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1
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Pentagon
3officials discovered a trove of thousands of centuries-old
4artifacts from Iraq's Jewish community in the basement of
5Saddam Hussein's intelligence service headquarters; and
 
6    WHEREAS, These artifacts were improperly seized by force
7from their rightful owners by the regime of Saddam Hussein,
8which then stored them in a flooded basement, most likely in an
9effort to marginalize the culture and history of Mesopotamian
10Jews; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The artifacts were brought to the United States in
122003, where they were carefully cleaned, preserved,
13photographed, and displayed at the National Archives; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The United States Department of State has
15announced its plans to return the collection to the government
16of Iraq in the summer of 2014, claiming the Iraqi people are
17the rightful owners; and
 
18    WHEREAS, More than 40 American Jewish groups have expressed
19their deep misgivings about returning the artifacts to Iraq,
20citing "uncertain conditions" in Iraq and calling for the
21artifacts to be given to the synagogues of Iraqi Jews around

 

 

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1the world; and
 
2    WHEREAS, The Pentagon official who discovered the
3collection, Harold Rhode, has likened the prospective return of
4the artifacts to "giving the personal effects of Jews killed in
5the Holocaust back to Germany"; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Religious documents and artifacts such as these
7are sacred and should properly be returned to the Jewish
8community from which they were stolen, rather than used to
9obscure Iraq's history of hostility to the Jewish people;
10therefore, be it
 
11    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
12NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
13SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that we urge the United States
14Department of State to rescind its poorly reasoned and
15inappropriate decision to transfer these artifacts back to the
16Iraqi government; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That we urge the United States Department of
18State to return the artifacts to their rightful owners in the
19Jewish community; and be it further
 
20    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
21delivered to the President of the United States, the Secretary

 

 

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1of State of the United States, and the members of the Illinois
2congressional delegation.