Shafiq Ades (born in 1900, died on 23 October 1948) was a wealthy Iraqi-Jewish businessman of Syrian

Syrian Jews

Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times Syrian Jews are Jews who inhabit the region of the modern...

 origins. After a short show trial

Show trial

The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...

 in 1948, he was executed by hanging on charges of selling weapons to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and supporting the Iraqi Communist Party

Iraqi Communist Party

Since its foundation in 1934, the Iraqi Communist Party has dominated the left in Iraqi politics. It played a fundamental role in shaping the political history of Iraq between its foundation and the 1970s. The Party was involved in many of the most important national uprisings and demonstrations...

.

Background

Ades was born to a wealthy family based in Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. He migrated to Iraq and based himself in Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

. His main business activity was the establishment and management of the Ford car company agency in Iraq. He further partnered with a Muslim named Naji Al-Khedhairi in purchasing military metal scrap left in Iraq by the British army, selling the unusable parts after usable parts were sold to the government of Iraq.

Ades accumulated business and personal ties with high-profile Iraqi notables and officials and even had accessibility to the regent, 'Abd al-Ilah

'Abd al-Ilah

Crown Prince Abd al-Ilāh of Hejaz, GCB, GCMG, GCVO was a cousin and brother-in-law of King Ghazi of the Kingdom of Iraq. Abdul Ilah served as Regent for King Faisal II from April 4, 1939 to May 2, 1953, when Faisal came of age...

.

Trial

Ades was charged with donating money to the Iraqi Communist Party and with supporting the military efforts of Israel. He was sentenced to death and ordered to pay a fine of 5 million Dinars. The rest of his property was confiscated.

Evidence of show trial

Scholars Moshe Gat and Philip Mendes reached the conclusion that Ades was clearly innocent. They cite the following evidence:

• No such complaints were ever filed against his Muslim partner or many other scrap traders.
• The trial lasted only 3 days and the defendant was not allowed to plead his case.
• No witnesses were ever called.
• The show trial was presided over by Judge Abdullah al-Naasni, a member of the anti-Jewish, pro-Nazi Istiqlal party.
• No concrete evidence was presented that the arms were shipped from Italy to Israel.

Execution

Following the show trail, Ades was hanged in front of his newly completed mansion in Basra on October 23, 1948. 12,000 onlookers came from all parts of Iraq to witness the hanging of the so-called "traitor." Authorities left his dead body in the square for hours and it was abused by the celebrating crowds.

Aftermath

The execution of Ades came as a profound shock to the Jewish community. As he was an assimilated and non-Zionist Jew, the affair significantly reduced support for assimilation into Iraqi society and increased support for emigration as a solution to the crisis in the Iraqi Jewish community.

There are streets in in the Israeli cities of Ramla

Ramla

Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...

, Petah Tikva

Petah Tikva

Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...

 and Herzelia that are named after Ades.

See also

• Farhud
  Farhud
  Farhud refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941 during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a...
  
  
• History of the Jews in Iraq
  History of the Jews in Iraq
  The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities....
  
  
• Jewish exodus from Arab lands
  Jewish exodus from Arab lands
  The Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries was a mass departure, flight and expulsion of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Muslim countries, from 1948 until the early 1970s...
  
  
• Antisemitism in the Arab world
• Islam and Antisemitism
• 1950-1951 Baghdad bombings‎

External links

• Community Leaders at www.iraqijews.org