1929 Palestine riots

The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Uprising, the 1929 Massacres, (Template:Lang-he-n, Meora'ot Tarpat, lit. Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), or the Buraq Uprising (Arabic: ثورة البراق), refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence, beginning with a Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall on 15 August 1929.

During the week of riots from 23 August to 29 August, 133 Jews and more than 116 Arabs were killed and 198 Jews and more than 232 Arabs were injured. On 23 August the British government enlisted and armed 41 Jewish special constables, 18 Jewish ex-soldiers and a further 60 Jews were issued staves. According to the official report, "many of the Arab casualties and possibly some of the Jewish casualties were caused by rifle fire by the police or military forces". Arab notables accused the Government forces of firing at Arabs exclusively.

Background

Jerusalem commissioner Edward Keith-Roach

In September 1928, Jews at their Yom Kippur prayers at the Western Wall placed chairs and customary screens between the men and women present. Jerusalem commissioner Edward Keith-Roach, while visiting the Muslim religious court overlooking the prayer area, pointed out the screen, precipitating emotional protests and demands from the assembled sheiks that it be removed. Unless it was taken down, they said, they would not be responsible for what happened. This was described as violating the Ottoman status quo that forbade Jews from making any construction in the Western Wall area, though such screens had been put up from time to time. The British issued an ultimatum for its removal. When police officers in riot gear were then sent in, a scuffle took place with worshippers and the screen in question was destroyed.

The intervention drew censure later from senior officials who judged that excessive force had been exercised. Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem exploited the incident by distributing leaflets to Arabs in Palestine and throughout the Arab world which claimed that the Jews were planning to take over the al-Aqsa Mosque. One consequence was that Jewish worshippers frequently were subjected to beatings and stoning.

During the spring of 1929 the Revisionist newspaper, Doar HaYom ran a long campaign claiming Jewish rights over the wall and its pavement. On 6 August the British Palestine Police Force established a police post beside the wall. On 14 August the Haganah and Brit Trumpeldor held a meeting in Tel Aviv attended by 6,000 people objecting to 1928 Commission's conclusion that the Wall was Muslim property.

March to the Western Wall

On Thursday 15 August 1929, during the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av, several hundred members of Joseph Klausner's Committee for the Western Wall, among them members of Vladimir Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism movement Betar youth organization, under the leadership of Jeremiah Halpern, marched to the Western Wall shouting "the Wall is ours". At the Wall they raised the Jewish national flag and sang Hatikvah, the Jewish anthem. The Shaw report later concluded that allegations that the crowd were armed with iron bars were not correct, but that there may have been threatening cries made by some "undesirable elements" in the Jewish procession. 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.

On 18 August, Haaretz criticised the right wing newspaper Doar HaYom in an article entitled "He who Sows the Wind shall Reap the Whirlwind": "The poison of propaganda was dripping from its columns daily until it poisoned the atmosphere and brought about the Thursday demonstration....and this served as a pretext to the wild demonstration of the Arabs."

Counter demonstrations

On Friday, August 16 after an inflammatory sermon, a demonstration organized by the Supreme Muslim Council marched to the Wall and burnt prayer books and supplicatory notes left in the Wall's cracks. On the same afternoon, the Jewish newspaper Doar HaYom published an inflammatory leaflet describing the Muslim march, based partially on statements by Wolfgang von Weisl, which "in material particulars was incorrect" according to the Shaw report.

The next day an incident which "in its origin was of a personal nature" was sparked when a young Sephardic Jew named Abraham Mizrachi was stabbed at the Maccabi grounds near Mea Shearim, in the Bukharan Quarter, following a quarrel which began when he tried to retrieve his ball from an Arab field. A Jewish crowd attacked and severely wounded the policeman who arrived to arrest the Arab responsible, and then attacked neighbouring Arab houses and wounded their occupants.

Over the following four days period, the Jerusalem police reported 12 separate attacks by Jews on Arabs and seven attacks by Arabs on Jews. Mizrachi died on August 20, and his funeral the following day was turned into a political demonstration. It was suppressed by the same force that had been employed in the initial incident. A late-night meeting initiated the following day by the Jewish leadership, at which acting high commissioner Harry Luke, Jamal al-Husayni, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi were present, failed to produce a call for an end to the violence.

On 21 August, the Palestine Zionist Executive telegrammed the Zionist Organization stating describing the general excitement and the Arab fear of the Jews: "Population again very excited and false alarms caused local panics in various quarters but no further incidents course of day. Arabs also excited and afraid Jews. Desirable insist with home Government need of serious measures assuring public security. We are issuing appeal to public keep calm, refrain from demonstrations, and observe discipline, but feel embarrassed by militant attitude. Doar Hayom and also part of youth influenced by Revisionist agitation. Can you speak to Revisionist leaders?"

Escalation of riots

Jerusalem riots, 23 August

The next Friday, 23 August, thousands of Arab villagers streamed into Jerusalem from the surrounding countryside to pray on the Temple Mount, many armed with sticks and knives. Harry Luke requested reinforcements from Amman. Towards 9:30 am Jewish storekeepers began closing shop, and at 11:00 20-30 gunshots were heard on the Temple Mount, apparently to work up the crowd. Luke telephoned the Mufti to come and calm a mob that had gathered under his window near the Damascus Gate, but the commissioner's impression was that the religious leader's presence was having the opposite effect.

