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Last update - 19:09 25/02/2009
Iraqi professor asks Israel for shipment of Hebrew books
By The Associated Press
Tags: israel news, iraq 

The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that an Iraqi college professor has
asked it for a shipment of Hebrew books.

Ofir Gendelman of the ministry's Arab press section says the professor sent an e-mail three weeks ago via the ministry's Arabic-language Web site.
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The professor said he planned to teach Hebrew and requested Hebrew literature and books about Israel.

Gendelman said the ministry would be happy to oblige and is awaiting the
professor's mailing address. He refused to divulge the professor's identity or that of his college because of concerns for his safety.

"There is tremendous ignorance in the Arab world about what Israel is, and they simply want to know more," Gendelman said Wednesday.

Sadiq Abdul-Matalib deputy dean of the college of languages at Baghdad University said that it has a flourishing Hebrew department with about 150 students.

Iraq sent troops to three Arab wars against Israel, and fired Scud missiles at it in the 1991 Gulf War. It remains technically at war with Israel, and the two countries have no diplomatic ties.

Iraq's once-thriving Jewish community has shriveled to just a few people, most having fled after Israel was founded in 1948.

An Iraqi lawmaker who attended a a counterterrorism conference in Israel last year, traveling on a German passport, was accused by colleagues at home of humiliating the Iraqi nation with a trip to the enemy state.

Iraqi diplomats discussed the possibility of improved relations between Israel and Iraq after Saddam Hussein was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led war, but in 2004, then Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi vowed that Iraq would not break Arab ranks and sign a separate peace deal with Israel.

Only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, have peace treaties with Israel

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