Shafiq Ades

Life & Legacy

Shafiq Ades (Arabic: شفيق عدس, Hebrew: שפיק עדס; 1900 – 23 September 1948) was a Syrian-born Iraqi-Jewish businessman. He was widely known as the wealthiest and best-connected Jew in the country. Based in Basra, he had all of his assets confiscated by the Iraqi government and was subsequently sentenced to death during a rushed show trial, which alleged that he was a Zionist and a communist; it had become a criminal offense in Iraq and the other Arab countries for both Jews and non-Jews to be affiliated with Israel in any way following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. More specifically, Ades was tried on charges of supplying weapons to Israel and of supporting the Iraqi Communist Party, though neither of these claims was backed up with any evidence in court and Ades was not given the right to a proper defense. Four months after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, he was executed by hanging at his residence in front of a crowd of over 12,000 people. His execution was among the events that contributed to the Jewish exodus from Iraq.