Yunis al-Sabawi
Muhammad Younis Al-Sabaawi (Younus, Yunus Sabawi, Yunus Sab'awi) [محمد يونس السبعاوي] (1919-1942) was an Iraqi political journalist who held ministerial positions in Iraq, active in pan-Arab fascist organizations as well as in the Rashid Ali pro-Nazi coup and had plotted annihilation of Iraqi Jewry.
Al-Sab'awi was very active in the al-Muthanna[1] fascist club[2][3][4][5] whose leaders were on the German payroll and whose members called themselves "national socialists,"[6] and the al-Futuwwa youth squad,[7] modeled on Hitler Youth.[8][9][10][11]
He involved himself in the period 1936-1939 with smuggling weapons to the terrorists in Mandatory Palestine,[12]
and his colleague Qasim Hassan, (who later on, became ambassador for Iraq in Prague during the reign of Abd al-Karim Qasim),[13] helped him in that, knowing that he was hostile to the Jews.
He was elected MP for Mosul in June 1939,[7] then he held the position of Minister of Justice in the third Kaylani ministry after the resignation of Naji Shawkat in January 1941, then he held the position of Minister of Economy in the fourth Kaylani ministry.[14]
Al-Sabawi had translated Hitler's Mein Kampf from English into Arabic.
[15]
He was among the leaders of Rashid Ali al-Kilani's coup,[16][17]
along with the four colonels led by Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh , Fahmy Saeed , Kamel Shabib, and Mahmoud Salma..[18]
After some time of hate agitation helped by Dr. Fritz Grobba, worsned by the Palestine Mufti in Iraq since October 1937, with two other Palestine Arabs, teacher Darwish Al-Miqdadi [درويش المقدادي] (1891-1961) and Nablus born Akram Zuaiter [أكرم زعيتر אכרם זועיתר] (1909-1996), on June 1-2 1941, the 'Farhud' pogrom was carried out by al-Muthanna club, Futuwwa, army officers and mob, with extraordinary brutality of throwing babies into the warer in front of parents. mass rape in front of the men before torturing and murdering, etc.
Sabawi played a major role in the Farhoud pogrom and planed an even greater massacre.
Yunis A. Sabawi invited the head of the Jewish community in Baghdad to him and demanded that he tell the Jews not to leave their homes for the three days: Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which are the two days of Shavuot. That morning, Yunis sent a call to the masses through the broadcasting service, to carry out a massacre of the Jews; However, this call was delayed by the head of the security committee, who was able to ban Yunis A. Sabawi and transport him across the border.[19]
He was executed on the fifth of May 1942.
See also
References
- ↑ Intellectual life in the Arab East, 1890–1939, Center for Arab and Middle East Studies, American University of Beirut, 1981, p. 172.
- ↑ Davis, Eric. Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. p.14.
- ↑ Antisemitism: A History. United Kingdom: OUP Oxford, 2010. p. 219.
- ↑ Neiberg, Michael S.. When France Fell: The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance. United Kingdom: Harvard University Press, 2021. p.118.
- ↑ Baram, Amatzia. Culture, History and Ideology in the Formation of Ba'thist Iraq, 1968-89. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1991. p. 161.
- ↑ Schwanitz, Wolfgang G.., Rubin, Barry. Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2014. p. 116.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Davis, Eric. Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. p. 70.
The one member of Rashid 'Ali al-Gaylani's government who refused to leave Baghdad was Yunis al-Sab'awi. An active member of the al-Muthanna Club , which, under German ambassador Fritz Groba's influence developed a youth organization, the al-Futuwwa, modeled on European fascist lines, al-Sab'awi had developed strong anti-Jewish sentiments. Known in colloquial Iraqi Arabic as the Farhud (Pogrom), a mob led by al-Muthanna Club members and its youth organization attacked the Baghdad Jewish community on ...
- ↑ Gershoni, I.., Jankowski, James P.. Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East. United Kingdom: Columbia University Press, 1997. p.18.
- ↑ Cohen, Michael J. Britain's Moment in Palestine: Retrospect and Perspectives, 1917-1948. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2014. p.388
- ↑ Rosen, David M.. Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism. United Kingdom: Rutgers University Press, 2005. p.107
- ↑ Gunitsky, Seva. Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 2017. p.132.
- ↑ Rubin, Barry., Schwanitz, Wolfgang G.. Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2014. p.115.
- ↑ Khaled Khalaf, 'Yunus Al-Sabawi.. fulfilled the "prophecy" (sic) of Nuri Al-Saeed,' Al-Takhi press, 27-05-2013.
