The Vietnam War and 1929 Hebron massacre: Difference between pages
(Difference between pages)
Content deleted Content added
No edit summary |
→Hebron massacre: - fixing this 59-67 issue. |
||
Line 1:
{{Campaignbox 1929 Palestine riots}}
The '''Hebron Massacre''' refers to the massacre of 67 Jews in Hebron in 1929 in [[Hebron]], then part of the [[British Mandate of Palestine]], by Palestinian civilians and Palestinian policemen in 1929.
The massacre had a deep and lasting effect on the Jewish community. The survivors of the massacre were forced to flee the community, and their property was seized by the Arab residents and occupied until after the [[Six Day War]] of 1967, and some of it to the present.<ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/832353.html Hebron protestors demand property taken in '29]</ref> The massacre also led to the re-organization and development of the community defense organization, the [[Haganah]], which later became the nucleus of the [[Israel Defense Forces]].
==Background==
Hebron, one of the [[Four Holy Cities]] in [[Judaism]], is located 30km south of [[Jerusalem]]. Muslims and Jews believe that [[Abraham]], [[Sarah]], [[Isaac]], [[Rebekah]], [[Jacob]] and [[Leah]] are buried in the [[Tomb of the Patriarchs]] in the [[Cave of Machpelah]], the second holiest site in Judaism. [[David]] was anointed [[King of Israel]] in Hebron and reigned there until his capture of [[Jerusalem]]. The Jewish community of Hebron existed for millennia under various imperial powers.
As tensions between Arabs and Jews grew in the 1920s, Arabs began harassing Jews on a daily basis. Cursing on the street, occasional beatings, rocks through windows, and disturbances at the Cave of the Patriarchs led the Jewish community to register several complaints with the British police, saying that enough was not being done to protect them. The Jews attributed some of the trouble to the Arab nationalist Muslim-Christian Association's activities, which included the spread of anti-Jewish songs and other incitement.<ref name=segev>{{cite book |last=Segev |first=Tom |authorlink=Tom Segev |title=One Palestine, Complete |year=1999 |publisher=Metropolitan Books |isbn=0805048480 |pages=pp. 314-327 }}</ref>
On [[August 20]], [[1929]], after [[1929 Palestine riots#Sequence of events|Arab attacks in Jerusalem]], [[Haganah]] leaders proposed to provide defense for the 750 Jews of the [[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]], inflamed by rumors that Jews were about to attack [[al-Aqsa Mosque]], Arabs started an attack on Jews in the [[Old City]] of [[Jerusalem]]. The violence quickly spread to other parts of Palestine.
{{seealso|1929 Palestine riots}}
The worst killings occurred in [[Hebron]] and [[Safed]] and other killings occurred in [[Moza]], [[Kfar Uriyah]], Jerusalem and [[Tel Aviv]]. In Safed, 18 Jews were killed and 80 injured.
{{seealso|1929 Safed massacre}}
==Hebron massacre==
67 Jews were murdered in Hebron, 59 died during the riots and 8 more died of their wounds later. The remaining community were placed on trucks and delivered to [[Jerusalem]] and all their property was seized by the [[Arabs]].<ref>[http://avo.co.il/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2765 'Communal relations - Jewish and Arab in the city of Hebron' (2005)] {{languageicon|he|Hebrew}}</ref>
Most of dead were [[Ashkenazi]] men, but there were also a dozen women and three children under the age of three. Seven of the victims were [[yeshiva]] students from the United States and Canada. Dozens of people were wounded, including many women and children. Several cases of rape, mutilation and torture were reported.<ref name=segev/>
All of the officials in Hebron itself were Arabs, and of its 40 policemen, only one was a Jew. [[Raymond Cafferata]], the Assistant District Superintendent of the [[Palestine Police Force]], had at his command 18 mounted policemen and 15 foot, the latter old men and of little use. On the early afternoon of Friday, [[August 23]], upon hearing from car-drivers of fighting in Jerusalem, Cafferata deployed special pickets to report any unusual movement from the city and issued a request to headquarters for reinforcements. Intending to travel to Jerusalem, a crowd of 700 gathered at the city's central bus station, and one man gave a speech. Cafferata addressed the crowd, trying to calm them by denying anything happened in Jerusalem. He then took eight mounted officers to patrol the Jewish homes, where he encountered the city's Rabbi, Yaakov Yosef Slonim. The Rabbi pleaded with him for protection, while he came under a hail of stones from an Arab crowd. Cafferata told him and other Jews he came across to return to stay in their homes. After the Rabbi had obliged, Cafferata tried to disperse the crowd using clubs.<ref name=segev/>
