. But, it adds, the main concern for the Jewish community is visibility. They do not want to draw attention to the synagogues location.

In this 1969 file photo: Sabah Haim and David Hazaquiel, both Jewish businessmen, after they had been hanged in Baghad, Iraq, on January 27, 1969, for being Israeli spies. (AP)

The three other priority sites selected by the JCHI include the Al-Habibiyah Jewish Cemetery in Baghdad. Established during the early 20th century, it has been the main location for Jewish burial in the city. Many local Jewish notables are interred there, including Jews who were publicly hanged in Baghdad in January 1969 for allegedly spying for Israel.

The report says the cemetery is in a worse condition than the Meir Tweig synagogue. The interior of the walled property is overgrown with vegetation in multiple places and the space is used as a dumping ground for trash by people on the adjacent properties. Many of the graves are in poor condition, it notes.

In northern Iraq, the research highlights two candidates for urgent work in an area of the country where significant post-conflict reconstruction work is underway.

Mosul, Iraq, synagogue as seen in a France 24 report from April 2019. (Youtube still)

Built in 1902, the Sasson Synagogue in Mosul was the main synagogue in the city during the 20th century thanks to its central location in the Jewish Quarter. Researchers believe that, though it is in a very bad condition, it is nonetheless the best-preserved Jewish heritage in Mosul.

The roof of the synagogue has collapsed in multiple places, exposing the interior decoration, including wall paintings, to weathering and increasing the risk that the rest of the standing architecture will fall, write the researchers. The property has also filled with trash and debris deposited in the building over the past decades. Further, looters have targeted the site, removing some Jewish cultural property.

.. Sassoon Synagogue in Mosul

( ) 186/2 , , (1.5) (21.2) (0.50) . () .Sasson Synagogue(The last synagogue in Mosul out of 5 existed until the mid-seventies)Plot No. 186/2 Jewish neighbourhood.The outer entrance is located at the corner of the south-eastern building and the entrance is reduced by 1.5 m from the straightness of the alley. (2 1.2 m), which is also reduced by 0.50 m from the wall of the exterior facade and has an iron door with two modern-made signs.In the middle of the 1970s, after the last Jews of Mosul left, it has occupied by a neighbor, in the mid-1980s and with a decision by the Revolutionary Command Council to liquidate the property of Iraq's absentee Jews, the school and the synagogue were sold to the family it occupies and it's a private propety now.

Gilgamesh Center for Antiquities and Heritage Protection - , 12 2018

Forty-five kilometers (28 miles) north of Mosul lies the Shrine of the Prophet Nahum in the town of in al-Qosh in Iraq. It dates back to at least the 12th century CE and was an important pilgrimage site for the Jewish community of both Mosul and the surrounding region, especially during Shavuot.

The site consists of a central synagogue with the prophets tomb and a series of subsidiary buildings arranged around a courtyard.

Tomb of the Jewish Prophet Nahum in Al-qosh, Iraq. (Chaldean, CC-BY-SA, via wikipedia)

Local Christians attempted to maintain the shrine after the departure of the Jewish community and it has also been the focus of international preservation efforts over the past decade. It is now deemed to be in a poor condition. However, after stabilization work was conducted in late 2017, a restoration project led by the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage is commencing. It is supported financially by the US government, the Kurdish regional government and private donors.

The researchers believe that, while many factors account for the higher levels of preservation in Syria than Iraq, two interconnected factors stand out: government policy towards the Jewish population and the timing of Jewish emigration from the two countries.

In both Syria and Iraq, anti-Semitic violence and state repression provoked large-scale Jewish emigration following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

FILE This Sunday, April 20, 2008, file photo, Syrian Jews celebrate Passover at the al-Firenj Synagogue in downtown Damascus, Syria. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi, File).

For those Jews who remained in Syria the level of repression fluctuated over time and, by the mid-1970s, they were largely left to manage their own religious, social and economic affairs. However, tight restrictions on Jewish emigration were in place until the early 1990s.

In Iraq, emigration was similarly restricted and banned altogether in 1952. But further emigration was allowed some 20 years earlier than in Syria, with much of the remaining Jewish community leaving the country in the early 1970s.

The different levels of repression and timelines of community departure impacted the preservation of Jewish built heritage, says the report. In Syria, a portion of the community was forcibly kept in the country but maintained a degree of control over communal property, particularly synagogues.

