Showing posts with label Life Of Jews In Arab Lands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Of Jews In Arab Lands. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 05, 2023



Egypt now has more restored synagogues than it has Jews. 

There are only three Jewish women left in Egypt, the youngest of whom is 70. But Egypt has, in recent years, restored five synagogues to their former glory, with seven or eight more still in disrepair.

The most recent restoration was the Ibn Ezra Synagogue which re-opened last week. To tourists only, of course. 

While Egypt is presiding over these multi-million dollar restorations, Egypt's Muslims are complaining that the government is destroying Islamic historic sites to make way for development projects. 

Muslims are seeing not only Jewish but Christian, Roman, Greek, and Pharaonic antiquities being preserved, while laws to preserve Islamic sites are apparently much more onerous.  Resentment is being expressed in Arabic news media.

Egyptian media lists three reasons why Egypt's government is spending so much money and time restoring Jewish synagogues and preserving the Jewish cemetery even as a Muslim cemetery is being relocated for development work.

One reason is that the Egyptians want to stay on the good side of the US, and they think (probably because Jews run the world) that restoring synagogue will pay political dividends.

The second is that it is simply to promote tourism. Tourism went down after the last coup, and they want to attract Jews to Cairo..

The third reason is to make President Sisi look moderate to the world and to his own people. This is the sort of no-risk move that makes him look tolerant of a virtually nonexistent minority. And in 2018, Sisi passed a law allowing him to stay in office until 2030, and the optics were bad - he wants to change them

All three of the reasons are using Jews as a means to an end. 




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Wednesday, July 12, 2023


The story goes that my two times great grandfather, Mordechai Shmuel Yanovsky, entered Yaffa port playing dead in a coffin, his wife, my two times great grandmother, Taibe Leah, playing the part of the grieving widow. According to my now 96-year-old 2nd cousin one time removed, who is Israeli through and through, our ancestor came into the Holy Land in a coffin because the Turks did not allow Jewish males to enter Palestine. I mentioned this to an Israeli contemporary who scoffed, “Never heard about such a thing. Many Jewish men openly came to Israel during the 19th century, while our land was occupied by the Ottoman Turks.

“Either the story is inaccurate - or there must be another reason for that, which I'm not aware of.”

I was quite ready to just accept what she said and move on. So many of the stories one or another relative has relayed about our family have turned out to be embroidered or difficult to verify. When I tell people about Mordechai Shmuel playing dead to enter Israel, they inevitably laugh, picturing him like some kind of jack-in-the-box peeking out to see if the coast was clear. That makes me think the story is probably made up. Because it really does seem ridiculous. Still, it would be nice to find a grain of truth in there somewhere—and maybe I did.

In Old Yishuv: Palestine at the End of the Ottoman Period, historian Margalit Shilo writes about the preponderance of women, specifically widows, in Palestine at that time:

Censuses of Jews in Palestine at the end of the Ottoman period reveal that the majority of the Jewish population was female. Demographer and statistician Uziel Schmelz summarized the information gleaned from various nineteenth-century censuses: “Forty-nine percent of all Jewish [adult] women [in Jerusalem] in 1839 and thirty-six percent in 1866 were widows. … There was a considerable excess of women over men in the adult population [of Jerusalem].” According to Schmelz’s calculations, based on a 1905 estimate, the number of Jewish women aged sixty and over was twice that of the parallel age group in men. Schmelz attributes this to two factors: a. widowhood, which enabled Jewish women for the first time to decide what to do with their lives, and b. male mortality, owing to the higher age of husbands compared with their wives and women’s longer life expectancy. Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was a decline in the number of widows.

Keeping my great great grandfather’s manner of entry into the country in mind, I wondered if all those women in the censuses were really widows. Could it be they were registered as widows, but really all had secret husbands who had played dead to get into the Land of Israel so the Turks wouldn’t know? It does seem improbable.

At the same time, the friend I consulted who said my family story is “inaccurate” seems unaware of the fact that the Turks decided to oppose Jewish immigration in 1881, with the assassination of the Czar, Alexander II. In Ottoman Policy and Restrictions on Jewish Settlement in Palestine: 1881-1908: Part I, author Neville J. Mandel, writes (emphasis added):

Periodisation in history is arbitrary, but for the Jews of Imperial Russia, already an unhappy community, the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 ushered in a painful new era. The pogroms after his death were followed by the notorious 'May Laws' of 1882 which stepped up economic discrimination against the Jews. The stirring among the Jewish community, both physical and intellectual, was heightened. Many more of them started to leave, mainly for America, and not a few began to think seriously about Jewish nationalism, with the result that the 'Lovers of Zion' Movement gained momentum. Some of them, whether for reasons of sheer physical safety or nationalism or a combination of both, thought of finding a home in the Ottoman Empire. The Sublime Porte was well-informed of these trends and of their contagious effects on other Jews, especially in AustroHungary, from the start. What is more, the Porte decided to oppose Jewish settlement in Palestine in autumn 1881, some months before the increased flow of Jews in that direction got under way . . .  

On examination, the Porte's awareness of trends among the Jews of Eastern Europe was not as surprising as it may seem at first sight. Given the aggressive intentions throughout the nineteenth century of Russia and Austro-Hungary on the Ottoman Empire, the Porte had good reason to try to keep abreast of events in those rival empires. Thus, inter alia, its diplomatic representatives in St. Petersburg and Vienna reported regularly on Jewish affairs, and there is even a file in the catalogues of the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, listed under Russia, entitled 'Situation [of] the Jews; Question of their Immigration into Turkey: 1881'.

Moreover, there had been some direct approaches to the Sublime Porte on this matter. In 1879 Laurence Oliphant, an English writer, traveller and mystic, had submitted a scheme to settle Jews on the east bank of the River Jordan. In 1881 a group of English and German businessmen sent a representative to negotiate with the Government for a concession to build a railway from Smyrna to Baghdad, along the length of which they proposed to settle Jews. Their representative saw the Foreign Minister who, according to Reuter's reports, was in favour of Jewish immigration into the Empire. The Council of Ministers considered the question and in November 1881 it was announced that:

[Jewish] immigrants will be able to settle as scattered groups throughout Turkey, excluding Palestine. They must submit to all the laws of the Empire and become Ottoman subjects. With growing numbers of Russian Jews applying to the Ottoman Consul-General at Odessa for visas to enter Palestine, the following notice was posted outside his office a few months later, on April 28, 1882:

The Ottoman Government informs all [Jews] wishing to immigrate into Turkey that they are not permitted to settle in Palestine. They may immigrate into the other provinces of [the Empire] and settle as they wish, provided only that they become Ottoman subjects and accept the obligation to fulfil the laws of the Empire.