At 4:00 pm, an Arab crowd began gathering outside the [[Hebron Yeshiva]] and throwing stones through the windows. Only two people were inside, a student and sexton. Upon being hit, the student tried to leave only to find himself facing the Arab crowd, who grabbed him and stabbed him to death; the sexton survived by hiding in a well. Some hours later a group of local mukhtars came to Cafferata. They relayed that the Mufti had told them to take action or be fined due to the 'Jewish slaughter of Arabs' in Jerusalem. Raymond Cafferata promised that all was well and bid them return to their villages. He slept in his office that night.<ref name=segev/>
Early on Saturday a crowd armed with staves and axes appeared in the streets and stoned to death two Jewish boys. Cafferata shot two of the mob and emptied his revolver into the crowd, but his saddle slipped and he fell to the ground, whereupon the crowd began attacking every Jewish house. Cafferata instructed his men to fetch rifles and to open fire, which they did, dispersing a portion of the crowd, but some of the remaining rioters, shouting "on to the [[Ghetto]]", managed to break through the pickets. Cafferata continued shooting, hitting many of the rioters, but his efforts were in vain; repeated calls for reinforcements from Jerusalem, Jaffa and Gaza did not produce help in time. Both Jewish and Arab businesses in the [[Bazaar]] were looted.<ref>'The Hebron Tragedy. Mr. Cafferata's Evidence', From Our Correspondent. ''[[The Times]]'', Friday, [[November 8]], 1929; pg. 13; Issue 45355; col D.</ref> A consignment of police was sent from Jerusalem but was delayed by other violence on the way to Hebron and arrived hours too late. This later became the source of considerable acrimony.<ref name=segev/>
[[Image:Hebron 1929.jpg|thumb|150px|A man reflecting on the aftermath of the pogrom]]
Cafferata testified to the Commission of Enquiry in Jerusalem on [[7 November]] that he had seen an Arab cutting a child's head with an axe. Behind him was an ex-police-constable standing over a woman with a dagger in his hand. Cafferata shot the assailant, who shouted "Your Honor, I am a policeman". ''[[The Times]]'' reported Cafferata's evidence to the Commission that "until the arrival of British police it was impossible to do more than keep the living Jews in the hospital safe and the streets clear [because he] was the only British officer or man in Hebron, a town of 20,000".<ref>'The Hebron Tragedy. Mr. Cafferata's Evidence', From Our Correspondent. ''The Times'', Friday, [[November 8]], 1929; pg. 13; Issue 45355; col D.</ref>
Many Jews survived by hiding in their Arab neighbors' houses, while others survived by taking refuge in the British police station at Beit Romano on the outskirts of the city. The surviving Jews were later evacuated to Jerusalem. One third of the killed were students of the [[Slabodka yeshiva|Hebron yeshiva]]. After the massacre, the remainder of the yeshiva was also moved to Jerusalem.<ref name=segev/>
On [[September 1]], Sir John Chancellor condemned "the atrocious acts committed by bodies of ruthless and bloodthirsty evildoers... murders perpetrated upon defenceless members of the Jewish population... accompanied by acts of unspeakable savagery."
== Aftermath ==
[[Image:Hebron massacre newspaper.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Baltimore News-American|The Baltimore News]] header reads: ''Massacre of women, children at Hebron told by refugees.'']]
Altogether 195 [[Arab]]s and 34 [[Jew]]s 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 fines were imposed on about 25 Arab villages or urban neighborhoods. Some financial compensation was paid to persons who lost family members or property.
A few dozen Jewish families returned to [[Hebron]] in [[1931]], but were evacuated again during the [[1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]]. The city had no Jewish population for 37 years until after the [[Six Day War]] in [[1967]], when Jews again came to live in Hebron.
As of 2006, [[Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron|hundreds of Jews live in Hebron again]], on small portions of land owned by Jews in 1929.
{{seealso|Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict}}
== Specific accounts of the massacre ==
[[Image:House destruction, Hebron 1929.jpg|thumb|200px|Scene of destruction after the Arab riots.]]