- ↑ Dougherty, Beth., Ghareeb, Edmund A.. Historical Dictionary of Iraq. United States: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
- ↑ Jackson, Ashley. Persian Gulf Command: A History of the Second World War in Iran and Iraq. United States: Yale University Press, 2018. p.22.
- ↑ Lebl, Ženi [Zeni]. Haj Amin and Berlin. 1996, p.59.
According to Hajj Amin, Al-Khilani had no rival who could compete with him, and thus he could pull the strings . On February 28, 1941, seven conspirators gathered at Beit Haj Amin in Baghdad and established the "Secret Committee". The Seven assumed secret aliases and swore in the Koran to fight to remove British supporters from power and to prevent Iraq from siding with the Allied right in the war. These were Hajj Amin al-Husseini (who assumed the nickname "Mustafa"), Rashid Ali al-Khilani (Abd al-Aziz), Younes al-Sabawi.. Naji Shawkat (Ahmed) and the three generals from "Golden Square"...
- ↑ Himelstein, Shmuel., Elpeleg, Z. The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin Al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2012. p.58.
- ↑ 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Hasani, Tarikh al-Wizarat al-'Iraqiyya (History of the Iraqi ministries) (Sidon, 1953).
- ↑ Ben-Jacob, Abraham. A history of the Jews in Iraq : From the end of the Gaonic period [1038 C.e.] to the present time [Yehudei Bavel: mi-sof tkufat ha-ge'onim 'ad yamenu : 1038-1960]. Israel: Kiryat Sefer, 1979. pp.249-52.
In the year 5696 (c. 1936), the riots broke out in the Land of Israel. Every minor agitation and every exaggerated news that reached Iraq by the Arab newspapers from the Land of Israel made wings to the detriment of the Jews there. From the day the riots began in Israel, Iraqi Jews avoided walking in the streets in the evening, even in the Jewish neighborhoods. Every Jewish institution and Jewish club was seen by the Arabs as "Zionist" and therefore it was permissible to burn and destroy it. The war against Zionism was officially waged. Systematically and persistently, the Ministry of Education in Iraq filled the government schools with national Arab teachers from Israel, who incited the Arab youth to hate Israel and Zionism by all the means at their disposal - orally, in writing, and in the study books they authored. The mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini; the radio, the newspaper and the book in Iraq - they were all directed against the Jews and Zionism alike.
In the years 5696-7 (1936-7), ten Jews were murdered in Baghdad and Basra. There were many cases of robbery and looting by the Muslim mob. Bombs were dropped on Jewish clubs. The Jewish community closed for two days in 1937 to protest this inhumane treatment; and while the head of the community ("rayiys altaayifa"), Sasson Kaduri, appealed to the authorities to punish the rioters, we were asked to officially declare that the Jews of Iraq have nothing to do with their brothers in E.Y. [Palestine].
In Cheshvan 5697 (October 1936) there was a military revolution in Iraq under the leadership of General Bakr Sidqi al-Askari [بكر صدقي العسكري] The roots of the coup were rooted in the religious, racial and political differences that left their mark on the country from the day it was founded. All the previous ministers were dismissed and left the country.
Yasin (Faha) al-Hashimi [ياسين الهاشمي], the previous prime minister (who at the time worked out extensive plans to undermine the existence of the Jews in Iraq and even prepared to go to Israel and catarize the Jews before the Peel Commission), also fled and found his death in Syria.
The members of the new cabinet headed by Hikmat Sulayman did not show an overly negative attitude towards the Jews, although they did not show sympathy for them either. The revolution brought in its wake a change that was in favor of the Jews for a very short period of time. It distracted them from the Jews for a while and they were more interested in the results of the revolution and the new power relations.
Bakr Sidqi, the initiator of the coup, was inclined to fascism. He carried out the massacre of the Assyrians and was called by the people of Iraq the "Conqueror of the Assyrians". At the time he married a Nazi German woman. A considerable number of Nazi girls were deliberately sent from Germany to Iraq for espionage and propaganda purposes and would socialize with the high-ranking army officers and some members of the government. In Baghdad, an Arab Nazi association was created under the name "Al-Muthanna" [نادي المثنى], headed by the Arab Nazi Dr. Saib Shawkat [صائب شوكت], director of the government hospital in Baghdad. This party had a special club whose members were among the educated and the officers, and where all the conspiracies against the Jews were hatched.
