1929 Palestine riots
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| 1929 Palestine riots |
|---|
| Hebron massacre • Safed massacre • Evacuation of Jews in Gaza • Shaw Report • Hope Simpson Royal Commission |
In the summer of 1929, a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated, and erupted into a series of violent demonstrations and 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).[1]
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[edit] 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, distributed leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world which claimed that the Jews were planning to take over the Al Aqsa mosque.
On 15 August 1929 (during the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av) several hundred members of Betar, the youth organisation of Vladimir Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism movement, under the leadership of Jeremiah Halpern, assembled at the Wall shouting "the Wall is ours". They raised the Jewish national flag and sang the Hatikvah, the Zionist anthem. The authorities had been notified of the march in advance and provided a heavy police escort in a bid to prevent any incidents. Rumours spread that the youths had attacked local residents and had cursed the name of Muhammad.[2][3][4] On Friday, August 16 after an inflammatory sermon, a demonstration organized by the Supreme Muslim Council marched to the Wall and proceeded to burn prayer books[citation needed] 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. However, the leaders of the Hebron community declined these offers, insisting that they trusted the A'yan (Arab notables) to protect them. The next Friday, 23 August, Arabs, inflamed by rumors that two Arabs had been killed by Jews, started an attack on Jews in the Old City. The violence quickly spread to other parts of Palestine. 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[citation needed]. By August 24, 17 Jews were killed in the Jerusalem area.
The worst killings occurred in Hebron and Safed while others were killed in Moza, Kfar Uriya, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
[edit] Hebron massacre
In Hebron, Arab mobs killed 65-68 Jews[5], wounded 58, and raped women. 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). Many Jews survived by hiding in their Arab neighbors' houses[6] while others survived by taking refuge in the British police station at Beit Ramon on the outskirts of the city. The survivors of the massacre were forced to flee the community, and their property was occupied by Arabs until after the Six Day War of 1967.
This massacre left a deep and lasting effect on the Jewish community of Palestine.
[edit] Safed massacre
In Safed, 18 Jews were killed (some sources say twenty) and 80 wounded. The main Jewish street was looted and burned.
[edit] 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.[1] [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 confront 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.
- ...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:-
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- 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...
- Understanding of the developing situation amongst the Arab people of a character which infuriated 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.
The Commission recommended that the Government reconsider its policies as to Jewish immigration and land sales to Jews. This lead directly to the Hope Simpson Royal Commission in 1930.
[edit] 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.[7]
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. The massacre of 1929 resulted in the destruction of the old Jewish community of the city.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Great Britain, 1930 : Report of the Commission on the disturbances of August 1929, Command paper 3530 (Shaw Commission report).
- ^ Levi-Faur, Sheffer and Vogel, 1999, p. 216.
- ^ Sicker, 2000, p. 80.
- ^ 'The Wailing Wall In Jerusalem Another Incident', The Times, Monday, August 19, 1929; pg. 11; Issue 45285; col D.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Tom Segev, "One Palestine, Complete", Metropolitan Books, 1999; pp325-326.
- ^ Annual reports to the League of Nations; Palestine Post
[edit] References
- Levi-Faur, David, Sheffer, Gabriel and Vogel, David (1999). Israel: The Dynamics of Change and Continuity. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5012-9.
- Morris, Benny Righteous Victims.
- Shapira, Anita (1992) Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881–1948. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Shaw Commission enquiry report
- Sicker, Martin (2000). Pangs of the Messiah: The Troubled Birth of the Jewish State. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-96638-0.
- Wasserstein, Bernard. The British in Palestine.
- Zertal, Idith (2005). Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85096-7.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Palestine Riots of 1929 A detailed account with additional background and history.
- The Hebron Massacre of 1929 A detailed account.
