Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel
๐๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ 2,500 ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ด, ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฒ๐ช ๐๐ฆ๐ธ๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅโ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด.
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Published in 2017, โImpossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israelโ by Orit Bashkin is a devastating and essential reckoning with the myth of โreturnโ to the Jewish homeland. Between 1949 and 1951, over 123,000 Iraqi Jewsโheirs to a 2,500-year-old Babylonian legacyโwere airlifted to Israel in what was meant to be a historic homecoming. Instead, they were cast into the margins: dumped into squalid maabarot (transit camps), stripped of dignity, and treated not as long-lost kin, but as unwanted foreigners in their supposed promised land.
With piercing clarity, Bashkin chronicles the betrayal and the bravery: how Iraqi Jews, faced with poverty, racism, and bureaucratic neglect, transformed their suffering into struggle. They joined parties, staged protests, and fought for their childrenโs futuresโigniting a civil rights movement that would shake the foundations of Israeli society. Impossible Exodus is not just the untold story of a forgotten communityโit is a searing indictment of nationalism, a portrait of resilience, and a haunting echo of exile within a homeland.
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โข Co-Winner of the 2018 Nikki Keddie Book Award, sponsored by the Middle East Studies Association.
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https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/impossible-exodus/excerpt/table-contents
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โข Amazon sample:
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โข Jadaliyya conversation with the author:
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/34578
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ & ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐:
https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/impossible-exodus