The
Jaffa riots were riots and killings that took place in the British Mandate of Palestine between 1 and 7 May 1921.
The events
On the night before 1 May 1921, the Jewish Communist Party (precursor of the
Palestine Communist PartyThe Palestine Communist Party was a political party in British Mandate of Palestine formed in 1923 through the merger of the Palestinian Communist Party and the Communist Party of Palestine...
) distributed
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
and
YiddishYiddish is a non-territorial High German language of Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world...
flierA flyer is a single page leaflet advertising a nightclub, event, service, or other activity. Flyers are typically used by individuals or businesses to promote their products or services...
s calling for the toppling of British rule and the establishing a "Soviet Palestine". The party announced its intention to parade from
JaffaJaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa is located south of Tel Aviv, Israel on the Mediterranean Sea...
to neighbouring
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
to commemorate
May DayMay Day occurs on May 1 and refers to several public holidays. In many countries, May Day is synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organised by the unions and socialist groups....
. On the morning of the parade, despite a warning to the 60 members present from one of Jaffa's most senior police officers, Toufiq Bey al-Said, who visited the party's headquarters, the march headed from Jaffa to Tel Aviv through the mixed Jewish-Arab border neighbourhood of
Menashia (Manshiyya).
Another large May Day parade had also been organised for Tel Aviv by the rival socialist
Ahdut HaAvodaAhdut HaAvoda was a political party that existed during several spells in Mandate Palestine and Israel. It is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Israeli Labor Party.-Ahdut HaAvoda:...
group, with official authorisation. When the two processions met, a fistfight erupted. Police attempted to disperse the about 50 communist protestors,and Muslims and Christians intervened to help the police against the Jews. A general disturbance quickly ensued abd spread to the southern part of town.
Hearing of the fighting and believing that Arabs were being attacked, the Arabs of Jaffa went on the offensive. Dozens of British, Arab, and Jewish witnesses all reported that Arab men bearing clubs, knives, swords, and some pistols broke into Jewish buildings and murdered their inhabitants, while women followed to loot. They attacked Jewish pedestrians and destroyed Jewish homes and stores. They beat and killed Jews in their homes, including children, and in some cases split open the victims' skulls.
At 1:00 pm, an immigrant
hostelHostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, sometimes a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...
run by the Zionist Commission and home to a hundred people who had arrived in recent weeks and days was attacked by the mob, and though the residents tried to barricade the gate, it was rammed open and Arabs attackers poured in. The stone-throwing was followed by bombs and gunfire, and the Jewish hostel residents hid in various rooms. When the police arrived, it was reported that they weren't shooting to disperse the crowd, but were actually aiming at the building. In the courtyard one immigrant was felled by a policeman's bullet at short-range, and others were stabbed and beaten with sticks. Five women fled a policemen firing his pistol; three escaped. A policemen cornered two women and tried to rape them, but they escaped. A fourteen-year old girl and some men managed to escape the building, but each was in turn chased down and beaten to death with iron rods or wooden boards.
The violence reached as far as the otuskirts of
Abu KabirAbu Kabir was a satellite village of Jaffa founded by Egyptians following Ibrahim Pasha's 1832 defeat of Turkish forces in Ottoman era Palestine. After Israel's establishment in 1948, this area became Giv'at Herzl Abu Kabir was a satellite village of Jaffa founded by Egyptians following Ibrahim...
. The Jewish Yitzker family owned a dairy farm on the outskirts of the neighborhood, in which they rented out rooms. At the time of the riots,
Yosef Haim BrennerYosef Haim Brenner was a Ukrainian-born Hebrew-language author, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature.-Biography:Brenner was born to a poor Jewish family in Novi Mlini, Ukraine...
, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature was living at the site. On May 2nd, 1921, despite warnings Yitzker and Brenner refused to leave the farm and were murdered, along with Yitzker's teenaged son, his son-in-law and two other renters.
High Commissioner
Herbert SamuelHerbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Early years:...
declared a
state of emergencyA state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend certain normal functions of government, alert citizens to alter their normal behaviors, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale for suspending civil liberties...
