Another “Once Upon A time in Jerusalem”, and this time –
95 years since the events of 1929, known as the 1929 Palestine riots.
The 1929 Palestine riots occurred between August 23 & 29, 1929, during the British Mandate in the region.
At that time, the British High Commissioner for Palestine was Sir John Chancellor, who had replaced the previous British High Commissioner. The Jewish population in the region had been growing and prospering after recovering from the economic crisis and agricultural collapse of 1926-1927, which had raised tensions among the Arab residents.
The Arab society in the area underwent a leadership shift after the opposition’s victory in the Jerusalem municipal elections, which led to the appointment of Haj Amin al-Husseini as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a prominent Arab nationalist leader. Al-Husseini’s leadership brought a change in the attitude of the Arab community towards the Jewish population.
The riots began due to disputes over the construction of a partition at the Western Wall during Yom Kippur in 1928, and al-Husseini’s incitement.
Al-Husseini claimed that Jews were attempting to take control of the Temple Mount (sounds familiar?), and he contended that the Western Wall was part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
This marked a shift in the Arab settlement in the area, transforming it from a geographical-national struggle into the beginning of a religious conflict between Muslims and Jews over control of the Temple Mount.
Images of Al-Aqsa Mosque with an Israeli flag flying over it were circulated in the Arab community. Later, al-Husseini called for defense of the holy places of Islam and sought support from neighboring Arab states and the wider Muslim world to counter the perceived Zionist threat.
On Friday, August 23, 1929, violent riots broke out across the country after a year of provocations by al-Husseini against the Jewish settlement. Al-Husseini even met with Hitler in Berlin two years later and offered to help the Nazis conquer the land and exterminate the Jews, proposing the collaboration of his Arab nationalist movement with the Nazis.
Thousands of armed Arab villagers from the surrounding areas traveled to Jerusalem to participate in prayers on the Temple Mount, armed with knives and clubs.
After the prayers, Arab worshipers attacked Jewish neighborhoods outside the walls, including the Ashel Avraham neighborhood near Hanevieem street, Me’a S’hearim, Beit Yosef Street, and the Bukharan Quarter, and they also targeted the Misgav Ladach hospital and took control of Ramat Rachel.
That evening, Rabbi Meir Hadari of Hebron received word of the Arabs’ plans to carry out a massacre in the city, and he spoke with his Arab friends, who assured him that nothing would happen to the Jewish settlers.
However, to the shock of the Hebron Jewish community, the Arabs did not uphold their promise, and the violence spread to the Jewish community in Hebron the next day.
A massacre took place in Hebron, with children brutally slaughtered in front of their parents, people burned alive, and women and girls violently raped in front of their families. Properties of Jewish homes were looted and desecrated.
Arab neighbors who had lived alongside their Jewish neighbors for years turned against them and took part in the horrific acts.
The British police and soldiers, who were responsible for maintaining order in Hebron, watched the massacre unfold but did not intervene.
A total of 67 Jews were killed, including 24 students of the Hebron Yeshiva, along with 15 women and young children, while 44 others were seriously injured. Around 260 Jews were saved and sheltered by their Arab neighbors in Hebron, members of the old families of the city.
Similar attacks and violence occurred in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, but after six deaths and numerous injuries, the Haganah and the Beitar movement managed to repel the attackers.
In summary, during that week, a total of 133 Jews were killed and 339 were injured in the Jewish settlements.
In the picture – children injured in the riots in Jerusalem and hospitalized.
All of this happened 95 years ago.
Since then, the Jewish population in the land has grown.
19 years after the establishment of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, after the horrors of the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered. But it seems that we may be facing similar tragedies in our lifetime.
And history repeats itself, but in different/ multiple ways.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas Terror Organization broke into 22 civilian settlements in the Envelope of Israel and into 11 IDF camps, in a bloodbath unprecedented in the history of the State of Israel nor seen since World War II.
The surprise was enormous, and the damage inflicted was immense.
Residents were butchered in their homes on a peaceful Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning, people were taken out and killed in cold blood, infants were beheaded in front of their parents, women were raped, and entire families were burned alive.
The bravery of the settlement’s residents saved the lives of many others.
Young people who had gone to a festival were transformed into survivors in moments, as bloodthirsty murderers slaughtered them without distinction, even though they were unarmed and posed no threat.
Young soldiers of the generation that uses Instagram and TikTok, fought with supreme courage, real heroes, and sacrificed their lives for the sake of others.
Close to 2,000 people, the best of our sons and daughters, each of them a world on their own, were killed.
All the divisions, hatred, and disputes among different parts of the Jewish people, which had escalated in the last year, disappeared in the face of the horrific events unfolded that dark Sabbath. The entire Jewish people came together, united as one, with one hart, to defend against the murderers and ensure that such a tragedy would not happen again.
Am Israel Chai.
Alive and and hurting.
The State of Israel, which was established after centuries of bloodshed and suffering, now faces a brutal enemy that targets children, women, and the elderly.
Contemporary history is filled with pain and suffering for our people.
Our hearts can no longer bear it, our eyes have run out of tears, and words have failed us.
In memory of the fallen, for the swift return of our captive brothers and sisters, for the physical and emotional healing of the wounded, for the success of the Israel Defense Forces and all the people of Israel in defending our homeland, because we have no other place.
May we achieve true victory when facing our enemies on all fronts, and may we be able to establish a model moral society with qualified leaders worthy of our remarkable people, that cannot be compared to any other.
Because only together we will win.
Shabbat Shalom for kol Israel, and Bsorot Tovot from Yerushalayim,
with a bleeding heart and tearful eyes.💔
unknown photographer
