The protests in Iraq have drawn the attention of a minority group that emigrated decades ago. Although Iraq’s Jews could not return to Iraq for reasons beyond their control, they have showed wide support and interest in the protests.

Iraq’s Jewish emigrants in Israel have displayed varied feelings toward the protest movement. In addition to their amazement at seeing a national identity rising from the ashes of wars and conflict, they watched with heavy hearts as the protesters were brutally suppressed, with up to 600 people dead and more than 25,000 wounded, recalling the painful reasons they left their mother country in 1950-1951.

The current number of Iraqi Jewish in Israel is estimated at about 600,000. The Jewish population of Iraq was about 150,000 in the middle of last century. Now, there are very few of them left in Iraq, mostly very old people living under other religious identities. 

Linda Menuhin Abdul Aziz, an activist and political analyst, sees herself present among the demonstrators in Tahrir Square in Baghdad. She bets that the protest movement will ultimately lead to a new political system that is representative of diversity, supportive of a civil representation of all of the components of the Iraqi people and will move the country forward.