A compelling and detailed historical study of the Jews, the Arabs and the Holocaust.
This book explodes the myth of Jews and Arabs living peacefully side by side before the advent of Zionism and the creation of Israel. The truth is that the Jews were always a minority in hostile surroundings. Little has been said until now about the persecution and massacres of Jews committed over centuries by Arabs from the dawn of Islam, in places like Yemen, Morocco, Persia and Iraq.
The role of European countries in the Holocaust has been exhaustively investigated, but little attention has been devoted to the attitude of the Arab world towards the Jews during World War II. This challenging study fills that gap by exploring Arab behaviour towards the Jews before and during the Holocaust. Arab anti-Semitism acquired a distinct affinity with Nazi ideology at this time. Pressure by the Arabs on the British to prevent entry of refugees, combined with violence against Jews in Palestine, was the cause of the deaths of many thousands who could have been saved. Today, traditional anti-Semitism has been transformed into anti-Zionism, manifested inside the Arab world and beyond through propaganda, anti-Israel literature, school curricula and internet sites. The hatred of Jews, in its form and intensity, recalls the worst moments of European anti-Semitism.
Confronting and thought-provoking.
