It all started with Arab pogroms,
what's so hard to understand?
What programs were there before the Zionist settler colonial project?
Nineteenth century
The
Damascus affair was an accusation of
ritual murder and a
blood libel against Jews in
Damascus in 1840. On February 5, 1840,
Franciscan Capuchin friar Father Thomas and his Greek servant were reported missing, never to be seen again. The
Turkish governor and the French consul
Ratti-Menton believed accusations of ritual murder and blood libel, as the alleged murder occurred before the Jewish
Passover. An investigation was staged, and Solomon Negrin, a Jewish barber,
confessed under torture and accused other Jews. Two other Jews died under torture, and one (Moses Abulafia) converted to
Islam to escape torture. More arrests and atrocities followed, culminating in 63 Jewish children being held
hostage and mob attacks on Jewish communities throughout the Middle East. International outrage led to
Ibrahim Pasha in Egypt ordering an investigation. Negotiations in
Alexandria eventually secured the unconditional release and recognition of innocence of the nine prisoners still remaining alive (out of thirteen). Later in
Constantinople,
Moses Montefiore (leader of the British Jewish community) persuaded Sultan
Abdülmecid I to issue a
firman(edict) intended to halt the spread of blood libel accusations in the
Ottoman Empire:
... and for the love we bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth....
Nevertheless, pogroms spread through the Middle East and North Africa: Aleppo (1850, 1875), Damascus (1840, 1848, 1890), Beirut (1862, 1874), Dayr al-Qamar (1847), Jaffa (1876), Jerusalem (1847, 1870 and 1895), Cairo (1844, 1890, 1901–02), Mansura (1877), Alexandria (1870, 1882, 1901–07), Port Said (1903, 1908), and Damanhur (1871, 1873, 1877, 1891).
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Zionism is the Jewish liberation movement, that was actually initiated as a response to Arab pogroms in the 19th century middle east.