PALESTINE A MODERN HISTORY
Abdul
Wahab Said Al Kayyali
Chapter 5
The Lull:
1923-1929
Part 2
Before the end of
1928 there were indications that the period of political stagnation was giving
way to renewed Zionist initiative and correspondingly renewed Palestinian Arab
agitation and counter-measures. The Zionist Organisation pressed for a loan of
two million sterling to be raised under the auspices of the league and
guaranteed by HM Government, for more State lands to be given to Jewish
colonization and agricultural bodies. (30) and concluded a pact with non-Zionist
Jewish Organisations in America which aimed at raising funds and supporting the
building of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. (31)
Even as early as
April 1928, the Chief Secretary, sounded a well-timed note of caution in a
memorandum to Lord Plumer on the necessity of instituting a legislative Council
containing popular representatives in spite of Jewish opposition. The memorandum
warned of the political influence of the 'Intelligentsia' and their desire for
popular representation in the Government which was prompted, apart from motives
of personal interest: by a sense of National preservation. Their fear is that
our system of administration and our laws may create general conditions
prejudicial to what they conceive to be their political rights and material
advantage. This fear is the chief ingredient in the quasi-Nationalist sentiment
which is common to Palestinian Arabs as to other Oriental peoples at the present
time and which can be quickened into popular agitation by any disaffected
minority. (32)
The issue of
political representation and the economic grievances of the Arabs constituted
the underlying factors of renewed tension and Arab-Jewish animosity on the eve
of the fateful year of 1929. (33) Yet, it was a religious issue, that of the
Buraq or Wailing Wall, that triggered off the disturbances of 1929.
An incident, which
occurred in Jerusalem on 24 September 1928, the Jewish Day of Atonement, proved
to be the starting point of a series of events, which culminated in the first
and only religious clash in August 1929.
The incident was
triggered by a Jewish attempt to introduce screens to divide the men from the
women worshippers while praying before the Wailing Wall, a Holy Muslim property,
which constituted the Western face of the platform of the Haram-ash-Sarif. (34)
In accordance with their duty to maintain the status quo the Government ordered
the screen, and when the order was not complied with the screen was forcibly
removed by the police.
A widespread campaign
of protest against Jewish intentions and to take possession of the Al-Aqsa
Mosque swept Palestine. A 'Society for the Protection of the Muslim Holy Places'
was established, secret messages were dispatched to the Muslims of India. In the
course of the following months Muslim building operations in the neighbourhood
of the Wall were instituted which the Jews believed to be intended to interfere
with their devotions. ' An attempt by the Government to settle the various
questions in dispute by mutual agreement between the two communities were
baffled as much as Jewish reluctance as by Arabs'. (35)
An examination of the respective attitudes of the parties involved in dispute -Arabs, Zionists and the Government reveals that the opportunities provided by various leaderships availed themselves of the opportunity provided by the turn of events.
To begin with the
Government stood to profit from the diversion of increasingly anti-Government
oriented Palestinian Arab nationalist to an anti-Jewish Muslim movement. As for
the Zionists the incident of 24 September 1928, came at a critical moment when
Weizmann was touring America trying to stir enthusiasm and elicit funds for the
stagnant fortunes of the JNH in Palestine. It is not unlikely that the incident
helped bring about a partnership between the Zionists and the non-Zionists in
the United States during the latter part of 1928. Writing to Shuckburgh from New
York on the lucrative new partnership Weizmann stated that the incident at the
Wailing Wall 'has stirred the feelings of the Jewish Community throughout this
country'. (36) A religious conflict in Palestine could be used as a major
propaganda weapon for a successful money-raising campaign. Jewish apathy in the
Diaspora was among Zionism 's greatest enemies and the Wailing Wall dispute was
guaranteed to overcome lack of interest and funds. The Peel Commission observed
that until 1929, the ...highly incendiary element of religion had had little to
do with the growth of Arab antagonism to the National Home. In Palestine, as
elsewhere in the Moslem world, nationalism had been more political than
religious. But, if the religious cry raised, if it were widely and genuinely
believed that the coming of the Jews to the country would mean not merely their
economic and political ascendancy but also the full re-establishment of ancient
Judaism, the invasion and desecration of the Holy places and the rebuilding of
the Temple on its original site, then there could be little doubt that Arab
hostility would be more unanimous, more fanatical, and more desperate than it
had ever been. (37)
Moreover, Jewish
encroachments against the third most sacred shrine in Islam was bound to elicit
solidarity and backing to the cause of the Palestinian Arabs from all Muslim
quarters in the world, which the Palestinians hoped to use as a countervailing
force vis-à-vis Jewish and Western backing enjoyed by their adversaries.
