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The '''Libyan genocide''', also known in [[Libya]] as '''Shar''' ({{Lang-ar|شر|lit=Evil}}),<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Ahmida |first=Ali Abdullatif |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YujyDwAAQBAJ |
The '''Libyan genocide''', also known in [[Libya]] as '''Shar''' ({{Lang-ar|شر|lit=Evil}}),<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Ahmida |first=Ali Abdullatif |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YujyDwAAQBAJ |title=Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History |date=2020-08-06 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-16936-2 |pages= |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=98}} was the [[genocide]] of [[Cyrenaica|Eastern Libyans]] and the destruction of [[Culture of Libya|Libyan culture]] during and after the [[Second Italo-Senussi War]] between 1929 and 1934.<ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=Ahmida |first=Ali Abdullatif |title=Eurocentrism, Silence and Memory of Genocide in Colonial Libya, 1929–1934 |date=2023 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-world-history-of-genocide/eurocentrism-silence-and-memory-of-genocide-in-colonial-libya-19291934/2F6A0A6F7010B944D4C13A4A6425A0A1 |work=The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3: Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020 |volume=3 |pages=118–140 |editor-last=Kiernan |editor-first=Ben |access-date=2023-12-10 |series=The Cambridge World History of Genocide |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-76711-8 |editor2-last=Naimark |editor2-first=Norman |editor3-last=Straus |editor3-first=Scott |editor4-last=Lower |editor4-first=Wendy}}</ref> During this period, between 83,000<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Duggan |first=Christopher |title=The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796 |date=2008 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-35367-5 |pages=497 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=Fascist Italy and the forgotten Libyan genocide |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/libya-italy-fascism-colonial-past-forgotten-genocide |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en}}</ref> and 125,000<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shahmoradian |first=Dr Feridoun Shawn |title=Reign of the Essence: Encyclopedia of Critical Thinking |date=2022-08-02 |isbn=978-1-6655-6662-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls |url=https://necrometrics.com/20c100k.htm#Libya |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=necrometrics.com}}</ref> Libyans were killed by [[Italian Libya|Italian colonial authorities]] under [[Benito Mussolini]]. Over 25% of the population of [[Cyrenaica]] had been killed, resulting in a [[population decline]] from 225,000 to 142,000 civilians.<ref name=":3" /> |
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This period was marked by a brutal campaign characterized by widespread major Italian [[War crime|war crimes]], including [[ethnic cleansing]], [[Mass killing|mass killings]], [[forced displacement]], [[Death march|forced death marches]], [[settler colonialism]], the use of [[Chemical weapon|chemical weapons]], the [[Italian concentration camps in Libya|use of concentration camps]], mass executions of civilians and [[No quarter|refusing to take prisoners of war]] and instead executing surrendering combatants.<ref name=":3" /> The indigenous population, particularly the nomadic [[Bedouin]] tribes, faced extreme violence and suppression in an attempt to quell [[Senusiyya|Senussi]] resistance to colonial rule.<ref name=":2" /> The Italian military killed half of the Bedouin population of Libya between 1928 and 1932.<ref name=":4">[[Ilan Pappé]], ''The Modern Middle East.'' Routledge, 2005, {{ISBN|0-415-21409-2}}, p. 26.</ref> |
This period was marked by a brutal campaign characterized by widespread major Italian [[War crime|war crimes]], including [[ethnic cleansing]], [[Mass killing|mass killings]], [[forced displacement]], [[Death march|forced death marches]], [[settler colonialism]], the use of [[Chemical weapon|chemical weapons]], the [[Italian concentration camps in Libya|use of concentration camps]], mass executions of civilians and [[No quarter|refusing to take prisoners of war]] and instead executing surrendering combatants.<ref name=":3" /> The indigenous population, particularly the nomadic [[Bedouin]] tribes, faced extreme violence and suppression in an attempt to quell [[Senusiyya|Senussi]] resistance to colonial rule.<ref name=":2" /> The Italian military killed half of the Bedouin population of Libya between 1928 and 1932.<ref name=":4">[[Ilan Pappé]], ''The Modern Middle East.'' Routledge, 2005, {{ISBN|0-415-21409-2}}, p. 26.</ref> |
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The genocide was based on a racist and [[Italian fascism|fascist]] colonial plan to incite settler colonialism and [[Italian settlers in Libya|settle poor Italian peasants in Libya]]. About 110,000 Libyan civilians were forced to march from their homes to the harsh [[Libyan Desert|Libyan desert]] and were then interned in [[Italian concentration camps in Libya]]. Between 60,000 and 70,000 mostly rural people, including women and children, and their 600,000 animals died of diseases and were starved to death.<ref name=":2" /> |
The genocide was based on a racist and [[Italian fascism|fascist]] colonial plan to incite settler colonialism and [[Italian settlers in Libya|settle poor Italian peasants in Libya]]. About 110,000 Libyan civilians were forced to march from their homes to the harsh [[Libyan Desert|Libyan desert]] and were then interned in [[Italian concentration camps in Libya]]. Between 60,000 and 70,000 mostly rural people, including women and children, and their 600,000 animals died of diseases and were starved to death.<ref name=":2" /> |
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News about the genocide was heavily suppressed by [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]], evidence was largely destroyed, making remaining files in Italian concentration camps in Libya difficult to find even after the end of Fascist rule in Italy in 1945. The history that Libyans recorded in their [[Arabic]] oral history has remained hidden and unexplored in systematic fashion.<ref name=":2 |
News about the genocide was heavily suppressed by [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]], evidence was largely destroyed, making remaining files in Italian concentration camps in Libya difficult to find even after the end of Fascist rule in Italy in 1945. The history that Libyans recorded in their [[Arabic]] oral history has remained hidden and unexplored in systematic fashion.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLbHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT141 |title=The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3, Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020 |last2=Lower |first2=Wendy |last3=Naimark |first3=Norman |last4=Straus |first4=Scott |date=2023-01-31 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-80627-5 |pages=141 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=40}} As a result, Italian colonization and atrocities in [[Italian Ethiopia|Ethiopia]] are better studied and more well known than Libyan cases.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=40}} It was not until 2008 that [[Italy]] apologized for its killing, destruction and repression of the Libyan people during its colonization of Libya, and stated that this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era".<ref>''The Report: Libya 2008''. Oxford Business Group. 2008. p. 17.</ref> |
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== Etymology == |
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In Libya, the death in the camps during the genocide is commonly referred to as ''"Shar"'' ({{Lang-ar|شر|lit=Evil}}), an [[Arabic]] word meaning "evil". The term is derived from the [[Quran|Qur'an]], as the opposite of good. This was primarily because the survivors of Italian Fascism in the concentration camps viewed their ordeal as an evil, which they found as a proper term to describe the horror of the genocide.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=98}} |
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== Background == |
== Background == |
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By 1931, more than half of the population of Cyrenaica were confined to 15 Italian concentration camps where many died as result of overcrowding, lack of water, food and medicine. The Italian government experimented poison gas in violation of the [[Geneva Protocol|1925 Geneva Protocol]] against [[Weapon of mass destruction|chemical and biological warfare]]. Badoglio had the Air Force use chemical warfare against the [[Bedouin]] rebels in the desert. This caused the [[Nomad|nomadic]] way of life of the Bedouin to decline. Cyrenaica had a population of about 200,000 in 1911 during the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] period, however it declined to 142,000 by 1931, with 40,000 dead and 20,000 in exile in [[Egypt]].<ref name=":5" /> Historian [[Ilan Pappé]] estimates that between 1928 and 1932 the Italian military "killed half the Bedouin population (directly or through disease and starvation in camps)."<ref name=":4" /> Italian colonial authorities committed [[ethnic cleansing]] by forcibly expelling 100,000 Eastern Libyan [[Bedouin|Bedouins]], half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements that were given to [[Italian settlers in Libya|Italian colonist settlers]].<ref>Cardoza, Anthony L. (2006). Benito Mussolini: the first fascist. Pearson Longman. p. 109.</ref><ref>Bloxham, Donald; Moses, A. Dirk (2010). ''The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies''. Oxford, England: [[Oxford University Press]]. p. 358</ref> Less than 40,000 Libyan survivors left Italian refugee camps, following their release in 1934.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Aruffo |first=Alessandro |title=Storia del Colonialismo Italiano: da Crispi a Mussolini |publisher=DATANEWS Editrice |year=2007 |isbn=978-88-7981-315-0 |location=Rome |pages=48–65}}</ref> |
By 1931, more than half of the population of Cyrenaica were confined to 15 Italian concentration camps where many died as result of overcrowding, lack of water, food and medicine. The Italian government experimented poison gas in violation of the [[Geneva Protocol|1925 Geneva Protocol]] against [[Weapon of mass destruction|chemical and biological warfare]]. Badoglio had the Air Force use chemical warfare against the [[Bedouin]] rebels in the desert. This caused the [[Nomad|nomadic]] way of life of the Bedouin to decline. Cyrenaica had a population of about 200,000 in 1911 during the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] period, however it declined to 142,000 by 1931, with 40,000 dead and 20,000 in exile in [[Egypt]].<ref name=":5" /> Historian [[Ilan Pappé]] estimates that between 1928 and 1932 the Italian military "killed half the Bedouin population (directly or through disease and starvation in camps)."<ref name=":4" /> Italian colonial authorities committed [[ethnic cleansing]] by forcibly expelling 100,000 Eastern Libyan [[Bedouin|Bedouins]], half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements that were given to [[Italian settlers in Libya|Italian colonist settlers]].<ref>Cardoza, Anthony L. (2006). Benito Mussolini: the first fascist. Pearson Longman. p. 109.</ref><ref>Bloxham, Donald; Moses, A. Dirk (2010). ''The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies''. Oxford, England: [[Oxford University Press]]. p. 358</ref> Less than 40,000 Libyan survivors left Italian refugee camps, following their release in 1934.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Aruffo |first=Alessandro |title=Storia del Colonialismo Italiano: da Crispi a Mussolini |publisher=DATANEWS Editrice |year=2007 |isbn=978-88-7981-315-0 |location=Rome |pages=48–65}}</ref> |
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== Comparison to The Holocaust == |
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A direct link has been established between the Libyan genocide and [[The Holocaust]]. Italian-sponsored [[Arabic|Arabic language]] publications from the colonial period reveal that there have been several visits to Libya by [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] officials who perceived the Italian fascists' settlement methods as "successful". According to historian Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, the extreme violence carried out against Libyans by Italian fascists became a model for what German Nazis would end up doing on European soil.<ref name=":7" /> |
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Nazi German Field Marshal [[Hermann Göring|Hermann Goring]] made an official visit to [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] in April 1939, where he met with the [[List of governors-general of Italian Libya|Italian colonial governor general of Libya]], [[Italo Balbo]]. In 1939, [[Schutzstaffel]] chief [[Heinrich Himmler]] also made an official visit to Libya to see for himself the results on the ground. He was the organizer of the concentration camps and he conceived the idea of the [[Final Solution]]: [[The Holocaust]].<ref name=":7" /> |
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== Death toll == |
== Death toll == |
Revision as of 17:21, 11 December 2023
Libyan genocide | |
---|---|
Part of the Second Italo-Senussi War | |
Location | Italian Libya |
Date | 1929–1934 |
Target | Eastern Libyan Arabs |
Attack type | Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass killings, forced displacement, forced death marches, settler colonialism, chemical warfare, concentration camps and no quarter |
Deaths | 83,000–125,000+ See Death toll |
Perpetrator | Italian colonial authorities |
Motive | Italian fascism, imperialism, anti-Arab racism |
The Libyan genocide, also known in Libya as Shar (Arabic: شر, lit. 'Evil'),[1]: 98 was the genocide of Eastern Libyans and the destruction of Libyan culture during and after the Second Italo-Senussi War between 1929 and 1934.[2] During this period, between 83,000[3][4] and 125,000[5][6] Libyans were killed by Italian colonial authorities under Benito Mussolini. Over 25% of the population of Cyrenaica had been killed, resulting in a population decline from 225,000 to 142,000 civilians.[3]
This period was marked by a brutal campaign characterized by widespread major Italian war crimes, including ethnic cleansing, mass killings, forced displacement, forced death marches, settler colonialism, the use of chemical weapons, the use of concentration camps, mass executions of civilians and refusing to take prisoners of war and instead executing surrendering combatants.[3] The indigenous population, particularly the nomadic Bedouin tribes, faced extreme violence and suppression in an attempt to quell Senussi resistance to colonial rule.[2] The Italian military killed half of the Bedouin population of Libya between 1928 and 1932.[7]
The genocide was based on a racist and fascist colonial plan to incite settler colonialism and settle poor Italian peasants in Libya. About 110,000 Libyan civilians were forced to march from their homes to the harsh Libyan desert and were then interned in Italian concentration camps in Libya. Between 60,000 and 70,000 mostly rural people, including women and children, and their 600,000 animals died of diseases and were starved to death.[2]
News about the genocide was heavily suppressed by Fascist Italy, evidence was largely destroyed, making remaining files in Italian concentration camps in Libya difficult to find even after the end of Fascist rule in Italy in 1945. The history that Libyans recorded in their Arabic oral history has remained hidden and unexplored in systematic fashion.[2][8][1]: 40 As a result, Italian colonization and atrocities in Ethiopia are better studied and more well known than Libyan cases.[1]: 40 It was not until 2008 that Italy apologized for its killing, destruction and repression of the Libyan people during its colonization of Libya, and stated that this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era".[9]
Etymology
In Libya, the death in the camps during the genocide is commonly referred to as "Shar" (Arabic: شر, lit. 'Evil'), an Arabic word meaning "evil". The term is derived from the Qur'an, as the opposite of good. This was primarily because the survivors of Italian Fascism in the concentration camps viewed their ordeal as an evil, which they found as a proper term to describe the horror of the genocide.[1]: 98
Background
During the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911, the Italians were portrayed as the liberators of Libya from Ottoman rule, concurrently concealing any evidence of repression campaigns and massacres during the war, such as the ones following the battle and massacre at Shar al-Shatt. On the other side, the Arabs were described as 'beasts' that needed to be civilized by the Europeans.[10]
Genocide
On 20 June 1930, Italian military officer Pietro Badoglio called for the annihilation of the entire population of Cyrenaica, and wrote to General Rodolfo Graziani: "As for overall strategy, it is necessary to create a significant and clear separation between the controlled population and the rebel formations. I do not hide the significance and seriousness of this measure, which might be the ruin of the subdued population...But now the course has been set, and we must carry it out to the end, even if the entire population of Cyrenaica must perish".[11]
By 1931, more than half of the population of Cyrenaica were confined to 15 Italian concentration camps where many died as result of overcrowding, lack of water, food and medicine. The Italian government experimented poison gas in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol against chemical and biological warfare. Badoglio had the Air Force use chemical warfare against the Bedouin rebels in the desert. This caused the nomadic way of life of the Bedouin to decline. Cyrenaica had a population of about 200,000 in 1911 during the Ottoman period, however it declined to 142,000 by 1931, with 40,000 dead and 20,000 in exile in Egypt.[11] Historian Ilan Pappé estimates that between 1928 and 1932 the Italian military "killed half the Bedouin population (directly or through disease and starvation in camps)."[7] Italian colonial authorities committed ethnic cleansing by forcibly expelling 100,000 Eastern Libyan Bedouins, half the population of Cyrenaica, from their settlements that were given to Italian colonist settlers.[12][13] Less than 40,000 Libyan survivors left Italian refugee camps, following their release in 1934.[14]
