The Menarsha synagogue attack took place on August 5, 1949, in the Jewish quarter of Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. The grenade attack resulted in 12 fatalities.

The attack

The situation for Syria's Jews deteriorated in the late 1930s, as unrest in Palestine resulted in increased hostility towards Zionism and Jews in general. With political and economic instability in the lead up to Syrian independence in 1946, anti-Western and Arab nationalist fervour took on an increasingly anti-Jewish tone. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jews in Syria faced greater discrimination as the government enforced tighter restrictions on them. During this period, Jews and their property became the target of attack.

On Friday night, August 5, 1949, several hand grenades were thrown into the Menarsha Synagogue in Damascus. 12 Jews, eight of them children, were killed and about 30 others injured. The attack was timed to coincide with the Lausanne Conference

Lausanne Conference, 1949

The Lausanne Conference, 1949 was convened by the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine from 27 April to 12 September 1949 in Lausanne, Switzerland...

 following the 1949 Armistice Agreement which was signed between Israel and Syria on July 20, 1949. A simultaneous attack carried out at the Great Synagogue

Central Synagogue of Aleppo

The Central Synagogue of Aleppo, , also known as the Great Synagogue of Aleppo or Joab's Synagogue, has been a Jewish place of worship since the 5th century C.E. When it functioned, it was considered the main synagogue of the Syrian Jewish community. The synagogue is noted as being the location...

 in Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

 also resulted in several fatalities.

Syrian President Husni al-Za'im

Husni al-Za'im

Husni al-Za'im was a Syrian military man and politician. Husni al-Za'im, whose family is of Kurdish ancestry, had been an officer in the Ottoman Army. After France instituted its colonial mandate over Syria after the First World War, he became an officer in the French Army...

 sent his personal representative to visit the wounded and ordered to apprehend those responsible "without fail." The police accredited the attack to an underground movement functioning under the name Arab Redemption Suicide Phalange and arrested numerous suspects. On August 9, a seventeen-year-old Syrian veteran of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War confessed that he and two friends were behind the attack. President al-Za'im ordered the execution of those accused, but a few days later the coup of Colonel Sami Hinnawi took place and al-Za'im himself was executed. In 1950, those arrested in connection with the attack were acquitted for a cited “lack of evidence.”