Iraq to probe stolen Judaic works that turned up in Israel

[Maimonides]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=4&Article_id=93875#

BAGHDAD: Iraq has created a special task force to investigate the theft of valuable ancient Judaic manuscripts that later turned up in Israel. The rare books, confiscated during the reign of Saddam Hussein, were rescued from US bombing at the start of the 2003 war and then sent to the US for restoration but later wound up in Israel instead.

At a press briefing at the National Museum in Baghdad, Minister of Tourism and Archaeology Mohammad Abbas al-Uraibi said a working group "will investigate in the US to find out if this is true or not."

Among some 300 precious works are a commentary on the "Book of Job" published in 1487 and a volume of biblical prophecies published in Venice in 1617, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Iraq once hosted a thriving 2,600-year-old Jewish community that numbered some 130,000 people at the time Israel was created in 1948.

Iraq has also provided Interpol with a list of the tens of thousands of priceless antiquities stolen from Iraq in the chaos that followed the US-led invasion more than five years ago, Uraibi said. Around 32,000 artifacts were looted from 12,000 archaeological sites after the invasion, along with 15,000 items stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad alone.

Last month Jordan returned to Iraq some 2,466 artifacts, including gold coins, jewelry and Islamic and ancient manuscripts, stolen since then. Stolen antiquities found in Syria and the United States have also been returned to Iraq, while others discovered in Italy will be returned soon.

Israel must not return those works at all. They belong to the Jewish people from which they originated from!