The Jews, pressed between a rock and a hard place, did everything in their power to show their loyalty to the government of their country. The Jews donated tens of thousands of pounds to various national causes, to aviation and the Iraqi Red Crescent, while the government spared no opportunity to extort additional funds from them.
Haj Amin Al Husseini, who was the mufti of Jerusalem, and some of his assistants from the Arabs of Eretz Israel ["Palestinians"] (such as: Akram Zuaiter [أكرم زعيتر] and Darwish Miqdadi [درويش مقدادي]) organized the anti-Jewish propaganda. With threats of death and by vile means, they extorted money from the Jews of Iraq for the terrorist fund that managed the disturbances in Palestine.
The Jews of Babylon who never harmed their government and Iraqi nationalism in any way, bore their suffering and insult in silence and worried about their fate and their future. They put on the "sidara" (Iraqi national hat) on their heads and sent their sons to serve in the Iraqi army. Hundreds of young men served in this army and gave themselves up for their country. Instead of the Hebrew songs they used to sing in the previous years - they now started singing national Iraqi Arab songs. All this was of no use when the days of disturbances came.
Shavuot Riots 1941 (June 1-2, 1941)
Self-government in Iraq has never been stable. Between the years 1932-1950 it was ruled by three kings, 31 governments (compared to 14 in the years of the British mandate in 1921-1932); 9 houses of parliament (compared to 3 during the mandate period), of which only two (the one elected in 1939 and the last one) completed During their four years in office, there were also six coups, starting with the Bakr Sidki coup until the coup of 1941. The Second World War broke out on September 3, 1939, when the government in Iraq was in the hands of Nuri al-Said, known as pro-British.
He fulfilled the terms of the 1930 treaty with Britain and severed Iraq's diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany and German subjects were imprisoned in Habaniah. His actions infuriated the pro-Nazis who were looking for an opportunity to overthrow the existing government. On October 16, 1939, the Jerusalem mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini arrived in Iraq (Masuria). Magnificent receptions were held in his honor, which were used for propaganda against both the Jews and the British. He established a special bureau for the war against the Jews and the British. And in this he was helped by some of the Palestinian exiles who were with him: his relative Jamal al-Husseini, Musa al-Alami, Akram Zuaiter, Emil Ghori, Darwish al-Miqdadi, Kaukaji, Amin Ruiha and others. On January 31, 1941, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani [al-Kilani] resigned as the head of the Iraqi government as a protest against the pro-British policy of Foreign Minister Nouri al-Said and the Iraqi curfew. Two months later, he managed to carry out a military rebellion and establish a military dictatorship in the country.
The curfew, Nouri al-Said and their supporters fled towards Jordan and from there to Palestine. Iraq betrayed England, only because of which it gained independence, and gave its hand to Nazi Germany. Among those who voted for rape in the Iraqi parliament in favor of Rashid Ali were also the Jewish deputies. All British subjects found in Iraq were placed in detention camps. The British army that landed in Basra at the beginning of the rebellion started marching towards Baghdad. A pro-Nazi Iraqi army was sent to hold up the advance.
The Iraqi government at the time had less than fifty obsolete model aircraft.
Rashid Ali turned to Hitler for help, German planes appeared in the skies of Iraq, and the war between Great Britain and Little Iraq began. Ostensibly it was a huge war in Nance, a war of a great power against a small powerless power, but in fact it was not like that. England, which at that time was able to return the situation to normal for several hours, acted with great slowness and great patience. The British army that organized in the Land of Israel an invasion force for Iraq arrived in Baghdad only after a few weeks.
This slowness was in the minds and souls of the Jews.
Immediately after the rise of Rashid Ali, the Iraqi Jews realized that their fate was sealed. The Muslims awaited for a day of "revenge" and divided among themselves the property of the Jews: the house of so-and-so to so-and-so, so-and-so's daughter and so-and-so's wife to so-and-so. They threatened the Jews that they would leave no survivor.
The investigation proved that already at the beginning of May, with the outbreak of the rebellion, feverish preparations were made for a wild attack on the Jews. At the head of the mob was Younis A-Sabawi - a member of the Ministry and the leader of the national organization "Youth Squad" [Futuwwa]. The abominable propaganda was carried out in public meetings, in newspapers and on radio broadcasts day and night. He distributed weapons to the "youth squad", gathered the entire mob around him and put them in a "ready" state to carry out his plan.
With the escape of Rashid Ali to Berlin, a provisional government was established in Baghdad.
