The grandchildren of two Jewish brothers whose home in Baghdad was used as an embassy are suing the French government for more than £14.5 million in overdue rent.
Ezra and Khedouri Lawee were among Iraq’s estimated 150,000 Jews in the 1940’s. Following the establishment of the State of Israel and increased antisemitic discrimination, stripped of their nationality, the majority of the community fled to Israel, whilst the successful businessmen brought their families to Canada and settled in Montreal.
Seven decades later, Ezra’s grandson Philip Khazzam is suing the French government, which began using the house as its embassy in the 1960s and then in the 1970s, stopped paying the family rent at the behest of Saddam Hussein’s new regime. All Jewish property was nationalised by the Iraqi government and no compensation has ever been paid.
As France still uses the Lawee House and pays rent to Iraq’s treasury, Khazzam’s legal team estimates the family are owed at least £14.75 million and £8 million in damages.
France acquired Beit Lawee in the 1960s, though later political events would disrupt its agreement to pay the family a nominal rent.
Courtesy of Philip Khazzam
Speaking to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, Khazzam said: “You have France sitting in a house for 55 years, not paying rent to the family that owns it. This is a world leader in human rights and this is what they do?”
He added: “It’s not just a house. All of us are so proud of our Iraqi heritage. For a long time, it was a magical place for our families to live.”
Their lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard told the paper: “Where I’m scandalised is that the Lawees were dispossessed of their property because of their religion, because they are Jewish. France never should have accepted that.”
A spokesperson for the French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs has so far declined to comment on an active judicial case.
