Since the London-based Jewish organization JCHI published two weeks ago that 90% of Jewish sites in Iraq had been destroyed by the authorities, there was concern that this was the fate of the tomb of the prophet Ezekiel ben Bozi in the village of Kifil, south of Baghdad.
But a special emissary who left our mission from Baghdad today and took a picture while risking his life inside the tomb structure that became a Shiite mosque, shows that the structure was not destroyed, although the centuries-old Hebrew inscriptions adorning the impressive tomb structure are peeling. The walls were also damaged by erosion, cracks opened in the walls, and a large part of the marble tiles that were in place disappeared.
From the exclusive photos published here, and from the testimonies of the apostle, it appears that the synagogue that was active until 1948 became a mosque that includes a huge complex that includes 200 shops, most of which were Jewish-owned.
It should be noted that Saddam Hussein ordered that the tomb be renovated and considered a holy Jewish site, in addition to ordering that the rent from the shops be transferred to Jews from Iraq.
Iraqis warn that if the administration continues to ignore (at best) Jewish sites, then it will be a bottleneck for the Jewish community in Iraq.