===The House of Eliezer Dan Slonim===
Eliezer Dan Slonim was born in Hebron in 1900. He was the son of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, the Rabbi of Hebron. Eliezer was a member of the city council, appointed by the government. He was also a director at the [[Anglo-Palestine Bank]]. Eliezer had excellent relations with the British and the Arabs, who had assured him that no riots would occur.
Baruch Katinka, a member of the [[Haganah]] tells about his encounter with Eliezer Dan before the massacre:
:"Two days before the massacre, they told us about a need to go to Hebron with 10-12 people with weapons in order to defend the place. I believe we were 10 men and 2 women... We came to Hebron after midnight, and went into the house of Eliezer Dan Silonim, the head of the bank in the area and the head of the community. We woke him up and told him that we brought weapons and people. He started yelling and said that if he wanted any weapons he would request them but there's no need for them because he has an understanding with the Arabs, they need the credit, they're under his influence, and that they will not harm him. On the contrary he said, new faces in Hebron might just tease them. During the argument, two Arab policemen went in and ordered us to go to the Police. The officer Cafferata met us in pyjamas and asked us who we were and what were we doing. We said we came for a walk. The officer preached us how dare we walk around during this time and said we must go back to Jerusalem escorted by the police. Two men stayed with suitcases in Silonim's house. They had the bombs with them, but the day after they came back to Jerusalem too, because Silonim forced them to leave. The next day , the massacre occurred". <ref>Katinka, ''From then till now'', Hebrew, p. 271 and archive of the Haganah</ref>
After the first victim was killed on Friday, 40 people assembled in Dan's house, confident that because of his influence, no harm would come. On Saturday, the rioters approached the Rabbi and offered him a deal. If all the [[Ashkenazi]] [[yeshiva]] students were given over to the Arabs, the rioters would spare the lives of the [[Sephardi]] community.<ref>[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html The Hebron Massacre of 1929] by Shira Schoenberg ([[Jewish Virtual Library]])</ref> Rabbi Slonim refused to turn over the students and was killed on the spot, along with his wife and 4 year old son (another son, 3 years old, survived). In the end, 12 Sephardi Jews and 55 Ashkenazi Jews were murdered.
===Raymond Cafferata===
After the massacre began, most of the Arab constables deserted, leading the rioters to where Jews were hiding. Cafferata testified:
On hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child's head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut, but on seeing me he tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed; he was practically on the muzzle of my rifle. I shot him low in the groin. Behind him was a Jewish woman smothered in blood with a man I recognized as a[n Arab] police constable named Issa Sherif from Jaffa in mufti. He was standing over the woman with a dagger in his hand. He saw me and bolted into a room close by and tried to shut me out-shouting in Arabic, "Your Honor, I am a policeman." ... I got into the room and shot him.
Nineteen local Arab families saved dozens, perhaps 100s of the Jews. Zmira Mani wrote of an Arab named Abu Id Zaitoun who brought his brother and son to rescue her and her family. The Arab family protected the Manis with their swords, hid them in a cellar along with other Jews who they had saved, and found a policeman to escort them safely to the police station at Beit Romano.
==References==
<div class="references-small"><references/></div>
==See also==
* [[1929 Palestine riots]]
* [[1938 Tiberias massacre]]
* [[Shaw Report]]
==External links==
* [http://www.zionism-israel.com/Hebron_Massacre1929.htm The Hebron Massacre of 1929 - Zionism-Israel.com]
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html The Hebron Massacre of 1929 - Jewish Virtual Library]
* [http://www.professors.org.il/docs/eye.htm The Hebron Pogrom of August 1929 - Eyewitness accounts]
* [http://www.hebron.org.il/hebrew/gallery.php?id=189 Photos of the massacre and survivors]
* [http://hebron.web.aplus.net/english/article.php?id=253 Photos of some of the victims]
[[Category:Arab-Israeli conflict]]
[[Category:History of Israel]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents before 1970]]
[[Category:Ethnic riots]]
[[Category:Riots in Israel and Palestine]]
[[Category:Massacres in Israel]]
[[ar:مذبحة هبرون]]
[[es:Matanza de Hebrón de 1929]]
[[it:Massacro di Hebron del 1929]]
[[he:טבח חברון (מאורעות תרפ"ט)]]
| |||