Professor Yisraeli

Hamodia speaks with Professor Emeritus Raphael Yisraeli, of the Islamic History Department in the Hebrew University, about the history of blood libels in the Arab world

By Yehuda Marks

Blood libels are nothing new in the Arab world, according to Professor Emeritus Raphael Yisraeli, of the Islamic History Department in the Hebrew University.

“What’s happening now is no new trend. The first Arab blood libel was 160 years ago - the Damascus blood libel in 1840, although the European blood libels started much earlier, in the 12th century,” says Yisraeli, who has written 25 books and some 100 scholarly articles in the fields of Islamic radicalism, Islamic terrorism and the Modern Middle East.

It took the Arabs 700 years to realize the “potential” of blood libels?

“The traditional European blood libel was brought over to the Muslim countries by Christian Arabs who originated in Europe,” the professor explains in fluent English, a language he picked up while studying for his Ph.D. in Islamic History and Chinese from the University of California, Berkeley. He is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, French and Chinese.

Matzos on Yom Kippur

The Damascus blood libel, in which the Jews were accused of killing a Christian and using his blood for matzos, was finally refuted and proven to be a farce, concluding with the acquittal of all the Jews who had been arrested. However, the Arab world still believes the allegation, Yisraeli says.

Eight years ago, Mahmoud Al-Said Al-Kurdi wrote two articles in the Egyptian daily Al Akhbar repeating accusations from the Damascus affair, while only two years ago, a famous Lebanese poet, Marwan Chamoun, repeated the allegation in a media interview, elaborating on the murder of the priest “in the presence of two Rabbis, who collected his blood.”

In 1983, Syria’s Minister of Defense, Mustafa Tlass, wrote a book entitled The Matzah of Zion, supporting the Damascus accusations.

The book is published by the Syrian government’s printing house, and it has been in continuous print for over 20 years.

During a session in the U.N. Security Council Arab representatives distributed the book to “prove” what the Israelis are capable of doing, while a Syrian delegate cited the book at a United Nations conference in 1991, Yisraeli notes.

The Matzah of Zion has become a best-seller in the Arab world and has been translated into many languages. Despite the fact that the Damascus allegations have long been refuted and the book is full of lies, according to its cover blurb, “This study describes in fine detail and with scientific precision the blood rites of the Jews, who slaughter Christians and Muslims so they can mix their blood into the matzos they use on Yom Kippur (!).”

Blood Libels Following the Damascus Case

The Morocco-born Yisraeli, who immigrated to Israel at the age of 14, says that although the Damascus blood libel was the most well-known in Arab countries, there were many others.

“Most Islamic stories were copies of the fabricated Damascus libel or imitated the fables that were widespread in Europe,” Yisraeli says.

• In the vicinity of Damascus alone, there were nine incidents of blood libel between the Damascus affair in 1840 and 1900, with four such incidents in Palestine during the same period.

• In 1844, there were two incidents in Egypt, one in Cairo, instigated by Muslims, and one in Alexandria, instigated by the Greek Orthodox.

• In Turkey, there was hardly a year without a blood libel, and although the Turkish government rejected them, foreign monks got the locals stirred up by distributing blood libel material in Arabic translation.

• In 1866, in Hamadan in western Iran, 18 Jews were massacred following a ritual murder accusation.

• There were further libels in Alexandria in 1870, in Smyrna in 1871, in Damanhur (Egypt) in 1871 and 1873, initiated by Muslims, and again in Smyrna in 1873.

• In 1875 there was a blood libel in Aleppo, as a result of which the Pasha of Aleppo had to send troops to guard the Jewish quarter.

• In 1876 there was another blood libel in Smyrna and one in Constantinople, while 1877 saw libels in Damanhur and Mansura, where the local Muslims accused the Jews of kidnapping a Muslim child and killing him in order to use his blood for matzos.

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