, imposed press
censorshipCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
, and called for reinforcements from Egypt.
General AllenbyField Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby GCB, GCMG, GCVO was a British soldier and administrator most famous for his role during World War I, in which he led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918.Allenby, nicknamed the...
sent two
destroyerIn naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range but powerful attackers .Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels without the endurance...
s to Jaffa and one to
HaifaHaifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 264,900. Haifa has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs giving an example for peaceful co-existence. The Arab population used to be predominantly Christian, while some of the Jewish...
. Samuel met with and tried to calm Arab representatives.
Musa Kazim al-HusseiniMusa Kazim al-Husayni was nominated to several senior posts in the Ottoman administration. He belongs to the prominent al-Husayni family of northeastern Jerusalem...
, who had been dismissed as Jerusalem's mayor on account of his involvement in the previous year's
Nebi Musa riotsThe 1920 Palestine riots, or Nabi Musa riots, took place in British Mandate Palestine between April 4-7, 1920 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem....
, demanded a suspension of
Jewish immigrationAliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
. Samuel assented, and two or three small boats holding 300 Jews were refused permission to land, and were forced to return to
IstanbulIstanbul is the largest city in Turkey and fifth largest city proper in the world with a population of 12.6 million. Istanbul is also a megacity, as well as the cultural and financial centre of Turkey. The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province...
. At the same time, al-Husseini's nephew,
Haj Amin al-HusseiniMohammad Amin al-Husayni , a member of the al-Husayni clan of Jerusalem, was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in the British Mandate of Palestine...
, was appointed
Grand Mufti of JerusalemThe Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem's Islamic holy places, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.-Ottoman era:...
, a decision that later faced much criticism.
Fighting went on for several days and spread to nearby
RehovotRehovot is a city in the Center District of Israel, about 20 km south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2007 the city had a total population of 106,200. Rehovot's official website estimates the population at 114,000.Rehovot was built on the site of...
, Kfar Sava,
Petah TikvaPetah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel. Petah Tikva's jurisdiction covers 35,868 dunams . The population density is...
, and
HaderaHadera is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel approximately from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along off the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain...
. British aircraft dropped bombs "to protect Jewish settlements from Arab raiders."
Immediate aftermath
The riot resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs, with 146 Jews and 73 Arabs being wounded. Most Arab casualties resulted from clashes with British forces attempting to restore order.
Thousands of Jewish residents of Jaffa fled for Tel Aviv and were temporarily housed in tent camps on the beach. Tel Aviv had been previously lobbying for independent status became a separate city due in part to the riots. However Tel Aviv was still dependent on Jaffa, which supplied it with food, services, and was the place of employment for most residents of the new city.
The newspaper
Kuntress, whose author and co-editor
Yosef Haim BrennerYosef Haim Brenner was a Ukrainian-born Hebrew-language author, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature.-Biography:Brenner was born to a poor Jewish family in Novi Mlini, Ukraine...
was one of the victims of the riots, published an article entitles
Entrenchment. The article expressed the view that the Jews' outstretched hand had been spurned but that they would only redouble their efforts to survive as a self-reliant community.
Some villages whose residents had participated in the violence were fined and a few rioters were brought to trial. When three Jews, including a policeman, were convicted of participating in the murder of Arabs, international outcry ensued. Although the Supreme Court ultimately acquitted them on grounds of self-defence, the incident served to continue the crisis of confidence between the Jewish community and the British administration. Three Arab men were tried for the murder of Brenner, but were acquitted due to reasonable doubt. Toufiq Bey al-Said, who resigned from the Jaffa police, was shot in the street; his assassin was dispatched by veterans of
HashomerHashomer was a Jewish defense organization in Palestine founded out of Bar-Giora in April 1909. It ceased to operate after the founding of the Haganah in 1920. The purpose of Hashomer was to provide guard services for Jewish settlements in the Yishuv, freeing Jewish communities from dependence...
in retribution for Brenner's murder, though another Jewish man was wrongly accused and acquitted.