The specific exclusion of Palestine had not been expected by the Jews. To them it seemed hard to believe that the Ottoman Government, with its record of hospitality to the Jews since their expulsion from Spain in the fifteenth century, should now forbid Jews to settle in Palestine. When the announcement was made in Odessa, Laurance Oliphant was in Eastern Europe on behalf of the Mansion House Committee, a British organization concerned with the relief of persecuted Jews from Russia and Rumania. The Jews whom he met persuaded him to go to Constantinople in order to find out more about the Porte's policy and also, if possible, to gain permission for numbers of Jews to settle in Palestine. At the same time, though independently of Oliphant, the Central Office of one of the first

'Lovers of Zion' groups was transferred from Odessa to Constantinople in the hope of obtaining a grant of land in Palestine for three hundred settlers. Then, at the beginning of June, Jacob Rosenfeld, the editor of Razsvet (a Jewish paper in St. Petersburg which sympathised with the 'Lovers of Zion') came to Constantinople to investigate the situation as well.

In Constantinople, Oliphant found about two hundred Jewish refugees. He also discovered that on entry to the Empire they were required to adopt Ottoman nationality and declare not only that they accepted the laws of the Empire without reserve, but also that they would not settle in Palestine. Oliphant approached the American Minister at the Porte to see if he would be prepared to try and clarify the position. When General Wallace said that he could only do so if a request came from the Jews themselves, Oliphant sent a telegram to Jews he had met in Bucharest and thus another delegation seeking permission for Jews to settle in Palestine hurried to Constantinople.

General Wallace met this delegation on June 6 and a few days later he spoke to the Ottoman Foreign Minister who confirmed what was known already. It all boiled down to the same thing. Immigrant Jews were welcome in the Empire, but not in Palestine; they could settle in small groups, provided that (a) they relinquished their foreign nationality and became Ottoman subjects, and (b) they did not seek any special privileges, but were content to remain bound by the existing laws.

Enter Herzl:

Ottoman policy remained constant throughout the 1880's and the first half of the 1890s, and it probably was not subjected to any fundamental review until Theodor Herzl's famous pamphlet, Der Judenstaat, was published in February 1896. In this pamphlet, Herzl gave more concrete expression to Jewish national aspirations, arguing (as suggested in the title) that the 'Jewish problem' could only be solved by establishing a Jewish state, possibly in Palestine but possibly elsewhere, in which persecuted Jews could live in freedom and dignity. This pamphlet led directly to the formation of the Zionist Movement in 1897 with Herzl at its head.

It is not generally appreciated that Herzl brought himself and his ideas to the Porte's attention one year before the first Zionist Congress was held. He did so by travelling to Constantinople in June 1896 and making contact not only with several senior officials in person but also with the Sultan through an intermediary. Displaying impressive ignorance of Ottoman sensitivities, Herzl's ideas were not calculated to appeal to the Porte. At a time when the Government's grip over its remaining territories in the Balkans was far from secure, and when the Sultan was under attack from Young Turks abroad for the 'dismemberment' of the Empire, Herzl asked that Palestine should be granted to the Jews with official blessing in the form of what he called a 'Charter'. And at a time when the Government had had more than enough of heavy European interference in its internal affairs, including control of its Public Debt since 1881, Herzl hoped that his Jewish State would enjoy Great Power protection. In exchange for Palestine, he nebulously offered 'to regulate the whole finances of Turkey' for 'His Majesty the Sultan'.

'His Majesty the Sultan' was that enigmatic figure, Abdulhamid II, who came to power in 1876. His presence and personality cannot be ignored because, although the Council of Ministers dealt with the question of Jewish settlement in Palestine from 1881, power and politics in the Ottoman Empire were more and more influenced, and later wholly controlled, by Abdulhamid until the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. Abdulhamid probably knew of the increased flow of Jewish immigrants towards Palestine from very early on. In keeping with his character, his attitude seems to have been one of suspicion and ambivalence. In 1881 he was reported to favour the Anglo-German proposal to settle Jews along the proposed railway from Smyrna to Baghdad; and he was said to have received the Rumanian delegation, which came to Constantinople the following summer (although the evidence for this is weak).

However, in 1891 he told the Military Supervisory Commission at the Yildiz Palace:

Granting the status of [Ottoman] subjects to these Jews and settling them is most harmful; and since it may in the future raise the issue of a Jewish government, it is imperative not to accept them.

And in 1892 the Ottoman High Commissioner in Egypt told Sir Evelyn Baring, the British Consul-General, that the Sultan was disturbed by an attempt to settle Jews on the east coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. But by the following year Abdulhamid appears to have considered the possibility of allowing Jews to settle elsewhere, for he told the Haham Bashi (the Chief Rabbi of the Empire) that he was willing to offer Russian and other oppressed Jews refuge in the Empire, particularly in Eastern Anatolia, so that they together with Ottoman Jews might furnish him with a force of 100,000 soldiers, to be attached to the Fourth Army. This proposal was welcomed by the Haham Bashi and his Rabbinical Council, but nothing came of it because, according to the Turkish (Jewish) historian, Abraham Galante, the Council of Ministers considered it ill-advised – presumably for the reasons outlined above.

In 1896 Theodor Herzl met Philipp Michael de Newlinski, a Polish aristocrat who had once worked in the Austro-Hungarian Embassy at Constantinople and was employed by Abdulhamid for special diplomatic missions. In June Herzl travelled with de Newlinski to Constantinople. On the train there, de Newlinski introduced Herzl to Tevflk Pasa (the Ottoman Ambassador at Belgrade), Karatodori Pasa and Ziya Pasa (both described as 'elder statesmen'), who were returning to Constantinople after the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. Herzl explained his project to Ziya Pasa, who agreed that 'the benefits in money and press support which you promise us are very great'. But, he warned, 'no one is even likely to have pourparlers with you if you demand an independent Palestine'.