Inflamed by rumours that two Arabs had been killed by Jews, Arabs started an attack on Jews in Jerusalem's Old City. The violence quickly spread to other parts of Palestine. British authorities had fewer than 100 soldiers, six armoured cars, and five or six aircraft in country; Palestine Police had 1,500 men, but the majority were Arab, with a small number of Jews and 175 British officers. While awaiting reinforcements, many untrained administration officials were required to attach themselves to the police, though the Jews among them were sent back to their offices. Several English theology students visiting from the University of Oxford were deputized. While a number of Jews were being killed at the Jaffa Gate, British policemen did not open fire. They reasoned that if they had shot into the Arab crowd, the crowd would have turned their anger on the police.

Yemin Moshe was one of the few Jewish neighbourhoods to return fire, but most of Jerusalem's Jews did not defend themselves. At the outbreak of the violence and again in the following days, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi demanded that weapons be handed to the Jews, but was both times refused. By August 24, 17 Jews were killed in the Jerusalem area. The worst killings occurred in Hebron and Safed while others were killed in Motza, Kfar Uria, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

There were also instances of Jewish violence against Arabs. In the worst recorded incident, in the quarter that lay between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, where the Imam of a mosque and six other persons were killed.

According to the Shaw Report, the disturbances were not premeditated and did not occur simultaneously but spread from Jerusalem through a period of days to most outlying centres of population.

Arming of Jews

Later on 23 August, the British authorities armed 41 Jewish special constables, 18 Jewish ex-soldiers and a further 60 Jews were issued staves. The following day, Arab notables issued a statement that "many rumours and reports of various kinds have spread to the effect that Government had enlisted and armed certain Jews, that they had enrolled Jewish ex-soldiers who had served in the Great War; and the Government forces were firing at Arabs exclusively". The Government initially denied the rumours, but by 27 August they were forced to disband and disarm the special constables.

Hebron massacre, 24 August

A survivor mourning in the aftermath of the massacre in Hebron.

Main article: 1929 Hebron massacre

On August 20, Haganah leaders proposed to provide defence 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.

On 24 August 1929 in Hebron, Arab mobs killed 65-68 Jews and wounded 58.

The lone British policeman in the town, Raymond Cafferata, who, "killed as many of the murderers as he could, taking to his fists even", was overwhelmed, and the reinforcements he called for did not arrive for 5 hours - leading to severe recriminations. Hundreds of Jews were saved by their Arab neighbours, who offered them sanctuary from the mob by hiding them in their own houses while others survived by taking refuge in the British police station at Beit Ramon on the outskirts of the city. When the massacre ended, the surviving Jews were evacuated by the British.

This massacre had a deep and lasting effect on the old and newer Jewish communities in Palestine.

Desecration of the Nebi Akasha Mosque, 26 August

On 26 August, the Nebi Akasha Mosque in Jerusalem was attacked by a group of Jews. According to the Shaw Report, the mosque was a "sacred shrine of great antiquity held in much veneration by the Moslems". The mosque was badly damaged and the tombs of the prophets which it contained were desecrated.

Safed massacre, 29 August

Main article: 1929 Safed massacre

Jewish houses in Safed following the 1929 riots

In Safed on 29 August, 18 Jews were killed (some sources say 20) and 80 wounded. The main Jewish street was looted and burned.

The Safed massacre marked the end of the disturbances.

Casualties

According to the Shaw Report, during the week of riots from 23 August to 29 August, 116 Arabs and 133 Jews were killed and 232 Arabs and 198 Jews were injured and treated in hospital. The Jewish casualty figures were provided by the Jewish authorities, whereas the Arab casualty figures represent only those actually admitted to hospital and do not include "a considerable number of unrecorded casualties from rifle fire that occurred amongst Arabs".

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 neighbourhoods. Some financial compensation was paid to persons who lost family members or property.

A few dozen families returned to Hebron in 1931 to reestablish the community, but all but one family were evacuated from Hebron at the outset of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The last family left in 1947.

The Arabs in the region, led by the Palestine Arab Congress, imposed a boycott on Jewish-owned businesses following the riots.

British investigations

Shaw Commission of Enquiry

Main article: Shaw Report

A commission of enquiry led 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 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:-
  1. 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, 1929. Next in importance we put the activities of the Society for the Protection of the Moslem Holy Places and, in a lesser degree, of the Pro-Wailing Wall Committee.
  2. Excited and intemperate articles which appeared in some Arabic papers, in one Hebrew daily paper and in a Jewish weekly paper...
  3. Propaganda among the less-educated Arab people of a character calculated to incite them.
  4. The enlargement of the Jewish Agency.
  5. The inadequacy of the military forces and of the reliable police available.
  6. 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 led directly to the Hope Simpson Royal Commission in 1930.

Commission member Henry Snell signed the report but added a Note of Reservation. Although he was satisfied that the Mufti was not directly responsible for the violence or had connived at it, he believed the Mufti was aware of the nature of the anti-Zionist campaign and the danger of disturbances. He therefore attributed to the Mufti a greater share of the blame than the official report had. Snell also disagreed with the commission on matters of Jewish immigration, and did not support restrictions on Jewish land purchases. Regarding the immediate causes of the outbreak, Snell agreed with the main findings of the commission.

Hope Simpson Royal Commission, 1930

Main article: Hope Simpson Royal Commission

The commission was headed by Sir John Hope Simpson, and on October 21, 1930 it produced its report, dated October 1, 1930. The report recommended to limit the Jewish immigration due to the lack of agricultural land to support it.

See also

• 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
• Jaffa riots
• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
• Pro-Wailing Wall Committee
• Riots in Palestine of 1920

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.
• Mattar, Philip (1988). "The Mufti of Jerusalem". New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-06462-4

External links

• The Palestine Riots of 1929 A detailed account with additional background and history.
• The Hebron Massacre of 1929 A detailed account.