Zionism Criminalized
Forgotten Refugees · The Legal Record
The Laws That Criminalized Zionism and Stripped Jews of Their Rights
Country by country, the nationality codes, decrees and seizures that turned nearly one million Jews of the Middle East and North Africa into refugees.
Our families did not simply leave. In country after country across the Middle East and North Africa, governments used the law itself to make Jewish life impossible. Nationality codes defined citizenship by religion or race. “Zionism” became a crime, and “Zionist” became a legal category that could be applied to any Jew. Bank accounts were frozen, property was sequestered, Jews were dismissed from their jobs, barred from leaving, or forced out with a single suitcase.
Since 1948, more than 850,000 Jews have left their homes in some ten Arab countries. Fewer than 7,000 remain. The measures below are drawn from the legal report Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: The Case for Rights and Redress, co-authored by the Hon. Irwin Cotler, David Matas and Stanley A. Urman and issued by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) in 2007. Where the report cites an official gazette or other source for a specific law, we include it.
“Jews must denounce and reject the right to self determination of the Jewish people in order to keep their right to nationality.”
Cotler, Matas and Urman, JJAC legal report
Jump to a country
Egypt · Iraq · Libya · Syria · Algeria · Tunisia · Morocco · Yemen · Arab League draft law
Labels show what each measure targeted: Zionism criminalized, citizenship, property and assets, livelihood, movement, liberty, community life, or religious freedom.
75,000 Jews in 1948
Egypt
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May 26, 1926 Citizenship |
Nationality Code, Article 10(4) Granted nationality to a person born in Egypt of a foreign father only if the father “belonged racially to the majority of the population of a country whose language is Arabic or whose religion is Islam.” Most Jews of Egypt could not qualify; in the 1950s this became the official pretext for expelling many of them. Cited: Restated by Law No. 282 of 1959. |
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July 29, 1947 Livelihood |
Amendment to the Egyptian Companies Law Required at least 75% of a company’s administrative employees and 90% of all employees to be Egyptian nationals. Because only about 15% of Egyptian Jews held citizenship, many lost their jobs. |
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1951 Livelihood |
Government decision on work cards Required all employees to apply for a work card that asked for the holder’s religion immediately after their name. |
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1952 Livelihood |
Law No. 26 of 1952 Obligated corporations to employ prescribed percentages of “Egyptians.” Many Jewish employees without Egyptian nationality lost their jobs and could not find similar work. |
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1954 Liberty |
Emergency Law No. 5333 of 1954, Article 3(7) Authorized the Military Governor to arrest “suspects and those who prejudice public order and security.” At least 900 Jews were detained or imprisoned without charges. |
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November 22, 1956 Zionism criminalized |
Law No. 391 of 1956, amending the Nationality Law Barred “Zionists” from being Egyptian nationals. Article 18 provided that “Egyptian nationality may be declared forfeited by order of the Ministry of Interior in the case of persons classified as Zionists.” The term “Zionist” was never defined. Cited: Revue égyptienne de Droit International, Vol. 12 (1956). |
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November 23, 1956 Zionism criminalized |
Proclamation of the Minister of Religious Affairs Read aloud in mosques throughout Egypt, it declared that “all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state” and promised they would soon be expelled. Almost 25,000 Jews were ordered to leave with one suitcase and a small sum of cash, and forced to sign declarations “donating” their property to the state. |
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November 1956 to 1957 Property and assets |
Military Proclamation No. 4 and Directive No. 189 Sequestration orders seized the property of 486 persons and firms, at least 95% of them Jewish, the economic core of Egyptian Jewry. Directive No. 189 let the sequestering agency deduct 10% of the property’s value, which over time consumed it. Cited: Egyptian Official Gazette, No. 88, November 1, 1957. |
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1956 to 1957 Property and assets |
Currency regulation for departing Jews Limited Jews leaving Egypt to £100 sterling per person, issued in instruments drawn on Egyptian accounts in Britain and France that the authorities knew were blocked. |
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April 15, 1958 Movement |
Interior Ministry regulation, Official Gazette Added all Jews (“Zionists”) between the ages of 10 and 65 leaving Egypt to the list of persons prohibited from returning. The 1956 and 1958 laws also stripped citizenship from anyone absent more than six months; published lists of the denaturalized contained only Jewish names. |
135,000 Jews in 1948
Iraq
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July 24, 1938 / November 14, 1948 Zionism criminalized |
Law No. 51 of 1938, as amended by Law No. 11 of 1948 The 1948 amendment to the Baghdad Penal Code added “Zionism” to communism, anarchism and immorality; its propagation became an offense punishable by seven years’ imprisonment and/or a fine. Cited: Official Gazette, July 24, 1938, and November 14, 1948. |
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1948 Movement |
Entry ban No foreign Jew was allowed to enter Iraq, even in transit. Cited: New York Times, May 16, 1948. |
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March 9, 1950 Citizenship |
Law No. 1 of 1950, “Supplement to Ordinance Canceling Iraqi Nationality” Allowed the Council of Ministers to cancel the nationality of any Iraqi Jew who “willingly desires to leave Iraq for good,” upon signing a special form. Cited: Official Iraqi Gazette, March 9, 1950. |
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March 10, 1951 Property and assets |
Law No. 5 of 1951, “A law for the Supervision and Administration of the Property of Jews who have Forfeited Iraqi Nationality” Section 2(a) froze the property of Jews who had given up their nationality to leave. Cited: Official Gazette, March 10, 1951. |
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1951 to 1968 Property and assets |
Law No. 12 of 1951; Law No. 64 of 1967; Law No. 10 of 1968 Extended the confiscation of the assets of Jews who “forfeited Iraqi nationality,” including shares in commercial companies (1967) and bank holdings (1968). Cited: Law No. 12: Official Gazette, January 27, 1952. |
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1952 Movement |
Emigration ban Cancelled permission to leave and barred Jews from emigrating. |
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1963 Property and assets |
