The Paris Administrative Court has dismissed a compensation claim brought by the descendants of Iraqi Jews against the French embassy in Iraq.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post last July, Canadian citizen Philip Khazzam sued the French government for over $ 17 million in unpaid rent for the property, which has served as the French embassy in Iraq since the 1960s.
Background of the case
Khazzam's grandfather, Ezra Lawee, and Ezra's brother, Khedouri, built the house and lived there with their children before they were forced out of Baghdad and fled the country. The family relocated to Canada, where they acquired citizenship in 1967.
"They had someone take care of the house after they left, and then in 1964 they rented it to the French government to use as their embassy in Baghdad," he told the Post previously.
However, a few years later, Saddam Hussein told the French government to stop paying the Lawees and pay his regime instead. "For another year or two, we continued to get paid, and then it stopped," said Khazzam. From 1974 onward, the French State ceased paying rent to them and instead paid the corresponding sums directly to the Iraqi authorities.
Then, one day, Khazzam said, "it hit him" that "it's not just about the property, it's about human rights."
The family and their lawyer then decided to bring a claim against the French government, seeking compensation for material and moral damages arising from the failure to pay rent over the decades.
The court rules against the family
However, on Tuesday, the Paris Administrative Court ruled that the dispute does not fall under its administration since the occupancy lease is not governed by French law.
The Administrative Court said that it has jurisdiction to rule on a dispute relating to the performance of a contract only if that contract is governed by French law. Having established that the facts giving rise to the dispute did not occur on French territory, the court concluded that the State’s liability could not be engaged on this ground either.
Khazzam criticized the "absurdity of telling us to seek justice in Iraq [and not France], the very place that forced 130,000 Jews to flee, so they could then steal our homes?"
"It’s a greater insult to the people of France than it is to our family," he told the Post on Thursday, adding that his family will now proceed to the next higher court.
"We’re just getting started," he said.