Nevertheless, the Arab religious and political notability continued to show
restraint in order to avoid trouble with the Government. The Muslim Conference,
which was held on The first of November, passed off quietly, (38), as did the
Balfour Declaration’s anniversary on The second of November.
A few days earlier
Hajj Amin expressed his readiness to comply with the Government's request to
restrain the Palestine Arab press, despite his belief that the alarm felt by all
classes of Muslims at Jewish encroachments and propaganda in connection with the
Wall was genuine. (39)
Early in 1929, the
Palestine Government decided to conduct a closer examination of the principal
question in the Wailing Wall dispute, namely, the rights of the Jewish
worshippers to bring appurtenances to the Wall. Accordingly, both the Supreme
Muslim Council and the Chief Rabbinate were requested to produce documentary
evidence of rulings given under the Turkish regime and any other evidence in
regard to the bringing of various appurtenances of worship to the Wall. The
Supreme Muslim Council returned an early reply to this request and in part
supported their statement of the case by documents deriving from the time of the
Turkish regime. On the other hand, repeated reminders to the Chief Rabbinate
failed to elicit any response to the request, which had been made to them by the
Government. (40)
Four months after the
issue of the Government's White Paper which called -to the Muslim 's
satisfaction -for the maintenance of the status quo, Hajj Amin complained to
Chancellor that Jews were bringing benches and tables in increased numbers to
the Wall, and driving nails into the Wall and hanging lamps on them.
This constituted an
infringement of the status quo on which the White Paper was so explicit. (41)
Hajj Amin added that
the situation 'was getting serious and might even become critical', since there
was 'a widespread fear amongst the Muslim masses that the surrender of any right
relating to the Wall might endanger their exclusive title to the Haram. The
Muslim authorities were thus motivated to lower one of the walls in the Haram
area in order to check any Jewish attempt to contravene the status quo. The
Muslim structural alterations in the neighbourhood of the Wall were suspended by
the Hajj Amin, as an act of courtesy, at the request of the High Commissioner,
while the matter was referred to the Law Offices of the British Crown. (42)
Although the Mufti's
relations with the British Authorities were friendly it was reported that in the
course of his travels abroad to collect funds for the restoration of the Haram
building he was agitating in favour of the Arab cause in Palestine. During May,
Hajj Amin was reported to have said to King Fouad (of Egypt) that he would be
happy to place his services at the King's disposal in Palestine for the purpose
of his ambitions regarding the Caliphate, and that Palestine was the one place
under British rule where Moslems could without difficulty carry out anti-British
agitation. (43)
Anti-British
propaganda, however, was not Hajj Amin 's preoccupation, despite the fact that
the task of agitating against the British was becoming increasingly easier in
view of the economic situation and the gradual resurgence of Zionist immigration
and land acquisition.
Reflecting the
exasperated mood, the Secretaries of the Executive Committee submitted during
June 1929, a strongly worded memorandum demanding Parliamentary Government, and
repudiating the Government's policy of 'Legislation without Representation'.
Moreover, the Arabs believed that the economic crisis was a natural result of
the Government's policies: The inhabitants of Palestine can no longer tolerate
any injustices in addition to the injustices done to them up till now as an
outcome of the present system of Administration. In fact this Administration has
placed the country in great economic crisis which compelled a not inappreciable
number of the inhabitants to sell their lands to foreigners who only buy lands
for political purposes i.e. to create a foreign nationality on the remains of
Arab Nationality. (44)
The Wailing Wall
dispute, however, continued to provide the focus of political interest and
concern in Palestine. Cables of protests against 'Jewish acts of aggression on
Holy Buraq' were dispatched to London during the first week of August. Muslim
religious authorities charged that the Government's hesitation to effect
application of the White Paper encouraged Jewish encroachment on the Buraq.
