00:00My name is Avi Shleng. I am an Arab Jew. I was born in Baghdad in 1945. When I was
00:10five years old my family moved to Israel. I went to school in London from 15 to 18
00:18and I had all my university education in Britain and I am an emeritus
00:26professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of
00:34the British Academy. But when I was writing my autobiography I spoke to my
00:41mother a lot about our life in Iraq and the picture she painted is that of a
00:49very comfortable life and a very happy life with many Muslim friends. My mother
00:59used to talk a lot about the wonderful Muslim friends that we had in Baghdad and
01:06one day I said to her, did we have any Zionist friends? And she said, no, Zionism
01:13is an Ashkenazi thing. It's nothing to do with us. And she was typical of the
01:19majority view among Iraqi Jews. We were Iraqis. We had very deep roots in the
01:28country. Zionism was a movement by European Jews for European Jews and it
01:35didn't appeal to us. We were Iraqis. We spoke Arabic at home. Our social customs
01:44were Arab customs. Our food was Arab food. My parents music was a nice blend of Jewish
01:53and Arabic music. And the Jews in Iraq didn't stand out. There were many
02:05minorities and a long tradition of religious tolerance between the
02:12minorities and we were one minority among many. We were Arab Jews and we were led a
02:20very happy and contented life until the rise of Zionism and the establishment of
02:29the State of Israel. And as my mother put it to me, when Israel was created everything
02:35was turned upside down. But in this case of the Jews in Iraq, because of the
02:43reluctance to leave our homeland and to go to Israel, the Mossad through
02:50Zardes activists in Baghdad instigated bombs on Jewish premises, which created, which
03:01accelerated the exodus of Jews to Israel.
