Eli Amir
Writer
Israel
English, Arabic, Hebrew
Eli Amir (September 26, 1937) is an Iraqi-born Israeli writer and civil servant.
Amir was born Fuad Elias Nasah Halschi in Baghdad, Iraq. He immigrated to Israel with his family in 1950, and went to school in Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek. He is now living in Gilo, Jerusalem. Amir studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From 1964 to 1968 he served as adviser on Arab affairs to the Prime Minister of Israel, and as envoy for the Minister of Immigration Absorption of Israel to the United States. In 1984, he was appointed Director General of the Youth Aliyah department of the Jewish Agency.
My books and my life journey from Iraq to Israel
Farhud
Farhud was the "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a state of instability. The violence came immediately after the rapid defeat of Rashid Ali by British forces, whose earlier coup had generated a short period of national euphoria, and was fueled by allegations that Iraqi Jews had aided the British. Over 180 Jews were killed and 1,000 injured, and up to 300–400 non-Jewish rioters were killed in the attempt to quell the violence.Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed.