This reminds me of something out of Borderlands ! <| sep |> From what I ' ve been told , the relations with most people around Mosul was very good until the government started inciting the local population to violence against '' pernicious '' Jewish element who were Zionists . Then things escalated in the 1940 s . Still I think it varied from agricultural and urban areas , or how much the families were influential in their communities . The more their '' Jewishness '' stood out , the easier it was for people to label them as Zionists and have them persecuted by the governmentparty officials . Much like today , Jewish self determination was vilified and seen as a threat to Arab nationalistic aspirations for dominance and hegemony in the middle east .