FILE This Friday, January 21, 2000, file photo, Youssef Jajati, a Jewish community leader in Syria, points out the Torah holy book preserved in a silver container in Joubars Synagogue which dates back to 718 BCE. (AP Photo/ Bassem Tellawi, File)

Even with the departure of much of the remaining Jewish community after 1992, however, the Syrian government continued to preserve sites for its own political purposes. This, the report argues, led to the protection of Jewish heritage in the major cities of Damascus and Aleppo despite the absence of a Jewish community dedicated to their preservation.

The picture in Iraq, the researchers continue, was somewhat different. Nearly all Iraqi Jews left Iraq by the mid-1970s and most communal Iraqi Jewish built heritage passed into the control of the Iraqi state, which neglected it, repurposed it, or passed it on to private individuals for their own use or redevelopment.

As a result, most Iraqi heritage has deteriorated significantly, been substantially modified, or been torn down completely, state the authors.

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Iraq's Jewish sites almost all ruined beyond repair, new heritage report finds - The Times of Israel

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

In Iraq's fields of black gold, thousands lose livelihoods

Mohammed Haider, a security worker in Iraq's southern oilfields, thought he was safe after signing a new one-year contract to guard oil facilities. Three days later, he was out of a job. "I got laid off. They threw us out on the pavement," the 38-year-old said, speaking as he protested outside the Basra Oil Company headquarters, the national partner for foreign companies.

Hong Kong's free media fears being silenced by China's national security law

When a team of producers at Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) heard on May 19 that the publicly funded broadcaster planned to axe one of its most popular weekly shows, they rushed to the building next door to confront the station's head. A group of about 20 producers and other employees from RTHK's TV and radio operations barged into a conference room where Leung Ka-wing, director of broadcasting, was meeting with top executives.

North Korea expresses support for China's measures in Hong Kong

North Korea's foreign minister met with the Chinese ambassador to express support for China's measures in Hong Kong, North Korea's KCNA state news agency said on Friday. Foreign minister Ri Son Gwon said that the issue of Hong Kong was an internal affair for China and that foreign interference in it violated the sovereignty of China and international law.

Laid off Hungarians turn to truck driving, carrot picking

Zoltan Wetter worked in restaurants for over two decades before the coronavirus pandemic cost him his job. With no savings, the 38-year-old chef from the town of Erd in Hungary took the first opportunity he could find: behind the wheel of a garbage truck. Wetter is among tens of thousands of Hungarians who lost their livelihoods almost overnight after the new coronavirus struck in early March and Hungary went into lockdown.

Libyan government says it has entered Haftar stronghold Tarhouna

Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government said on Friday they had entered Tarhouna, the last major stronghold of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar near Tripoli, capping the sudden collapse of his 14-month offensive. There was no immediate comment from Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) on whether its forces remained in the town, a day after they were pushed from their last positions in the capital.

Undiagnosed COVID-19 could mean English toll is higher than thought: ONS

An increase in the number of deaths in England and Wales in recent months that have not been linked to COVID-19 could indicate that undiagnosed cases are killing more people than previously thought, data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday. The United Kingdom has the second highest COVID-19 death toll in the world after the United States, with over 50,000 people dying from confirmed or suspected cases of the disease, according to a Reuters tally of official data sources.

U.S. military commander says China pushing territorial claims under cover of coronavirus

China is using the coronavirus as a cover to push territorial claims in the South China Sea through a surge in naval activity meant to intimidate other countries that claim the waters, the commander of U.S. Forces in Japan said on Friday. There has been a surge of activity by China in the South China Sea with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing, said Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider.

COVID-19 crisis shakes Brazil, but Bolsonaro keeps impeachment at bay

One of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks, a paralyzed economy sending investors fleeing for the exit, and accusations that he has undermined Brazil's young democracy have not loosened President Jair Bolsonaro's grip on power. As of Thursday, Brazil had nearly 615,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, second only to the United States. With 34,021 COVID-19 fatalities, its death toll overtook Italy's.

Shaman critical of Putin loses bid to end enforced psychiatric treatment

A Russian court on Friday rejected a challenge by a Siberian shaman critical of President Vladimir Putin who says he has been illegally incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, his lawyer said. Alexander Gabyshev drew media attention when he set off last year on an 8,000-km (5,000-mile) walk to Moscow, a journey he said would culminate with him banishing the Russian leader, whom he described as a demon.

