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Micah Ben David Naziri
יהוה הוא פועל ✡︎ Ha'Shem is a Verb.

Palestinian pogroms before 1948 prove that attacking Jews was never about Israel

Headlines from an array of Pogroms against Jews in Mandate Era Palestine. Image via Hashlamah Project, used with permission

Every Pesach, during the Seder night we read that in each generation someone – an incarnation of evil itself – stands up to annihilate the Jewish People… and yet Ha’Shem saves us from their racism, xenophobia, religious fascism, or whatever form their bigotry may happen to take against us.

Throughout the millennia, we have survived countless attempts to exterminate our people. Every Purim, we commemorate the thwarting of the wicked Haman’s genocidal designs, as recorded in the Megillat Esther; in Pesach it is Egypt, in Chanukah, we commemorate our resistance against the Greek Seleucid invaders who oppressed us and polluted our Beyt Ha’Miqdash, the Holy Temple, and sought to compel us to follow their religion.

Yes, we have been been in Eretz Yisrael Hashlamah for many years, centuries and millennia.

Crunching the Historical Population Numbers in Mandate Era Palestine

Consider then that there were more Mizrachi Jews in Mandate Era Palestine when the first ever census was taken (1922), than there were Palestinian Christians.

The Jewish population in Mandate Era Palestine was larger than all the Palestinian Druze, Sikhs, Bahais, Metawalis, and Samaritans – all combined – as well.

How strange that this is never mentioned in the Israel-Palestine rhetoric, nor the fact that over half a million Jews had legally immigrated at the invitation of Palestinian mayors of an array of cities, and also joining with that existing massive Jewish population in the Land.

These Jews all 100% purchased their homes. They did not steal one centimeter of land, nor houses. This was all before 1948.

So why had der Grossmufti von Jerusalem – Hajj “Amin” Al-Husseini – and his terrorist gangs been massacring Jews for three decades prior to that? It certainly wasn’t because of land theft. It sure wasn’t about “freedom fighting.” It was about hatred of the Jewish People.

Arab and Muslim Pogroms Against Jews Prior to 1948

I have often heard the propagandistic lie that “before Israel, Jews and Arabs were best friends – we had no problem with them!”

That’s certainly a romantic idea. Unfortunately, it is simply not true.

So, you say, this violence against Jews in our ancestral home of the Levant (both of our ancestral home) is only because of “Zionism” – whatever that means, since so few seem able to accurately define it? It all started in 1948, right?

Then what prompted the violence of the Nabi Musa pogrom in 1920? Oppression by Jews? Over what? The stated reason for the pogrom was because elderly Jews had the audacity to sit in folding chairs for religious services at the Kotel – the “Wailing Wall” – all that is remaining of OUR Temple, which antisemites try to pretend never existed, just as Jordan sought to hide the Dead Sea Scrolls from the world for this same reason.

What of the pogroms in Chevron and Tz’vat in 1929? Or the Chevron pogroms of 1834 or 1517 for that matter?

What of the so-called “Arab Revolts” where der Grossmufti von Jerusalem – a close personal buddy and pen-pal of Hitler, requested (and received) Nazi funding to attack Jewish refugees and thousands-of-years-old-villages? There was not one centimeter of Palestinian land stolen at that time and still, the man who Yasser Arafat claims is his “uncle” decided to align himself with Hitler and help the Reich recruit Bosnia Muslims for the Hanschar SS Division.

Or the Farhud pogrom in Iraq in 1941? Arab Jews oppressing Arab Muslims? There was no such incident. The violence was a one-way-street of Arab Muslims against Mizrachi Jews.

Or how about the AllaHdad pogrom in Iran way back in 1839? Jews oppressing Persians?

This is a sincere question for Muslim readers. As a historian of the region and religions that have sprung from it, I am curious what data led you to arrive at this conclusion.

