Antisemitic violence in the Arab world before 1948

Antisemitic violence in the Arab world before 1948 included mob attacks, the destruction of Jewish homes and religious institutions, and persecution involving state officials. Documented episodes occurred before Israel’s establishment on 14 May 1948; some, including the Damascus affair of 1840, also preceded modern political Zionism.

“Arab world” here describes the predominantly Arabic-speaking regions of North Africa and the Middle East. Their governments varied: the examples below include Egyptian-administered Damascus, French Algeria and Morocco, independent Iraq, British-administered Tripolitania and the British colony of Aden. The actors in a particular attack could include local rioters, soldiers, police, political movements and foreign officials. This geographical label encompasses that variety.

Documented episodes

Date	Place and political setting	Attack and evidence	Deaths or other documented consequences
1840	Damascus, under Egyptian administration within the Ottoman political setting	Following a Christian monk’s disappearance, a blood-libel accusation led to the imprisonment and torture of Jews. French consular involvement and the local authorities’ use of torture helped sustain the case. Letters reproduced in the Montefiore diaries describe the treatment of the prisoners and challenge the accusations.	Prisoners died under torture; accounts differ in their enumeration. The international campaign led by Moses Montefiore and Adolphe Crémieux obtained the survivors’ release.
17–19 April 1912	Fez, during the establishment of the French protectorate in Morocco	A military revolt and rioting spread into the Jewish quarter, where homes were looted and burned.	Paul Fenton’s documentary study gives 51 Jewish deaths, as summarized by the National Library of Israel. Older reference accounts give about 45; the different source counts should remain identifiable.
3–6 August 1934	Constantine, French Algeria	Anti-Jewish violence followed a local confrontation and rumours. The colonial setting, political agitation and the authorities’ conduct form part of the explanation.	25 Jews and 3 Muslims in historian Joshua Cole’s account. Charles-Robert Ageron distinguishes an official return of 23 Jewish deaths from a communal list of 24 identified Jews and one unidentified victim.
1–2 June 1941	Baghdad, Iraq	In the Farhud, soldiers, policemen, nationalist youths and other rioters attacked the Jewish population after the collapse of Rashid Ali al-Gailani’s pro-Axis government.	The US Holocaust Memorial Museum gives 150–180 Jews murdered and separately reports the Iraqi inquiry’s lower figure of 128.
4–7 November 1945	Tripoli and surrounding towns, British-administered Tripolitania	Rioters attacked Jews, homes and religious property. The violence spread from Tripoli to outlying communities.	Historian Rachel Simon gives approximately 130 Jewish deaths. A British parliamentary statement described the spread of the attacks and the suppression of the violence.
2–4 December 1947	Aden, a British colony	Demonstrations following the UN partition recommendation developed into attacks on the Jewish community, including burning and looting. British authorities subsequently commissioned an inquiry.	The British government’s statement of 11 February 1948 reported 82 Jews, 38 Arabs and 3 others killed. Those are the reported deaths across the disturbances, including their suppression.

Before Israel, and before Zionism

These are two different chronological questions. The 1840 Damascus affair predates the late nineteenth-century Zionist movement. The attacks in Fez, Constantine, Baghdad, Tripolitania and Aden occurred before Israel’s establishment, during periods in which Zionism already existed. Their causes require examination in their own settings: blood-libel accusations, colonial politics, nationalist mobilization, wartime propaganda and reactions to events in Palestine recur in different combinations.

The historical record therefore contradicts a claim of uninterrupted harmony before Israel. It also records choices by people who helped Jews. Rachel Simon describes Muslim neighbours assisting Jews during the Tripoli violence; the British statement records Arab contributions to relief and public condemnations of the attackers. These acts of assistance belong in the same history as the persecution.

Geography and further reading

Violence in Iran, Ottoman Anatolia and medieval Iberia belongs to a wider history of antisemitism in Muslim-ruled societies. Those places fall outside the geographical scope used here. The chronology above is selective, with disputed counts attributed to their sources and earlier periods still requiring further coverage.

For the local history in Palestine, read Violence in Palestine before British rule and Killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine. More on the Baghdad pogrom is available at Farhud.