The Dark History of France’s Embassy in Iraq Goes on Trial in Paris

A Jewish family that fled Iraq generations ago rented its home to France for use as an embassy, but Paris long ago stopped paying it rent, after Iraq stripped Jews of property.

More than 60 years ago, the French government rented a stately mansion in Baghdad from a Jewish Iraqi family and set up its embassy there. France still uses the building as its embassy, but it has not paid rent to the family in decades.

Now, the family is suing France for $22 million, arguing that the country profited from an Iraqi government campaign of antisemitism. The family says France unilaterally abandoned its contract with it, benefiting from a much cheaper deal offered by the Iraqi government, which expropriated the house under a law that dispossessed Jewish owners.

Lire l’intégralité de l’article sur le site internet du New York Times : https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/world/middleeast/jewish-family-iraq-embassy-.html