Central African Republic court rejects bid to extend president's mandate

Central African Republic's constitutional court on Friday rejected changes to the constitution that would have allowed President Faustin-Archange Touadera to stay in power if an election in December is delayed due to the new coronavirus. The government had argued the changes, which would have authorised Touadera and national lawmakers to remain in office for an amount of time to be determined by the constitutional court, were need to ensure continuity of government.

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World News Roundup: In Iraq's fields of black gold, thousands lose livelihoods; Laid off Hungarians turn to truck driving, carrot picking and more -...

BAGHDADThe Islamic State is stepping up its attacks in Iraq, fulfilling the expectations of many analysts that the extremist group would mount a comeback after the Iraqi government declared victory over it in 2017. While the Islamic State has yet to show the same capabilities it had at its peak in 2013 and 2014, when it gained control of several provinces and population centersincluding Mosul, one of Iraqs largest citiesthe tempo of attacks has been increasing for over six months. This coincides with a period of domestic unrest due to widespread anti-government protests. The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State has also reduced its aerial activities due to heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran following the U.S. assassination of Irans top military commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in January.

The Islamic State has been ramping up a campaign of violence in rural parts of Iraq since the second half of 2019, focusing on Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahaldin provinces, to the east and north of Baghdad. Both the frequency and character of the attacks have been steadily increasing, and there is data that suggests the Islamic State is moving skilled fighters to the area from Syria to stoke a new insurgency. If true, this would be reminiscent of the groups buildup in 2012 and 2013. In April, the Islamic State staged 108 attacks in Iraq, including against an intelligence building in Kirkuk. A large assault targeted the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces on May 1 near the city of Samarra, showing that the Islamic State is willing to move beyond guerilla tactics and engage in coordinated and sustained fighting. ...

Link:
With ISIS Resurgent, Can Iraqs New Government Avoid a Repeat of the Past? - World Politics Review

One lesson: if you treat a neighborhood like a battlespace, youre well on the way to losing the war.

When armed contractors from Blackwater Security Consulting encountered an angry crowd at Baghdads Nisour Square, they wound up killing 17 people and injuring another 20. In part, they were the wrong team with the wrong training in the wrongplace.

These guys were part of a set of teams that took a heavy-handedapproach. They got into hundreds of firefights in that period, doing that kind of work, said David Kilcullen, who served as chief strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department in Iraq and as Gen. David Petraeus chief counterinsurgency advisor during the 2007-08 troopsurge.

Kilcullen noted that another private security firm, Aegis Defence Services from the United Kingdom, did hundreds of missions without getting into a single firefight. They had a completely different approach to working by, with, and through thepopulation.

The anecdote has at least one lesson relevant to the current crisis in police community relations in the United States: imported security forces who use heavy-handed tactics on local populations dont quell civil discord; they make itworse.

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That lesson has gone unlearned, so far, by President Donald Trump. In a call with governors on Monday, Trump urged them to dominate their streets with police and National Guardunits.

Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled, he added in a Rose Garden address on Monday afternoon, as police and Guardsmen used chemical spray and rubber bullets to clear a peaceable crowd across the street from the White House. The president has also threatened to use active military forces against U.S. citizens. All this ignores, among other things, key lessons from twenty years of counterinsurgency in the MiddleEast.

Kilcullen, whosebooks on military strategy and counterinsurgency includethis yearsThe Dragons and Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West,says that in riots, as in insurgency, only a minority of participants are intent on unprovoked violence perhapsless than five percent. The vast majority of people we wound up fighting in Iraq, he said, we were fighting because we were in theirface.

Kilcullen acknowledges that heavy forces and equipment can certainly have a usefully intimidating effect. Its sometimes great to turn up with tanks, he said. But shock-and-awe only works at the very outset of a campaign. Once you are an insurgency, youre past that point. Tanks, heavily-armored security forces and military helicopters scare armies but embolden insurgents. Excessive use of tactical equipment to intimidate a civilian population is a sure way to turn a bad situation into something dramatically bigger and dramatically worse, hesays.

Patrick Skinner, who has seen his share of insurgent activity, agreed. Skinner served as a CIA analyst in counterterrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan during the height of U.S. military operations there. Later, he became the director of special projects for the Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consultancy. In 2017, he left all that behind to become Americas most overqualified beat cop in Savannah, Georgia, where hes now a detective. (He spoke to us in a private capacity, not as a representative of hisdepartment.)

He says that in cities where communities and police seem to be at war, leaders are making the same mistakes the United States made in Iraq andAfghanistan.

