1947 anti-Jewish riots in Manama
{{pp|small=yes}}{{Infobox civilian attack
| location = Manama
| date = December 5th 1947
| partof = Jewish exodus from the Muslim world
| target = Bahraini Jews, Foreigners, Christians
| fatalities = 1 Jewish Woman
| injuries = 20
| perpetrators = Baharna rioters
| motive = Anti-Zionism, Labor Disputes, Antisemitism, Bahraini Nationalism
}}{{Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries}}
Contemporaneously with the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, a riot against the Jewish community of Manama, in the British Protectorate of Bahrain, on December 5, 1947.Stillman, 2003, p. 147. A mob of Iranian and Trucial States sailors ran through the Manama Souq,{{citation|title=Bahrain from the Twentieth Century to the Arab Spring|last=Joyce|first=Miriam|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2012|isbn=9781137031792|pages=7–8|quote="On December 4, 1947, a large mob, composed largely of Iranian and Trucial Coast sailors, ran through the Bahraini suq (shopping area), charging into Jewish homes and shops. The mob smashed furniture, and during the riot “one Jewish woman was either killed, or died from fright.”}} looted Jewish homes and shops, and destroyed the synagogue. One Jewish woman died; she was either killed or died from fright.{{sfn|Joyce|2012}}
Background
{{main|History of the Jews in Bahrain}}
Bahrain's tiny Jewish community, mostly the Jewish descendants of immigrants who entered the country in the early 1900s from Iraq, numbered 600 in 1948.
{{Campaignbox spillover of the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine}}There was also lingering animosity between the Bahraini Arabs and the Jews because the jews were mostly immigrants, allied with the British, and had above average incomes. There was also animosity because the Bahraini Arabs were suspicious of the Jews and suspected them of being Zionists because while no Jews spoke out publicly in favor of Zionism they also didn't actively support Palestine like the Arab majority.{{Cite journal |last=Kvindesland |first=Eirik |title=The Manama riots 1947: Bahraini Jews between Palestine andGulf labour politics |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13530194.2022.2128720?needAccess=true |journal=British Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=596-598}}
Additionally in 1945 a group of 45 Zionist engineers arrived in Manama to help build a runway at an RAF airbase and to teach Zionism to the local Jews. While their attempts to convert the Jews were unsuccessful their presence was not unnoticed in the area and animosity developed between them and the local population began to view the Jews as competitors and oppressors.File:Manama synagogue 1.jpg
The riots
In the wake of the November 29, 1947 U.N. Partition vote, demonstrations against the vote in the Arab world were called for December 2–5. The first two days of demonstrations in Bahrain were made up of women, nationalists, and students and saw rocks and mud being thrown at Jews but things remained peaceful otherwise.
On the Third day, many workers and urban poor joined the demonstrations with the original demonstrators in the from being accompanied by police and a large crowd of workers and urban poor behind them without police. As the protesters passed the Bahrain Synagogue a riot broke out for unknown reasons.
The rioters looted 12 jewish homes and businesses, looted and burned the synagogue, desecrated the Torah scrolls, and attacked the local Jews killing 1 elderly Jewish woman and sending 20 Jews to the hospital. The rioters also threw mud at American Missionary and Iraqi Christians homes, and targeted some foreign owned buildings. The police intervened quickly in within a few hours the rioting had been stopped, local Jews blamed the riots on foreign Arabs.{{cite web |date=16 November 2011 |title=THE UNLIKELY EMISSARY: HOUDA NONOO |url=http://www.momentmag.com/the-unlikely-emissary/ |accessdate=1 July 2012 |publisher=Moment Magazine}}
Jewish exodus from Bahrain
{{see also|Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries}}
After the riots, Bahraini Jews left en masse, some emigrating to Israel, others to England or America. They were allowed to leave with their property, although they were forced to give up their citizenship. An estimated 500 to 600 Jews remained in Bahrain until riots broke out after the Six-Day War in 1967; as of 2006 only 36 remained.Larry Luxner, [http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17183&intcategoryid=1 Life’s good for Jews of Bahrain — as long as they don’t visit Israel] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607072143/http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17183&intcategoryid=1 |date=2011-06-07 }}, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 18, 2006. Accessed 25 October 2006.
Objecting views on Bahraini state responsibility
Houda Nonoo told the London Independent newspaper in 2007: "I don't think it was Bahrainis who were responsible. It was people from abroad. Many Bahrainis looked after Jews in their houses." This view is supported by Sir Charles Belgrave, formerly a political adviser to the government of Bahrain – which at the time was subject to treaty relations with Britain – who recalled in a memoir: "The leading Arabs were very shocked ... most of them, when possible, had given shelter and protection to their Jewish neighbours... [the riots] had one surprising effect; it put an end to any active aggression by the Bahrain Arabs against the Bahrain Jews."{{cite news|author=independent.co.uk |title=Low profile but welcome: a Jewish outpost in the Gulf. By Donald Macintyre, 2 November 2007 |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3121184.ece |work=The Independent |location=London |date=2 November 2007 |accessdate=4 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080104165751/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3121184.ece |archivedate=4 January 2008 }}
==See also==
References
{{reflist}}
{{Anti-Jewish pogroms during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manama pogrom}}
Category:Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Middle East
Category:Jews and Judaism in Bahrain
Category:1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
Category:December 1947 in Asia
Category:1947 crimes in Bahrain
Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1940s
Category:20th-century attacks on Jewish institutions