A Paris court on Tuesday rejected the descendants of an Iraqi Jewish family who were demanding compensation for a villa in Baghdad occupied free of charge for decades by the French diplomatic representation. Forced to flee Iraq in the late 1940s amid rising anti-Semitism, the family announced their intention to appeal.

Published on: 06/02/2026 - 16:20

On the banks of the Tigris, behind a fortified enclosure, stands the French embassy in Baghdad, built in the 1930s for a completely different purpose. It is decorated with columns, fountains, a swimming pool and has enough rooms to accommodate more than a dozen people.

The home once belonged to the Lawee family, a Jewish family who rented it to France after fleeing anti-Semitism in Iraq. But for around fifty years, France has occupied the villa without paying rent – ​​a situation recently confirmed by a Paris court.

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The Beit Lawee property

Brothers Ezra and Khedouri Lawee built this sprawling property – known to the family as Beit Lawee – in 1935, at a time when Iraq's Jewish community numbered around 130,000. They lived there for around twenty years, eating fresh dates from the garden, playing tennis on the nearby court and sleeping on the roof on hot summer nights.

“It was a place full of life,” recalls Philip Khazzam, 66, grandson of one of the original owners. “There were parties, cousins ​​everywhere” That world fell apart when regional tensions exploded after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A few years later, in March 1950, the Iraqi government gave Jews one year to leave the country on the condition that they renounce their nationality. Nearly the entire Jewish population made this choice, triggering a massive airlift to the new Israeli state known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.

The Lawee brothers, for their part, emigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal, where they rebuilt their lives and obtained Canadian citizenship. But the 3,800 m² residence in Baghdad, as well as its 1,150 m² land, remained their property.

For around ten years, the property remained unoccupied, under the supervision of a caretaker, before being rented in 1964 to the French government, which was looking for a new location for its embassy. To avoid any political problems, the rent was paid partly in Iraqi dinars and partly in French francs.

This arrangement was shattered after the 1967 Six-Day War, which saw Israel inflict a crushing defeat on the armies of its Arab neighbors. Iraq informed the French Embassy that rents were now to be paid to the Iraqi government, as it claimed state control over Jewish-owned properties.

Initially, France only paid the portion of the rent in dinars to the Iraqi authorities, while continuing to pay the family in francs, a measure that the family considers as implicit recognition of their property. In 1974, however, the French government ceased all payments to the Lawee, in a context of pro-Arab foreign policy.

This decision also proved financially advantageous, with court documents showing that France only paid Iraq around 10% of the rent compared to the market price. “For more than 50 years, France has saved nearly 90%,” underlines Philip Khazzam. “There is a legal term for this: unjust enrichment.”

Even after the fall of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the family says France continued to occupy the property without compensation, despite requests to resume rent payments or to authorize the sale of the house.

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"Scandalous"

The case has resurfaced in recent years. Philip Khazzam undertook research into the value of the property, contacting potential buyers in Baghdad and local real estate agents. He discovered that the scarcity of land in the Iraqi capital could increase its value to several million dollars.

In 2021, the family hired renowned French lawyers Jean-Pierre Mignard and Imrane Ghermi to take legal action. “The right to property is a fundamental right in any democratic society,” insisted Maître Mignard to France 24. “However, in this specific case, this right was violated for a simple reason: these people were Jewish and belonged to a religious community rejected by current Iraq.”

The Paris administrative court finally rejected, on Tuesday February 3, the family's complaint, which demanded $22 million in damages from France for having unduly benefited from discriminatory Iraqi policies that robbed Jews of their property. In a written decision, the court found that the embassy contract "is not governed by French law and that, therefore, it is not competent to rule on this matter", thus suggesting that Iraq would be the appropriate forum to resolve the dispute.

For Jean-Pierre Mignard, this decision is both illogical and dangerous. "I don't even see how our clients could be authorized to enter Iraqi territory," he said. "I don't see what we could argue in front of a court in Baghdad. This contract was governed by French law."

The lawyer also evokes France's dark past. During the German occupation of France, the Nazi occupiers and the Vichy regime requisitioned what was called "Jewish property": apartments and works of art were confiscated after the arrest of their owners. According to the Ministry of Culture, around 100,000 works of art were confiscated in France during World War II. In 2022, the French government adopted a law aimed at facilitating their restitution.

“That France can forget to this extent and behave in such an unacceptable way, simply because this Jewish property is located thousands of kilometers away, is simply scandalous,” says Jean-Pierre Mignard.

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“France has failed in its mission”

For descendant Philip Khazzam, the question is neither political nor geopolitical: "This is private property. The right to property is a fundamental right." He also rejects the idea that ordinary Iraqis are hostile to this claim. “The problem does not come from the people,” he insists. "I spoke to Iraqis in Baghdad. Jews were an integral part of that city. The problem is governments, not individuals"

The French Foreign Ministry, which did not respond to our request for comment, acknowledged in court documents that Iraqi law deprived Jewish owners of their real estate – and yet it relied on those same laws to justify continued occupation of the house without compensating the family.

“France is using an Iraqi law passed specifically to punish Jews in order to justify the non-payment of Jewish owners,” points out Philip Khazzam. “It’s scandalous.” In a statement obtained by France 24, the Lawee family's lawyers said the French government "cannot hide behind a legal battle that will last years to deny the rights of people excluded from their property for the sole reason that they are Jewish."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot visited Baghdad on Thursday and spent the night at the French embassy, ​​according to the Foreign Ministry. The lawyers' press release makes a direct reference to this stay, questioning the minister and asking him if he has the feeling that "the ground under the feet of the French embassy in Baghdad is on fire."

The family plans to appeal the decision of the Paris administrative court. “It’s not a setback, it’s a start,” says Philip Khazzam. “If we fail, then France will have failed in the eyes of the world, because it will have flouted its own laws and its own principles in terms of human rights.”

This article was translated from English by Stéphanie Trouillard.

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