Moreover, the Palestinian Muslims protested vehemently 'against political
interest under cover of Buraq religious futile pretensions'. (45)
The immediate incident that led to the clashes of 23 August was a Jewish demonstration at the Wailing Wall during the preceding week.
On 14 August 1929, a
demonstration took place in Tel-Aviv in commemoration of the destruction of the
Temple, and on the following day a crowd of Jewish young men led by a minority
of Zionist extremists from Tel-Aviv 'anxious to create trouble', (46) staged a
hitherto unprecedented procession through the streets of Jerusalem to the foot
of the Wailing Wall. There they raised the Jewish flag and sang the Zionist
anthem, Hatikvah, against the specific instructions of the Acting High
Commissioner. (47)
The incident provoked
the Muslims (48) to stage a counter demonstration on the following day, which
was not only a Friday, but the Prophet's Birthday as well. After midday prayers
at the Haram a demonstration estimated at some two thousand, including villagers
who had come to celebrate the Prophet's Birthday, proceeded to the Wall where an
inflammatory speech was made by Hasan Abu as-Sa'ud, one of the Sheikhs of the
Al-Aqsa and a confidante of Hall Amin. A table belonging to Jews which was
standing on the pavement was broken and some pieces of paper containing Jewish
prayers and petitions placed in crevices of the Wall were burnt.
As the High
Commissioner was absent, it fell on the OAG to guide the excited Muslims and
Jews 'into channels of prudence', but his task was rendered difficult by 'the
absence of all responsible Jewish leaders from the country'. (49)
A quarrel, which
arose between an Arab and a Jewish youth in Jerusalem on 17 August, ended in
bloodshed, when the Jewish youth was stabbed. A serious affray between Arabs and
Jews followed during which eleven Jews and fifteen Arabs were wounded: Upon the
arrival of the police, who arrested the Arab guilty of the initial wounding,
they were attacked by the Jewish crowd. The prisoner and one of the British
police were injured, the injuries sustained by the policeman being of a severe
character. The Jewish crowd also attacked Arab houses in the neighbourhood and
wounded some of the occupants. (50)
Several arrests of
Arabs and Jews within Jerusalem and outside it took place within the next four
days. When the stabbed Jewish youth died on 20 August, his funeral was turned
into a political demonstration against the Government and the Arabs.
Anticipating trouble
the Government ordered a section of armoured-cars to come from Transjordan to
stand by in Ramlah, on the Jerusalem -Jaffa road. A meeting between three
prominent Jews and three prominent Arabs took place on 22 August at Mr. Luke's
house. The meeting was friendly, and it was agreed that it should be resumed
again on 26 August.
While prominent Arabs
were ready to confer with the Government officials and reason with their Jewish
counterparts, the Arab villagers and the man in the street were excited and
worked up by the resurgence of the Zionist menace in general and by the Wailing
Wall dispute and the events of the third week of August 1929, in particular. The
provocations of the Jewish demonstrators of 15 August tended to lend credibility
to the villagers fear of a Jewish attack on the Buraq.
On Friday 23 August
great numbers of Muslim villagers came up to Jerusalem for the midday prayer
armed with clubs and sticks. An order to disarm the incoming villagers, given by
the British police officer in charge of one part of the city, was cancelled by
his superior officer on the ground that the measure could not be carried through
effectively without taking up the energies of more of his seventy British
policemen than he could afford to spare.
The outbreak of 23
August, which began around noontime, was from the beginning an attack by Arabs,
armed with sticks, revolvers and some with swords, on Jews. When the Arab crowds
attacked the Jewish suburbs in the early afternoon, the police opened fife, and
shortly afterwards aeroplanes flew over Jerusalem. By 4 pm armoured cars from
Ramlah had arrived and seventy special constables had been enrolled. Half an
hour later the Old City of Jerusalem was quiet but firing directed on to
outlying Jewish suburbs continued and so did Arab attacks on Jewish villagers
within a few miles of Jerusalem. (51)
When news of the outbreak of Jerusalem reached Nablus and Hebron there were angry demonstrations by excited crowds, and in the course of an attack on a Jewish school in Hebron one Jew was killed. On the following day Arabs in Hebron made a bloody attack on the Jewish quarter and on isolated Jewish houses lying outside the crowded quarters of the town. More than sixty Jews were killed and more than fifty were wounded.
