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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Meet the Canadian fighting France for $30 million in unpaid embassy rent in Iraq
Description: Although Montrealer Philip Khazzam has never set foot inside his family’s nearly-century old mansion in the Iraqi capitol of Baghdad, he has heard many stories about the lush gardens, fountains, bedrooms to sleep 12, and pool.
The residence, built in 1935, was home to his grandparents’ and also to his great-uncle’s families-brothers Ezra and Khedouri Lawee–wealthy Jewish automobile dealers who were pillars of Iraq’s business community.
They lived there for over a decade, until growing support for Nazism in Iraq during the Second World War and widespread resentment of Israel in the years afterword made life dangerous for the hi...