1967 Tripoli pogrom | |
---|---|
Part of the Six-Day war | |
Location | Tripoli, Kingdom of Libya |
Date | June 1967 |
Target | Jewish residents of Tripoli |
Attack type | pogrom, looting, arson |
Deaths | 18 |
Injured | 25 |
Perpetrators | Muslim mobs, police officers |
Defenders | Alitalia staff and crew members, Libyan secret police |
The 1967 Tripoli pogrom was an anti-Jewish pogrom which took place in the Libyan city of Tripoli.
Two major pogroms had occurred in Libya prior to the riots of 1967: One in 1945 which killed over 140 people and one in 1948 that killed 14. [1] [2] The 1967 riot broke out in response to the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab world. [3] [4] Arab leaders, especially Gamal Abdel Nasser, [5] broadcast public statements calling for the destruction of Israel and in support for the Arab cause. [4]
On the night of 5 June 1967, the same day the war started, a mob made up of hundreds of Muslim Libyans attacked Jewish homes and businesses in the city's Jewish Quarter, burning the Bet-El synagogue to the ground. [6] [7] Rioters attacked and set fire to Jewish houses, stores and cars, in addition to looting Jewish properties. A survivor recalled in 2017 he had been told that rioters at one point set a tire alight and threw it into a shop. [8] Of all Jewish assets, both public and private, 60% were destroyed. [7]
King Idris of Libya responded by ordering secret police to evacuate the Jewish population, transporting 3,000 Jews into a former British military base in the Libyan Desert. A group of rioters managed to disguise themselves as police officers during this operation, managing to kidnap and murder nine members of the Luzon family, including two parents and seven children. [6] Staff and workers for the Italian Alitalia airline also reacted by shielding Jews who had fled to the airport for safety. Staff repelled rioting mobs from getting to the airport and managed to hand out numerous plane tickets to Jews. [7] Alitalia's efforts were assisted by Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff and the Government of Italy. [9]
In total, 18 Jews were killed in the pogrom and at least 25 injured. [10] [11]
The program was the nail in the coffin for the History of Jews in Libya. [12] 4,100 [4] Jews managed to flee the country to Italy, including 2,500 who arrived to Rome via Alitalia. [9] [7] After Muammar Gaddafi took power in a 1969 coup, he ordered a persecution campaign against his country's Jewish minority, which led to the 100 remaining Jews fleeing the country. [13]
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest, as well as maritime borders with Greece, Italy and Malta to the north. Libya comprises three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million km2 (700,000 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. Libya claims 32,000 square kilometres of southeastern Algeria, south of the Libyan town of Ghat. The country's official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims. The official language of Libya is Arabic, with vernacular Libyan Arabic being spoken most widely. The majority of Libya's population is Arab. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in northwestern Libya and contains over a million of Libya's seven million people.
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The Libyan population resides in the country of Libya, a territory located on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, to the west of and adjacent to Egypt. Libyans live in Tripoli. It is the capital of the country and first in terms of urban population, along with Benghazi, Libya's second largest city.
A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire. Retrospectively, similar attacks against Jews which occurred in other times and places also became known as pogroms. Sometimes the word is used to describe publicly sanctioned purgative attacks against non-Jewish groups. The characteristics of a pogrom vary widely, depending on the specific incident, at times leading to, or culminating in, massacres.
In the 20th century, approximately 900,000 Jews migrated, fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries throughout Africa and Asia, primarily as a consequence of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the establishment of the State of Israel. Large-scale migrations were also organized, sponsored, and facilitated by Zionist organizations such as Mossad LeAliyah Bet, the Jewish Agency, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. The mass movement mainly transpired from 1948 to the early 1970s, with one final exodus of Iranian Jews occurring shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979–1980. An estimated 650,000 (72%) of these Jews resettled in Israel.
Maghrebi Jews, are a Jewish diaspora group with a long history in the Maghreb region of North Africa, which includes present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. These communities were established long before the Arab conquest, and continued to develop under Muslim rule during the Middle Ages. Maghrebi Jews represent the second-largest Jewish diaspora group, with their descendants forming a major part of the global Jewish population.
