France faces court over embassy built on confiscated Jewish family home

The French government is appearing before a Paris court this week over its continued use of a former Jewish-owned mansion in Baghdad as its embassy, in a case brought by the descendants of Iraqi Jews who say the French state stopped paying rent after their property was confiscated under antisemitic laws.

The lawsuit, now formally being heard by a French administrative court, concerns a large riverside home built in the 1930s by brothers Ezra and Khedouri Lawee, members of Iraq’s once-thriving Jewish community. France has operated the buildings as its embassy since the mid-1960s and continues to do so today.

The Lawee family says it originally leased the property directly to France, believing that a foreign government tenant would protect it at a time when Iraqi Jews were increasingly targeted. But after Iraq nationalised Jewish-owned property in the late 1960s and 1970s, France allegedly stopped paying rent to the family and instead began paying the Iraqi state.

The descendants are now seeking around €22 million (approximately £19 million) in unpaid rent and damages, arguing that France benefited from discriminatory laws that stripped Jews of citizenship and assets, without ever compensating the original owners.

“To save the house, my father leased it to the French,” said Mayer Lawee, 86, the son of Ezra Lawee. “My father was upset. It’s his home. He built it from scratch, and it was taken away.”

Iraq was home to around 150,000 Jews in the 1940s, part of one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in the world. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jews in Iraq faced escalating persecution, including arrests, denaturalisation and the seizure of property. By the early 1950s, the vast majority had fled or been expelled.

Much of the Lawee family settled in Canada, but their Baghdad home remained standing and under family ownership until it was leased to France. The family says it was never compensated when Iraq later claimed ownership.

France has asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that any losses suffered by the family were caused by decisions of the Iraqi authorities and that it complied with local law. The family’s legal team argues that this defence relies on laws that explicitly targeted Jews.

Philip Khazzam, a grandson of Ezra Lawee and one of the claimants, has said the case raises serious moral questions for a country that presents itself as a global champion of human rights.

“You have France sitting in a house for 55 years, not paying rent to the family that owns it,” he said previously. “This is a world leader in human rights, and this is what they do?”

The case also draws attention to the largely overlooked displacement of Jews from Arab countries in the mid-20th century, affecting hundreds of thousands of people across the Middle East and North Africa.

Lawyers for the Lawee family are seeking to persuade the court to consider the case not only as a contractual dispute, but as a matter of principle, arguing that France should not have relied on antisemitic foreign legislation to end its agreement with Jewish owners.

The French Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs has declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing judicial proceedings.