Judis rebuts the popular idea that Palestinian anti-Semitism stemmed (and stems) from religious or ideological convictions. Not so, he writes. Rather, as the number of Jews in Palestine increased, and as it became common for Jews to refuse to hire Arab labor, among other ostensibly hostile practices, only then did virulent anti-Semitism emerge.Although I have done this before, here are a couple of other instances of how wonderfully Muslims treated Jews in Palestine in the 19th century.
When Palestinians did start sounding unhinged about Jewish influence, it was because they “had begun importing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from Eastern Europe.” This implies that the widespread anti-Semitic conspiracy theorizing in the Muslim world originated not from the Koran or deep-seated ethnic hatred, but from Poland, Germany, and Lithuania and in response to secular, concrete frustrations.
From The comparative geographie of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula by Carl Ritter, 1866:
From Three Weeks in Palestine and Lebanon, 1846, referring to Jews in Jerusalem:
It is so fashionable and chic to blame Muslim antisemitism on Jews. But people who are so ignore the facts.
This is not to say that Muslim and Arab antisemitism was as bad as Christian and European antisemitism throughout history. It is also not to say that Muslim antisemitism didn't increase as Jews in Palestine started demanding rights - rights to return to their ancient homeland, rights to buy land, rights of self-determination. All these rights that would be considered laudable for any people except the Jews.
Yes, some Jews wanted Jewish labor for their farms, because they felt ideologically that Jews must learn to work the land themselves rather than outsource it. But this didn't eliminate a single job from Arabs, since these were farms that didn't exist beforehand. On the contrary, Palestine's economy grew tremendously with the influx of Zionists, and Arabs immigrated to take advantage of the jobs that were created by Zionists.
The Arab and Muslim world at large continued to regard Jews as weak, spineless second class people. It was in reaction to Jews demanding to be treated with respect - something that they had lacked for centuries under Muslim rule - that caused Muslims to increase their hate.
The people who eagerly twist this around have an agenda - that Jews are responsible for Jew-hatred.
There is a word for that.