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Monday, November 19, 2007

1907: Moroccan Arabs kill Jews, rape women

I've been spending some time lately looking through old books at Google Books. Here's something I didn't know.

From the 1907 New International Year Book:
During the revolt of the Kabyles near Casa Blanca in August, following a bombardment of the town by a French battleship, the Arab tribes attacked 6000 Jews in Mallah, killing thirty and wounding sixty, and carrying off 250 young women and girls. The Jewish quarter was left in ruins and more than half the Jewish population wandered to Tangier, Gibraltar, and elsewhere in destitution.

In the latter part of November the town of Setlat was plundered by a tribe of Arabs and the Jewish population fled. On December 6 the Jewish village near Sefron was attacked by Berbers and a number of women and children were carried off. During this month nearly 500 Jews emigrated to Spain from Morocco.
Once again, we see that while Jews in Arab countries were certainly treated better on the whole than their compatriots in Europe, they were hardly treated as equals, and sometimes they were massacred - simply because they were Jews.