Comparison to The Holocaust
A direct link has been established between the Libyan genocide and The Holocaust. Italian-sponsored Arabic language publications from the colonial period reveal that there have been several visits to Libya by Nazi German officials who perceived the Italian fascists' settlement methods as "successful". According to historian Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, the extreme violence carried out against Libyans by Italian fascists became a model for what German Nazis would end up doing on European soil.[4]
Nazi German Field Marshal Hermann Goring made an official visit to Tripoli in April 1939, where he met with the Italian colonial governor general of Libya, Italo Balbo. In 1939, Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler also made an official visit to Libya to see for himself the results on the ground. He was the organizer of the concentration camps and he conceived the idea of the Final Solution: The Holocaust.[4]
Death toll
After coming to power in Libya in 1969, Muammar Gaddafi claimed that half of Libya's total population had died during Italian colonialism, amounting up to 750,000 Libyans.[6][15] During the Allied administration of Libya prior to independence, the United Nations estimated that 250,000 to 300,000 Libyan natives died under the Italians between 1912 and 1942.[6] According to historian Denis Mack Smith, about 20,000 Libyans died in concentration camps, and perhaps 100,000 nomadic Bedouins (half the Bedouin population) died overall.[6] Ali Abdullatif Ahmida estimates that 500,000 Libyans were killed out of a total population of 1,500,000.[16]
An exact number of victims of the genocide can not be determined because there are very few remaining documents on death marches and concentration camps in Italian archives. This is due to the fact that evidence regarding the genocide was largely destroyed by Italian colonial authorities. Additionally, news about genocide was heavily suppressed by the Italian state.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2020-08-06). Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-16936-2.
- ^ a b c d e Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (2023), Kiernan, Ben; Naimark, Norman; Straus, Scott; Lower, Wendy (eds.), "Eurocentrism, Silence and Memory of Genocide in Colonial Libya, 1929–1934", The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3: Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020, The Cambridge World History of Genocide, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 118–140, ISBN 978-1-108-76711-8, retrieved 2023-12-10
- ^ a b c Duggan, Christopher (2008). The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 497. ISBN 978-0-618-35367-5.
- ^ a b c "Fascist Italy and the forgotten Libyan genocide". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ Shahmoradian, Dr Feridoun Shawn (2022-08-02). Reign of the Essence: Encyclopedia of Critical Thinking. ISBN 978-1-6655-6662-9.
- ^ a b c d "Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls". necrometrics.com. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ a b Ilan Pappé, The Modern Middle East. Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-21409-2, p. 26.
- ^ Kiernan, Ben; Lower, Wendy; Naimark, Norman; Straus, Scott (2023-01-31). The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3, Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020. Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-108-80627-5.
- ^ The Report: Libya 2008. Oxford Business Group. 2008. p. 17.
- ^ Aruffo, Alessandro (2007). Storia del Colonialismo Italiano: da Crispi a Mussolini. Rome: DATANEWS Editrice. pp. 48–65. ISBN 978-88-7981-315-0.
- ^ a b De Grand, Alexander (2004). "Mussolini's Follies: Fascism in Its Imperial and Racist Phase, 1935-1940". Contemporary European History. 13 (2): 131-132. ISSN 0960-7773.
- ^ Cardoza, Anthony L. (2006). Benito Mussolini: the first fascist. Pearson Longman. p. 109.
- ^ Bloxham, Donald; Moses, A. Dirk (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 358
- ^ Aruffo, Alessandro (2007). Storia del Colonialismo Italiano: da Crispi a Mussolini. Rome: DATANEWS Editrice. pp. 48–65. ISBN 978-88-7981-315-0.
- ^ Vandevalle, Dirk (2012). A History of Modern Libya. Cambridge University Press. p. 217.
- ^ Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif (September 2006). "When the Subaltern Speak: Memory of Genocide in Colonial Libya 1929 to 1933". ResearchGate. p. 189.