Violence Against Jews in the Middle East
A documented history of persecution spanning 163 years across the Middle East and North Africa — long before the establishment of the State of Israel. These events demonstrate that anti-Jewish violence in the region far predates the modern conflict.
An Overlooked History of Persecution
Between 1785 and 1948, Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa faced repeated waves of violence, forced conversion, and massacre — long before the establishment of the State of Israel. These incidents were not responses to Zionism or the modern conflict. They were continuations of centuries of persecution under Ottoman, colonial, and early nationalist rule. This timeline documents the incidents, their locations, and their impact on Jewish communities across the region.
Under Ottoman Rule: Massacre, Expulsion, and Blood Libel
Under the Ottoman Empire, Jewish communities across North Africa and the Middle East lived as dhimmi — second-class subjects permitted to practise their faith but denied equal rights. This status did not protect them from periodic eruptions of extreme violence. From mass killings in Libya to forced conversions in Iran, the pattern was unmistakable: Jews were vulnerable wherever they lived.
North Africa
1785 — Libya
Ali Burzi Pasha ordered the massacre of hundreds of Jews, decimating the Jewish community of Libya in one of the earliest documented large-scale killings of the Ottoman period.
1805, 1815, 1830 — Algiers, Algeria
Three waves of massacres struck the Jewish population of Algiers over 25 years. Properties were looted and destroyed amid political instability, with each attack further weakening the community.
1857 — Tunis, Tunisia
The killing of a Jewish woman by a mob sparked wider anti-Jewish violence across the city, illustrating how quickly localised incidents could escalate against an unprotected community.
1864 — Fez, Morocco
Dozens of Jews were murdered as mobs swept through the Jewish quarter, destroying homes and looting property in one of the deadliest riots in Moroccan Jewish history.
1864–1880 — Marrakesh & across Morocco
Over a 16-year period, more than 300 Jews were killed in recurring violence across multiple Moroccan cities — sustained persecution of communities that had lived in Morocco for centuries.
1875 — Safi, Morocco
Anti-Jewish rioting resulted in multiple deaths and widespread destruction of Jewish-owned property.
1890 — Tripoli, Libya
Violent attacks killed Jews and destroyed synagogues in a deliberate assault on both the people and the sacred spaces of Tripoli’s ancient Jewish community.
Middle East
1828 — Baghdad, Iraq
Several Jews were arrested and executed on fabricated charges of attempting to convert Muslims. The accusations had no basis in evidence, yet carried the death penalty.
1830 — Tabriz, Iran
The majority of Tabriz’s Jewish population was killed or forced to flee in large-scale violence that effectively emptied the city of its Jewish inhabitants.
1830 — Shiraz, Iran
Jews were forced to convert to Islam at knifepoint, with those who refused facing death. Their religious identity was stripped from them under direct threat of violence.
1834 — Egypt
Attacks on Jews and the systematic destruction of synagogues occurred under Muhammad Ali Pasha, targeting both the community and its places of worship.
1839 — Iran (Allahdad Pogrom)
Targeted violence and forced mass conversion devastated the Jewish community, with those who resisted facing death.
1840 — Damascus, Syria (The Damascus Affair)
Several Jews were arrested, tortured, and executed following blood libel accusations — the false medieval claim that Jews use the blood of non-Jews in religious rituals. The Damascus Affair became an international incident and demonstrated how antisemitic myths could carry fatal consequences in the region.
1844 — Cairo, Egypt
A targeted assault on the Jewish neighbourhood left numerous dead and homes and businesses destroyed.
1848 — Damascus, Syria
Violence erupted again following renewed accusations of ritual murder, resulting in the destruction of Jewish properties and synagogues — the second time in eight years that blood libel led to attacks in the same city.
1858 — Aden, Yemen
Violent assaults on the Jewish community resulted in multiple deaths and extensive property destruction.
1871 — Damanhur, Egypt
Rioting targeted the Jewish community with focused violence and destruction of the Jewish neighbourhood.
Violence in the Holy Land: Before Zionism
Decades before the first Zionist immigrants arrived, Jewish communities in Ottoman Palestine were already targets of violent attack. The events of 1834 demonstrate that anti-Jewish violence in the region was rooted in religious hostility and opportunism — not in any territorial dispute.
1834 — Jerusalem
During the Peasants’ Revolt against Egyptian occupation, mobs turned on the Jewish quarter with looting, assault, and desecration of synagogues — Jews targeted as the most vulnerable population amid broader unrest.
1834 — Safed, Ottoman Palestine
Local Arab and Druze villagers subjected the Jewish community to a month-long assault of looting, killing, and destruction. One of the most prolonged pre-modern attacks on a Jewish community in the region, it caused significant casualties and extensive property damage.