Jewish Counter-attack
On the same day a determined Arab crowd who wished to obtain arms, attacked the
police barracks in Nablus, where serious trouble was averted by the action of
the police firing on the crowd. In Beisan an attack was made on the Jews. There
was a minor disturbance at Jaffa, and several Jewish colonies were attacked. On
25 August attacks by Arabs were made on the outlying Jewish districts. Isolated
attacks on Jewish colonies continued and burning. In Haifa there was an outbreak
in the old quarter, and several attacks were made on Hadar Hacarmel, a Jewish
suburb of Haifa. In Jaffa a police officer who opened fire on an Arab crowd
succeeded in beating off an attack on the quarter which lay between Jaffa and
Tel Aviv: In this quarter there occurred the worst instance of a Jewish attack
on Arabs, in the course of which the Imam of a mosque and six other people were
killed. On the 26th August, there also occurred a Jewish attack on the Mosque of
Okasha in Jerusalem, a sacred shrine of great antiquity held in much veneration
by the Muslims. The mosque was badly damaged and the tombs of the prophets,
which it contains, were desecrated. (52)
On 29 August, Arab
mobs attacked the Jewish quarter in Safad where some forty-five Jews were killed
or wounded and several Jewish houses and shops were set on fire.
Apart from isolated
incidents and attacks the hostilities soon subsided and the situation began to
improve from day to day. During the disturbances 133 Jews were killed and 339
were wounded, of whom 198 were treated in hospital; 116 Arabs were killed or
died in hospital, while the number of Arabs who received treatment in hospitals
for injuries was 232. (53)
The events of the
last week of August 1929 proved to be the watershed in Arab-British relations in
Palestine. The rising began as an anti-Jewish outburst, since the Mufti had no
desire to fight the British, and his men were believed to have nourished the
impression that the Government was in sympathy with the Arabs (Doleh Ma'-ana).
Although the events of 23 August in Jerusalem did not entail any hostile actions
against the Government, both the Government and the Muslim Supreme Council (see
to have) lost control of the situation less than 48 hours after the initial Arab
attacks on the Jewish Quarter. In the course of their defence of Jewish lives
and property the British troops fired at the Arab mobs inflicting many
casualties. The immediate effect was reflected in the attitude of the purely
Arab towns -Nablus, Acre, Jenin, Tulkarem and Gaza -where the demonstrations
assumed a pure anti-British character. In the meetings of the Arab Youth
(Shabab), which took place in various places in order to decide on the form of
solidarity towards the Jerusalem Arabs, two tendencies emerged. The stronger
tendency, advocated by the clerical class and the Muslim notables, called for
attacks on Jews and revenge on Zionists. The second tendency supported by the
'left' national element led by Hamdi Husseini in Jaffa and the active members of
the young Muslim Society in Haifa, called for directing activity 'against the
English and not against the Jews'. (54)
With the arrival of
British troops on 25 and 26 August the situation took a sharp turn. Zionist
leaders who were critical of the Government suddenly returned to advocating the
necessity of maintaining the Jewish goodwill towards Britain and the Palestine
Administration.
Correspondingly,
Muslim notables -Hajj Amin, Ragheb Nashashibi and Musa Kazem -signed a
Proclamation, in which they disassociated themselves from mob actions leaving
the unarmed and unorganized fellahin and Bedouins to face aeroplanes, armoured
cars and British troops. The British military machine inflicted devastation on
the Arab villages of lifta, Deir Yassin, and Colonia. Over one thousand persons,
more than 90 per cent of these being Arabs, were tried on charges relating to
the disturbances of August 1929. In the final instance the courts confirmed
twenty-six death sentences, twenty-five of these being upon Arabs, and one upon
a' Jew. (55)
Moreover, the
Collective Punishments Ordinance was applied to the towns and villages whose
inhabitants were guilty of participation in the concerted attacks on Jews at
Hebron, Safad, Motza, Artuf, Beer Tubia, and heavy fines were inflicted.
