Antisemitism in the Arab world

Antisemitism (prejudice against and hatred of Jews) has increased greatly in the Arab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about by Western imperialism and Arab Christians;[1] Nazi propaganda and relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world;[2][3][4][5] resentment over Jewish nationalism;[4] the rise of Arab nationalism;[4] and the widespread proliferation of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.[6]

Traditionally, Jews in the Muslim world were considered to be People of the Book and were subjected to dhimmi status. They were afforded relative security against persecution, provided they did not contest the varying inferior social and legal status imposed on them under Islamic rule.

While there were antisemitic incidents before the 20th century, during this time antisemitism in the Arab world increased greatly. During the 1930s and the 1940s several Jewish communities in the Arab world suffered from pogroms.[4] The status of Jews in Arab countries deteriorated further at the onset of the Arab–Israeli conflict.[4] After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Palestinian exodus, the creation of the State of Israel and Israeli victories during the wars of 1956 and 1967 were a severe humiliation to Israel's opponents—primarily Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.[7] However, by the mid-1970s the vast majority of Jews had left Arab and Muslim countries, moving primarily to Israel, France, and the United States.[8] The reasons for the exodus are varied and disputed.[8]

By the 1980s, according to historian Bernard Lewis, the volume of antisemitic literature published in the Arab world, and the authority of its sponsors, seemed to suggest that classical antisemitism had become an essential part of Arab intellectual life, considerably more than in late 19th- and early 20th-century France and to a degree that has been compared to Nazi Germany.[9] The rise of political Islam during the 1980s and afterwards provided a new mutation of Islamic antisemitism, giving the hatred of Jews a religious component.[2]

In their 2008 report on contemporary Arab-Muslim antisemitism, the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center dates the beginning of this phenomenon to the spread of classic European Christian antisemitism into the Arab world starting in the late 19th century.[10] In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League published a global survey of worldwide antisemitic attitudes, reporting that in the Middle East, 74% of adults agreed with a majority of the survey's eleven antisemitic propositions, including that "Jews have too much power in international financial markets" and that "Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars."[11][12]

  1. ^ Lewis (1986), p. 132
  2. ^ a b Yadlin, Rifka. "Antisemitism". The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. p. 52
  3. ^ Herf, Jeffrey (December 2009). "Nazi Germany's Propaganda Aimed at Arabs and Muslims During World War II and the Holocaust: Old Themes, New Archival Findings". Central European History. 42 (4). Cambridge University Press: 709–736. doi:10.1017/S000893890999104X. ISSN 0008-9389. JSTOR 40600977. S2CID 145568807.
  4. ^ a b c d e  • "Hajj Amin al-Husayni: Wartime Propagandist". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2020. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
     • "Hajj Amin al-Husayni: Arab Nationalist and Muslim Leader". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 2020. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  5. ^ Spoerl, Joseph S. (January 2020). "Parallels between Nazi and Islamist Anti-Semitism". Jewish Political Studies Review. 31 (1/2). Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: 210–244. ISSN 0792-335X. JSTOR 26870795. Archived from the original on June 9, 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  6. ^ De Poli, Barbara (2018). "Anti-Jewish and Anti-Zionist Conspiracism in the Arab World: Historical and Political Roots". In Asprem, Egil; Dyrendal, Asbjørn; Robertson, David G. (eds.). Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 17. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 321–342. doi:10.1163/9789004382022_016. ISBN 978-90-04-38150-6. ISSN 1874-6691. S2CID 158462967.
  7. ^ Lewis (1986), p. 204
  8. ^ a b Yehouda Shenhav Shenhav, Yehouda A. (2006). The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804752961.
  9. ^ Lewis, Bernard. Semites and Anti-Semites, New York/London: Norton, 1986, p. 256.
  10. ^ "Contemporary Arab-Muslim anti-Semitism, its Significance and Implications Archived February 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine", Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), April 17, 2008.
  11. ^ "Hating the Jew you've never met". The Times of Israel. May 15, 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  12. ^ The ADL Global 100: An Index of Anti-Semitism. Anti-Defamation League.

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