Inquiry and Analysis - Arab Antisemitism/Syria
June 28, 2002
No. 99

The Damascus Blood Libel (1840) as Told by Syria's Minister of Defense,
Mustafa Tlass

Background
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently extended the term of Defense
Minister Field Marshal Mustafa Tlass for another two years beyond mandatory
retirement age, in appreciation of his service and his close connection with
his father, former president Hafez Al-Assad. Tlass is one of the founding
fathers of Syria's current Ba'ath regime and has been a key figure in Syria
for the past 30 years. Hafez Assad himself had already postponed Tlass's
retirement once.(1)

Tlaas first published his book on the Damascus Blood Libel in 1983. The
second edition, published in 1986, was purportedly more 'scientific' than
the first; footnotes were added to ground the allegations, and the appendix
featured photocopies of official documents (with accompanying Arabic
translation) exchanged by the French Consulate in Damascus, the French
General Consulate in Alexandria, and the French government, regarding the
affair. Included in the book was a photograph of the priest's headstone, on
which it was inscribed that he was murdered by Jews.

The covers of both editions show a man with his throat slashed and his blood
collecting in a basin. The first edition's cover displayed a group of
Jewish people carrying out the murder, sketched to look 'Jewish' according
to Nazi depictions. The second edition features a Menorah, the Jewish
symbol, cutting the victim's throat.

Tlass's book is known to be influential in international antisemitic circles
as a reliable source of information on "ritual murder by the Jews."(2) The
book can be purchased on the Internet in the original Arabic and is
available in French, Italian, and other languages.(3)

The following is a translation (from the Arabic) of Tlass's introduction to
the 1986 edition:

Historical Circumstances
"During the 1830s, Muhammad 'Ali, the ruler of Egypt on behalf of the
Ottoman Empire, managed to unite Syria with Egypt [thus ruling both]. This
sparked a grave international crisis because of the dangers this unification
posed to European interests... During this stormy time, Damascus was shocked
by a terrible crime - the priest Tomas Al-Kaboushi [the Capuchin] fell
victim to a group of Jews who sought to drain his blood to prepare baked
goods for their Yom Kippur holiday [sic]."

"This crime was not the first of its kind. The West had known many similar
crimes, as had Czarist Russia. Some of these were exposed and reported in
the protocols of investigations, despite all the efforts to eradicate them
and hide their traces... Thus, the crime of the murder of the priest Tomas
and his servant was not the first of its kind and certainly will not be the
last.(4) Yet this event had some unique elements due to the political
circumstances at the time."

"The Cairo and Damascus authorities expressed great interest in the
abhorrent crime, and the French Consul [in Damascus] participated in the
investigation because the [victim] most treacherously murdered was a French
subject. In addition to the loathsome crime itself, the investigation
revealed grave issues regarding its motives, linked to the precepts of the
Jewish religion, as set out in the Talmud..."

The Jews' Attempt to Hide their Crime
"[Following the exposure of the crime], the Jews caused a great uproar
everywhere. Their leaders and supporters beat down the doors of the European
and American rulers to [urge them] to intervene, to wipe out the traces of
the crime, and to acquit the Jews of the charge. And, as happens today, the
Jews carry out a crime, after which they stir up a storm in the world and do
not settle for acquittal but even exploit the opportunity to gain profit."

"They [convinced] the Austrian consul to intervene in the investigation in
favor of some of the accused, on the pretext that they were Austrian
subjects... Similarly, they exploited the tolerance of the Egyptian
authorities and the French consul [in Istanbul], and contacted the accused
to urge them to deny [all charges]. They pressured those of the accused who
confessed and threatened them so they would withdraw their confessions...
Similarly, the national authorities [in Syria], which oversaw the
investigation, were accused of using torture to extract confessions from the
accused [Jews]... If indeed torture took place, it was the acts of
individuals with no connection whatsoever to Islamic law. Similarly, torture
aimed at extracting confessions was an accepted method in those days in
Europe and America, and it would be no exaggeration to say that it is still
customary in these countries today."

"[Furthermore], the Jewish leaders in Europe and America swung into action,
and exploited their financial and media influence to urge the great powers
to intervene in their favor. They activated their supporters in Parliament
and the press, organized support demonstrations, and sent off prominent
European Jews [to help the accused]. By these means, the Jews managed to
extract a firman [a ruler's order] in their favor. [However,] the Jews did
not settle for this, but sought to wipe out what was written on Father
Tomas's grave in the Franciscan church: 'Here lie the bones of the Capuchin
missionary Father Tomas, murdered by the Jews on February 5, 1840'..."(5)

Why do the Jews Get Away with Murder
"The 1840 incident recurred several times in the 20th century when the
Zionists carried out the mass crimes in Palestine and Lebanon - acts that
shocked the conscience of good people all over the world and were condemned
by world public opinion. But each time, the Zionist financial, media, and
political influence managed to pacify the anger and distract the people from
these crimes. Instead of being punished, the Zionists received a reward...:
great financial aid and horrifying stockpiles of advanced weaponry. Instead
of one Muhammad 'Ali in the 19th century... they found several Muhammad
'Alis [in the 20th century]."

