In the years 1910-1920, the Jews were barely 50,000 people in a population of two million. They lived mainly in cities. Provided
to keep quiet, they were free from persecution, but they were excluded from the state union, similar to the community of believers whose administration is almost entirely handled only by the French. So they were not liable to military service; the Protectorate did not affect the privilege normally negative.
As foreigners, Jews, immigrants from Livorno as large traders enjoyed greater freedom and penetrated to the entourage Bey. Under the Protectorate, they were the main protagonists of "Italianità" and somewhat despised their fellow "natives."
At the latter, the Protectorate offered a chance to get out of the neighborhood Hara as the most overcrowded and unhealthy. Through schools of the Alliance Israelite, who were providing instruction in French, some Jews managed to start a social rise and settle in the European city, but the mass remained "willy-nilly at the Hara.
Supporting the yoke uneasily Bey aggravated with all the weight of the French administration and in their desire to assimilate (to French), many Jews sought to be justiciable French rather than Tunisians.
In 1909, the Young Tunisians launched a campaign against this request, with the idea of obtaining an improvement in the Tunisian court that would satisfy both Muslims and Jews, instead of an assimilation of Jews in French ( as it had occurred in Algeria with the naturalization unit). But this intellectual position might be perverted into an agitation against the Jews themselves, who have been in effect when the victims of a "social and economic boycott." In any case, the issue was difficult for the Protectorate which could not afford to offend Muslims.
In addition, the Israelite race to assimilation faced anti-Semitism of the French right, especially well represented among the settlers (one of the most entrenched traditions among students in the School of Agriculture was Colonial molest or at least humiliate the Jews), but also among bank employees and even doctors and lawyers fear the emerging competition.
This could feed anti-Semitism of racial bias of some officials, but at the residential scale, rather considerations of high politics: Jews were the sand into this machine that it intends to handle the Protectorate sovereign and that "with them, it never has the last word."
The French government systematically rejected the judiciary, because "the Jewish basoche already here such advantages that no longer resist him."
residential Desire to maintain the tranquility of the status quo was also an advantage for the Israelites, he defended against the request of the War Department to compel military service. All her arguments were good. If the Jews had taken advantage of the Protectorate, they were not provided Anglicized, and had "no reason to to fight for France remained Tunisia's mistress rather than another Christian nation. Arabs rather have a moral obligation to provide soldiers to France, being under his tutelage moral and material. "
recruitment Israelites reluctant to cause any authority disorders. If on the other hand they made good military service by the French naturalization, you would pay their contribution as "poor" by the loss of Muslim loyalty, an essential condition of the Protectorate. The Italians staying out of war at the beginning, the Israelites had made them sponsored by profiteers and sowers of panic. By Following the mobilization of Livorno by Italy, some Tunisian Jews were committed voluntarily, that their opening act (as well as the Tunisians) the way the French naturalization. In addition, recruiting voluntary workers, Jewish, but with little success compared to "zeal" of Muslims.
The Resident reported that they could not "overcome their disobedience ... I do not now the case of the Israelite religion. I speak of a localized ethnic group that special conditions of existence ... have shaped. " All in all, the war produced no Franco-Jewish. She presented by cons, opportunities to break the animosity between French and Muslim and Jewish. Also parking Jewish Algerian soldiers in Tunisia was followed by numerous incidents that have left a deep impression. The Jew in the uniform and armed with French ... not resist the urge to hit the Muslims.
The reverse was also true, and Jews in general without uniforms, were most often in the position of victims. The most serious disturbances took place in August 1917, with looting in Tunis by Hara on leave Muslims in the wake of scuffles with Jewish soldiers of the service order or pimps.
unrest spread to the Cap Bon, Sousse, Kairouan, Sfax, where a Jew was killed, and Gabes. The Resident boasted of having put an end to service improvement agenda. But the Journal "The French Tunisia, which was paid by Jews to oppose the tax on war profits, and who offered the paradoxical spectacle of being at the same time the tribune and the Jewish settlers applauding the exploits of skirmishers, saw things differently: only the departure on leave recovering the calm, the authorities military and civilian left them tough for three days.