A day after Herzl and de Newlinski arrived in Constantinople, Abdulhamid told the latter that:

If Mr Herzl is as much your friend as you are mine, then advise him not to take another step in this matter. I cannot sell even a foot of land, for it does not belong to me, but to my people. My people have won this empire by fighting for it with their blood and have fertilized it with their blood. We will again cover it with our blood before we allow it to be wrested away from us. The men of two of my regiments from Syria and Palestine let themselves be killed one by one at Plevna. Not one of them yielded; they all gave their lives on that battlefield. The Turkish Empire belongs not to me, but to the Turkish people. I cannot give away any part of it. Let the Jews save their billions. When my Empire is partitioned, they may get Palestine for nothing. But only our corpse will be divided. I will not agree to vivisection.

On June 29, 1882, the first tiny group of 'Lovers of Zion', numbering all of 14 souls, sailed from Constantinople for Jaffa. On the very same day, the Porte cabled the Mutasarrif of Jerusalem, ordering him not to let any Russian, Rumanian or Bulgarian Jews to disembark at Jaffa or Haifa; such Jews were not to set foot in any of the four so-called 'Holy Cities' of Palestine (Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias) and were to proceed to some other Ottoman port aboard the ship they came on.

This prohibition was contrary to one of the Capitulations with Russia which assured her subjects of unrestricted travel throughout the Ottoman Empire (except Arabia). When the Mutasarrif sought clarification from Constantinople, he was ordered to expel all Jews who had settled in the Mutasarriflik within the last four months; only to permit Jewish pilgrims and businessmen to remain for a brief period; and to prevent other Jews (i.e. prospective settlers) from landing. Similar instructions were soon received and enforced in the Vilayet of Sam (embracing the northern part of Palestine). The terms of these and subsequent instructions made it clear that the Porte was primarily concerned to prevent Russian Jews from settling in Palestine. Jews from other countries were arriving in much smaller numbers, and were of correspondingly less concern. 

Irregularities were not long in arising. Some Russian Jews applied for visas to Constantinople, where they obtained permits to travel within the Ottoman Empire. Thus they would arrive at Palestine with valid papers, but as prospective settlers they were refused entry. This led to complaints, and at the end of 1882 the Ministry of Police in Constantinople was ordered by the Council of Ministers to stop issuing internal travel permits to Russian Jews until the Government took a decision on the matter. The reason given for this order was that the Jewish immigrants were not fulfilling the first obligation required of them, i.e. to become Ottoman subjects. In spring 1883 it was reported that a complete bar was being imposed on the entry of all Jews at Beirut and Haifa. Against this, it was still possible for Jews from countries other than Russia and Rumania to disembark at Jaffa. And even in the case of Russian and Rumanian Jews, pilgrims and businessmen were allowed to land.

But the Mutasarrif of Jerusalem appears to have recognized that it did not accord with the Porte's real purpose to admit these Jews who claimed that they came for prayer or business, but in fact came to settle. He therefore turned to Constantinople for advice. A correspondence ensued; the Ministries of Internal and Foreign Affairs conferred; the opinions of the Porte's legal advisers were sought; and the Council of State considered the question in March, 1884. After a further exchange with Jerusalem, it was decided to close Palestine to all Jewish business men, on the grounds that the Capitulations, which permitted Europeans to trade freely within the Ottoman Empire, applied exclusively to areas 'appropriate for trade'- the Council of State did not consider that Palestine was such an area.

Henceforth, only Jewish pilgrims could enter Palestine. Their passports were to be properly visaed by Ottoman Consuls abroad; on arrival they were to hand over a deposit guaranteeing their departure, and they were to leave after thirty days.

In all this, the role of the Powers was crucial. If the entry restrictions were to be effective, they had to be accepted by the Powers, on whose nationals they fell. And, broadly speaking, the Powers did not accept them, since they were bent on preserving their privileges granted under the Capitulations (which, as already mentioned, the Porte was trying to curtail).

There were of course certain differences in the positions taken by the various Powers, depending to some extent on the state of their relations with the Ottoman Empire. For example, from the 1880's onwards, Germany was trying to befriend the Ottoman Empire and on occasion seemed inclined to fall in with the entry restrictions. But in general the Powers refused to acquiesce in them, and so in 1888, after adopting a strong stand, they were able to extract a concession from the Porte permitting Jews to settle in Palestine, provided that they arrived singly, and not en masse.

There is much more to this fascinating history as set forth by Mandel, but halfway through his recitation of the facts, I believe I’d found the answer to my family riddle. Mordechai Shmuel and Taibe Leah left Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, for Palestine. Mordechai Shmuel was merchant class, which means he was considered well-off. But he was not entering Palestine as a businessman. The intention of the two, who had arrived with several children, was to make Aliyah: to permanently settle in Eretz Yisrael.

Had he declared himself to be in Palestine on business, after 30 days, Mordechai Shmuel Yanovsky, my ancestor, would have been hunted down and expelled. Arriving in the country for burial, on the other hand, would probably not be seen as “settlement.” As such, the ploy of playing dead, with his wife playing the grieving widow, makes sense.

I have not found any record of other Jewish men playing dead to get into what is today the State of Israel. It does, however, pique my interest that there were so many widows in the Old Yishuv. Is it possible that the women may have been hiding the existence of their men in order to prevent them from being expelled?

Ultimately, my two-times-great-grandparents failed at Aliyah. Mordechai Shmuel and Taibe Leah stayed with relatives in Jerusalem while their farmhouse was being built on land in the newish town of Petach Tikva. That town, founded in 1878, was the first modern Jewish agricultural center located in Ottoman “Southern Syria.”

One day, Mordechai Shmuel set out from Jerusalem to check on the progress of the building in Petach Tikva. During the journey, my ancestor was attacked by three Arab ruffians, beaten unconscious, and left for dead. They were disappointed to see he had only a pair of phylacteries and little cash. My great great grandfather had not seen the need for further provisions for a simple overnight trip.

When Mordechai Shmuel awoke three days later in a hospital in Jaffa, he thought to himself, “This is a crazy place. I’m taking the family back to Lithuania.”

My Israeli cousin relates that his grandfather Nachum Shlomo, who was known to all the cousins as the “Saba from Jerusalem” refused to return with the family and his father, hoping to change his mind, threatened to sit shiva on him. But Shlomo (as he was called) wouldn’t leave, and Mordechai Shmuel did in fact sit shiva for him. They reconciled and eventually, in their old age, Mordechai Shmuel and Taibe Leah returned, living with Shlomo’s family so that they could be buried on the Mount of Olives when they died. And so it was. This time, Mordechai Shmuel stayed dead.