Ba’ath era restrictions Forbade Jews to sell their property and forced them to carry yellow identity cards. |
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1967 Livelihood |
Measures after the Six-Day War Jewish property expropriated, bank accounts frozen, Jews dismissed from public posts, businesses shut, trading permits cancelled, telephones disconnected, and many held under house arrest or confined to their cities. |
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1968 to 1969 Liberty |
Show trials Fourteen men, eleven of them Jews, were sentenced to death on spying charges and hanged in Baghdad’s public squares on January 27, 1969. |
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1973 Community life |
Seizure of communal property The remaining elderly Jews were pressured to turn over, without compensation, more than $200 million worth of Jewish community property. Cited: New York Times, February 18, 1973. |
38,000 Jews in 1948
Libya
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March 1957 Zionism criminalized |
Law No. 62 of 1957, Article 1 Prohibited contracts of any kind with persons or organizations in Israel, and let the Council of Ministers register Libyan residents who had relatives in Israel. |
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December 31, 1958 Community life |
Law of December 31, 1958 Ordered the dissolution of the Jewish Community Council and the appointment of a Muslim commissioner nominated by the government. |
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May 24, 1961 Property and assets |
Law of May 24, 1961 Allowed only Libyan citizens to own and transfer real property, proven by a special permit reportedly issued to only six Jews. |
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August 8, 1962 Zionism criminalized |
Royal Decree of August 8, 1962 Provided that a Libyan forfeited nationality for “any contact with Zionism,” including any visit to Israel or any act deemed to favor Israeli interests. It applied retroactively, and Libyan Jews were its primary victims. |
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February 7, 1970 Property and assets |
Law No. 14 of 1970 Transferred to the state the property of “Israelis” who had left Libya “in order to establish themselves definitely abroad.” The government used it to seize the property of Libyan Jews who were neither. |
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July 21, 1970 Property and assets |
Law of July 21, 1970 Placed Jews’ liquid funds, companies and company shares under the administration of the state’s General Custodian. |
30,000 Jews in 1948
Syria
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1945 Movement |
Emigration restrictions Restricted Jewish emigration to Palestine. |
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1947 to 1948 Livelihood |
Economic measures Jewish bank accounts frozen and property confiscated; “virtually all” Jewish civil servants dismissed; freedom of movement “practically abolished,” with special frontier posts to control the movement of Jews. Cited: New York Times, May 16, 1948. |
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1949 Property and assets |
Banking instructions Banks instructed to freeze Jewish accounts, and Jewish assets were expropriated. |
140,000 Jews in 1948
Algeria
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March 27, 1963 Citizenship |
Algerian Nationality Code, Law No. 63-96, Section 34 Granted Algerian nationality as of right only to those whose fathers and paternal grandfathers had Muslim personal status in Algeria. |
105,000 Jews in 1948
Tunisia
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1958 Community life |
Abolition of the Jewish Community Council The government abolished the Jewish Community Council; ancient synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish quarters were destroyed for “urban renewal.” |
265,000 Jews in 1948
Morocco
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1956 to 1963 Movement |
Emigration ban After independence, emigration to Israel was suspended; the ban was lifted only in 1963. |
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1959 Zionism criminalized |
Ban on Zionist activity Zionist activities were declared illegal. |
55,000 Jews in 1948
Yemen
|
1922 Religious freedom |
Orphans decree Reintroduced an Islamic law requiring that Jewish orphans under the age of 12 be forcibly converted to Islam. |
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1920s onward Property and assets |
Revived discriminatory laws Jews could not walk on pavements or ride horses, a Jew’s testimony was not accepted against a Muslim’s, and Jews who emigrated had to leave all their property behind. |
Also documented
Aden and Lebanon
Aden, then under British rule, saw a 1947 pogrom after the United Nations partition vote that killed 82 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish homes. The community of 8,000 was forced to flee; none remain today.
Lebanon: in 1948 Jews were forced to contribute financially to the fight against the UN partition resolution, according to the New York Times. The community, about 7,000 in the 1950s, left in waves after 1967 and during the civil war.
The blueprint
The Arab League draft law of 1948
In early 1948, the Political Committee of the Arab League drafted a law to govern the legal status of Jews in member states. It was attached to a World Jewish Congress memorandum to the UN Economic and Social Council on January 19, 1948, and reported on the front page of the New York Times on May 16, 1948. Its provisions included:
1. All Jewish citizens would be “considered as members of the Jewish minority State of Palestine.”
2. Jews would be registered and their bank accounts frozen, with the funds used to finance resistance to “Zionist ambitions in Palestine.”
3. Jews believed to be active Zionists would be interned and their assets confiscated.
4. Even Jews who proved they were anti-Zionist would still be registered and have their accounts frozen.
There was no formal announcement that the League adopted the draft. But as the report documents, its measures (denationalization, frozen accounts, internment and confiscation) were carried out by law in country after country.
Before World War II, Jews in Europe were denationalized because of their ties to the Jewish religion. After World War II, Jews in the Middle East were denationalized because of their ties to the Jewish people and Israel. “Zionist” was often just a code word for “Jewish.”
Adapted from the JJAC legal report
These were not the acts of mobs alone. They were written into law, published in official gazettes, and enforced by the state.
Source and scope
All measures on this page are drawn from Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: The Case for Rights and Redress (Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, 2007). The report describes its lists as “merely a sampling and not an exhaustive survey” of such decrees. Population figures are the report’s estimates for 1948.
Press and research inquiries: Sarah Levin, Executive Director, JIMENA · sarahlevin@jimena.org