"The crime took place in Damascus, a city of tolerance and peace, just as
many similar [crimes] took place in other parts of the world. How [could]
this happen while the Jews are just a tiny minority in the heart of the
societies in which they live? How have these societies ignored this
hate-saturated minority?... Perhaps the atmosphere of tolerance instituted
by the Muslim Arabs is what allowed the Jews to live in complete freedom in
the Muslim Arab lands. The Jews knew these countries well. They isolated
themselves so as to surround themselves with mystery, so the Muslim world
knew almost nothing about them. Thus, it is not surprising that Damascus was
shocked by this loathsome crime. [However], it rapidly overcame its
ignorance about [the Jews]... and now every mother warns [her son]: 'Be
careful not to stray far from home, lest the Jew comes, puts you in his
sack, takes you, and slaughters you and drains your blood in order to
prepare the 'matza of Zion' [the Passover!
matzos]. 'Generation after generation has passed on this message of the
'treachery of the Jews.'"

"[In the meantime] a state arose for the Jews in Al-Sham [Greater Syria].
But has the Jewish enmity disappeared, or do the precepts of the Talmud -
with all their crimes and distortions - continue to play their hate-filled
role against humanity and the society around the Jews? Monitoring the daily
events in the occupied territories proves, beyond a doubt, that what is
called 'Zionist racism' is only the continuation and refinement of Talmudic
precepts..."(6)

"With the publication of this book, I intended to illuminate some of the
secrets of the Jewish religion by [describing] the actions of the Jews,
their blind and repugnant fanaticism regarding their belief, and the
implementation of the Talmudic precepts compiled in the Diaspora by their
rabbis who distorted the principles of the Jewish belief (the religious law
of the Prophet Moses), as it is said in the Koran [2:79]..."(7)

Endnotes:

(1) Al-Hayat (London), May 15, 2002.
(2) See the Worldwide Revisionist News Website of revisionist historians and
Holocaust deniers: http://64.156.139.229/wcotc/ritualmord/id39_m.htm.
According to the site, Tlass's book was first published in Arabic in 1968,
with an English edition coming out in 1991.
(3) For example, a French translation may be purchased at
www.furat.com/bookdetails.cgi?bookid=4595.
(4) In the footnotes to the introduction, Tlass mentions several other
cases: "An incident of this type took place in Algeria in the mid-18th
century. The Jews abducted a Christian child and drained his blood, but
because of the money they paid the Turkish ruler of Algeria, they managed to
obscure the matter." Another example is, "A Christian child named Henri Abd
Al-Nur was abducted and his blood was drained. The investigation proved the
Jews' responsibility [for the crime] but they bribed the rulers and obscured
the signs of the crime." To document such cases, Tlass mentions Yusuf Hana
Nasrallah's Treasures of the Talmud, which is actually a translation of the
notorious antisemitic professor August Rohling's 1871 book Der Talmudjude.
(5) The photo of the priest's headstone in the 1986 edition shows the
inscription: "The Jews slaughtered him, [his body] was not found in its
entirety... and these are the remains of his bones."
(6) The 1983 edition states that, "the investigators exposed the crime and
even the covert religious motive underpinning it. The governor of Al-Sham
decided to execute the criminals, [but] at this point the foreign states and
their consulates began to play a major role. The foreigners divided the
areas of influence among themselves. Austria undertook to defend the Jews.
France undertook to defend the Catholics... All the sides agreed to resolve
the affair in the Jewish style, by appeasing the parties with money. The
accused were released from Damascus prison and went to Muhammad 'Ali Pasha's
Egypt... Some 150 years have passed since that crime, and still the crime
has lost nothing of its gravity, since over time the small crime has
developed into a large crime, and a powerful connection remains between the
two."
(7) At the end of his introduction Tlass thanks his comrade-in-arms Col.
Bassam 'Assali, who was his "right hand in preparing the book." He goes on
to express his hope that he had fulfilled "part of his obligation to expose
the historic activities of the enemies of our nation." Tlass also draws
conclusions regarding "the importance of national sovereignty." According to
him, the impudence shown by one of the accused Jews towards the president of
the Syrian court could not have happened "without the influence of the
foreigners in Syria at that time." He reminds the Arabs that "sovereignty
cannot be divided, and no foreigner must impinge upon it. Sadat's calamitous
error, which led to his assassination, was his scorn for the national rights
of the Egyptian people, and [the fact that] he had sold his land to Satan...
Following the Camp David agreements, Egyptian sovereignty became partial..."

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