In his new Histoire du Maroc (Editions Perrin), the Hebrew University professor Michel Abitbol sheds light on the deteriorating relationship between Jews and Muslims in Morocco between the wars. Here is a summary of extracts from Information Juive (March 2009) :
The colonial era in Morocco impoverished the native Arabs and Jews. Jews did, however, start to move out of the mellah (Jewish quarter). The few who decided to move into the medina (Muslim quarter) came up against vehement opposition from the French authorities on dubious grounds (Fez). Women entered the workforce. Most Jews were craftsmen, but the middle class in Morocco took longer to emerge than in Tunisia, for instance. The cleavage between colonials, native Jews and native Arabs deepened in colonial times.
Relations between Jews and Muslims worsened from the 1930s due to the Palestine issue, the rise of Nazism in Europe and the world economic crisis. There was political turmoil following the promulgation of the 1930 Berber dahir (to which the Jews did not react). Meknes saw riots - several Jewish shops were ransacked. Extreme right-wing parties with their mass-circulation newspapers fermented antisemitism after Leon Blum came to power in 1936.
The turning point was the Pan-Islamic Conference held in 1931 in Jerusalem. Jews and Arabs clashed in Casablanca (February 1932), Rabat (May 1933) Ksar el-Kebir (June 1933)), Tangiers and Tetuan. These incidents were played up by the Zionist and the Moroccan nationalist press. The latter, passing up no opportunity to vilify the French authorities for letting the Jews make donations to Zionist organisations, were largely inspired by the (Druze) Emir Shakib Arsalan's Syrian-Palestinian Committee in Geneva. Conflating anti-Jewish with anti-Zionist grievances, the Emir's Moroccan friends - Abd al Khaliq Torres, Mohammed Bennouna, Makki al-Nasiri, Mohamed Kettani and Ahmed Balafrej - accused the French of being pro-Jewish and allowing Zionism free rein, and called the emancipation of the Jews a violation of the Treaty of Fez. Pressure from some Jews for French nationality did not help matters.
Zionist activity did develop following (governor) Lyautey's departure, but it was not confrontational and was mostly concerned with running sports and cultural events. There was no talk of a 'mass exodus' to the Promised Land. Following the Arab Revolt in Palestine the governor of Morocco banned all Jewish fundraising for Palestine. Zionism was outlawed two years later and the editor of the Zionist magazine Avenir illustre expelled.
After Franco seized power in Spain and Spanish troops arrived in Melilla and Ceuta in 1937, German propaganda increased. Anti-Jewish tracts from France and Algeria circulated. Broadcasts by Radio Stuttgart, Radio Berlin and Radio Bari which now reached the remotest corners of Morocco, did have a cumulative impact: there were boycott calls against Jewish grocers and craftsmen. The Pasha of Marrakesh among others called on the authorities to stop Jews moving into the medinas or employing Muslim maids.
Leftwing intellectuals and workers tried to repair the breach. The Moroccan Union of Jews and Muslims was founded in 1936.
an article in --I believe-- Les Temps Modernes accuses the French authorities in Algeria of instigating an Arab pogrom against Jews in Constantine in 1934. Of course, before the French Conquest of Algeria, Jews there were severely oppressed although there were some wealthy notables.
ReplyDeleteGeorges Bensoussan writes that the Jews' situation in Morocco was even worse, since pre-French Algeria was still part of the Ottoman empire, mostly nominally to be sure, which tended to be less oppressive to the Jews. There are several 19th century French accounts of the oppression of Jews in Morocco, including reports sent to the Alliance Israelite Universelle by Jews from various parts of Morocco.