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Jerada, Morocco
Jerada, Morocco
Description
Oujda-Jerada Riots: Due to Oujda being a center for Zionist migration, there was a large conflation of Zionism and Judaism, causing antisemitic beliefs, violence, and boycotts against the Jewish community. This tension began to boil over on June 6th, 1948, when Oujda Jews informed the police of possible antisemitic violence, but their pleas went unattended to. Capitalizing on the fact that both the military and the chief of police were out of town, June 7th, 1948 marked the start of the Oujda-Jerada Riots.1 An array of accounts depict the event that led to the riot, with one stating that an argument in the marketplace led to a Jew stabbing a Muslim, yet another reports indicates that it was due to an altercation at the Algerian border between a Muslim guard and a Jewish barber, with the Muslim claiming the Jew had multiple grenades with the intention of killing Muslims.2 It was true that a Jew did kill a Muslim (who was a Jew who had converted to Islam) due to an accusation of Zionist activity, but the bomb incident was false.3 Nonetheless, both rumors spread, causing violence and antisemitism to permeate. Later on June 7th, a group from Oujda drove to the neighboring town of Jerada (60 km away) and spread a rumor that Jews had lit mosques on fire in Oujda, further enticing the continuation of antisemtic violence.4 The riot finally ended on June 8th. Both towns were pillaged, property was destroyed (72,423,511 francs worth), hundreds were injured, and around forty Jews were killed.5 These two days of violence led to an increase in emigration and Zionist activity amongst Zionist Moroccan Jews, and it also influenced Communist Moroccan Jews to stay and fight against imperialism and Zionism.6 As of April 2021, descendants of the Jewish victims are asking the Moroccan government to recognize the Oujda-Jerada Riots of 1948 by establishing a monument, having a ceremony, and adding it to the education curriculum.7
Jerada, Morocco
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Sources
[1] Alma R. Heckman, The Sultan's Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging, (Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2020), 120-121.
[2] Mohammed Kenbib, “Oujda - Jerrada Riots,” in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman A. Stillman (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill), Accessed 20 July 2021.
[3] Heckman, The Sultan's Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging, 122.
[4] Heckman, The Sultan's Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging, 121.
[5] Kenbib, “Oujda - Jerrada Riots."; Heckman, The Sultan's Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging, 122.
[6] Heckman, The Sultan's Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging, 124.
[7] "Moroccan Israelis Petition Government to Recognize 1948 Riots in Oujda, Jerada As Terrorism." JNS.org. https://www.jns.org/moroccan-israelis-petition-government-to-recognize-1948-riots-in-oujda-jerada-as-terrorism/.