1929 Palestine riots
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1929, a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem became steadily more violent, erupting in a week of riots in late August. During the week of riots, 133 Jews were killed and 339 wounded (mostly by Arabs); 116 Arabs were killed and 232 wounded (mostly by British-commanded police and soldiers).
Sequence of events
In September 1928, Jews at their Yom Kippur prayers at the Western Wall placed chairs as customary screens between the men and women present. This was described as violating the Ottoman status quo that forbade Jews from making any 'construction' in the Western Wall area. Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, used this incident as propaganda material, distributing leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world, claiming that the Jews are planning to take over Al Aksa, and that action must be taken to stop them.
In the summer of 1929, most of the British forces were on summer vacation in England, mostly because of the quiet that had reigned in Palestine for the last eight years; Haj Amin al Husseini saw an opportunity, and with rumors and leaflets, apparently prepared in advance, declared that the Jews were preparing to take control of the holy places, and that Muslims should come to Jerusalem to defend them. On Friday, August 16, 1929, after an inflammatory sermon, a demonstration organized by the Supreme Muslim Council marched to the Wall and proceeded to burn prayer books and supplicatory notes left in the Wall's cracks. Responding to the Jewish protests, acting High Commissioner Harry Luke answered that "no prayer books had been burnt but only pages of prayer books." The riots continued, and the next day one Jew was killed in the Bukharan Quarter. His funeral was turned into a political demonstration.
On August 20, Haganah leaders proposed to provide defense for 600 Jews of the Old Yishuv in Hebron, or to help them evacuate, but the community leaders declined these offers, insisting that they trusted the A'yan (Arab leadership) to protect them.
The next Friday, 23 August, Arabs, inflamed by false rumors that two Arabs had been killed by Jews, started a murderous attack on Jews in the Old City. The violence quickly spread to other parts of Palestine, with Arab policemen often joining the mobs.
Throughout Palestine, British authorities had only 292 policemen, fewer than 100 soldiers, six armored cars, and five or six aircraft.
While a number of Jews were being killed at the Jaffa Gate, British policemen did not open fire. By August 24, 17 Jews were killed in the Jerusalem area.
The worst atrocities occurred in Hebron and Safed, where massacres of Jews occurred. In Hebron, Arab mobs killed 65-68 Jews[link], wounded 58, and raped women.[link][link]. The lone British policeman in the town, Raymond Cafferata, was overwhelmed, and the reinforcements he called for did not arrive for 5 hours (leading to bitter recriminations).
Cafferata later testified that:
- "On hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child's head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut, but on seeing me he tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed; he was practically on the muzzle of my rifle. I shot him low in the groin. Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized as a[n Arab] police constable named Issa Sherif from Jaffa in mufti. He was standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand. He saw me and bolted into a room close by and tried to shut me out-shouting in Arabic, "Your Honor, I am a policeman." ... I got into the room and shot him."
The other major centers of violence were in Safed, where 18 Jews were killed in a brief attack, and in Jerusalem.
During the week of riots, the fatalities were:
- Killed: 133 Jews, 116 Arabs.
- Wounded: 339 Jews, 232 Arabs.
On September 1, Sir John Chancellor condemned "the atrocious acts committed by bodies of ruthless and bloodthirsty evildoers... murders perpetrated upon defenseless members of the Jewish population... accompanied by acts of unspeakable savagery."
Commission of Enquiry
A commission of enquiry lead by Sir Walter Shaw took public evidence for several weeks. The main conclusions of the Commission were as follows. [Material not in brackets is verbatim.]- The outbreak in Jerusalem on the 23rd of August was from the beginning an attack by Arabs on Jews for which no excuse in the form of earlier murders by Jews has been established.
- The outbreak was not premeditated.
- [The disturbances] took the form, in the most part, of a vicious attack by Arabs on Jews accompanied by wanton destruction of Jewish property. A general massacre of the Jewish community at Hebron was narrowly averted. In a few instances, Jews attacked Arabs and destroyed Arab property. These attacks, though inexcusable, were in most cases in retaliation for wrongs already committed by Arabs in the neighbourhood in which the Jewish attacks occurred.
- [In his activities connected to the dispute over the Holy Places] the Mufti was influenced by the twofold desire to annoy the Jews and to mobilize Moslem opinion on the issue of the Wailing Wall. He had no intention of utilizing this religious campaign as the means of inciting to disorder. [Indirectly, though, due to his part in the] events which lead to the outbreak, the Mufti, like many others who directly or indirectly played upon public feeling in Palestine, must accept a share in the responsibility...
- ...in the matter of innovations of practice [at the Wailing Wall] little blame can be attached to the Mufti in which some Jewish religious authorities also would not have to share. ...no connection has been established between the Mufti and the work of those who either are known or are thought to have engaged in agitation or incitement. ... After the disturbances had broken out the Mufti co-operated with the Government in their efforts both to restore peace and to prevent the extension of disorder.
- [No blame can be properly attached to the British government for failing to provide armed reinforcements, withholding of fire, and similar charges.]
- The fundamental cause ... is the Arab feeling of animosity and hostility towards the Jews consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future. ... The feeling as it exists today is based on the twofold fear of the Arabs that by Jewish immigration and land purchases they may be deprived of their livelihood and in time pass under the political domination of the Jews.
- In our opinion the immediate causes of the outbreak were:-
- # The long series of incidents connected with the Wailing Wall... These must be regarded as a whole, but the incident among them which in our view contributed most to the outbreak was the Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall on the 15th of August. ...
- # Excited and intemperate articles which appeared in some Arabic papers, in one Hebrew daily paper and in a Jewish weekly paper...
- # Propaganda among the less-educated Arab people of a character calculated to incite them.
- # The enlargement of the Jewish Agency.
- # The inadequacy of the military forces and of the reliable police available.
- # The belief...that the decisions of the Palestine Government could be influenced by political considerations.
Aftermath
Altogether 195 Arabs and 34 Jews were sentenced by the courts for crimes related to the 1929 riots. Death sentences were handed down to 17 Arabs and 2 Jews, but these were later commuted to long prison terms except in the case of 3 Arabs who were hanged. Large collective fines were imposed on about 25 Arab villages or urban neighborhoods. Some financial compensation was paid to persons who lost family members or property.A few dozen families returned to Hebron in 1931, but the community never reestablished itself, and there were no Jews remaining in Hebron by 1936.
References
- Righteous Victims by Benny Morris
- The British in Palestine by Bernard Wasserstein
- Shaw Commission enquiry report
See also
External links
- [The Palestine Riots of 1929] A detailed account with additional background and history.
- [The Hebron Massacre of 1929] A detailed account.
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