The Arab leaders submitted a petition to the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
in which they expressed their demands for independence and democracy, noting that the Arab community contained sufficient educated and talented members to establish a stable representative democracy.
Investigative Commission
High Commissioner Sir
Herbert SamuelHerbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel GCB OM GBE PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Early years:...
established an investigative commission headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Palestine, Sir Thomas Haycraft (see
Haycraft Commission of InquiryThe Haycraft Commission of Inquiry was set up to investigate the Jaffa riots of 1921, but its remit was widened and its report entitled "Palestine: Disturbances in May 1921"...
). Its report confirmed the participation of Arab policemen in the riots and found the actions taken by the authorities adequate. The report angered both Jews and Arabs: it placed the blame on the Arabs, but said that, "Zionists were not doing enough to mitigate the Arabs' apprehensions." The report concluded that, "the fundamental cause of the violence and the subsequent acts of violence was a feeling among the Arabs of discontent with, and hostility to, the Jews, due to political and economic causes, and connected with Jewish immigration." .
Highlights from the report include:
- "The racial strife was begun by the Arabs, and rapidly developed into a conflict of great violence between Arabs and Jews, in which the Arab majority, who were generally the aggressors, inflicted most of the casualties."
- "A large part of the Moslem and Christian communities condoned it [the riots], although they did not encourage violence. While certain of the educated Arabs appear to have incited the mob, the notables on both sides, whatever their feelings may have been, aided the authorities to allay the trouble."
- "The [Arab] police were, with few exceptions, half-trained and inefficient, in many cases indifferent, and in some cases leaders or participators in violence."
- "The raids on five Jewish agricultural colonies arose from the excitement produced in the minds of the Arabs by reports of Arabs being killed by Jews in Jaffa. In two cases unfounded stories of provocation were believed and acted upon without any effort being made to verify them."
That motif would be repeated in the
1929 Hebron massacreThe Hebron massacre refers to the murder of sixty-seven Jews on 23 and 24 August, 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by false rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs[ Segev, Tom p 319] in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim holy...
:
- "In these raids there were few Jewish and many Arab casualties, chiefly on account of the intervention of the military."
Consequences
In a speech in June 1921, Samuel stressing Britain's commitment to the second part of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, declared that Jewish immigration would be allowed only to the extent that it did not burden the economy. In line with this interpretation, Jewish immigration was suspended. Those who heard the speech had the impression that he was trying to appease the Arabs at the Jews' expense, and some Jewish leaders boycotted him for a time.
Britain's policy regarding its
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
Mandate to
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
changed to "fixing by the numbers and interests of the present population" the future Jewish immigration. Thus a popular contemporary criticism was that Samuel had revised the Balfour Declaration and Mandate from establishing the Jewish National Home into creating an Arab National Home.
New bloody riots broke out in Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem on November 2, 1921, when five Jewish residents and three of their Arab attackers were killed, which led to calls for the resignation of the city's commissioner, Sir Ronald Storrs.
See also
- Zionism
Zionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
- Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism, and a term which has been used to describe several very different religious and political points of view, both historically and in current debates. All these points of view have in common some form of opposition to Zionism, but their diversity of motivation...
- Timeline of Zionism
This is a partial timeline of Zionism in the modern era, since the end of the 18th century.-Late 18th Century, A.D..:1777: Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk along with a large group of followers emigrates and settles in Safed...
- History of anti-Semitism
The history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group goes back many centuries. Antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred."-Ancient times:...
- 1920 Palestine riots
The 1920 Palestine riots, or Nabi Musa riots, took place in British Mandate Palestine between April 4-7, 1920 in and around the Old City of Jerusalem....
- 1929 Hebron massacre
The Hebron massacre refers to the murder of sixty-seven Jews on 23 and 24 August, 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by false rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs[ Segev, Tom p 319] in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim holy...
- 1938 Tiberias massacre
The Tiberias massacre took place on October 2, 1938 during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, in the city of Tiberias. Tiberias was then located in the British Mandate of Palestine and today it located in the State of Israel....