| 1948 Oujda and Jerada riots | |
| Location: | Oujda and Jerada, Morocco |
| Date: | 7–8 June 1948 |
| Partof: | Jewish exodus from Arab countries |
| Target: | Moroccan Jews |
| Type: | Violent pogrom, massacre |
| Fatalities: | 47 Moroccan Jews killed 1 Frenchman killed |
| Injuries: | Many Jews injured |
| Perpetrators: | Moroccan Muslim rioters |
| Motive: | |
Anti-Jewish riots occurred on June 7–8, 1948, in the towns of Oujda and Jerada, in the French protectorate of Morocco in response to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ensuing the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14.[1] The two towns—located near the border with Algeria—were departure points for Moroccan Jews seeking to migrate to Israel; at the time they were not permitted to do so from within Morocco. In the events, 47 Jews and one Frenchman were killed, many were injured, and property was damaged.
The riots took place a few weeks after a speech in which Sultan Mohammed V, in the context of the recent declaration of the State of Israel and ongoing Nakba, "affirmed Jews’ traditional protected status in Morocco but also warned them not to demonstrate any solidarity with the Zionist cause."[2] In the eyes of many Moroccan Muslims, those emigrating were going to join the forces fighting the Arab armies.
French officials argued that the riots were "absolutely localized" to Oujda and Jerada, and that it had been "migration itself—and not widespread anti-Jewish animosity—that had sparked Muslim anger".[3]
René Brunel, the French Commissioner for the Oujda region, stated that rioting began when a Jewish barber attempted to cross into Algeria carrying explosives. Brunel wrote that that atmosphere has "overheated" as a result of "the clandestine passage over the border of a large number of young Zionists from all regions of Morocco trying to get to Palestine via Algeria." The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that Jewish emigration from Oujda to Palestine was a significant irritant to the local Muslim population. The ministry noted, "It is characteristic that those in this region near to the Algerian border consider all Jews who depart as combatants for Israel." Alphonse Juin, Resident General in Morocco, noted that "the clandestine departure of Jews for Palestine ignited the anger already inflamed by professional agitators."
It has also been suggested that the riots were sparked by an anti-Zionist speech by Sultan Mohammed V relating to the ongoing 1948 Arab–Israeli War,[4] but others suggest that the Sultan's speech was focused on ensuring the protection of the Moroccan Jews.[5]
The French Commissioner Brunels' actions, or lack therof, to protect the Jews have been criticized especially as the pogroms seemed to have been planned in advance. Here are the accounts of the days leading to the pogrom as captured by the journalist Maurice Carr in 1948: "Between May 15, the day on which the State of Israel was proclaimed, and May 30, sixty individual Jews were molested by Arabs in Oujda, and the Moslem population worked up a general anti-Jewish boycott movement. On May 30, a Jewish father denounced his son, who was among a group of 30 young Jews from Western Morocco, who were passing through Oujda with the idea of crossing into Algeria and making their way to Israel. The police gaoled the group, and an Arab mob in Oujda spent the whole day howling insults and finally marched through the Rue de Casablanca and the Rue de Marrakech, throwing stones and smashing Jewish windows. Next morning, the following inscriptions, with skulls and crossbones, appeared on the main public and commercial buildings of Oujda: “Death to the Jews!”; “Death to Obadia!”; “Obadia will be hanged first and the rest will follow!”. Moise Obadia is the president of the Jewish Community of Oujda. He had earlier received anonymous threatening letters. In the early days of June there began a whispering campaign that the Jews were laying in a stock of bombs and hand-grenades. The police investigated and discovered neither bombs nor hand-grenades. A pool of oil in the roadway provoked six solid hours of mob excitement until the police were able to prove to the Moslem crowd that the oil had leaked out of an American car. A Jew carrying two tins of sardines was nearly lynched, and the rumour spread that he had been carrying bombs. A youthful Arab was killed and two of his companions were seriously injured when a 40-pounder shell which they had found blew up. The rumour swept the town that a Jewish member of the Foreign Legion had planted it on top of a 100-franc note to serve as a bait. On June 6, local Arabs and outsiders, among them a contingent of Nationalist Moslem Boy Scouts, began to lay in large stocks of sticks, stones and cans of petrol in disused premises near the Jewish quarters of Oujda. These sticks and stones later served as weapons in the pogrom, and the petrol was used for setting fire to plundered Jewish homes and shops. On June 7, the Jewish Community formally, and with the utmost urgency, warned the local civil, police and military authorities that there was imminent danger of an out-break of anti-Jewish violence. The Jews pleaded for protection and demanded that appropriate security measures be taken. M. Brunel, Chef de Region and a former Vichy official, took no apparent security measures. He merely left town to attend the wedding celebrations of the daughter of a wealthy colonist. .June 8: The army went out on field manoeuvres. From the usual two score policemen on duty at the main Oujda police station, the number was depleted to fewer than 10. Moslem children arriving at school were turned back by their teachers and told to go and play outside the town. Moslem maid-servants working for Jewish employers failed to report for work as usual."[6]
The riots began in Oujda, which was at the time the main transit hub for Jewish emigration out of Morocco because of its proximity to the Algerian border (Algeria was at the time administered as part of Metropolitan France),[4] in which five Jews were killed and 30 injured in the space of three hours before the army arrived. The riots in the neighbouring mining town of Jerada were even more violent, with 39 deaths.[7]
At the time, Morocco was a protectorate of France, and the French commissioner for Oujda, René Brunel, blamed the violence on the Jews for leaving through Oujda and for sympathizing with the Zionist movement.[8] The French League for Human Rights and Citizenship blamed the French colonial authorities for their relaxed control in the area. A French military court tried 35 people for their involvement in the pogrom. Two people were sentenced to death, another two to life imprisonment, and the remaining 31 convicts to lesser prison terms.[8] [9]
As an Arab Muslim national identity became the vehicle of the anti-colonial resistance in Morocco, the violence in Oujda and Jerada demonstrated how Jews, particularly after the establishment of the State of Israel, were becoming excluded from Moroccan nationalism. While Morocco's Amazigh populations could belong as Muslims, Jews were increasingly excluded from the Moroccan nation.
The emigration of Jews from Morocco to Israel quickly became a flood after the incident: 18,000 Moroccan Jews left for Israel the following year, and 110,000 out of a total of 250,000 Jews in Morocco left between 1948 and 1956.[8]
"Similarly, [French] officials argued against awarding international refugee status to Moroccan Jews, insisting that the 1948 riots in Oujda and Djérada had been "absolutely localized." It was, they warned, migration itself—and not widespread anti-Jewish animosity—that had sparked Muslim anger."