The Moroccan pogrom of 1948 is still not commemorated

Last week was the 73rd anniversary of the brutal pogrom of Oujda and Jerrada, in Morocco. Yet there is widespread ignorance of this event, and no commemoration or memorial of it in Israel. Moreshet Marocco, reprinting an account first published in 2012, harks back to those fateful days: 

This map shows Oujda, on the border with Algeria

It was exactly 64 years ago, on Monday, [June 7, 1948] at 9:30 a.m., in the coal market in the city of Ujda, that a minor incident of attacking a Jew in broad daylight caused a loud quarrel and a great brawl between Muslims and Jews

Near the scene and after a short time, a Muslim was stabbed by a Jew. The victim's stab woulds were  moderate, but soon the rumor spread: "A Jew murdered a Muslim!" That was enough to light the fire. A mob equipped with destroyers, knives, etc., a river to the Jewish neighborhood "Shuk al-Yehud" to avenge the wounded Muslim, who was allegedly killed: five people were killed, four Jews and one Frenchman, dozens wounded, eighty-two shops were looted (sixty-seven were completely emptied) Houses were looted.

 Police and soldiers who were called to the scene of the disaster took control of the situation and dispersed the raging crowd to neighborhoods and villages around Oujda. This event gave the signal for the terrible continuation: a bus full of bloodthirsty torturers drove to the village of Jarada, remote from Oujda, about fifty kilometers. 

These passengers, who arrived in the village of Jarada, spread rumors about Jews killing Muslims and destroying the roof of the Great Mosque tower in Oujda. An argument that began in the evening, between a Muslim and a Jew who sold him a lottery ticket, and continued in a brawl, ended in a horrific massacre committed by predators, in honest and innocent members of the community, laborers, manual laborers. These curses, indiscriminately and mercilessly, shed blood of old men, rewards of milk and also babies in the crib, stoned and slaughtered. 

The family of the rabbi of the community, Rabbi Moshe HaCohen Scully,  his mother, 52, his wife, 28, the five children (from 8 months to 13 years old), were slaughtered for the sanctification of God. The number of 14 murdered was 38 (one of them non-Jewish), ten women, ten children, and eighteen men, and the wounded many dozens.

Read article in full (Hebrew)

More about the Oujda and Jerrada pogroms