One of the representatives of the provisional government spoke on the radio on Shabbat, the eve of Shavuot, and announced that the next day (Sunday, 6 Sivan 5701) a legal government would be established and the blackout in the city would be abolished. The Jews believed in these promises and breathed a sigh of relief. The masses who were preparing to plunder and rob the Jews were disappointed by this news, regretted the fall of Rashid Ali and were angry with the Jews who were looking forward with joy to the pro-British rule of the curate Abd al-Ila. Many Iraqi soldiers and officers, who fled the battlefield, walked the streets disgruntled and hungry with weapons in hand. The curfew entered the palace of Sad al-Karrah, which is located a few kilometers from Baghdad, at noon on May 30. On that day, Younis A-Sabawi declared himself the military governor of the country. A special security committee headed by Mayor Arshad Al-Omari and the Chief of Police signed a cease-fire agreement on May 31. Yunis A. Sabawi invited the head of the Jewish community in Baghdad to him and demanded that he tell the Jews not to leave their homes for the three days: Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which are the two days of Shavuot. That morning, Yunis sent a call to the masses through the broadcasting service, to carry out a massacre of the Jews; However, this call was delayed by the head of the security committee, who was able to ban Yunis A. Sabaoui and transport him across the border.
On Sunday 6 Sivan, the curfew arrived at the Baghdad airport (about two kilometers from the city).
The wild massacre began on Shavuot, Sunday and Monday, 6-7 in Sivan 5701 (June 1-2, 1941).
On the first day before noon, the Jewish dignitaries went together with the other "dignitaries" to welcome the curfew. The uplifted mood of the Jews was not pleasant for the soldiers and civilian policemen; And on their return, together with the Muslim mob, they attacked the Jews in the main streets and massacred them.
Jews sitting in cars and buses were taken out by force, beaten to death, slaughtered with swords and daggers in front of everyone. The bus drivers trampled over the bodies of the dead without any sense of morality. The mob was immediately joined by Muslim "respectables", school students, government officials, a large part of the civil and military police, policemen and officers. They divided the city into areas and began robbery and murder, from which they equipped themselves with rifles and pistols, and from which they killed with swords, daggers, knives, hatchets, bayonets and all destructive tools.
The mass slaughter surrounded all the Jewish neighborhoods and especially the main streets of Baghdad, Al Rashid Street and Ghazi Street, which are inhabited by many Jews, and the Abu Sifan neighborhood.
The rioters were not satisfied with only murder, they also resorted to severe torture. With great cruelty and savagery that cannot be described with a human pen. They abused, tortured and murdered every Jew who came near them: man and woman, old man and child; toddlers and suckling babies were murdered in the arms of their parents. They also attacked girls and women and raped them in front of the men and then abused them, cut them to pieces and spread their organs all over.
On the second day, an order was given to the mob to go to the police headquarters and take weapons from there. The rioters also used machine guns.
Along with the murder, robbery and looting began in the city. Most of the houses and shops of the Jews were destroyed.
The Jewish shops were marked with a red sign even earlier and because of that no non-Jewish shops were broken into. At the head of the robbers marched military and police personnel and they encouraged the mob to their heinous acts. Senior police officers brought trucks and loaded them with the property they looted from Jewish homes and shops. In several cases, the robbers opened the taps and filled the Jewish homes with water. The Muslim women took off the clothes of the dead bodies and put them on on themselves.
In the places close to the river and in the houses where wells were found - they threw the children and babies into the waters in front of their parents. The rioters also ran amok in the synagogues of the Jews and desecrated them. The 'Farha' synagogue was completely looted. The Torah scrolls were thrown out, the bags that were coated with silver and gold - were robbed.
There is some truth to the widespread rumor that all the patients who were transferred to the government hospital under the management of Israel's torturer Dr. Saib Shawkat - were killed by poison.
The Jews could not defend themselves against the wild crowd equipped with weapons. In individual houses, one Jew who possessed a weapon managed to save their lives. Other Jews, they used cold weapons to kill and be killed. The rest of the Jews got on the roofs of the houses and started running from one house roof to another.
In the morning of the second day, while riots were raging outside Baghdad, the curfew was busy assembling the new government, and Jamil al-Madfai was appointed prime minister. At the same time at 10:45 a curfew order was broadcast on the radio. Around noon, a new Iraqi army entered the city from the north, which had vowed curfew training and was mostly made up of Kurds. This army was ordered to disperse the rioters. After a few shots the mob dispersed. Dozens of rioters were killed. In the afternoon there was silence in the killing town.