In a best case, I was a well-armed tourist/invaderWe cant be tourists as police. We have to live here. It doesnt work the otherway.

The United States has been grappling for years with how to strengthen bonds between communities and police. One strong effort was the 2014 National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice.

Six cities agreed to participate in the initiative, which trained officers to recognize implicit racial biases and hosted listening sessions with community members to understand historical grievances. The cities were Birmingham, Alabama; Fort Worth, Texas; Gary, Indiana; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Stockton, California; and Minneapolis. So what happened inMinnesota?

While Minneapolis made notable policy changes during the project, the police killings of Jamar Clark [in 2015] and Justine Damond [last year] very likely challenged this progress, said Daniel Lawrence, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute. Its not all too surprising to see patrol officers sitting through training with crossed arms and indifferent eyes. We cannot improve policing until those officers embrace the efforts and teachings of police executives and researchers who have identified better, more humanizing,approaches.

The big problem, says Lawrence, is that many communities see the police the same way many people in Afghanistan and Iraq saw the U.S. military: as an occupying, and thus illegitimate,force. Views of legitimacy have been shown to increase individuals willingness to cooperate with officers and obey the law; but when officers repeatedly behave with disrespect, dehumanize those they interact with, or with racist intentions, those views are going to be seriouslychallenged.

So how do you go from being an occupying force to a legitimate force? Skinner and Kilcullen point to two essential steps. First, cities should push policies to help departments recruit from local communities. Skinner said policing is too often seen as something you do to peopleIts not something you do with your neighborsA lot of people dont want to be anywhere near the people theypolice.

Said Kilcullen, Its always better to have policing drawn from the community. Aegis Defence Services again provides a key model. They would rely heavily on neighborhood recruits to engage with locals and take the lead while the foreign security workers would hang back with the heavyequipment.

Skinner pointed out that actually living within a neighborhood drastically changes the way he, as a policeman, interacts with the people hes policing. It makes it much harder to engage in what he called robotic police behaviors that lead to problems, like detaining people who dont need to be detained in order to run a warrant search, or pulling out the taser when someone gets indignant about being stopped. Its simply hard to do that to someone you might wind up seeing again at the grocery store or the post office. In earlier decades, it was common for cops to live in their communities, but changing home prices and urban and suburban sprawl forced police further and further away from the neighborhoods where they worked. Policing changed from being a community job to just a vocation. Census data suggests that in 2014, 60 percent of the police forces of the of the 75 largest U.S. cities didnt even live within the city limits, much less in the neighborhoods where theypatrolled.

The second key step both Skinner and Kilcullen recommend: restricting the amount of military equipment that can go to police departments. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is leading just such a legislative effort. Militarizing the police is part of the problem here, said Kilcullen. Remove some of the fancy tactical gear and Youre going to get different policing behaviors, hesaid.

In other words, if youre dominating the battlespace of Americas cities, youre probably losing thewar.

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What The Iraq War Can Teach Us About Better Policing - Defense One

1 June 2020 - The World Health Organization (WHO) in Iraq is urging Iraqis to follow the instructions of the health authorities to contain the spread of COVID-19 after a rise in infections, stressing that the re-introduction of a complete lockdown in Iraq was a necessary measure in the fight against the virus.

WHO Representative in Iraq Dr. Adham R. Ismail reaffirms WHOs continued support for and cooperation with the health authorities in Baghdad and in the Kurdistan Region to ensure the success of the measures to combat COVID-19. Dr. Ismail calls upon Iraqis across the country to commit to the highest levels of preventive measures and adhere to the lockdown to help the health authorities contain the spread of the virus. He also calls upon the authorities to strictly apply the lockdown measures coupled with intense testing of suspected cases through contact tracing and active surveillance. These measures can only achieve the desired results with the collaboration of all.

As of 31 May 2020, Iraq reported 6,439 cases, reflecting an increase in the average daily reports which is due to intensive active surveillance activities conducted by the health authorities to detect COVID-19 cases and ensure the citizens are following the necessary preventive measures and social distancing.

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For more information, please contact:

Baraa Shabaa WHO Communications Officer shabab@who.int +964 7800010244

Ajyal Sultany WHO Communications Officer sultanya@who.int +9647740892878

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WHO: Iraq lockdown decision necessary after rise in COVID-19 infections, stresses collaboration of all in the fight against the virus [EN/AR] - Iraq -...