Attack on the Menarsha Synagogue

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The attack on the Menarsha Synagogue was a religiously motivated anti-Jewish attack by Muslims in Syria on August 5, 1949 in the Jewish quarter of Damascus . Twelve Jews died in the grenade attack , most of them children.

Background and process

The situation for Syria's Jews worsened in the late 1930s as riots in Palestine led to growing hostility towards Jews and Zionism in general. With the political and economic instability after Syria's independence in 1946, the increasing religious zeal of Muslims and anti-Western Arab nationalism created an increasingly louder anti-Jewish tone. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jews in Syria faced greater discrimination because the government imposed stricter restrictions on them. During this period, Jews and their property became the target of anti-Semitic attacks.

On Friday night, August 5, 1949, several grenades were fired at the Menarsha Synagogue in the capital Damascus . 12 Jews, eight of them children, were killed and over 30 others were seriously injured. The attack was planned to coincide with the Lausanne Conference , which followed the 1949 Armistice Agreement signed between Israel and Syria on July 20, 1949. A simultaneous attack took place against the central synagogue in Aleppo and resulted in the death of several Jews.

The Syrian President Husni al-Za'im sent his representative to visit the wounded and ordered those responsible to be seized “by all means”. Syrian police attributed the attacks to an underground movement known as the Arab Redemption Suicide Phalange and arrested several suspects. On August 9, a seventeen-year-old Syrian veteran of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War confessed that he and two friends were behind the attacks. President al-Za'im ordered the execution of the accused, but a few days later the coup d'état of Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi took place and al-Za'im himself was executed. In 1950 detainees linked to the attacks were acquitted on alleged "lack of evidence".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cyrus Adler, Henrietta Szold. American Jewish year book. Volume 52 , American Jewish Committee, 1951.
  2. Walter P. Zenner. A global community: the Jews from Aleppo, Syria in Google Book Search, Wayne State University Press, 2000. Page 82. ISBN 0814327915 .
  3. Michael R. Fischbach. Jewish property claims against Arab countries in Google Book Search, Columbia University Press, 2008. Page 30. ISBN 0231135386 .
  4. James A. Paul. Human rights in Syria in Google Book Search, Middle East Watch. Page 92.
  5. Moshe Gat. The Jewish exodus from Iraq, 1948-1951 in Google Book Search, Routledge, 1997. Page 188. ISBN 071464689X .
  6. Yazīd Sayigh. Armed struggle and the search for state: the Palestinian national movement, 1949-1993 in Google Book Search, Oxford University Press US, 1997. Page 72. ISBN 0198292651 .
  7. Itamar Leṿin. d doors: the seizure of Jewish property in Arab countries in the Google Book Search, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. Page 175. ISBN 0275971341 .
  8. a b Joseph B. Schechtman. On wings of eagles: the plight, exodus, and homecoming of oriental Jewry in Google Book Search, T. Yoseloff, 1961. p. 163.
  9. Sami M. Moubayed. Damascus between democracy and dictatorship in Google Book Search, University Press of America, 2007. Pages 70–71. ISBN 0761817441 .
  10. ^ GN Giladi. Discord in Zion: conflict between Ashkenazi & Sephardi Jews in Israel in the Google book search Scorpion Publishing, 1990. Page 89. ISBN 090590687X .
  11. ^ The Jewish Agency's digest of press and events, Volume 3 in the Google Book Search, Jewish Agency for Israel, 1950. Page 1.080. [University of California, February 1, 2010.]