Jewish notables denounced the "reckless disregard" of the authorities, some officials have even encouraged the looters. For the Secretary General, it was only the Director of the Police who had been "unfortunate few words, certainly more than his mind about the Jews." A few months later, French officers were yelling at a cafe Israelite: "Here's a coffee kike, dirty Jews ...». The resident refused to "press" the accusations against French officers which have also encouraged the looters. At most, the sharpshooters had misunderstood the orders ... "However, everyone insists on what is called the arrogance of the Jews today. Many people add that they deserved to be taught a lesson. " The Resident General Alapetite wanted to avoid the danger that the administration was not recognized liable for reparations to victims, he used to this, the lure of repairs "graceful".
A traditional animosity against Israel came cons added that all merchants who were making war profits. In Tunis, the Jewish privilege to continue the business without the interference of the mobilization could logically be angry that the French Muslims are also exempt. Indeed, the French complained that the Israelites had jobs or businesses vacated by "our people who are killed for them." Or in the words of the Resident Similarly, the French weakness was not only due to the mobilization: "Our French traders are here as shopkeepers waiting customers and business. They do not know the languages of the country, do not run the corn and can not buy the indigenous productions. "
Even among the Muslims of Tunis, the privilege Jews have contributed to the excitement brought about by the Young Tunisians from the Medina. The excitement against the Jews was consistent, however wrong with the political reasoning of the Young Tunisians as it manifested itself in the question of jurisdiction. Also the Journal of Maghreb she reproached the "Colon French" to speak of recruiting Jews to prepare the Muslims against them. On the other hand, she spoke out against those Jews who were willing to military service as the price of French citizenship. Mohamed Bach-Hamba judged understandable desire to retain the exemption Israelite, and he rejected the proposal of the "Colon" to strike the exemption of a special tax which Muslims have hardly escaped Tunis. The idea seems to have been the need to oppose a Jewish-Muslim solidarity to the demands as well as French excitations. An attempt to organize this solidarity ensued after the end of the war also caused new troubles anti-Jewish.
Upon return to La Goulette a Muslim regiment in July 1920, a detachment would be "swept" the sidewalks before the official retirement, shouting "Down with the Jews," particularly numerous in this locality and hurting everyone. The colonel in charge of an investigation on the subsequent scuffle reported that NCO had attacked passers-by, but according to the final report of the Commander of the DOT, the attitude of the military was perfectly correct, and Jews had caused the stampede "by their luxury and their ways arrogant. "
League of Human Rights noted these contradictions, and a more open anti-Semitism in some French newspapers. The Journal "Tunisia French" also spoke of attacks from the guns, and relied on statements by notable Jewish loyalty to invalidate the thesis of "provocation".
Another incident the following month, he reminded Djellaz of: the porter of a dead Muslim, on the way to the cemetery, have pushed a Jew, and the police had to release them from other Jews who had come to the aid of their co-religionist.
follow ...
Bibliography:
- Tunis in the 19th Century (part 2): Marginality and Social Change - Abdelhamid Larguèche
- Algeria and Tunisia - Alfred Baraudon
- History of North Africa (Barbary) - Since the ancient times until the French conquest - Ernest MERCIER
Description - Northern Africa - El Bakri
- Ancient History of North Africa - Stéphane Gsell
- History of French institutions and trade in Africa's Barbary (1560-1793) (Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli, Morocco) - Paul Masson
- Tunis, Description of the Regency - Dr. Louis Frank
- Tunisia - Albert the
Berge - Europeans in Tunis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - Ahmed Saad
- The other through the French newspaper La Tunisia - Hassan El-Annabi
- Payment or annexation - For the crossed paths of Tunisian history - Daniel Goldstein
0 comments:
Post a Comment