today, less than 1% of the middle east and north africa has a growing jewish population. that last remaining piece of land is the state of israel.

last survival

previously, growing jewish communities existed from morocco to iran. in the early 20th century, between ¼ and ⅓ of the population of baghdad was jewish.

jewish worlds

however, most of these countries now have zero jewish communities left. out of dozens of countries, tiny single-digit percentages remain only in turkey, morocco, and iran, whether they continue to dwindle.

annihilation

the state of israel is a breakaway region. as countries in the middle east and north africa passed apartheid laws against their jewish minorities, jews in eretz yisrael / historical palestine rose up.

rebellion and revolution

until world war i, almost the entire middle east and north africa was one country: the last caliphate, with its imperial core in west asia. the official law of the land was islam, and jews were at best second-class.

ottoman empire

from the mawza exile to the farhud, jews were subjugated and humiliated for centuries. when the ottoman empire collapsed and new countries were formed out of its lands, local jewish populations sought equal status in the new kindoms and republics.

dhimmitude

as new countries were established in the region, equality for a hated minority like jews was a revolutionary concept. however, for a brief period, jews had equal or near-equal status in the eyes of the law.

brief, fragile equality

within a few years, pogroms were taking place against thriving jewish communities in the islamic world that suddenly had access to many new opportunities. laws were passed limiting jewish employment, property ownership, business ownership, government position, congregation, and even citizenship.

reactionary measures

understandably, the powers at the time viewed the existence of a state belonging to non-muslims and non-arabs as revolutinary heterodoxy and an existential threat. it undermined their assertion that governments gained legitimacy as islamic states, or as states representing former arab, persian, and turkish empires.

a revolution stirred

in the thirteen million square kilometers of the arabsphere, the state of israel is only ~ 27 thousand square kilometers, or a fraction of a percent. that is survival, by a thread. it is a breakway state that is rebelling against the normative power dynamics of the supermajority.

breakaway region

as a breakaway region, the state of israel continues to be viewed by reactionary, fascist movements in the islamic world as a convenient scapegoat. to suppress their own internal dissenters, they focus on — and connect any resistance movements to — the state of israel, the archetypal dissenter.

archetypal dissenter

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