The Hypocrisy

Making a point to say how much you “Stand With Palestine” after Palestinian Gazans just carried out the biggest mass murder of non-combatant, unarmed Jews – including raping many others – is a bit like having an Open Carry march through the Oregon District the day after the Dayton Shooter carried out his mass murder in the Midwest city where I am currently working, in the United States.

I do not believe there is anything wrong with carrying a weapon for self-defense or for the defense of other innocents. And there is nothing wrong with supporting Palestinians – but there certainly is something wrong with supporting Hamas or Fatah. The timing, however, of making a point to voice how supportive you are of Gaza, when you didn’t just the day before makes it clear you are saying that to indicate your support for murdering unarmed, non-combatant Jews.

Apparently the rule is mass shootings at music concerts are bad unless the victims are Jewish and at a PEACE FESTIVAL on the land of our ancestors which the vast majority of us are willing to share with peaceful Palestinians who do not target non-combatants and do not defend kidnapping, rape, child torture and necrophilia like what Hamas proudly engaged in yesterday, recorded and spread throughout social media.

There is a deeply-rooted hypocrisy or “Nifaq” within the Palestinian collective conscious. On one hand, they will refer to customary international law, human rights law, the United Nations and this treaty or that to support their claims and yet they completely disregard rule of international law when they cheer on the targeting of unarmed civilians.

Sorry (not sorry), if history got in the way of your hyperbolic and racist rhetoric masquerading as a critique of the Israeli government (of which I am a much more noted and previously-banned critic).

About the Author
Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri is a prolific author, scholar, educator, community activist, martial arts instructor, and spiritual leader. He has penned numerous academic articles. He has served as an editor for works on Martial Arts and Eastern Medicine, transcribing and creating numerous titles for some of his teachers and authoring several martial treatises of his own. Originally in school for Art Education, Micah switched to a religious studies and history background at the urgings of his Islamic Studies professor, who would later go on to chair the committee for his first master’s thesis: People of the Book: What the Religions Named in the Qur'an Can Tell Us About the Earliest Understanding of "Islam” (2012). As the founder of the non-profit organization, the Hashlamah Project Foundation, Micah uses his education in Near Eastern Languages, Religions and historical models of building bridges between Jewish and Muslim communities, to help reconcile and unite Jews and Palestinian Muslims in face-to-face study and dialogue groups. He is currently training for Rabbinical s’mikhah ordination under Rabbi Yehudah Mosheh Benlewi. The son of a multitude of peoples – Ashkenazi, Sefardic, Melungeon, Native American and others – Micah has often described himself as having “one foot in the masjid and the other in shul.” He considers his understanding of Judaism to be “Judeo-Sufi,” or “Istislam” as described by Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Paqudah (c. 1050–1120 CE), who was the subject of his undergraduate honors thesis (2009). Micah was awarded his second master’s degree for his pilot study in Jerusalem, The New Constitution of Medina: An Equilateral Constitutional Federation, Based Upon Shared Principles of Judaism and Islam (2015). His doctoral dissertation, Persistence of Jewish-Muslim Reconciliatory Activism in the Face of Threats and “Terrorism” (Real and Perceived) From All Sides (2019), was an outgrowth of this study and the interdisciplinary culmination of his research, in concert with his activism and journalism with Political Blind Spot and Counter Current News. In addition to his academic work and activism, Micah has been a martial arts instructor for the past two decades. Having first begun his martial journey in 1994, he obtained Black Sash Instructor rank in multiple systems, beginning with Yang Family Taiji in 2005; formal Daojiao “Taoist” discipleship and lineage in 2006; instructorship in Cheng style Baguazhang and Chen, Pan-Ling style Tajiquan in 2008 (no belt ranking system); Black Sash Instructorship in both Northern Shaolin Kuo Shu “Kung Fu” and Xingyiquan in 2009 (from separate schools, trained in concurrently); Chen Village Taijiquan in 2010; Krav Maga in 2017; fifth degree instructor level in Kali/Escrima in 2023 and Pencak Silat in 2025.
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