The persecution of Jews has been a major event in Jewish history prompting shifting waves of refugees and the formation of diaspora communities. As early as 605 BCE, Jews who lived in the Neo-Babylonian Empire were persecuted and deported. Antisemitism was also practiced by the governments of many different empires and the adherents of many different religions (Christianity), and it was also widespread in many different regions of the world.
The history of the Jews in Libya stretches back to the 3rd century BCE, when Cyrenaica was under Greek rule. The Jewish population of Libya, a part of the Sephardi-Maghrebi Jewish community, continued to populate the area continuously until modern times. During World War II, Libya's Jewish population was subjected to antisemitic laws by the Fascist Italian regime and deportations by both the Italian and German armies.
This is a list of countries where antisemitic sentiment has been experienced.
The history of the Jews in Lebanon encompasses the presence of Jews in present-day Lebanon stretching back to biblical times. While Jews have been present in Lebanon since ancient times, their numbers had dwindled during the Muslim era. Through the medieval ages, Jewish people often faced persecution, but retained their religious and cultural identity.
This timeline of antisemitism chronicles events in the history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as members of a religious and/or ethnic group. It includes events in Jewish history and the history of antisemitic thought, actions which were undertaken in order to counter antisemitism or alleviate its effects, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.
Islam is the dominant religion in Libya.
The 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo were a mob attack on Syrian Jews in Aleppo, Syria in December 1947, following the United Nations vote in favour of partitioning British Palestine. The attack was part of an anti-Jewish wave of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa at the time of the 1948 Palestine war. Yaron Harel describes extensive looting and property damage, but writes that soldiers and police officers "prevented the mob from injuring and murdering Jews." According to Jacob Freid, the riots resulted in some 75 Jews murdered and several hundred wounded. In the aftermath of the riots, half the city's Jewish population fled the city.
The 1945 Anti-Jewish riots in Tripolitania was the most violent rioting against Jews in North Africa in modern times. From November 5 to November 7, 1945, more than 140 Jews were killed and many more injured in a pogrom in British-military-controlled Tripolitania. 38 Jews were killed in Tripoli from where the riots spread. 40 were killed in Amrus, 34 in Zanzur, 7 in Tajura, 13 in Zawia and 3 in Qusabat.
The Allied administration of Libya was the control of the ex-colony of Italian Libya by the Allies from 13 May 1943 until Libyan independence was granted in 1951. It was divided into two parts:
Contemporaneously with the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, a riot against the Jewish community of Manama, in the British Protectorate of Bahrain, on December 5, 1947. A mob of Iranian and Trucial States sailors ran through the Manama Souq, looted Jewish homes and shops, and destroyed the synagogue. One Jewish woman died; she was either killed or died from fright.
The 1948 Anti-Jewish riots in Tripolitania were riots between the antisemitic rioters and Jewish communities of Tripoli and its surroundings in June 1948, during the British Military Administration in Libya. The events resulted in 13–14 Jews and 4 Arabs dead and destruction of 280 Jewish homes. The events occurred during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Conditions worsened for the Jews of Libya after the passage of Italy's Manifesto of Race in 1938. Following the German intervention in 1941, some Jews were sent to camps in continental Europe, where those who survived stayed until the end of World War II.
The history of the Jews in Alexandria dates back to the founding of the city by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Jews in Alexandria played a crucial role in the political, economic, cultural and religious life of Hellenistic and Roman Alexandria, with Jews comprising about 35% of the city's population during the Roman Era.
Israel–Libya relations describes the relations between Israel and Libya. While there have been no formal diplomatic agreements between Israel and Libya since Libya's independence, there have been some notable events and developments in their relationship over the years. One of the main reasons for Libya's antagonism towards Israel has been its support for the Palestinian cause. Libya, under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, was a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and provided aid and support to various Palestinian militant groups.
The Giado concentration camp was a forced labor concentration camp for Italian and Libyan Jews in Giado, Libya, operating during the Second World War from May 1942 until its liberation by British troops in January 1943. The camp was established on the orders of Benito Mussolini, the Prime Minister of Italy. At the time, Libya was under Italian colonial control and was known as Italian Libya.