For the villagers and
the masses of the Palestinians two important facts were made clearer and sharper
by the events of 1929. The first was that Zionism and the JNH depended,
ultimately and inevitably, on British bayonets, and it was therefore necessary
to fight Britain if the struggle against Zionism was to achieve its goals. (56)
The second concerned the cowardice of the Palestinian notables and their
inadequacy to lead the Arabs in the struggle against Zionism and British policy
in Palestine.
A further blow in
this direction was meted out by J. Chancellor
(the H.C.) who issued on his return to Palestine an angry proclamation in
which he accused the Arabs of committing atrocious acts and announced that in
view of recent events he was going to suspend those discussions with His
Majesty's Government on the subject of constitutional changes in Palestine.
30 See Departmental
Comments between March and December 1928, CO 733/155, passim.
31. See The New
Palestine, (New York), 26 October 1928.
32. Chief Secretary
to Plumer, I April 1928, CO 733/155. Another factor was the constitutional
progress of the neighbouring Arab states towards self-government and
independence.
33. See 'Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August 1929'
(British Parliamentary Paper Cmd. 3530 of 1930), hereafter referred to as the
Shaw Commission
Report, p.150.
34. The Muslims call the Wall the Holy Buraq. For details of its religious importance see a Memorandum by President of the Supreme Muslim Council on 'The Moslem Buraq', 4 October 1928, CO 733/160.
35. Peel Commission
Report, op.cit., p.67.
36. Weizmann to
Shuckburgh, 31 October 1928, CO 733/160.
37. Peel Commission
Report, op.cit.ocp.66.
38. The General
Muslim Conference for the defence of the Buraq comprised delegates representing
Muslim bodies in Palestine, Syria Lebanon and Trans- Jordan and submitted
protests to the High Commissioner and Secretary, 7 November 1928, CO 733/160.
39. See 'Summary of a meeting held in the High Commissioner's Office on 30
October;1928',CO
733/160.
40. Shaw Commission
Report, p.34.
41. 'Note of Interview of High Commissioner with Grand Mufti', 6 April 1929,
CO 733/163, p.2.
42. 'Minute of a
meeting held in the office of HE the HE the H.Cr. on 6 May 1909', CO 733/163.
43. Chancellor to
Shuckburgh, 15 May 1929, CO 733/173.
44. A memorandum by
the Secretaries of the Executive to the Palestinian Arab Congress 17 June 1929,
CO 733/167.
45. Telegram from Sheikh Said al-Khatib to the National League, 4 August 1929 ,
CO 733/163.
46. Acting H.Cm. to
Colonial Secretary, 16 August, CO 733/160.
41. See Shaw
Commission Report, op.cit., p.53.
48. Muslims claimed
that the demonstration openly cursed Islam and caused terror to the women and
children in Jerusalem, see Petition to the High Commissioner by Mohammad
il-Mahdi and others 15 August 1929, CO 733/175.
49. OAG to Colonial
Secretary, 17 August 1929, CO 733/163.
50. Shaw Commission
Report, op.cit. p.57.
51. THE OAG
Telegraphed for naval assistance and wired to the Colonial Office for British
troops to be sent without delay. By 27 August five British warships, three
battalions and one company of infantry, a company of armoured cars, a squadron
of the RAF and a detachment of auxiliary troops were on their way to Palestine.
see Ibid.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid., p.65.
54. See a Manifesto by the Central Council of the Palestine Communist Party,
'The Bloody War in
Palestine and the Working Class', September 1929, CO 733/175. Hamdi Husseini and
his group were jailed by the British
55. See 'Report on the Administration of Palestine and Trans-Jordan for the year
1929' (Colonial No.47 of 1930), p.7 .All the death sentences were commuted
with the exception of
three sentences on Arabs who were hanged on 17 June 1930.
56. The Communist manifesto referred to earlier, quoted one of the Jewish dailies: as saying 'The Jewish Yishuv is a part of the British Empire. The Jewish
Community is a British position in the country, and must be protected as such.
The spilt (Jewish) blood is the price which is paid to England for her assistance in building the JNH'.