The graves of my great great grandparents on the Mount of Olives, restored after 1967

But here I am today, his great great granddaughter, living in a bustling Jewish State, a grandmother myself now, with deep roots in Israel. I never had to play dead, hide in a coffin, or resort to subterfuge in order to make Aliyah. There were no Turks to stop me.

Today, the Ottomans are no more. The Jews, however, are now firmly ensconced in the Land. This in spite of all the bad people who’d like to push us into the sea and steal our land. It’s fun to watch them froth at the mouth when they see they can’t get their way and make Israel Judenrein once more, as it was for all intents and purposes under the Turks.

In other words, you won’t catch me playing dead in a coffin. I’m here in Israel out loud and proud.

Mordechai Shmuel and Taibe Leah Yanovsky are no doubt amazed at my great good luck. One of their blood in Eretz Yisroel, not here to fake death or to come in my old age to die, but to live and raise more generations in the Holy Land, now a sovereign Jewish state.

Updated for accuracy July 23, 2023



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Monday, June 26, 2023




This story was written as an appendix to "AN INFORMATION, CONCERNING The Present STATE OF THE JEWISH NATION IN EƲROPE and JƲDEA," probably written by Henry Jessey of England in 1658.

The state of the Jews at Jerusalem hath been many hundred years of late such, as that they ever lived of the supply and Contributions from their brethren abroad; because the place doth yield but little occasion for them to maintain themselves: and besides those that betake themselves thither, are either Old men or Women, only to do penitency and lay down their bones near the Sepulchers of their fore-fathers: or of younger men that for respect to the holiness of the place (as supposing God to be nearer there, and that all prayers must needs ascend that way into heaven) come thither, there to ply devotion and penitency for the sins of themselves and the whole Nation: and therefore cannot attend any trading, but all their time is taken up with praying, reading and hearing Sermons; as also with fastings and watchings and the like penitential Exercises: which intent and endeavours their Brethren abroad amongst the Nations well knowing, and with all desiring to keep (as it were) possession, or at least a footing in Jerusalem, and to shew their holiness till a full restitution come, have been ever willing to uphold them in it: and to that purpose, wherever any Synagogues of Jews are, on every Sabbath-day a Collection is made for the poor at Jerusalem; and what so is gathered, they are to send thither every year., therefore the Jews of Poland, &c. By the Turks (and especially their debts made for want of supply amongst the Citizens) being rigorously exacted, they were haled into prison, &c.

An Instance hereof is this, that in the year 5399. from the Creation, which is now nineteen years ago, there was a great drought in Jerusalem, which had put all Inhabitants to prayers, the Necessity being extream: but the worst of all was this, that an apostated Jew going out to the Turks, persuaded unto the then Bassa, the Lord Mahomet Bassa, that the sole cause that the heaven were shut up, were the Jews by reason of their disobedience unto God; whereupon an Edict was put forth, commanding all Jews, great and small, young and old, to be cast out of the Town presently. 

Whereupon some eight of their Eldest were sent up to the said Bassa: which Eldest with great Expences bestowed partly on the Bassa, and partly on his Consellours, had much to do, to crave only three dayes delay: If perhaps within that time the Lord should accept of their pray­ers and penitency: If not, and that the Lord gave no Rain, he might do with him what he pleased. 

This being so stated, it was proclaimed throughout the City, that if within three days no rain came, all the Jews should be expelled, and their goods made prize to the Turks: and whosoever should be found re­maining, was to be killed. 

Hence arose a doleful lamentation amongst the Jews: a continual fasting for those three nights and days was put upon all, except Babes and Women with Child or in Child-bed, who were bound only to one day and night: So they prayed and humbled themselves all that while with great Cries and Weepings, so that the voice of it was heard throughout the City; and on the Evening on the second day, they seeing no likely-hood their prayers should be heard, and judging their sins to be too great, they took a Resolution, like to Saul, rather to kill one another, one Brother the other, the Father his Children, the Husband his Wife, &c. then to suffer themselves to be polluted by the merciless Turks. 

Yet one thing they would first request of the Bassa. viz. That they might all go out to the Sepulchre of the Prophet Zacharia, which was out of the Town, and whither they could not come without his consent. So one R. Emanuel Albachry was sent unto him, who hearing of their desperate Resolutions pit­ied them and said, Go ye and make your prayers there, if perhaps God might hear you and save you from being killed. 

So on the morning of the third day early, all went forth and laid themselves down at the Sepulchre of Zacharia, and there wept bitterly. One R. Asaria made a very pathetical Sermon, and caused all the people to weep, and so did R. Meyer likewise. And at Length arose one R. Samuel, who put the people in mind of the sins of their forefathers, and against this Prophet, at whose Tomb they now were prostrated, how they arose against him, and stoned him most cruelly: how (said he,) shall we here obtain mercy at his feet, seeing our Fathers had no mercy on him? At which words the people wept bitterly, and struck their hands together, and poured out tears as water, and lift up their voices, men and women, young and old: and the Lord remembered.  

These are the words of R. Samuel Ben Seth, as the next page show his surety: and he made this R. Samuel to think on the words of the Prophet Elijah on the Mount Carmel, when he said to his man go up and see, &c. and therefore commanded the people to go seven times round about the Sepulchre, at the first Circuition he ordained Psalm 24. and certain prayers to be pronounced; at the second he assigned Psalm 48. and other prayers, and so at each of the seven Circuits some peculiar Psalm and prayer till the Vesper­time came. And then the people going forth saw a little Cloud on the West side of Heaven as large as the palm of a hand. 

That very day it had been very hot, even as it had been Mid Summer, so that no man could have believed any rain could have fallen that day; which made that the Turks had already gathered up stones, wherewith they thought to have stone the Jews at their return into the City: But such was God's providence that even that day before Sun-setting the said Cloud grew thick, and a wind began to blow, and then came Thundering, and Lightning, and such a blessed shown of Rain, that in two or three hours all the Cisterns were brim-full; so that for the Rains sake the Jews were forced to remain that whole Night in Holes and Concavities of the Sepulchre. And when on the next morning the Women went first of all toward Jerusalem, the Turkish Women met them by the way, and Congratulated them, that God had heard their prayers; and so likewise many of the Chief Turks met with the men, and brought them some presents of fruits and Confitures; and the Bassa bestowed a suite of apparel on every one of their Rabbis.

