1947 anti-Jewish riots in Manama

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. A mob of Iranian and Trucial States sailors ran through the Manama Souq, looted Jewish homes and shops, and destroyed the synagogue. One Jewish woman died; she was either killed or died from fright.

Background

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.

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.

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.

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.