Middle East Information Resource
Religions/Belief Systems - Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism means, in practice, anti-Jewish feeling, policy, or doctrine. Although `Semitic` is a term that properly refers to a family of languages, it has come to represent a race of people in European thought. Anti-Jewish feeling is a central theme of the Arab Muslim political culture in the Middle East, but Arab spokesmen claim immunity to anti-Semitism because they are Semites themselves. They often claim to make a distinction between `anti-Jewish` and `anti-Zionist.` Thus, the term is problematical in the Middle East.
In the Middle Ages the position of Jews in Arab countries was that of a `protected people` even if they played a distinctly second class role in society. This was better than their position in the Christian world. Some standard lore of anti-Semitism was developed in Europe, which has been repeated by Arabs in recent times. One is the blood libel, which says that Jews use the blood of non-Jewish children for baking their Passover bread, which was raised in several nineteenth-century pogroms. Another is the claim of a world-wide Jewish, or Zionist, conspiracy to dominate the world. Anti-Jewish feelings in the Arab countries have been intensified by the conflict over Palestine between Arab nationalism and Zionist Jewish nationalism, especially since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
German Nazi propaganda in the 1930’s and 1940’s helped spread anti-Semitic theory. Arab anti-Semitism also became more noticeable after the end of World War II, and an influx of Jews from Europe. Anti-Semitic Nazi literature continues to be printed and distributed in Arab lands. German Nazi experts for some time served as advisers to Egyptian and Syrian information departments. Nazi-style caricatures of `The Jews` continue to appear in the press of Arab countries, including Egypt, even after its peace agreement with Israel. Hitler’s Mein Kampf is being reprinted in Arabic translations, and so is the Protocols if the Elders if Zion, a notorious forgery that purports to document the Jewish plot to take over the world.
Recent Arab history contains instances of pogroms, anti-Jewish violence, persecution, some of which were triggered by the Arab Israel dispute. An antisemitic bias can be discerned in school textbooks and in indoctrination material of the armed forces. Arab top leaders avoid expressing this bias before the world, in recent years, and stress that they are fighting Zionism and Israel, but not the Jews. However, anti-Jewish sentiment continues to appear in speeches by Arab political and religious leaders, and in the press.