This is an extract drawn out of an Authentique Copie, written by the said R. Samuel, and signed by all the Elders of the High-Dutch Synagoge at Jerusalem, 1657. April. 22. An other Instance of the same kind we could add of the year (as we count) 1651. and another yet since while Rab. Nathan was here; but this afore mentioned being most Considerable and most Authentical, and exactly pend, whereas the others are but received by word of mouth, we shall here desist. This being sufficient to manifest unto us, that however despised this people is by men, yet that the Lord doth yet own them and accept of their prayers, when none but he can help, when ever with a penitent and contrite heart they re­pent of their sins and call for mercy, as we have seen here at the Sepulchre of the Prophet Zachary. 

Some say the events happened in 1651, others say 1639 which seems more in line with this narrative (5399 Hebrew year.)

The book also describes how poverty-stricken the Jews of Jerusalem were, relying on charity from Jews in Europe. It describes how Christians contributed to their welfare one year when they were punished by the Ottoman authorities for not coming up with the amount of taxes they normally were able to raise because of a war in Poland, causing controversy since the Christians were known for wanting to convert all the Jews, but the fundraiser rabbi assured Jerusalem's Jews that this was voluntary - he hadn't asked for the money - and there were no strings attached.

[S]ince the desolation, brought by war upon Poland, and the other parts, whence that supply was sent unto them, they have been in great extremity of want; insomuch, that in the year one thousand six hundred to death, and the taxes laid upon them by the Turks, being rigorously exacted, they were haled into prison, their Synagogues were shut up, their Rabbi's and Elders beaten and cruelly used. So that to find relief, because none came from Poland, Lithuania, and other parts of Eu­rope, by the late war, and none could be had in those parts form their own, by reason of the general Pres­sures, which the Turks without Mercy laid upon them all, they send two of their chief Rabbi's to their Brethren in Eu­rope, to acquaint them with their state, and to desire some help from them. The chief of the Rabbi's was called Nathan Saphira, son to the high Lord, Ruben David Tavel, a man of great learning, and skill in their Cabala, and of a very pious, holy and humble disposition, who coming with his compani­on from Jerusalem upon this errand, and finding at Amsterdam little relief from the Portugal Jews, became accidentally ac­quainted with some of our Christian friends, who pitied their Condition, and were of their own accord moved to procure some relief unto them among their other Christian friends...




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

 Arab media didn't have a problem with antisemitism before MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch started translating their articles into English. One of the earliest translations from MEMRI came from the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al Hayat al Jadida, in 1998, during the Oslo process(!):

Corruption is a Jewish trait worldwide. So much so that one can seldom find corruption that was not masterminded by Jews or that Jews are not responsible for. They are well known for their intense love of money and its accumulation. The way in which they get hold of that money does not interest them in the least. On the contrary - they would use the most basic despicable ways, to realize their aim, so long as those who might be affected were non-Jews. A Jew would cross any line if it were in his interest.

...Since such is their behavior, they have exerted all their efforts into developing evil schemes. They believed that the secret to their survival lay in controlling the economies of the countries that had let them in and sheltered them from being refugees. [They further believed] that the secret lay in conspiracy and abatement of feuds [between non-Jews], so that the non-Jews would be engaged in internal conflict – paving the way for [a Jewish attack]. They concoct scandals that would haunt leaders, letting the Jews take a firm grip and tilting leaders in favor of their interests.

A survey conducted by [Jewish] scholars, on the legacy and customs of non-Jewish nations, taught them that the latter were afraid of money and sex. These are exactly the two instruments Zionists use. First, they have propagated Freemasonry and Rotary clubs all over the world, in order to hunt for influential people, or such whom they can take advantage of. Zionists trap these [influential people] due to their circumstances, shortsightedness or greed. [Shortcomings] have pushed them to the lap [of Jews], so they can [still] reach the aims they had envisioned.

While one may find similarly antisemitic articles in Algerian or Iraqi or Islamic fundamentalist media, since the translations started getting media attention the more mainstream sites in Egypt and the PA have been trying to avoid explicit antisemitism and call it all "anti-Zionism."

Little has changed, except in Abraham Accords countries. But the explicit antisemitism is a bit more embarrassing so it is not as publicized in the media of most Arab states.

But not in Yemen.

It isn't surprising to see that Yemeni news sites associated with the Houthis remain explicitly antisemitic. After all, the Houthi motto includes "Curse the Jews." 

So they can feel free to say all the things that most Jordanians, Palestinians and Egyptians think - out loud.

This is from the Houthi Laa Media site called "The Cancer of the Jews" published yesterday:

Today we call the name “Jew” in general on every person who converted to the Jewish religion, while the reality is that many of these are not Semitic in terms of ethnic origin, as a large number of them are descendants of the Herodians or the Edomites of Turkish-Mongolian blood.

The Jews of Khazaria were famous for their malice, extreme stinginess, decadent methods in financial matters, and their vile morals, so they spread economic and social corruption in Europe. .
In 1306 AD, France expelled the Jews, followed by Saxony in 1348 AD, Hungary in 1360 AD, Belgium in 1370 AD, Slovakia in 1380 AD, Austria in 1430 AD, the Netherlands in 1444 AD, Spain in 1492 AD, Lithuania in 1495 AD, Portugal in 1498 AD, and Italy in 1540 AD, and Bavaria in general 1551 AD.

Therefore, most historians say that Europe was not able to start the era of renaissance and prosperity until after it was able to expel the Jews from its lands and liberate itself from the clutches of Jewish economic control.

Will we, the Arabs, succeed in expelling this malignant cancer from our region, so that we can enjoy the renaissance and prosperity as Europe did in the past?!

Or is the axis of resistance the only one fighting this cancer in order to expel it from the region, while the rest of the Arabs do not care about the evil of this malignant disease?

It is a direct call for genocide. 

If the larger Arab world was as repulsed by antisemitism as they claim, they would attack the Houthis as being bigots, and defend the remaining Jews in Muslim lands. But they never do, not when Yemenis say these things and not when other Arabs manage to publish similar articles. 

Shaming is a terrific weapon, and one that the West needs to use more. Even if antisemitic Arabs are forced to hide their hate, that still is an accomplishment - hiding it makes it harder to spread to newer generations. MEMRI and PMW has managed to shame large swaths of the Arab world to eschew explicit antisemitism, knowing that they will look bad when exposed to the West. 