Mandatory Palestine: Escalating Violence
Under the British Mandate, anti-Jewish violence in Palestine escalated dramatically. Incited by nationalist and religious leaders — most notably the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who would later ally with Nazi Germany — Arab mobs launched increasingly deadly attacks against Jewish communities. The British authorities often proved unable or unwilling to protect Jewish civilians.
1920 — Jerusalem (Nebi Musa Riots)
5 Jews killed, hundreds injured. The first major eruption of anti-Jewish violence under British rule, marking the beginning of a steady escalation that would continue for three decades.
1921 — Jaffa (Jaffa Riots)
47 Jews killed, many more injured. Mobs attacked Jewish neighbourhoods and the Zion immigration hostel. Among the dead was the Hebrew author Y.H. Brenner. The scale of violence marked a significant escalation.
1929 — Hebron (Hebron Massacre)
67 Jews killed, including women, children, and elderly. Arab mobs attacked the ancient Jewish community of Hebron with knives, axes, and clubs, killing residents in their homes. The surviving Jewish population was evacuated by British authorities, ending a continuous Jewish presence in Hebron that had lasted for centuries.
1929 — Safed
18 Jews killed with extensive property damage — a coordinated attack occurring simultaneously with the Hebron massacre.
1936–1939 — The Arab Revolt
A three-year campaign of bombings, shootings, and ambushes targeting Jewish communities across Palestine. Jewish buses were attacked, farms were burned, and civilians were killed. The revolt caused hundreds of Jewish casualties and received material support from Nazi Germany.
1938 — Beisan (Beit She’an)
Jews killed and Jewish property destroyed during the broader Arab Revolt — one of many local attacks that made Jewish life in mixed towns untenable.
1947 — Haifa (Oil Refinery Massacre)
39 Jewish workers killed, 49 injured. Arab workers at the Haifa Oil Refinery attacked their Jewish colleagues with knives and iron bars following the UN partition vote.
1947 — Jerusalem
70 Jews killed in riots following the UN partition vote. The UN resolution proposed both a Jewish and an Arab state, but the response in Jerusalem was immediate violence against Jewish civilians.
1948 — Kfar Etzion
127 Jews killed, including defenders who had surrendered and laid down their arms. Arab Legion and irregular forces killed both civilians and prisoners in one of the last major incidents before Israeli independence.
The War Years: The Farhud and Its Aftermath
During the Second World War, Nazi ideology found receptive audiences in parts of the Arab world. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, met Hitler in Berlin in 1941 and actively recruited for the SS. The convergence of European fascism and existing local antisemitism contributed to some of the deadliest anti-Jewish violence in the modern history of the Middle East.
1941 — Baghdad, Iraq (The Farhud)
The most devastating pogrom in modern Iraqi history: 170–180 Jews were killed and over 900 injured over two days. Fuelled by pro-Nazi sentiment following the collapse of the Rashid Ali coup, mobs looted, assaulted, and killed across Jewish neighbourhoods in Baghdad. Over 900 Jewish homes were destroyed. The Farhud marked a turning point for Iraq’s 150,000-strong Jewish community — one of the oldest in the world, with roots in the Babylonian exile 2,500 years earlier.
1945 — Tripoli, Libya
130 Jews killed over three days of violence in the aftermath of World War II. Synagogues were burned and Jewish homes were destroyed across the city. The pogrom occurred just months after the liberation of concentration camps in Europe, underscoring that the end of the war did not bring safety for Jews in the Middle East.
Violence Across the Region
Anti-Jewish violence was not confined to one country or one period. It was a regional pattern.
Morocco
More than 300 killed across multiple cities over decades. From Fez to Marrakesh to Safi, recurring violence targeted one of the largest and oldest Jewish communities in the Arab world.
Iraq
From false charges and executions in 1828 to the Farhud of 1941. A Jewish community with 2,500 years of continuous history was uprooted within a generation, with virtually all 150,000 Jews eventually emigrating.
Palestine / Israel
From Ottoman-era attacks in 1834 through the British Mandate, culminating in the violence of 1947–48. Jewish communities faced escalating hostility across three distinct political periods.
Iran & Syria
Forced conversions, blood libel, and massacre. The Damascus Affair became an international scandal, while Iranian Jews faced repeated waves of forced Islamisation.
Why This History Matters
This chronology documents a pattern of violence against Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa that predates the establishment of the State of Israel by over 160 years. The historical record demonstrates that anti-Jewish hostility in the region long preceded the rise of Zionism or the creation of Israel.
These events provide essential context for understanding the mass exodus of 850,000 Jews from Arab countries in the mid-20th century. They left behind homes, businesses, synagogues, and communities that had existed for millennia. The majority found refuge in the newly established State of Israel, whose founding was shaped in part by the very persecution documented here.