Shafiq Ades
| Shafiq Ades | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1900 Aleppo, Syria |
| Died | 23 September 1948 |
| Cause of death | Hanging |
| Residence | Basra, Iraq |
| Citizenship | Iraqi |
| Occupation | Business executive, investor |
Shafiq Ades (Arabic: شفيق عدس, Hebrew:שפיק עדס) (born in 1900, died on 23 September 1948) was a wealthy Iraqi-Jewish businessman of Syrian origins. After a short show trial in 1948, he was executed by hanging on charges of selling weapons to Israel and supporting the Iraqi Communist Party.
Ades was born to a wealthy family based in Aleppo, Syria. He migrated to Iraq and based himself in Basra.
His main business activity was the establishment and management of the Ford car company agency in Iraq. He further partnered with a Muslim named Naji Al-Khedhairi in purchasing military metal scrap left in Iraq by the British army, selling the unusable parts after usable parts were sold to the government of Iraq. Involved with the Ford concession in the country, Ades accumulated business and personal ties with high-profile Iraqi notables and officials and even had accessibility to the regent,'Abd al-Ilah. The richest Jew in Iraq, Martin Gilbert writes that Ades “had lunched with Government ministers and dined with the Regent.” The Ford importer was by 1948 the wealthiest Jewish individual in Iraq. He was described by historians as a “political pragmatist” with “no time for ideologues of any stripe, least of all Zionists.”
In July 1948, Iraq made Zionist affiliation a criminal offense. When arrested, Ades was “accused simultaneously of being a Zionist and a Communist. For the main charge against him, that he had sold arms to Israel, the military court presented no evidence. He was also refused the right to a proper defense.
In a military tribunal, accused of sending cars to Israel, Ades was charged with donating money to the Iraqi Communist Party and with supporting the military efforts of Israel. He was sentenced to death and ordered to pay a fine of 5 million Dinars. The rest of his property was confiscated. Scholars Moshe Gat and Philip Mendes reached the conclusion that Ades was clearly innocent. They cite the following evidence:
His execution was set to take place several days after he was found guilty. Although hundreds of Jewish individuals were detained that summer, Ades was the only one who received a death sentence. The only Jew in his organization, he was also the only member of his business to be punished for the crime the business was convicted of.
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