The Houthis cannot be shamed by Westerners - but if their fellow Muslim Arabs would call out their hate, they would be put on the defensive. And if we are going to successfully fight Arab antisemitism, then we need the Arabs who claim to distinguish between Jews and Zionists to prove it by openly defending Jews from attacks like these. 





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Friday, June 09, 2023

From Arutz-7:
Members of an Israeli delegation were denied entry into Jordan Tuesday, after border guards refused to allow those wearing Jewish garb from entering the country.

The incident occurred at the Rabin border crossing in Eilat, on the border with the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, when a delegation of Israeli municipal leaders tried to enter the Hashemite kingdom for an educational tour.

Jordanian border officials ordered the delegation members to lift up their shirts, so that the guards could see if they were wearing any religious Jewish garments underneath.

Tour participants who were not wearing identifiably Jewish garb, such as kippot (yarmulkes) or tzitzit (a four-cornered, fringed traditional Jewish garment) were permitted to cross the border, while those who were wearing religious garments were refused entry.

One participant told Israel Hayom that a Jordanian border guard took his kippah and threw it in the trash.
These are not the actions of an overzealous security guard. Stories like this pop up every few months. Official Jordanian policy is to confiscate any object that is remotely Jewish at the border with Israel, even if they are hidden within luggage.

Even non-Jews who cross from Israel to Jordan have their Jewish-themed souvenirs confiscated. 

The official reason? This is done for the visitors' own safety.

That excuse is itself fascinating. Jews have traveled to other Muslim-majority countries, even those with no diplomatic relations with Israel, with their kipot and tallitot and tefillin with no issues. Only Jordan claims that the mere whiff of Judaism could whip its citizens into a murderous frenzy. And only Jordan blames the Jews for upsetting their Muslim residents by merely existing as Jews.

The blatantly antisemitic policy has been in place since at least 2015. Jordanians have complained bitterly when they see photos of religious Jews praying at the "Tomb of Aaron":


However, it appears that some Hasidic groups have managed to arrange trips specifically to visit and pray at that spot - on the Breslov Hasidic website they have a poster for a planned three day trip last summer, and they claim they have visited every year without incident, although they admit to having had to curtail some of their activities due to Jordanian concerns. But their annual trip originates from Israel.


So there is a little more to this story; perhaps organized tour groups arranged through some Jordanian travel agents are allowed. 

Also, I have not seen anyone mention that Jews flying to Amman being harassed for wearing kipot or tzitzit.

But the official stated policy remains one of explicit antisemitism. 





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Wednesday, June 07, 2023

Muslim and Jewish friends in shop in Djerba

Raseef22 is an Arabic language online magazine that centers on issues of human rights. Even a glance at its home page shows that it cares more deeply about real human rights in the Arab world than politicized Western NGOs do.

It recently featured an article about how entrenched antisemitism is in how Tunisians speak - a topic that Western media avoids at all costs. 

Most Jews interviewed in the article stress that they are treated with respect...and then they admit that, yes, there are plenty of examples of hate that they have been exposed to.

“Jacob,” who works in the gold trade with his relatives in the Al-Baraka market in the old city of Tunis, asks: “Do you notice any difference between me and any Tunisian Muslim?” And he adds, after I answered him in the negative, as he shows me a small hat that he took out of his pocket: “In the capital, I avoid putting a kippah (a cap worn by religious Jews) on my head, because it symbolizes my Judaism, and we are very few here and I would be subject to racism, while in Djerba I put it with pride, with my head held high, without fearing anything, because there we have coexisted with Muslims for thousands of years like brothers."

The young man, in his twenties, spoke to Raseef22 about incidents of racism that he encountered, which he described as “normal.” However, his trembling voice and frequent sighs between words and the next expressed the depth of the impact they left on him. He says: “Once I asked a Muslim friend about the price of a smartphone of the last time he had bought it. He said to me without thinking, 'I paid the fat of the Jews into him.' I changed the subject, but the incident remained in my mind.”

In Tunisia, the expression, “It cost me the fat of the Jews,” means it was very expensive . Accounts differ regarding the true meaning of this phrase, but the most widespread of them is that the fat is considered forbidden by the Jews.

There are many expressions that denote racism in the Tunisian dialect. We find expressions such as: “Hasak, Jew.” The term “Hasak” is used in Tunisia to disavow a bad and disgraceful act, and the phrase “Hasak, Jew” is said to every person who commits a shameful act.

Likewise, the expression “Latif Mullah Jew” is said, which means “This person does not fear God in his creation,” and other outrageous phrases that are based on discrimination on the basis of religion.

...David Ozan (66 years old), retired, lives in the city of Meknine in Monastir Governorate, on the eastern coast, and has lived in Sousse Governorate for 40 years. He says: "I have never been subjected to racist practices during the sixty years that I have lived."

David tells Raseef22 about the peaceful coexistence between him and his Muslim neighbors, without disturbing his relationship with them: “I used to own two grocery stores in Sousse. My Muslim brothers, just as most of my friends and family members are Muslims, I congratulate them on their holidays and they congratulate me on my holidays, and none of us bears a grudge against the other."
....
David is silent for a while and then adds: "I do not deny the fact that there are some occasional racist practices against the Jews. To judge our Muslim brothers through the hybrid practices of individuals who can be counted on the fingers of the hand... If accidental discriminatory practices happen, we do not base our relations on them and do not pay any attention to them in the first place, because the haters are everywhere, and we should not judge a group based on the behavior of reckless individuals."

Jewish cemeteries in Tunisia are sometimes subjected to vandalism and destruction, similar to what happened in the Jewish cemetery in Sousse last March. 
Tunisia is undoubtedly one of the more tolerant Muslim countries, and there is nothing described in this article that doesn't happen in parts of the US (when car shopping in the 90s, one sales representative told me "I don't want to Jew you down.")  Yet the article does not try to downplay the antisemitic expressions that have become part of everyday language and the dangers that this represents. 

It is impressive to see such a fair, unbiased article about Arab antisemitism in any Arabic language media. 





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Thursday, June 01, 2023

The Palestine Post reported on June 1, 1948 that Arab airplanes were dropping propaganda leaflets on northern Israel urging Jews to surrender and assuring them that Jews are treated wonderfully in Arab countries - better than anywhere else in the world.

At the same time, Iraq - which had troops in Palestine - started forcing their Jews to pay huge sums:


In Egypt, the government started confiscating property owned by Jews who had been thrown into concentration camps::


And on the following day, witnesses started reporting on the systematic Arab destruction of anything Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem:


Arabs continue to repeat the lie, today, that Jews have always been treated wonderfully under Muslim rule. 









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Monday, May 29, 2023

This article from 200 years ago - May 1823 - describes the lives of (Sephardic) Jews in Jerusalem then, and pays particular attention to the women.

Excerpts:

Many of the Jews are rich and in comfortable circumstances, and possess a good deal of property in Jerusalem, but they are careful to conceal their wealth, and even their comfort, from the jealous eye of their rulers, lest by awakening their cupidity, some vile, indefensible plot should be devised to their prejudice. In going to visit a respectable Jew in the holy city, it is a common thing to pass to his house over a ruined foreground, and up an awkward outside stair, constructed of rough unpolished stones, that totter underfoot, but it improves as you ascend, and at the top has a respectable appearance, as it in an agreeable platform in front of the house. On entering, the house itself is found to be clean and well furnished the sofas are covered with Persia carpets, and the people seem happy to receive you. The visitor is entertained with coffee and tobacco, as is the custom in the houses of the Turks and Christians.

 The ladies presented themselves with an ease and address that surprised me, recalled to my memory the pleasing society of Europe. This difference of manner arises from many of the Jewish families at Jerusalem, having resided in Spain or Portugal, where the females have rid themselves of the cruel domestic fetters of the east, and on returning to their beloved land, had very properly maintained their justly acquired freedom and rank in society. They almost all speak in broken Italian, so that conversation goes on without the clumsy aid of an interpreter. It was the feast of the Passover. they were all eating unleavened bread; some of which was presented to me as a curiosity, and I partook of it merely that I might have the gratification of eating unleavened bread with the sons and daughters of Jacob in Jerusalem. It is very insipid fare, and no one would eat it from choice. 

...The Jewesses in Jerusalem speak in a decided and firm tone, unlike the hesitating and timid voice of the Arab and Turkish females, and claim the European privilege of differing from their husbands, and maintaining their own opinions. They are fair and good looking; red and auburn hair are by no means uncommon is either of the sexes. I never saw any of them with veils; and 1 was informed that it is the general practice of Jewesses in Jerusalem to go with their faces uncovered - they are the only females there who do so. They seem particularly liable to eruptive diseases, and the want of children is as great a heart break to them now as it was in the days of Sarah.


Alexandria Gazette
Alexandria, Virginia • 
Sat, May 10, 1823
Page 4




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Friday, May 05, 2023

There is an interesting thread by Yair Wallach, from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, where he minimizes any threats made by Arabs towards Jews in 1948, and says that Jews exaggerate those threats in order to pursue their goal of Jewish supremacism:

So many people are attached to the "they wanted to throw us into the sea" myth based on extremely flimsy evidence - a couple of dubious quotes. If this was indeed a "genocidal war" against Jews, you'd expect such rhetoric to be easy to find. It isn't. 

There is, in contrast, a considerable corpus of public discussions in Arabic on how to integrate Jews (inc. recent migrants) into the Arab Middle East. Those ideas, unsurprisingly, were unpalatable to the Zionist mainstream. But that's very different to "throwing into the sea".

But it's not enough to say: we had radically different political visions, therefore there was war. No, it has to be "they wanted to push us into the sea". Why?

Because it's a founding colonial myth. Israel is "the villa in the jungle." Arabs are genocidal and violent by nature, always a security risk. So equal rights are out of the question, and a 55 year military occupation is justified - because they want to push us into the sea.
It is true that in 1948, Zionist analysts felt that the war would go their way. It is probably true that some sober Arab leaders did not plan genocide against the Jews and "merely" wanted them to remain despised second class citizens as they had been forever under Muslim rule. But there is a huge leap in logic there to claim that there was no fear of another genocide, and an even larger leap to say that Jewish racism is keeping that myth alive in order to subjugate Palestinians. 

First of all, there were threats - real threats - by Arab leaders promising a massacre of Jews that were recorded in major media, and not difficult to find at all. And they included at least one explicit call to throw Jews into the sea. 

Here's one genocidal threat from November 1947:


Another one was from Abdul Azzam Pasha, secretary general of the Arab League. Right before the UN partition vote on November 29, 1947, he publicly threatened not only the Jews of Palestine but all Jews in the Middle East. 

Abdul Azzam Pasha. secretary general of the Arab League, warned today that a United Nations decision to partition Palestine could mean only one thing for Arabs —"war against the Jews." 

In a statement made as the UN general assembly prepared to vote on the explosive issue he declared: "Such a decision would mean the end of the first phase of the Arab struggle to have Palestine become an independent Arab state. The second phase of the struggle will now begin . . . the Arabs will have a long run of victories even it it takes us until 1950 or 1960.

"We have justice, time and numbers on our side—everything but arms— and we shall get them too." 
...
The Arab spokesman said that if Haganah, army of the Jewish agency for Palestine, tries to enforce a partition decision after the British leave and Palestine Arabs seek the help of other Arab states "we shall not hesitate."

He declared: "Every Arab from Morocco to Afghanistan would rise in answer to the call of their Arab brethren." 

He forecast "disturbances" and "persecution" of Jews in neighboring Arab countries "in an atmosphere of hatred and animosity which will prevail in case of trouble." The spokesman added, "Palestine Arabs will not stop to find out who is Zionist and who is not. They will be fighting one enemy--Jews." 
..."If we suffer any defeats in the beginning then the Arabs will rally in huge numbers because it will be a question of racial pride."


Azzam Pasha is saying here that it is a point of pride for Arabs not to accept Jews as equals or victors. He proudly calls Arabs racists against Jews. So even if they wouldn't have literally thrown all the Jews into the sea, all the Arab proposals of what to do with the Jews ensured that Jews would be forever subjugated. 

Now, let's look at what happened in the immediate aftermath of Azzam Pasha's threat. As soon as the UN partition vote ended - -within hours - Arabs in Palestine started attacking every Jew they could find.

Not Haganah members. Jews.

And for months, until the Haganah started going on the offensive, Jews were murdered every day just because they were Jewish.


- 39 Jews massacred at a Haifa oil refinery when 2000 Arab employees ran amok after an apparent Irgun bomb killed six Arabs.

- A funeral procession to the Mount of Olives (for Jews previously murdered by Arabs) was raked by gunfire, killing one of the mourners and a British policeman.

- Two Jews were killed in separate events near Safed.

- One Jew was killed and several injured in sniping from Jaffa to Tel Aviv.

And these are only the stories about fatal attacks. There were many others that were either repulsed or "only" resulted in injuries.

This is what the paper was like every day. Jewish doctors killed in hospitals. Jews killed trying to help Arabs in trouble. Arab neighbors who had been friends with Jews turned around and started ululating in support of Iraqi troops in their villages. It was open season on Jews.

And  Jewish civilians in the Arab world were also targets at that time - in Tehran and Yemen, in Bahrain and Syria, in Morocco and Egypt.

These are not myths. Azzam Pasha's threats were coming true. 

There was also at least one threat to throw Jews into the sea. In August, 1948, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Banna told the New York Times, "If the Jewish state be-comes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea." This is referring to the Jews of Arab countries, and the NYT added that  "the Sheikh granted that this was a figure of speech," but later in the article he explicitly said that if it wasn't for politics, the Arab world would have "destroyed the Jews" in Palestine.

Wallach, whose Twitter feed has a number of statements disparaging those who are arguing with him because they are not real historians like he is, apparently found these explicitly genocidal statements against all Jews in the Middle East by Arab leaders too difficult to find. These are not "dubious" quotes - they are explicit calls to wipe out the Jews.

Coming only three years after the Holocaust, why wouldn't Jews take these threats seriously?  More importantly, how can anyone consider these public statements from Arab leaders, backed up by  Arab actions on the ground, not genocidal? The only thing protecting the Jews in Palestine was the Haganah - without them they would have been defenseless. They weren't defending themselves only from armies but from their neighbors. The Hadassah Hospital convoy massacre was not exactly an invitation by Arabs to work out their differences with the Jews.

Wallach's evidence that some Arabs discussed how to not eradicate the Jews and only subjugate them may very well be true, but there was also counter-evidence - the leader of the Arab Higher Committee being a Nazi collaborator, the organized attacks against Jews the previous decade during the Arab Revolt, the 1929 pogroms against Jews throughout the land - these were all fresh memories. Maybe Arab leaders really were against genocide, and maybe they just felt it was not a practical solution, but the Arab leaders throughout the Middle East were inciting their people to murder Jews, whether in the media or speeches to mobs.

No one says that every Arab wanted to kill every Jew. But given the events that followed the partition vote, and the recent history of Arab attacks on Jews, it would have been stupid indeed for Jews to rely on the goodwill of Arabs to keep them safe. 

It is true that things aren't black and white. One can look at the relative strength of the armies and conclude that the Zionists probably wouldn't be destroyed. But at the time, as political winds swirled around - the US changed its position about partition before Truman recognized Israel, the UN meetings on Palestine brought different news every day, the British stumbled between pretending to defend Jews to abandoning them -- there was no room for the Jews to be confident. Thousands of Jews were killed during the war, and everyone knew friends and family who fell. The Jews had no less fear than the Arabs who fled - but the Jews had nowhere else to go. No matter how much Arab leaders insisted they weren't antisemitic, it isn't like the Jews of Palestine could expect safe passage or asylum in the neighboring states.

Wallach the historian also plays fast and loose in order to make his non-historic, purely political conclusion. What do these supposed "myths" of 1948 have to do with the "occupation" that began in 1967? If the "founding myths" were what animates Israel's actions today, then shouldn't they be treating Israeli Arabs the exact same as Palestinians?  

He knows that Israeli Arabs having equal rights destroy his assertions, so he switches contexts to Palestinians who are not citizens, and jumps from 1948 to 1967.

Similarly, if Israel regards all Arabs as genocidal and violent, as Wallach asserts as a fundamental belief, then why did Israel make peace with Arab countries? 

It is so sad when that reality gets in the way of a juicy, anti-Zionist theory.

 Modern historians have the benefit of hindsight, and too often exhibit the proclivity to cherry pick the historic evidence that support their positions and ignore the inconvenient facts that say otherwise. But as we see here, being a historian does not mean being free of bias - on the contrary, it often gives the historian the hubris to discount or ignore the messy facts that don't fit their theories. 

(h/t Nurit Baytch for Hassan Banna quote)



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Tuesday, May 02, 2023

The American Jewish Yearbook for 1916 described several events about the Kotel that year, all of which were ascribed to Djemal Pasha, the military governor of Syria (which included Palestine) at that time.

JUNE 11 1915. Djemal Pasha examines reports of various Zionist congresses and other Zionist literature, and warns Jewish colonists that despite their success in the past the Government would in future make establishment of colonies more difficult.

JUNE 18 - Djemal Pasha prohibits Jews to pray at the Wailing Wall, because their prayers include plea for the re-establishment of Jewish State.

AUGUST 13. Djemal Pasha announces that the Government has become convinced of the necessity of destroying the entire Jewish colonization work in order that the colonies should not become a danger to the integrity of Turkey.

NOVEMBER 2. Jaffa Hebrew weekly, Hapoel Hazair, reports that Djemal Pasha, commander of Turkish Army, orders barricade to be placed across approach to Wailing Wall, thus preventing Jews from visiting it. Order said to be based on sanitary grounds.

MARCH 3 (1916) . Djemal Pasha offers to give Jews free access to Wailing Wall for from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand francs.
Pasha was a monster, killing Arab leaders right and left, and possibly involved in the Armenian genocide. But I hadn't heard abut restrictions at the Kotel in the 1910s, and notice that he gave different reasons to bar Jews - both because they always pray for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and then the bogus "sanitary reasons," before deciding to shake down the Jews to pay for the privilege of praying there.

I confirmed a couple of these incidents:

This December 1915 article adds that Pasha considered all Jews in Palestine to be spies, and his Turkish authorities stole charity funds intended for impoverished Jews:


Also December 1915:


March 1916 news articles in Jewish newspapers confirmed the desire to charge an exorbitant fee to visit the Kotel in Jerusalem:


100,000 French francs in 1916 was worth about $17,000 US dollars at the time - which is equivalent today to $470,000, a truly exorbitant amount. 

I don't see any indication that this was paid. I see photos of Jews at the Kotel in 1917 before the British took over. Either that particular story was a rumor,  Djemal Pasha didn't enforce it or somehow an amount was paid quietly.








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